For #RedLipsDecember I choose to wear a variation of a red lip on the days I wear makeup at all. Therefore this month’s arsenal would have to be easily paired with red, hence I needed basic neutral shades for the eyes. My recently depotted Urban Decay palettes fitted the bill perfectly.

The Naked, Naked 2, Naked 3 and Naked Ultimate Basics palettes were not exciting to me anymore in their fixed versions, but I knew there were some useful shades in them I might want to keep. So I shed their shell and depotted them. A year ago I would never have done that, but now it felt just right.

The depot was successful and all shades survived more or less intact. A few shades were tossed straight away but those were the ones I knew I would never use. The rest were put in a Z palette. Basic mattes and basic shimmers, nothing too exciting but very useful shadows. To add a bit more “fun” variety to the arsenal I picked a couple of loose pigments from Meow Cosmetics as well.

Again, nothing to colourful since I did not want to think too much when choosing my makeup for work in the morning. As a final addition to the shadow world I added a H&M duochrome highlighting palette with the aim to use it for both cheeks and eyeshadow effect. It contained a green, a peach and a purple duochrome shade.

Firstly we can go through how the pigments fared in the audit.

Sable from the Santa Baby collection is a shade I was a bit unsure of at first. It felt a tad boring and unlike what I usually enjoy using, but when wearing it I appreciated its beautiful shine and unique colour. I’ve decided to keep it for now and see how it fares in Round 2.

Undead is a really fun shade and I loved wearing it. It’s from a collection named Zombie Apocalypse. Just the name makes me smile. It’s a greyed out purple with a pink shift – and this is exactly how complex I wish most shadows were. A joy to wear. It’s staying!

Howl is from the (less excitingly named) collection Glacial Grove. But the shade is anything but boring. A murky clay shade with a silver sheen that brings depth and that extra something something to a rather classic look. Another keeper.

Yet another keeper is Debauchery from the Pandoras Box collection – a stunning swampy gold that I think works wonders with my colouring.

The last loose pigment is Trepidation from the Friday the 13th collection. The look I created above was not my favourite this month, but the shade itself is beautiful. Keeping this as well.

The H&M palette was not my fave to use on the cheeks. The product is chunky and adds too much of a colour shift for my liking. As a duochrome shadow however they performed much better and I used them primarily as an inner corner highlight. I even enjoyed using them more than I had anticipated. I am going to let them move on to Round 2 but I doubt they will stand up to the competition. But I have been wrong before….

Regarding the Urban Decay shadows I tried to give them a proper run this month and I think I did a good job. I’ve not been able to keep track of what shades I’ve used each day, due to time constraints, but I’ve made sure to use all of the shades at least once in some capacity. Some were worn a lot more. The result – I’ve decided to get rid of eleven of them.

Of those eleven shadows, many were full of large glitters and I’ve noticed I really dislike that finish. Others were either lacklustre or hard to work with. The pale gold was beautiful but I had two so I felt no need to keep them both.

Here are some looks I managed to create using mainly the UD shadows.

Moving on to the cheek products of this months arsenal were we have five blushes and two highlighters. A lot of MAC, a little Sleek Makeup and a pop of IsaDora.

Surprise, surprise, I enjoyed using all of them. The Sleek blushes, Flushed and Pomegranate, are obviously quite vibrant and I did not use them as much as the others but when I did they were lovely. I even managed to use them on the eyes, as shown in the picture below.

Breath of Plum by MAC is a real oldie favourite for me. This compact is my second one (!), the first one was used up back in the day when I had less makeup. I used to dye my hair black and loved how this looked together with the contrast between my hair and my skin. I do not use it nearly as often anymore but it’s still a lovely colour. It’s staying. At Dusk as well, the other MAC blush shade. At Dusk is an Extra Dimension blush and I have worn this a lot since I got it in 2013-2014. Lovely shade and lovely finish. Finally we have Nude Blossom by IsaDora, another great shade and a more recent addition than the others. Very wearable and great to work with.

Finally we have two MAC highlighters, Lightscapades and Here Comes Joy. I remembered not enjoying wearing Lightscapades too much but I was pleasantly surprised. It was not as frosty as I anticipated and it gave a lovely sheen to my cheeks. Here Comes Joy was also a surprise. More wearable on the cheeks than I remembered. Beautiful to use on the eyes as well.

So for cheeks this month we had only winners.

I must admit I was glad when this month was over and I could pick a new arsenal. I love wearing a red lip and more neutral eyes, but not every day. I love variety and this month felt quite repetitive, especially with regards to the eye looks. However, letting go of eleven shadows felt good and I hope for a similar result next month.

Until then, thanks for reading!

Sofia

This month has flown by at high speed. I’ve been pressed for both time and energy. Most makeup looks have been conjured up early in the morning before work so they have been quite simple and not very colourful. Almost all makeup looks were snapped in an office bathroom including me sticking my shin up to get some light under my hooded lids to show off the shade that adorn them. As always, this will have to do.

To summarize this month I must say it has been fun despite my lack of energy. The fact that I have only had a select number of products to choose from breaks the old habits I forces me to create looks I would not have done otherwise. The whole audit process is rewarding and I think I have already become slightly better at letting things go.

This months arsenal consisted of quite a lot of eyeshadows (again). I picked out a selection of single shadows and only two pre-made palettes. Mainstream brands (MAC, Bare Minerals, ABH) mixed with indie brands (Meow Cosmetics, Phee’s). Let’s go through everything and see what I liked.

I had a palette full of random singles that I felt were perfect to audit because I rarely use them. I also popped two Sephora shadows in there to complete the range of choice, teaming up with eight Phee’s Makeup Shop mineral shadows, two matte shadows by Neve Cosmetics and three Inglot shimmer shadows.

Phee’s Makeup Shop – I did not manage to use all of them, only four or five. I have Polilla (blue-brown duochrome), Moreish (molted gold), Pyrite (dirty bronze), Coda (ruddy pink), Peppered (silvery beige), Sphinx (ruddy brown), Tell It To The Frogs (bright green) and Dead Weight (dark purple with pink shimmer) to my disposal.

I enjoyed using them and I especially liked Sphinx. But however stunning they were sadly they will have to go. They have started to smell weird and a very strong metallic smell comes from the pans. They will be thrown away.

Inglot – The three square pans in the palette are from Inglot (30, 31 and 45) and are actually duplicates, i.e I have another set of these specific shades. I bought a ton of Inglot shadows in New York years ago, before they were readily available to purchase in Sweden, and somehow I managed to buy duplicates. These are useful shades but since I have extra and they are old I will throw these away as well. They smell a bit off too but honestly they have had that smell all along so….

Neve Cosmetics – One grey satin matte (Smoking) and one hot orange (Lava). To be clear, I never wear these. This month I wore Smoking once and disliked the colour, it’s too cool toned for my liking and I will let it go. Lava however, even though I did not use it, will go on to Round 2. This specific bright orange shade is very useful and I’m sure I will use it more if I place it with other singles.

Sephora – I bought a few of these shadows in 2018 when they were newly released. This month I used Unicorn Dust and Twinkle Twinkle. They come in single compacts but are made to be easily popped out of that compact and into a separate palette if one would want. I wore each once and they will go on to Round 2. Unicorn Dust is a pretty muted purple with blue shimmer. It’s a bit sheer but I would like to give it a few more wears before I decide. Twinkle Twinkle is a high shimmer beige with an almost glimmering finish. It’s quite unique for me and I would like to use it more.

MAC– I pulled some oldies and goodies from MAC – a few of my Extra Dimension Eyeshadows. I love this formula and have some of the original larger pans. Zestful and Triple Impact are lovely duochromes and Silver Sun is a stunning greenish gunmetal. I loved wearing them and will not let them go anytime soon. Soft Teddy is a matte from the Monochrome Collection that was released in early 2019. It’s a soft rosy brown and I enjoy it a lot both as a crease colour and all over the lid. Until Dawn is pretty but a tad to glittery for me. It’s also not unique enough to hang on to.

Illamasqua – I especially enjoy the shade Wicked. It’s a pastel pink matte shade that gives an extra something something when used on the eye. Justify is an more common neutral brown and it will have some competition in Round 2.

Meow Cosmetics – I love this indie brand and I own a ton of their shadows. They are all in a loose format and this month I picked two purples, Hangover and Rising, and Joy – a duochrome peach. Joy and Rising are lovely and unique but Hangover will be let go of. I wore it, see the below picture, and thought it to be just ok. In order for me to reach for a loose shadow it will have to be something extra, not just fine.

& Other Stories – I wore this dirty old gold, Percaline Khaki, and enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It’s a bit drier and more muted than I expected but the look was interesting on the eye.

Bare Minerals – The last single shadows in the monthly arsenal were loose metallics that had previously been given very little love and were perfect candidates for the audit. Both Pewter and Iridiscent Iris were worn only once during November but I enjoyed wearing them. Iridiscent Iris is the most unique of the two but Pewter has a lovely sheen. Both will go on to Round 2.

Next up are two pre-made palettes by Anastasia Beverly Hills, Prism and Subculture. These provided some basic mattes, some fun mattes and metallic goodness of course. Prism was used most, especially the shades Parallel, Lure, Obsidian and Unity. I whipped out Throne one evening as well, se below.

Subculture did not get as much love as Prism but Rowdy was used as eyeliner a lot and Mercury and fudge acted as deepening shades. However I know that I like this palette without using every single shade. The colour scheme inspire me and the shades are unique enough to go straight to Round 2.

For cheek colour had picked a wide variety of well used older products combined with unused items. I managed to use most shades and form an opinion. Some i will keep and some I am ready to let go of.

Sleek Makeup – I used two blush trios, Sugar and Pink Spirit. Sugar was given the most love and I enjoyed all three shades. Pink Spirit was only used once due to it’s intense colour scheme but that was a lesson in itself. It made me have a look of what other similar shades I own. I found I have several similar intense berry pink blushes from MAC and I know I will most likely choose one of those over the Sleek trio. So Pink Spirit will be let go now and Sugar will go on to round 2.

MAC – Two blushes, one highlight and one contour shade. I wore all of them quite a lot and formed some interesting opinions. Let’s start with the highlighter, Porcelain Pink. It was the only highlighter this month but I quickly realized that I did not enjoy the effect it gave on the cheekbone. It just did not look to my taste. A bit too glittery and too much. It will leave my collection. An oldie and a goodie is Flower Fantasy, a stunning muted ruddy pink face powder from the 2012 Vera collection. It’s a great everyday shade and it looks good with most looks. A keeper. Pink Tea however, a pink shade that looks more brown on the cheeks, did not wow me. It should be one of those safe everyday shades but it’s simply not a great colour on me. I will let it go. The last item is Taupe, a shade bought as a contour shade and chosen as a contour for this months arsenal. However, I ended up using it primarily as a blush. A very neural and muted blush. I’m a bit surprised that it worked in that way but glad that discovered its potential. Round 2 material.

All in all 17 items will leave my collection, 19 individual shades. A good round I think. I have some more looks to round up this months audit but unfortunately I have no details on the shades used.

Thanks for reading,

Sofia

In the beginning of the month I selected my Monthly Arsenal and posted it to Instagram. I had picked a selection of eyeshadows, blushes and other face products to evaluate in the first month of my makeup audit. When choosing I picked items that I rarely use and I felt that these would be perfect to evaluate first, since surely I would have few warm fuzzy feelings for them, dislike them even, and have a great run of discarding these unloved items. Alas, I was wrong. So wrong.

For eyes I had singled out a wide variety of shades and finishes in order to have a lot of options to play with. The arsenal included five of my numerous Sleek Makeup palettes complemented with a set of six duochrome toppers in the shape of the Aurora Glow Kit by Anastasia Beverly Hills. I love using duochrome shades both as effect toppers and as inner corner highlights. A good duochrome makes my heart beat faster. The eye palettes I chose contained shades I was drawn to this time of year including some brights for more punchy looks. For the cheeks I chose one contour, two highlighters and eight blushes of varying finishes. This is how the month went down..

Let’s start with the Glow Kit. I am very drawn to this palette but I did not use it as much as I thought I would. I mainly used Eclipse, Helia and Lyra as inner corner highlights and Spectra was used as a topper on one occasion. I like these shades well enough to let them get another shot in Round 2 (where similar items will be compared) but I suspect I have some similar shades from other brands. Both Eclipe and Lyra have glitter in them and that is not my favourite thing. Also, these shadows smell a bit weird, but I think they have been doing that all along. Something to think about….

Another palette I’m drawn to, the Ultra Matts V.2. The dark, moody and mainly muted colours are alluring. This specific palette was an important source of matte shadows this month and I used it a lot. I was expecting to dislike many of the shades but no, the mattes performed very well and were a pleasure to use. If the palette had included a taupe as well it would have been even more useful. The shades are quite unique and since they performed well I have to give it a Round 2. Most used shades were Flesh, Paper Bag, Villan, Dune and Maple.

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A New Day was another frequently used palette and the shade Carpe Diem was a solid favourite used for many looks as a crease colour. Happy, Let It Go and Don’t Worry were also staples. The other shades were a little lacklustre and this palette is a contender to depot. But before engaging in that hassle I need to compare the nice shades to what I have that is similar.  So a Round 2 is in order to seal its fate.

Del Mar is such a pretty palette with its muted, dusty pastels and that bright yellow. I find the colour scheme very appealing and inspiring. I especially loved using Ushuaia, Puro and Siesta. Zoola and Ibiza Rocks were fun to use as well. I regret not using the greens but I never felt like it for work. The shades I did not enjoy was Loco, Pearl and San Antonio.  Another palette that will make it to Round 2.

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Another one I had low hopes for but enjoyed more than I thought I would, Supernova. I have not used the blue shades and most likely never will. The green (Aurora) is an interesting shade and the day I wore it I was very pleased with the combination. Umbra, Corona and Meteor are stunning shades and they will surely be depotted unless they have too many competitors in Round 2. This is a palette that I am sure I will depot if I decide to keep any of the shades.

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I’m conflicted about Rio Rio. This palette as a whole does not entice me. I enjoyed some of the shades, like Ipanema, Tropics and Legron. But some shades I dislike and the composition of the palette does not work for me. I use the shades as singles and combined them with other palettes. As with the other palettes I suspect I already have multiple similar shades. But this palette will not be kept in it’s entirety, that’s for sure.  

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Face products are a lot of fun to use, especially blush. In this category we have the first item to be discarded in the audit. The Blush by 3 palette in Lemonade by Sleek Makeup. The cream shade (Macaroon) had gone off and when I wore the other two shades (Icing sugar & Pink mint) I disliked them on me. They looked off, and I think heavy shimmery blushes might not be my jam.

The Face Form palette (also by Sleek) did get quite a lot of wear time this month despite the fact that it contained a shimmer blush. I loved the highlighter and the contour shade, not being my optimal shade for the cheeks, worked as a lovely crease shadow. The shimmery blush was not a favourite but it did it’s job.

My other highlighter, the soft pink Play It Proper (MAC) was also a big surprise. I thought it would be an easy cull, but no. It provided an unique sheen and I loved using it for work. This product is old, from the Chen Man Love & Water collection from 2012. I bought it when my collection was smaller and that specific MAC collection was alluring. I have not used it much but after this month I think it deserves a new life, a life where it is appreciated and used. But since it has been used so little over time I have to put it through Round 2 in order to keep it.   

Most used on the blush front this month are the muted matte shades from MAC, Buff and Pink Cult. They are nice staple shades that look good with most looks. I also used the more vibrant shades East (matte by Make Up Store) and Supernova (shimmer by MAC) a few times. I enjoyed them all, surprise surprise, and another lot for Round 2. And that was it, those were all the items from my Makeup Arsenal October.

In the beginning of the month I had a main plan to post my daily makeup looks to Instagram. That plan evaporated since I almost always deemed the pics of poor quality. There is not much light in Sweden right now and I have been trying to sneak in some quick photos mainly in bathrooms (during the week) and in natural light whenever possible, but it’s been hard. For November I will try to be less judgmental of the quality of the photos and post more frequently.

Despite that I’ve had a lot of fun this month playing with makeup…and here are a few more looks in varying light.

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To sum up this month of my makeup audit; It is no secret that I have a hard time letting things go. I attach to things emotionally and on top of this I fear that if I let an item go I will regret it later. When I sat down to evaluate this month’s audit candidates I realized I basically could not let anything go, not straight away anyway. I’m sure I do not adore all of these items but I think I need more “evidence” in order to let them go.

So please bear with me in this process, a process I think will evolve over time. As you have noticed all items in this audit will be sent to Round 2 except one. One! Round 2 is clearly vital in this process, for me, and when items with similar purpose will be pitted against each other it will hopefully become clear to me how much I have and what needs to go. Let’s see….

Thank you for reading! (If anyone made it this far, I applaud you!)

Sofia