It’s another week, so it’s another color rotated in and out of my 3 color challenge. Since these are chosen randomly, I have no actual control over what I end up with. And this week it’s a bit disappointing because I rolled out a dark purple and desperately hoped for something light and interesting. It was not to be. I rolled in another dark color, giving me three dark colors at once.

3 dark sparkly colors at that! We’ve got the two that are in there from last week, Too Faced Sweet Peach color Tempting and BH cosmetics zodiac Love Signs palette, the sparkly Sagittarius color. And what rolled in? Urban Decay born to run palette color Drift, the color at the top.

I think I’ve decided this week that I am going to just use each color separately combined with the palette colors it is contained in. I’ve been itching to use my born to run palette more, and even brought it on vacation. But, the heat and humidity of Louisiana and our outdoorsy nature made me feel like makeup was pointless and I didn’t wear any after the day we arrived.

Here’s my previous photo of the palette. I’ll get a better photo at some other point, but this’ll have to do for now. We’ll have to ignore the circles for the most part. Here’s what I did this morning. I used Riff (light blue circle) as a transition shade and Good as Gone as a crease shade. Then, I put drift in the outer corner of the mobile lid. On the inner 3/4 of the mobile lid I put Ignite (yellow circle). Under the eye I used Riff all over and Drift out the outer corner. I ended up lining my waterline and inner corner using my UD metallic gold eyeliner and called it good.

Turned out fine, perhaps not my most inspired or interesting look but that’s ok!

You know, I received this palette for my birthday back at the beginning of December. And in all honesty, I just haven’t spent the amount of time with it that I want to. I love the color story and I love how there’s a nice spread of warms/cools/colors/neutrals. I think they did a bang up job with this palette. And yet, I still don’t feel like I KNOW this palette at all. That’s pretty sad. But, I will say that every time I’ve used it, I’ve loved it. So, hopefully having one color in this challenge for 3 weeks in a row will help me get a bit more accustomed to the palette in general.

First of all, I need to mention that I got the third color, this week’s new color, incorrect in my last post. But I did USE the color in my last post. The color is the BH Cosmetics zodiac love signs palette Sagittarius shimmer. It’s the very top dark blue in the photo below, and I used it on the outer 1/3 of my mobile lid in the first look this week.

So, the second look today is something I’ve been meaning to do. And that is to pack the black all over my lid and use that base to intensify a shimmer color.

Here’s what I did. I began with my Too Faced Sweet Peach palette:

I put a combination of Georgia and Charmed, I’m Sure as my transition shade. Then, I used the purple color from the Laura Lee palette as my crease color, incorporating the first of the 3 challenge colors. Then, I packed Tempting all over the lid. Over top of that, I put the Sagittarius shimmer.

That did not work out like I had hoped. The reality is that the Sagittarius shimmer is so dark and not all that shimmery, and so it just looked like a more intense version of a navy toned black than it would on its own. That wasn’t the look I was going for. But, I am well versed in trying to fix issues like that at this point, so I popped the Capricorn shimmer (minty green, to the left of Sagittarius) over the lid like a spotlight eye effect.

On the lower lashline I used Charmed, I’m sure and then the purple from Laura Lee on the outer corner. I used my UD gold shimmer liner for my waterline and my inner corner. The liner at the inner corner picked up and distributed some of the blue color with it, which ended up being a surprising and interesting effect. The resulting look is dark, it’s NOT my favorite, but it came together fine.

You’ll have to excuse the glasses mark, I couldn’t be bothered to wear contacts today, and hiding what I knew would be a dark look behind glasses helps me feel like I can get away with wearing that look as well.

And now for the final look for this week’s challenge:

Just stating right off the bat that I did not use the purple from the Laura Lee palette this time. I used the BH zodiac love Sagittarius sparkle, and mostly I used that palette in general.

Just for reference, we are talking about the top palette in the above photo. I decided I wanted to veer toward green/teal rather than navy blue/purple. I used the matte mint green color as a transition shade. Then, I went in with the matte Aquarius shade as a crease color. These two shades seem to resemble each other in color tones though their depth is very different. On the eyelid I used the Aquarius shimmer on the inner half and the Sagittarius shimmer on the outer half. Then, I popped the mint green shimmer on top of that in the middle like a spotlight again. I needed to at least attempt to lighten the entire thing up. Under the eye I used both matte greens and then lined with the second color in my challenge, the Too Faced Sweet Peach palette color Tempting. I used my gold shimmery urban decay liner in my water line and inner corner. I loved the effect that this had in the previous look, where the liner combined with the shadow and created its own new and perfectly matching color.

I took three photos today. One of the eye look with a closed eye, one open, and one with glasses since that’s how I am actually wearing the look at work today.

So, that’s a wrap for this week! I already used the random number generator to pick my next shadow. It’s Drift from the Urban Decay born to run palette, so we aren’t moving out of the dark smokey looks next week either!

It was time to roll out Dusty Trails from Sydney Grace and choose my next color. My random number generator picked something from the BH palettes finally!

But, that’s an awfully dark color scheme to work with! The sparkly blue color that the generator chose for me is the baked color Cancer from the Zodiac palette. I was so uninspired about this that I didn’t even bother to try to create a look with it yesterday and instead gave myself two weeks to complete this 3 color challenge.

It’s the blue at the bottom of the above photo.

I was feeling a bit more inspired this morning. To begin with, I reminded myself that I don’t actually have to use all the colors in the challenge to create my look. And in fact, I spent a little time doing some swatching last evening before bed just to see what I might come up with and actually like.

Here’s what I ended up doing. I predominately used the zodiac palette for my look. I began with the matte Virgo color as a transition and then placed the matte Leo color in my crease. I also used that on my outer corner. I then went in with the baked Cancer shadow on the inner 2/3 of my mobile lid. I wanted a little more depth so I took the Sagittarius baked color from Zodiac Love Signs (the blue at the very top of the photo above) and used that on my outer 1/3 of my lid. Under the eye, I used the Virgo matte all over and the Leo matte on the outer corner. I highlighted my inner corner with the large baked highlighter in the middle. I lined my waterline with my urban decay gold eyeliner. Then, I brought in a second color from the 3 color challenge. I used the black, Tempting, from Sweet Peach palette, as a liner for the outer 1/3 of my upper and lower lash line.

I could not be happier with this look. It’s sparkly and fun and colorful and interesting and deep. I genuinely thought, even while I was applying the shadow, that I would end up hating this look but that I’d do my post and get through the day and that would be that. This is not at all what happened. I ended up with a look I would absolutely create again just for the fun of it. The blues are so dark that they are almost grey and that translates really nicely on the lid. I paired it with colorful earrings (sari silk yarn) and a nude lip to pair it all together. I am thrilled with this look!

And now I can’t wait to see what I come up with tomorrow!

Since it’s my last opportunity to do so, I upgraded my boxycharm subscription to boxyluxe. I’d been paying attention to the spoilers and I was very impressed with the items contained in the box. Next month is my last boxycharm, I’ll be taking a nice long break while I work through the backstock of cleansers and masks and makeup items I’ve amassed through my subscription box year.

So, here are the consumable items that I received in my boxyluxe this month:

I was super excited to get the Living Proof volume spray as I am completely addicted to my Moroccan oil one and I am eager to try another. Contained in this box was yet another cleanser and yet another primer and yet another mascara. These are all items which it’s easy to overload on in subscription boxes. There’s also another spray, and I’ve never had many sprays in the past but this month I’ve got plenty. I got a lip gloss, I got a face palette, and I got the one thing I was most eager to receive-the farmacy honeymoon glow serum. This is really why I upgraded my box in the first place, that serum is one I’ve wanted to try for quite some time. I am going to be using it every other day quite consistently to see if it’s as good as I imagine it could be.

So, during the last post, I was 4 items leaving over what was incoming. Now I am 4 items incoming over what is leaving.

And, I don’t currently have any empties to balance that out.

But, I also don’t anticipate any purchases for the rest of this month either, so I’ll see where I am at the end of the month again. I am pretty close to being done with a couple items, and that will be helpful.

Thoughts on boxyluxe-this was a great box to upgrade with. I really feel that the overall value was high on this one and I don’t see anything I am unlikely to use. If there’s anything I move on from my collection, it’ll be the lipgloss. But, that would just go to Miss Butterfly and get used up perfectly easily anyhow. If I were to choose any of the subscription boxes I’ve tried in the past year, I’d stick to boxycharm. I do believe that I have typically gotten a high value of things I want to use out of that subscription in particular. The only reason, truly, that I am ready to finish up next month is the overwhelmed feeling I am getting when I look at all the backstock I’ve accumulated.

And that should be all for beauty balance from me until the end of the month.

I’ve had the Tarte Be a Mermaid and Make Waves palette for more than a year now. It was a spring 2018 limited edition palette and I’ve been ridiculously happy with it. I wanted to pan it and I used it very regularly for a long time, but then realized that I also wanted to play with the rest of my collection so that went by the wayside. That’s ok, while it is the oldest palette in my collection, it is by no means old. I’ve got plenty of time to play with it and also the rest of my collection.

Here’s what it was looking like in my last pan that palette update. It hasn’t changed much since then, though there’s a more significant dip in shipwreck. However, I see no point in getting a new photo up when I can use this one, and the names on this photo are fairly clear.

While lagoon and splash are fairly intense colors, I really enjoy wearing bubbles. It’s a duochrome which shifts brick colored and light blue. When I was panning this palette, I tended to wear it on Friday. For the first look on this post, I used sandbar as a transition, shipwreck in my crease, and bubbles all over the lid. I used sandbar under my eye as well, since shipwreck in that area tends to make me look a little ill. I used nude beach on my inner corner (very top shadow).

I also lined with a nude liner on my waterline and I used a navy liner under the eye. It’s surprisingly subtle for a duochrome, but the brick color is far more visible in person than I can get it to show in a photo.

Next look. This one ends up being a go to neutral look that I have used over and over with this palette. despite this, it doesn’t really look like I’ve dipped that hard into the two shades I use for it. But, I have used these two shimmers more than any other shimmers in the palette.

I start with the same sandbar and shipwreck as above. Then, I go in with fin-tastic on the outer eyelid half and salt water on the inner half of the eyelid. Under the eye I used a combo of sandbar and shipwreck again. Then I take nude beach on the inner corner. It’s a simple and pretty fast look and it translates as neutral on the eye despite looking somewhat colorful in the pan.

Look 3:

I admit that since I began my 3 color challenge, this particular post has gone by the wayside, it’s taken me a long time to complete! But, this morning I pulled out my palette again looking for a fairly neutral but bright look. I am interviewing a candidate today and wanted to make sure to keep it professional. In this case I used sandbar as my transition shade and shipwreck in my crease and outer corner. Then I went in with frose all over the lid. This is the bright peachy shade. I highlighted my inner corner with nude beach. Then, I used sandbar under my eyes. I popped a nude liner in my waterline and then used a teal liner to line the bottom and top outer half of my eyelids. I believe the pop of teal really sets off the blue in my eyes and I really enjoy this look.

I think it’s unlikely that I’ll do many more of these 3 looks from one palette posts for awhile. I have enough trouble getting to my 3 looks from my challenge during the week. And at this time, I am really enjoying that challenge.

This second look for the week went from “working with what I chose” to “learning to work with shadows that are inferior” themed.

I know I’ve complained quite a lot about the purple “hungover” in the Laura Lee party animal palette. I am kind of annoyed I have to spend 3 weeks with it while it is a terrible shadow. This is week 2. And this is the point where I learned to use it in a manner that works for it. It didn’t work in the manner I was expecting, so I changed my expectations of it.

I began as usual, with the Sydney Grace single Dusty Trails as my transition shade. Then, instead of asking Hungover to be a color with a good amount of color payoff, I instead asked it to be a crease and outer corner shade. I blended it. Since it wants to blend to mostly nothing but a pinky purple shade, I figured I’d just let it be what it keeps wanting to be. I was amazed at how well it worked! Then, I decided I’d pull shimmer shades out of my BH zodiac palette, since that’s so new to me.

That’s the palette on the bottom. I decided to start with covering my mobile lid with the Libra shimmer. This made for a rather monochrome look, as that libra shimmer really is the shade that hungover becomes when blended out. I wanted to pump up the dimension, so I pupped the cancer shimmer shade on the center of the mobile lid. Under the eye I used Dusty Trails and then I lined with my third challenge color, the black called Tempting from the Too Faced Sweet Peach palette. I lined the outer corner bottom and top and smudged that out a bit. I forgot to do an inner corner highlight. I am quite pleased with the look and will likely do something similar again tomorrow, choosing a different shimmer to pair with the crease and transition shade of today.

I really can’t believe that this turned out so well. But, that’s entirely the point of this little challenge for me. To concentrate on what I have, to learn to work with it, and to truly know and understand the colors that are in my collection.

Day3:

It may be boring, but what I did this morning is very similar to what I did in look 2. I started with the same exact base but changed up my shimmer color. I decided since look 2 is quite cool toned, I would see what happened if I used a warmer toned shimmer today. I ended up using the gold Cancer shimmer from the zodiac love signs palette. (The top palette in the palette photo above.) I also tried to wing out the sides a bit as well, just for a different look.

Everything else remained much the same though this time I did remember to highlight my inner corner, I used a regular higlighter in my collection for that.

So, that’s that, another week complete. I am glad that after 2 weeks I’ve managed to learn to work with the purple shadow I originally thought was worthless. I am not eager to spend another week with it and a black shadow, but it will be interesting to see what rolls in next week. I do want to try a look next week that incorporates the black shadow as a lid base to intensify another color, I’ve never done that before. I’ll give it some thought this weekend.

And it’s a challenge indeed. We dropped the Sydney Grace Just Peachy shimmer out of the running and I ended up rolling in a color from my Too Faced Sweet Peach palette. This seems perfect, except that I ended up with the black color. Which isn’t that wearable for me.

It’s the color called Tempting. The fact that I have to live with both the black and the awful purple from the Laura Lee palette, together, for the next two weeks is just painful.

I end up rolling the random number generator over the weekend so that I can think through my looks for the upcoming week. I try to think creatively. But, I am failing on this one so far. Any creative look I think through ends up being something that I’d really be pushing the boundaries of what I should be trying to get away with at work, and I am just not feeling that right now. I considered trying to get out ahead of that this weekend by doing the first look over the weekend, but the reality of my busy but enjoyable weekend meant that I wasn’t wearing makeup, as I was too busy being active and too warm to keep makeup on my face.

So, at least for today, I went for a neutral look. I am presenting some training at work and while I am known for being daring and a little out there with makeup/hair/clothing/etc I know when it is also professionally appropriate to rein it in.

I’d been itching to use my Sweet Peach palette anyhow, so this was a good opportunity to do so.

First, I used Dusty Trails from Sydney Grace as my transition shade. Then, I used Charmed, I’m Sure as my crease shade. I used Delectable on the outer corner of my mobile lid and then used Bellini all over the mobile lid.

Then, to draw in the two colors I really don’t feel like using, I lined the upper lash line with Tempting and lined the lower lash line with the purple, hungover, from the Laura Lee palette. I used Dusty Trails to smudge out that purple a bit, and then highlighted my inner corner with the brightener from the Cover FX palette.

And that was that. Day 1 of my 3 color challenge.

I am also intending to challenge myself to get up early and ride my bike to work from time to time. That will mean no makeup on those days. If I can bring myself to do it, these challenges will get even more challenging. We shall see….

In the update which showed off most of my fab fit fun items for this month, I was 4 items leaving my collection over what entered. Here’s the thing, this will remain the same after this post. I’ve got another two in and two out post today. Next week my boxyluxe arrives, and it’ll be a bit harder to balance.

Here’s what entered my collection:

The grand total I paid for those above items was $1.37. For the foundation, I used a $10 coupon. And for the green clean, I used my charm room points which I’d been given because I received a faulty product a couple months ago. I’ve already used a green clean from a previous box and I really enjoyed it, so I am not at all upset to have brought it back into my collection.

The catrice HD liquid coverage foundation I’ve worn a few times now and I absolutely love it. Might be a new favorite! This is the second from the lightest shade available and matches me quite well. While I adore the way the mac 24 hour foundation wears on my face, the color is just slightly too dark. It is nice to have something else that I am enjoying that suits my coloring right now. And, I feel pretty certain that as the summer progresses, I’ll continue to get additional color and wear the mac foundation as well.

And now the two items that are leaving my collection. I have a sample size of the tarte maracuja oil which I quite enjoyed but it did take me ages to finish. I would not necessarily repurchase mostly because the ordinary makes a perfectly fine inexpensive rose hip oil product that I can use just as well. And then there was a sample of briogeo scalp revival which I love. I’d been saving this shampoo for travel, but I gave up at some point. I think that ended up being a good thing because this little sample really only had about 3 uses in it which probably wouldn’t have worked for me on a trip. I do want this shampoo in my life again, it works very nicely on my scalp, but I am going to try some other alternatives before repurchasing it.

So, I am still at 4 out above what entered my collection since the start of my beauty balance posts. Incoming items this upcoming week will likely screw that up but hopefully I’ll get back on track before the end of the month. That being said, I am not seeing a ton of things that are really close to being used up this month.

OK, two more looks using my colors for my 3 color challenge. The first look is not going to incorporate all 3 colors. And there’s a reason. I wore that purple laura lee palette shadow all day on Monday and by Monday evening I had quite a large allergic reaction on one of my eyelids. Now, this may have been coincidental. I’ve been struggling with allergies a bit in general. It’s the time of the year and spending more time outdoors. And, sometimes when I am struggling with seasonal allergies, my skin has a tendency to overreact to things that it normally wouldn’t care about. Nevertheless, I decided that the next day I would eliminate all newer products from my look, and that included the purple. As well as eyeliners. So, instead, I chose to use the light brown matte transition shade, Dusty Trails, and build on that. Of course I wanted to pull out my new BH zodiac palettes. I used both Capricorn colors in the zodiac love signs palette. The matte in my crease and the shimmer all over the lid. Under the eye I used the matte shadow. I used the highlighter in the middle of the palette for an inner corner highlight. Here’s where that all ended up.

I was feeling playful and really loved those aqua colors so I went for it. But, what happened that was a huge surprise was I ended up having to step in and interview a higher level candidate that I was not expecting to be involved with in any way. So, messy bun and blue eyeshadow. Probably could have been worse, but I am not sure how. It’s been one of those weeks where things are just like that in general. Everything keeps going sideways.

OK, on to the third day of the 3 color challenge. I decided to go for all three colors in a look again. I began with Dusty Trails as a transition shade. Then I pulled out my new BH Zodiac palette and used the matte purple Gemini color for my crease. Despite really not wanting to use it, I added hungover to the very outer corner of my mobile lid. I definitely would have preferred to use another Zodiac palette color, but that doesn’t work with my challenge. It was as bad as the first time, or worse. Patchy, completely unblendable, and when it fell down my face it was hard to remove with a makeup wipe despite the fact that I didn’t have any other makeup on my face. Then, I used Just Peachy all over my lid. For my undereye, I used Dusty Trails and then the BH matte purple. I lined with a dark purple Urban Decay eyeliner, highlighted the inner corner with the highlighter from the zodiac palette.

And here’s the look of the day. You get a little bit of a bonus as Miss Butterfly took my closed eye look for me since we were at the orthodontist and had a little extra time.

That’s a wrap for week 3, and we roll out the Just Peachy shade this week and roll in something new next week.

This is going to be a tougher month, but it’s also my last fabfitfun box and my second to last boxycharm month. So, I just gotta tough it out two more months and I am all good.

So, last month 6 items more left my collection than entered it.

Then fabfitfun arrived, this box was not makeup heavy, it was really skincare product heavy.

These are the items I got from fabfitfun this season. I am eager to try some of it but I am pretty pleased that I am done with this box despite it being a pretty good one! So, that’s 7 items entering, leaving me an item short of balance.

Well, this is going to be a fair amount of spoiling for my project pan, but I think that’ll be ok.

I am decluttering two lip products. I’ve given both to Miss Butterfly. One is a NYX product that seems pretty dried out but she’ll try to make use of it anyhow. The other is a sheer lipstick in red. I tried it on and really didn’t like its look on me. I have some very nice reds that I like far better. And really, I don’t wear reds often.

I finished my coco chanel madamoiselle perfume sample. It’s a fragrance I am quite familar with and regularly love using. But I am not ready to purchase it again.

I finished my charlotte tilbury setting powder sample. To be honest, I ended up scraping this out and putting it in my cover FX powder container. I couldn’t get it to pick up on a brush anymore with all the pan in the little container. I don’t like this product at all really. I know that’s probably an unpopular opinion. But I am glad, because I don’t have to get attached to a very expensive product.

And then there’s the Deva Curl styling cream. Despite no longer having curly hair, I enjoyed using this project quite a lot. It made my hair nice and smooth. But, I am glad I can now move on to something else to try. And I am very glad I can try out a few products this month before rolling in another product to my project.

So that’s 5 out total. Which leaves me 4 items leaving above what was brought in. And at least one of those was a really large product that took me forever to finish! This actually turned out a little better than I expected to be honest. I have a few other things that are pretty close to being done, for certain will get done before the end of the month. I think I am in better shape than I expected.

Last week I rolled out the color Poppy from the Ace beaute grandiose palette. It was a deep burgundy and a very good performing shade. That left me with two Sydney Grace singles, color Just Peachy and color Dusty Trails. Now, I had added both BH zodiac palettes to my collection, so I added all those colors into my numbers for the random number generator to choose from, but it didn’t pick as I’d hoped. In fact, it picked my least favorite palette in my collection. It chose a color from my Laura Lee Party Animal palette.

Now, we received this palette right before mega drama that I don’t care in the least about. I didn’t care about this influencer then and I don’t care about her now. Following big, drama fueled influencers are for young people, not people in their 40s. But, I can get behind a colorful palette! Unfortunately, my maybe 3 experiences with the palette proved that it wasn’t a fabulous palette to begin with. But I didn’t declutter it because I really don’t have much in the way of bright neon shades in my collection. Now that it’s part of the challenge, I am not removing it yet, but I do think toward the end of my challenge I will just happily declutter this and if I need bright neon shades I’ll borrow from Miss Butterfly who has the BH cosmetics take me back to brazil palette.

ANYHOW, the point is that I pulled one of the 6 colors from that palette, the shade is called hungover, and it looks like a deep purple in the pan. Here are my swatches:

And here’s a quick photo of all three colors in pan.

So naturally, I figured my first look with this color combo should involve all three colors. And in fact, I just used these three colors. I used Dusty trails as a transition. Then, I packed hung over all over my lid and also blended it into the crease. Then I foiled Just Peachy over Hungover on my lid from inner corner about 3/4 of the way across the lid. Under the eye, I first used dusty trails and then added hungover on the outer corner not even bringing it halfway across. I blended the two together really well. I lined my waterline with my urban decay winterfell snow liner, used a black pencil liner on the upper and lower lash line, and used the brightener from my Cover FX face palette for an inner corner highlight. It blended in with the purple a bit and that wasn’t a bad thing, as it drew the look together pretty well.

I think that I pulled off the look just fine and made it subtle enough to get away with at work. (Not that I truly have anything to worry about.) But, I can tell you that my experience with the color hungover was NOT good. Not good at all. After packing it on, it was easy to see that the color doesn’t translate as a deep purple. The color payoff is, quite frankly, poo. It goes to a pinky red rather than a purple. I can build and build but the extra touch of a brush blends it back to a color that has nothing to do with the color in the pan. I don’t love the look of pinky red tones around my undereye, so even using it as a liner for these three weeks isn’t going to be my favorite option. It could be a VERY long three weeks with this particular color. But, that’s the point of this little challenge for myself, just simply trying to get a better handle on the colors in my collection, get use out of all of them, and challenge myself to think creatively with color. And then, once I’ve used the colors in a particular palette, it’ll be time to actively declutter the palettes that are not getting use and won’t get use in my collection. And I can tell you, that LL party animal palette is already in chopping block danger.

Fun little spoiler though-I am trialing a new foundation in these photos. I picked up something new and drugstore. More about that in an upcoming beauty balance post. But, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to trial a newer foundation, and I am enjoying it.

In my previous May beauty balance post, I had 5 things leaving my collection over what entered and I TRULY anticipated that would stay exactly the same.

It didn’t. And here’s how that went. Ulta put mascaras on sale. And, they gave 5X points on mascara. I am working with Miss Butterfly to get her to understand the value of money, and in doing so I’ve required that she start purchasing the vast majority of her own beauty products. But, when mascara went on sale, I figured I’d pick up some of the Essence mascaras at $3 each in order to bribe her to do work for me. I mean, it’s sort of like paying her. Her first job, which she did wonderfully, was cleaning my makeup brushes. The below photo is 3 more mascaras that I picked up. I’ll definitely use one of them and see if it bothers my sometimes sensitive eyes. The others will either stay in my stash or go to her, depending on her needs/my eyes.

I got one of each of the lash princess line. I also picked up some bare minerals concealer to try, as I’ve heard it is a good one for aging under eyes. We’ll see.

In a previous post, you may remember that I mentioned that if I could get a couple of particular eyeshadow palettes at half price I’d scoop them up? Well, that happened. And that’s how I ended up with two BH cosmetics palettes. Miss Butterfly and I have agreed to share these. Sometimes I get annoyed because when we first started playing with makeup together she would seriously dig into eyeshadow palettes. I ended up really separating out our eyeshadow stash because I couldn’t tolerate spending money on a beautiful palette that I loved only to see it look really trashed and dug into when she wanted to experiment with it. That worked well. And, in the past year, I think she’s gotten a lot better about that. So, we agreed that these BH palettes would be ones we would genuinely share. They are the zodiac palette and zodiac love signs palette. We have been looking at them for ages and neither of us has ever been able to pin down which one we like best. The moment that happened was when we were in a shop swatching them and they were just so gorgeous. I told her that if we could get them half price we’d get them both, and that’s what we did.

So, with the 5 items leaving above what came in from before, I’ve got 6 items coming in, leaving me one short for balance. I can make that up, no problem! Working hard on masks this month really solidified that.

I finished up 3 mask or mask like products, the Ren Calming mask, the Aphrodite deep cleansing mask, and the Grown alchemist face scrub.

I finished up my style sepia eyeliner FINALLY. Though I failed to get a photo before tossing it.

I finished up a sample size of perricone MD sunscreen.

I finished my bite beauty amuse bouche lipstick sample size in color sake.

I am decluttering one of my ofra liquid lipsticks, I’ll give it to Miss Butterfly to see if she wants it. In the collections I purchased for the wedding, looking for the best shade to wear on my wedding day, I ended up with two shades that were very “concealer lips” on me. I decided to keep the darker of the two and let go of this one.

That’s 7 products moving out of my collection, leaving me 6 products leaving over the ones coming in for the month of May.

And now I leave you with the first eyeshadow experiment from the BH palettes. Since I was volunteering yesterday with our local dog rescue, I decided not to use one of the bright colors I am so eager to play with. Instead I kept things pretty neutral. I played with Zodiac Love Signs palette. And grabbed a photo because I really liked the very simple look I created. As a first impressions, I am not at all sad about getting these palettes, what I created was simple, easily blended, and fast!

I also grabbed a photo because I was really loving how smooth my skin was looking yesterday morning. I think my May Mask Challenge was totally working for me. I am thrilled with the results of adding regular masks and treatments to my skin care, and this surprises me, because I went into the project thinking that masks and treatments don’t actually make a big difference. I think I was wrong. I am thrilled with the results and plan to keep it up!