In my last beauty balance post, I had ended up 11 items out of balance. Now, most of these were samples, specifically primer samples. But still, it was a lot and I had to dig deep to come up with 11 products to leave my collection to stay in balance.

But I got there!

This is a combo of empties and declutters. First, there’s a mac powder kiss lipstick sample. And by sample, I mean card. One day’s use. But I counted it coming in so I can count it leaving. I don’t like the powder kiss formula and I already knew that. This is compounded when the dumb card sample is difficult to put on my face. Or rather, it’s easy to get on my face, but tough to apply to my lips, where it is supposed to be. If I ever get another of these cards, I will just toss.

Next to that is some Almay eye makeup remover pads. These are the waterproof version. I love these and they are a staple in my collection though I tend to not use them often because I like a good cleansing balm or even just coconut oil to remove my makeup.

And then there’s a hair paste I’ve never liked but has been in my collection for probably 6 or more years. Can we say expired? So expired. I found it while looking through the bathroom drawers trying to find items to use on my haircut. I do not know why I chose not to declutter through last year’s bathroom declutters. But here we are.

Next row, there’s a wet n wild eyeshadow quad that I have decided to declutter because I have much better shadow in my collection. I am giving it to Miss Butterfly if she wants it.

Then there’s a no poreblem primer sample, the one primer sample I was able to get used up out of the many that entered my collection this month.

I finished up the Jergens natural glow I had been using during the weeks leading up to my wedding in April. I quit using it entirely after the wedding but decided I should probably use it up and move it out of my collection.

There’s an “exfoliating” foot mask I received in a fabfitfun box. I used this twice. I sat it by my bed to keep using. But, I realized that I wasn’t using it because the scent of it is something I find not good at all. It definitely has a coconut scent, but not in a pleasing way to me. I realized that not only was I avoiding using it because of the scent. I could smell the scent from time to time with it sitting by my bed which was exacerbating the lack of use. If Miss Butterfly wants to use it, she will.

Next up we have pur get a grip eyeshadow primer. This stuff really IS grippy. Too much so for my taste. I used the sample but I prefer something that works a bit more smoothly.

Lush body wash (sleepy). I loved this. LOVED. It’s a tiny sample but I would definitely buy a full size at a point when I need a body wash in my life. I’ve got plenty from subscription boxes to get through first.

Glamglow supermud mask-this is a pretty harsh mask, but it works nicely for just my t-zone in the summer. I’ve had it for about a year and a half so it’s nice to get it used up and out of my collection.

And finally, one tiny sample of perfume. That’s the Carolina Herrera good girl perfume and I really enjoyed it so much! I will keep this on my list of perfumes I like and consider picking up a small size at some point.

That’s it, 11 items bringing me back to balance before the end of the month is even here. I might have more before the end of the month, but I am not counting on it. So, this could be the finale.

On to the next two looks for this week’s 3 color challenge.

For look 2, I decided to go a little darker than I did for the first look.

You may remember that we are working with a dark brown matte color Porch Swing from Sydney Grace, the shimmery champagne color Hype from tarte pro to go, and the shimmery white browbone color from wet n wild lights out.

For the second look, I used Drive from tarte pro to go as a transition and crisp from the same in my crease. I then used the Porch Swing color all over my lid. Over that, in the inner third I used the wet n wild browbone color to give it some lightness and slight shimmer. Under the eye I used crisp and in the inner corner I used the wet n wild browbone color. It was a pretty easy look and decently nice, but nothing that impressive.

For the third look I decided to do what I’d been threatening to do since I pulled the color, I used only the wet n wild quad. I did not actually use it as the quad suggests, however. I built my own look out of it.

I began with the “transition” shade in my crease, and I used it to blow out a bit at the outer corner. I did then blend that color lightly into my transition area, but only a bit as it’s just a really intense dark color.

Then, I used the slate grey, slightly shimmery color all over the lid. Applied with a brush, it’s barely shimmery. Applied with a finger I got a bit more shimmer payoff, but not much. Also, it’s intensely dark. So, I used the browbone color over top that on the inner 2/3 of my mobile lid. This lightened things up a bit and added some interest. Under the eye I used the transition shade and at the outer corners, I added the black as a liner to the upper and lower lashline. Then I used the browbone color to the inner corner which made it blend nicely with what was on the lid.

The look is dark and dramatic, but it turned out ok. However, these little wet n wild quads aren’t great. I think the mattes work fairly well, but the shimmers just don’t really shimmer. What does that mean? It means I am going to take this moment to declutter this from my collection and pull two new colors for the next challenge week. However, I am also going to be taking a two-week hiatus from the challenge to give myself a break after 9 weeks!

When I last posted, I had 5 items leaving above those which entered my collection this month. This particular post is going to mess with that number quite a bit. Hopefully, by the end of the month, I can again move that number to a more balanced position.

First of all, cutting my hair quite short brought to light (literally) some scalp issues I’ve had going on. To be honest, this was part of the reason I cut off my hair. I thought I could likely get a handle on those issues if I just had less hair in general. But, once I cut my hair, I needed to pick up a few things that I knew were likely to help.

I have found that the best way to deal with my particular issues seems to be with salicylic acid. I’ve used the Lush superbalm before, one container lasts me quite a long time. It works very well when things are feeling at their worst, but it can also be a formula that’s difficult to use on longer hair. They seem to have reformulated it a bit since the last time I purchased it, and this is a welcome change. Getting it to the scalp between long strands of hair is tough, but even tougher was washing the greasy mess back out. It’s very thick and greasy. With super short hair, I can apply it only to the particularly problematic areas and in the morning I can easily just wipe it back off my head. (Yes, I leave it on overnight even though it suggests 20 minutes.)

Since things were at their worst, I also picked up some Neutrogena t-sal as a support shampoo for the treatment I am applying to myself. Already I’ve seen great improvements, everything is healing up nicely and I am excited to see my scalp return to normal, especially since it is so entirely visible right now.

At Lush, I was asked if I wanted a sample. Naturally, I said yes! And I picked up a sample of the sleepy body wash, something I haven’t tried before. This one should move out of my collection again relatively quickly.

We are desperately close to finishing up at least two sunscreens. With upcoming beach vacation, I thought I’d better get a replenish of my favorite going. I had a 20% off coupon, and these two together were much less expensive than they would be separately. I bet we use at least one of them up during vacation time anyhow.

Which brings us, already, to 5 products in. Balanced. But wait. Here’s the “ugh.”

I purchased two products and they came with a boatload of samples. I wanted to add vitamin c to my skincare routine, and I’ve heard good things about Mad Hippie. It was on sale and I picked some up. It came with a sample. Also, I wanted to pick up a mac NW 13 foundation because I am beginning to conclude that this is my closest mac color match, despite being told otherwise. (The lights in the shop always lie. Always.) And that came with a boatload of primer samples, something I am relatively frustrated with since my primer collection is completely overflowing anyhow. Who knew during my makeup journey that I would actively get annoyed at receiving samples in an order?!?! I just shoved all of these samples in a drawer for now, but maybe I can work through a few before the end of the month. For the above photo, 8 items entered my collection. But wait, there’s more!

I needed to pick up some hair product for my newly short hair. I decided to try out the powder play by big sexy hair. I’ve heard good things. It’s going well. Very well! This is a texturizing powder that helps create the volume and height I am looking for with the hair that is still longer at the top of my head.

I have wanted to pick up another colourpop super shock shadow, so I did. I use this one in conjunction with the darker one I already had to create a very easy eye look when I don’t want to mess around with a full look. I use the light shade on the inner part of my lid and the darker shade on the outer part of my lid. Then I go in with my bronzer as a crease color, fluffing that toward my transition area. That’s it. Once done, it looks pulled together and fresh and like I really tried even though I spent likely less than a minute on the look.

And, Miss Butterfly decluttered a highlight to me. This was a highlight she received in an ipsy bag. This was called Daisy and Pearl natural radiance booster. It’s very pretty but it’s a bit too dark for Miss Butterfly. She’s been using it as an eyeshadow. But, she’s got enough palettes in her collection right now to serve that purpose so she decided I might get use out of it. I am happy to have it in my collection, it does look lovely! That’s another 3 items in, 11 items out of balance. That’s really going to be tough to whittle down by the end of the month, but we’ll see what I can do.

I rolled for a new eye shadow this month and got a deep brown matte shadow from my Sydney Grace Taylor bundle. The matte is called Porch Swing (deep) and it is one that is very easy to incorporate into looks as an outer corner deep shade or in my crease. I did not take a photo of it, I figured you’d get the idea from the swatches.

So just to recap, we’ve got Tarte pro to go palette colorway hype, wet n wild shadow quad Lights Out, the browbone color, and then the sydney grace porch swing.

It’ll actually be harder to think out of the box with this combo, it’s neutral and pretty easy to come up with neutral looks for. As such, I went for a neutral look yesterday since I had to pick up a candidate, bring them to work, and then interview them later in the day.

So, I started with the pro to go palette. I used Drive as a transition shade and then Sydney Grace Porch Swing as a crease color. I added that a little on the outer V as well. Then I swept Hype all over the mobile lid. I used the wet n wild browbone color as an inner corner highlight. On the lower lashline I used drive and porch swing at the outer edge. That’s it! Very neutral, not very intense, very wearable.

Oh right, and that’s the new hair. Quite the dramatic change, right? Well, I’ll tell you what. It’s been very well received in my offline life and I am thrilled to be wearing something that is nice and cool and comfortable this time of year! It’s a very welcome change! And so far, it’s been easy, despite the fact that short hair requires actual styling on the regular. (It doesn’t require sitting around and making a long french braid or two, or trying to manage a nice updo to keep things under control during the work day. Nor does it fall in my food when I try to eat, and I no longer have a ponytail falling into my sink when I try to wash my face. So, the payoff is pretty sweet!)

My favorite eye look ever last week. So, despite the fact that my regularly scheduled post would be Monday’s 3 color challenge, I am going to skip that today and post about my eye look.

Here’s the thing. I had seen the Maybelline city mini in hi-rise sunset recently. I really liked the color story. And I especially liked the yellow. Initially, I thought “Well, those city mini’s are inexpensive so I could just pick it up if I really like it!” But after thinking about it a bit longer I realized that I might just be able to recreate the look with what I already have in my stash.

Since it is quite warm toned, I started with my Alamar cosmetics palette.

I decided what I wanted to do was an all matte look. So, I used Coco-taxi as a transition, tropico in my crease, and guantanamera on the outer V of my eye. Then I did a half cut crease because I wanted a nice bright yellow matte on the mobile lid. I have, in my stash, Vanessa’s Vanity shadow Tangy Dijon. I felt this would be a comparable color to the city mini and likely perform even better.

Under my eye I used coco taxi and guantanamera on the outer 1/3. I highlighted my inner corner with a light colored matte shadow from my white peach palette, though I did mix it with a sparkly white shade. Here’s what I ended up with:

This is, to date, my favorite eye look I’ve ever created. If I had to change anything, it would be using an even brighter yellow. But, it looks just lovely as is and it served the purpose of playing with a particular color story on a palette I do not own.

Guys, I feel the need to prepare you. Tomorrow’s hair is going to look a lot different than the photo above. I got it cut majorly and so there are no more soft gentle gibson tucks at this time.

At the end of June, two items left my collection over what entered it. This month is my last boxycharm for awhile. I adore my boxycharm subscription and it gave me a wonderful base of makeup to play with in my collection. But, I now just have too much cluttering up my life in the way of backup products. I need to quit until I at least work through all those things! I hope to subscribe someday in the future because it really is good fun. Until then, this’ll be my last boxycharm beauty balance.

These are the items which I received in my boxycharm box this month. I also received brushes, but they don’t count in my beauty balance. They are permanent items. So, that’s 4 items entering my collection. Or, two over what left last month. Two items out of balance. I have to admit, I’d be way way more likely to continue subscription boxes in general if we got fewer masks! One does not tend to use masks daily, or at least I do not. So the amount of masks coming into my collection can feel overwhelming, even when I am giving some of them to my daughter! Cleansers and primers are the other two items that get overwhelming after awhile, though I am less likely to hand some of them to my daughter as I’ll actually use them. In any case, I plan to take a nice long break and use up all the back stock accumulated over the past year.

This box itself, I love Ofra liquid lipsticks even though I tend to avoid liquid lipsticks. I was worried as this one seemed to be billed as a metallic but it doesn’t come across that way in real life. It is a VERY bright hot pink though. I am ok with that, I love a bright lipstick. The cleansing wipes will be easily used I am certain, and I look forward to trying the eyeshadow though I haven’t yet. As for the mask, I think it’s clear how I feel about those right now! Too many. Too many.

So, what is leaving?

I went through my collection recently to see if anything could leave. We have an upcoming vacation, and while on that vacation, we may see our nephew and his girlfriend. I noticed at the wedding that she had a pretty little winged liner on. So, since I am not a winged liner aficionado, and since liners are another thing subscription boxes overload us with, I figured I’d move two liquid liners and one gel liner into my travel box to see if I can unload them on our nephew’s girlfriend. This leaves me with one liquid liner and one gel liner in my collection. Those two are already opened and not fit to pass on to someone I barely know.

In looking through and listing my eyeshadow collection I have realized that I have many pans of charcoal grey shimmery shadow floating through it and I don’t need to keep this one sad, warped pan of the same. I am removing it from my collection and tossing it. I do not need it in my life.

I finished my Kenra toning masque. I used this once a week or so to keep my grey hair looking fantastic. I do believe it lasted me more than 6 months. It’s expensive but it works very well and lasts a very long time, so I think the payoff is pretty good here. I am not going to repurchase at this point because I intend to cut my hair, and once that has happened there’ll be far less time for my grey to turn brassy or discolored. But, if I ever start growing out my hair again, I’ll definitely keep this as a staple in my collection.

And finally, I finished up yet another container of my favorite hand cream to keep at work. I only like this one in this scent so I will certainly repurchase at some point. But, I have another half bottle at home that can be brought to work and hand cream is less necessary this time of year than it can be at other times. That’s 7 items out. Leaving me 5 items out of my collection above what has entered it.

There will be more incoming this month, I did make a purchase or a few. I’ll do another beauty balance post when those arrive. I mentioned that I plan to get a hair cut, and this will change what I need to use for hair products, so that may throw a bit of a wrench into this month too. But, I am fairly certain I’ll still be coming out ahead on my beauty balance.

The second look of the week is going to be both more neutral and incorporate all the colors for the week.

I began with my Tarte Pro to Go palette.

I began with Drive as a transition color and stylin in my crease. Then I applied boss to the outer half of my mobile lid and hype to the inner half. Under the eye I used drive.

Then, I used the wet n wild browbone color as an inner corner highlight and the BH cosmetics zodiac love signs Sagittarius shimmer as a liner. Here’s the swatch of all three challenge colors again in case you missed it:

And the look completed:

I am pleased with this more neutral look even though neutral tends to be out of character for me these days.

Look 3:

I am working an event this week at work, and this explains the desire to keep with the neutral looks. I stayed fairly neutral again today. I used the Tarte pro go to palette again.

I used Drive as a transition shade and Crisp in my crease. Then I used Dominate on the outer 2/3 of my mobile lid. I used Hype on the inner 1/3 and blended them together a bit. I used the wet & wild browbone color on my inner corner and the BH zodiac love signs Sagittarius shimmer as a liner. It was a quick and easy look, neutral as to not look ridiculous during a work event, and yet still entertained my brain when trying to put all 3 challenge colors together.

Though in all honesty, it looks much like the previous look. While the colors used are different, it translates similarly on the eye.

Guess what? This is the last makeup related post you will see where I have long hair. I booked an appointment for the weekend to go back to very short hair and I cannot WAIT!

This week I got a rather interesting roll for eyeshadow.

It’s the browbone color (white and shimmery) and a wet & wild quad I’ve used only once before. This is good because I’ve been wondering if this needs to be decluttered from my collection. I purchased this early 2018 when I was just starting to get into makeup. I also purchased a nude toned quad at the same time. I actually used a large portion of that nude quad last year, I hit pan on 3 of the colors, with one of them getting completely used up.

Obviously, this quad is far less wearable on a day to day basis, and since my collection basically blossomed after purchasing it, I never really had a huge urge to mess with it again. Though I did like it the one time I wore it!

Anyhow, rolling this one in should be fun. While I don’t use a white shimmer as a browbone highlight like the palette suggests, I do rather enjoy using this one as an inner corner highlight. But for today, I chose to use it differently.

I began with my BH Zodiac Love Signs palette.

Since the Sagittarius shimmer is part of this week’s challenge, I figured I’d work with that. I began with the Libra matte as a transition shade and the Sagittarius matte in my crease. I then put the Sagittarius shimmer all over my lid. Then, I used the wet & wild browbone color on the inner half of my lid over the top of the Sagittarius shimmer. I wanted to lighten up that dark color.

I also used the wet n wild color for an inner corner highlight. I used both the mattes on the lower lash line as well. I lined my waterline with a nude liner. And done.

I think it is interesting that the wet & wild shadow actually seems to kick up the shimmer intensity as well. It’s a surprisingly wearable look, or I am getting far more accustomed to dark looks after about 7 weeks of them. In any case, I am struggling a bit to know what to do for the rest of the week, but I am sure I’ll figure it out! At some point I do intend to use the wet & wild quad exclusively to see how it performs in general. But, I don’t think that’s a project for this week.

For the second look in this challenge week, I decided I wanted to mess around a bit more with my UD Born to Run palette. But, I also wanted to incorporate the champagne shimmer from the Tarte Pro to Go palette.

I guess I’ve failed to take a new Born to Run palette photo without the circles, so we’ll have to ignore them. For this look, I built it backward. I am experimenting with my sample size of the Pur eyeshadow primer. It’s very sticky, almost to the point where it is tough to even set the primer with a powdery shadow. So, I decided to build backward, trying to stick the eyelid colors down first then blend out the rest of the look.

I began with Drift from the UD palette, setting that on my outer corner mobile lid. Then, I used Wanderlust (pink circle) in the center of the mobile lid. Then I used Hype from the tarte palette on the inner 1/3 of the mobile lid. It took a bit of blending to get everything to be nicely squared away and the colors playing together.

Then, I used Hell Ride (purple circle) in my crease and Still Shot (The one above the yellow circle) as a transition. Under my eye I used Tarte palette colors. I put drive on the lower lashline and stylin on the outer corner of the lower lashline. In the inner corner I used my UD gold metallic eyeliner and I used a nude liner on my waterline.

While building this look I was fairly displeased. I thought it didn’t blend together nicely and I was irritated at the shadow primer I’d used. But, after I took a photo I realized that there really was a nice transition from light to dark across the eyelid and it has a fair amount of dimension. I will say that Drift faded out very quickly, and I actually think that helped the look a ton. It’s just a light charcoal grey on the outer corner now, rather than a super dark charcoal shimmer. This would not impress me much if I were trying to get it to look like it does in the pan, but for the purpose of this look, this was a happy accident.

Look 3:

Since I haven’t used my BH Zodiac Love Signs palette for the Sagittarius shimmer color yet this week, I figured it was time to do so.

Now, it’s no secret that I love yellow eyeshadow. That new colourpop yellow palette is calling my name in a very big way! But, I haven’t even messed around with the yellows in this palette yet! So, I figured I would do so for my third look this week.

I began with the matte Cancer shade as a transition. I added the matte Leo shadow to the crease. Then, I packed the shimmer Sagittarius shadow all over my mobile lid. Since I definitely wanted to lighten the look and tie together the yellow and the navy blue, I popped the shimmer Cancer shade over the Sagittarius shimmer in the middle of the lid as a spotlight.

Under the eye I used the matte Leo and Cancer shades. Then, I used the shimmer Sagittarius shade as a liner on my lower lash line at the outer corner. To tie in another color, I used Hype from the Tarte pro to go palette as an inner corner highlight.

I lined my waterline with my Urban Decay gold metallic shimmer pencil. And that was that. I like the look quite a bit!

It’s actually softer and less dark and smokey than I imagined it being. I did use the Sagittarius shimmer a bit more lightly than I’d done in the past weeks. That really helped. And using the gold shimmer on top helped as well. That’s it for this week, we should be back on schedule next week!

Yeah, I am a bit behind still due to vacation and trying to get these all in so that I can get back on schedule.

I drew a new color for my 3 color challenge, and it turned out to be Hype from my Tarte Pro to Go mini palette.

It’s the shimmery champagne color at the bottom left. Lined up with the two colors still in my challenge, it swatches like this:

I am ridiculously happy to be incorporating a lighter and very versatile shade into the next 3 weeks. As a kick off to this, I decided to only use the Tarte Pro to Go palette for my first look this week. After all, I haven’t worn a light and natural look for the challenge at any point. We started right in with big, bold, dramatic colors and it hasn’t stopped since.

Now, I’d also say that while I’ve used this palette a few times, I don’t know it all that well. The mattes are extremely powdery. I’ve experimented with it almost not at all, and this is partly because it’s so neutral overall. I just tend to enjoy experimenting more than I enjoy neutral looks. I got this in a subscription box which explains why it is in my collection in the first place.

So anyhow, I had thought that the color drive was pretty light in tone and might work ok as an all over setting color. It was not so. It’s most decidedly a transition color. So that’s what I used. I put crisp in the crease. I used hype on the mobile lid, inner half and then blended that into boss which I used on the outer half. I used drive and crisp under the eye. I used a nude liner for the water line and my UD gold shimmer pencil as an inner corner highlight. (This is becoming an all too easy theme around here, I should begin to think out of the box.)

The resulting look is neutral and pairs well with one of my orange toned lipsticks I’ve got in my project pan this quarter. Much better than the cool toned previous looks.

It’s been a very busy week and I do believe I needed this easy look this morning.

For the next two looks, I really will try to incorporate the other two dark colors. I am eager to pair this light color with looks from the UD Born to Run palette in particular!

OK, on with my final two looks during week 6 of my 3 color challenge. This is going up late because I had fewer days to work with since I was on vacation at the beginning of the week. But, as I mentioned, I am keeping it simple this week and going with a look per palette using the palette associated with the shadow color I am choosing in the challenge.

First look of this post is from the Too Faced Sweet Peach palette. While I’ve used this palette regularly, it’s another one I don’t feel like I know all that well. I do end up creating similar looks over and over. It is predominately a neutral palette, and I do appreciate it for that. In fact, I like knowing that if I go to this palette I’ll get a neutral look that pairs well with just about anything.

For today’s look, I began with Cobbler all over the eyelid and up into the crease. In the dim morning light, I guess I didn’t realize it’s a satin color rather than a matte. It looked good that way though, so I went with it. I then took Charmed, I’m Sure and added that to the crease over Cobbler. I used Georgia as a transition shade, it rather blended with Charmed, I’m Sure, and created a nice tone for a transition. Then, I used Just Peachy on the inner half of the mobile lid to add a little color.

Under my eye I used Cobbler all over and Charmed, I’m Sure on the outer third. Then I used Tempting, the color that is actually in my 3 color challenge, as a liner. That’s it, that’s what I did, and I am not going to apologize for being not that creative this week!

It’s pretty and neutral and hopefully it’ll stick around all day because I’ve got an extremely long day ahead of me. We’ve got a live band to see tonight and it’s New Orleans hot where I am and I’ll have to walk the dogs in the heat before the show. I am struggling to imagine how this makeup is going to hold up in general today, and I don’t need to worry about a weird eye look I am not sure I like on top of all of that.

10 hours later: I have a photo of this look in action. Mr. Ink’s brother wanted to get a photo of the three of us at the band we saw on this evening. After a couple of failed selfies, some kind soul took pity on us and grabbed a photo. You’ll see her friends having a great time at our expense in the background….

There’s nothing quite like hanging out with big tall guys to make you look smaller than you are!

Look 3:

I finally took better photos of my BH Zodiac palettes so that I could do my 3 color challenges with ease.

This is Love Signs. And, the shimmery Sagittarius is the color that is in the challenge. Here’s what I did, after quite a lot of thought. I used the matte scorpio color to set my base. Then, I used the matte Libra color as a transition shade. I used the Sagittarius matte as a crease color. Then, I did a halo eye. I used the Sagittarius shimmer on the inner and outer lid area, then I used the Scorpio shimmer as a highlight. On the lower lashline, I used the Libra and the Sagittarius matte colors then lined the outer edge with a navy blue liner. I used a nude liner on the waterline and a shimmer liner on the inner corner.

It’s a bit dramatic but fairly pretty.

I did already roll for my next color, and the spoiler here is that it is NOT a dark color. I am so thankful that the rest of the looks in my next 3 color challenge will be easier to incorporate more than one shade at a time.

In the last post, I was 4 items incoming over what had left my collection. That was a bit of a disappointment to me, but I was also fairly sure I could make that up during the rest of the month. While I didn’t actually wear that much makeup between that post and the end of the month, I did still manage to find a few items to leave my collection.

First of all, there’s the Lash Renegade mascara, it’s purple. I used it a couple times, but it’s almost a year old now and I am ready to let it go.

The Versace Bright Crystal perfume sample was lovely but didn’t stick on my skin. I wouldn’t purchase.

I have been working on the Cover FX blurring primer all year, and I’ve really enjoyed my time with it. It’s a very nice primer! I have a lot of other primers to work through before I would purchase this one, but it’s a possible repurchase. I think I’ve probably got more than a year of primers already in my collection.

The Farmacy Clean Bee cleanser was very nice! I don’t love the delivery system, the bottle got pretty gross and leaked if turned on its side. But the cleanser was just fine. The only reason I wouldn’t purchase this is because it’s a pricey item and again, I’ve got enough cleanser to get me through a year or more before I will need to purchase again.

I used up a sample of Briogeo leave in conditioner. I’ve got two more of these, in larger sizes, in my collection. I am not sure it does a ton for my hair, but it’ll be fine to use them up. I have plenty of leave in conditioner in my collection as well, so again, I wouldn’t repurchase just because of that.

And, then there’s the blue hair dye. Mr. Ink used this for his mohawk when we attended the 80s party in February. Of course, not much dye is needed for a mohawk and I always said I’d use this on my hair. But, I didn’t figure doing so before the wedding would be good. So, I waited for the honeymoon! I think blue hair for a New Orleans honeymoon was perfect. It is steadily fading from my hair. I am hoping my grey will go back to normal, but if not, I’ve been contemplating cutting my hair at the end of summer anyhow. So, we shall see how that all pans out.

In the end, that’s 2 items leaving my collection over what entered it. Not too bad for a beauty balance month.

I did end up with a few things entering my collection from our honeymoon, but since I didn’t pay for any of them, I’ve decided just to not count them on either end. The first hotel we stayed in had some nice bath and bodyworks shampoo, conditioner, and shower gel. I used them there and then took them with me because I enjoyed them quite a bit. And, I got two fancy handmade soap samples from an extremely talented New Orleans soap maker and salesperson. Her hustle was real and intense. It was a very interesting experience. I do like the soaps so I will use them up, but I wasn’t about to be forced into purchasing them because she forced a sample on me! Anyhow, all those will be fairly short-lived in my collection and I’ll move them on without counting them on either end. But I am glad to have all of them.