Nothing else arrived in my collection this month, so now it’s time to balance the rest of the empties. I had 9 items leaving my collection last month. Now it’s time to see what else I worked through.

I finished my powder play hair powder. I loved this product. We’ll see if other powders live up to it. I have two to try in my collection already.

I have a garnier micellar cleanser, I do not like this one bit. It foams, it’s gentle, but it tastes awful if you happen to get it near your mouth. Not for me.

I finished a much loved product that I won’t repurchase, the Mary Kay extra emolliant night cream. I love the product, it has been super helpful in many capacities. But, I think I can replace it with readily available shea butter with similar results.

I finished a sample of ulta’s makeup remover wipes. I was glad to use them but won’t purchase, as I am moving away from using disposable wipes completely.

Then there are my two lip products. One has gone off, the MUFE lipstick sample smells terrible. I finished the nudestix product early on in the month too.

That’s 6 more items leaving my collection, bringing this month’s total to 15.

Then there’s the bonus content. I have some foil packets that do not count but that I did use. The first is a shampoo by System. It was one of those shampoos that doesn’t foam, which feels a bit strange. But, it still worked just fine. I would not like to try to use it on long hair, but I’ve got very short hair which makes using such products perfectly easy.

I tried a Nars foundation and concealer sample. There’s a fair amount of them in the sample actually. I tried the Mont Blanc foundation color and it was a bit light for me. Because I then darkened it with my born this way foundation, I got 3 days use out of it. It is not my favorite foundation by a long shot, and especially this time of year when I want something less matte. The concealer was nice though, I like it quite a bit and am still using it. That’s a surprising number of uses already and it’s nowhere near done. I have other foundation and concealer sample colors but don’t want to break into them just now.

And then I also used the Becca foundation sample. This was one I really enjoyed actually. A very nice foundation. It wanted a pore filling primer around the outside of my nose. Other than that, it worked beautifully. And there was enough for one day of wear! I would definitely consider purchasing it in the future. I’ve got plenty of foundation to work through for now, but I am super happy to have gotten an opportunity to try the sample.

That’s it. 15 products out, some samples sampled, and beauty is better than balanced for the month of October.

Here we go folks, the last post for my little project with the Nightingale palette from Pretty Vulgar.

I have been noticing that even the shimmers don’t stay particularly shimmery throughout the day. As such, I figured I really could use a shimmer in the crease and get away with it. So for today, I used Hide & Seek as a transition, Darkside in my crease, and Pillow Fight all over my lid. It’s a much lighter look than I have been creating with this palette and I am happy about that.

I used Break Free on my inner corner and Darkside under my eye. That was it. No liner, nothing else.

I paired this with my absolute favorite color lipstick for cool-toned eyeshadows, this one is Mac Let Them Eat Cake! It’s the first time I’ve worn this color and I am thrilled. It’s an exact color match for the nyx intense butter gloss I panned last year during the winter. But, I like the formula even more. A real win of a lipstick choice!

Here’s the spoiler, I’ve decided I am moving this palette out of my collection. I don’t want to use it. I don’t care for it. I have a different cool-toned eyeshadow palette I like far more than this one. There are some serious downsides to this particular cool-toned palette. The shimmers do not stay shimmery at all. They lose all luster they had by midday. Sometimes even sooner. And then, even with appropriate primer, by the time I get home from work they are creasing so badly and leaving patches of bare eyelid skin on my lids. This is not a palette I need in my life, I’d much prefer to pass it to Miss Butterfly, if she wants it, and go back to using the cool-toned palettes in my collection I actually love.

I took a break for being sick with a cold and not wearing much makeup, but now I am back to working my way through another palette I haven’t really used all the colors in. The new palette is Pretty Vulgar Nightingale.

It’s a nice cool-toned palette I received in a subscription box. I’ve done very little with it beyond swatching it. So now I am going to work through this and see how it actually performs. I do like cool-toned eye looks and this is the perfect time for year for that if you ask me.

For the first look, I used Nocturnal to set my primer. I used Hide & Seek as a transition shade and Flip Out in my crease and outer corner. I used Clutch all over my lid. For my inner corner, I used Break Free and I used Hide & Seek and Flip out under my eye.

As you can see it was fresh haircut day today! I always think I look a little funny until I have a couple days of growth back. In any case, the eyeshadows performed well. The look is so basic. Flip Out was a bit patchy but nothing I couldn’t work with. I did use a royal blue eyeliner with this look, seemed appropriate.

So, day 1 verdict, no harm no foul. It’s fine by me. Not ridiculously interesting but still a palette I can use. I am eager to try the slate blue color for my next look.

Day 2:

Today we went pretty smokey, smokier than I expected, that’s for sure!

I used Nocturnal to set my base. I used Hide & Seek as a transition shade. Then, I used Swoop in the outer corner. I tried to bring that into the crease, but then ended up using Flip Out instead. I packed Silver Spoon all over my lid and it was a lot darker than I expected it to be. In order to brighten it up, I used Break Free on the center of the lid over top of Silver Spoon. I also used Break Free as an inner corner highlight. On the lower lashline I used Hide & Seek and Flip Out. I lined with a dark navy liner at the outer corners of my upper and lower lashline, and I smudged that out as well.

The Break Free on top of Silver Spoon does help it have some dimension and to catch the light a bit. I think that Silver Spoon looks really shiny initially but that shine wears off very quickly. Within a couple of hours. Swoop and Flip Out are very similar colors, definitely only need Flip Out in the palette. I have a suspicion I’ll feel similarly about a few other colors as well.

But, that’s enough on this palette this week, I’ll resume next week. I still need to use Pillow Fight, Eye Spy, Darkside, After Midnight, and All Nighter. I suspect that will mean about 3 more looks with this palette before I have used every shade and am ready to put it away. That being said, this is not one I am leaning toward decluttering. Do I have other cool-toned palettes I like better? Absolutely. But already I feel like this one, while rarely used, does serve some purpose in my collection.

I’ve got a quick beauty balance post, even though I am not “counting” it.

After getting awfully tired of purchasing cotton pads for toner and makeup removal, I worked at cutting back. For some toners, they are thick enough just to pour into my hands and apply that way. I’ve gotten away from using cotton pads for makeup removal at all. But, I still had times where I could really use a cotton pad.

So, I decided to purchase reusable ones. Naturally, I went with an etsy shop because that’s a thing I do. I ended up getting cotton rounds. Plain cotton on one side and terry cloth on the other side. I also picked up some cotton flannel cloths for face makeup removal. I had already decided I didn’t want to keep using makeup wipes and now only use them when they show up as a sample. I often use a cleansing balm for makeup removal, but I also sometimes use plain coconut oil. Since that doesn’t emulsify, I have to use some sort of cloth.

These guys came in on my sick day and they are super cute! Yes, I totally could have made some myself, but it was worth it to me to just pay someone to do it. I also got a little laundry bag for my bathroom so I can just pop the dirty ones in there and wash on the weekend.

These turned out really cute. There are no fabric choices, they just send a variety. I am thrilled. Foxes, owls, dogs dressed as unicorns, all super cute and fun and entirely serviceable!

Because I decided to declutter a thing or two to Miss Butterfly, I figured I’d do another beauty balance post to encompass those items plus some others I’ve finished.

First of all, I asked Miss Butterfly if she’d like that Butter London palette that I don’t care deeply about. She was extremely eager to take it off my hands, so I am letting that go along with an essence waterproof mascara that is not at all waterproof and actually transfers even more than my regular essence mascaras I am testing. I am also handing over my tarte face tape sample in case it works for Miss Butterfly. I tried it, it’s a little light and a little cakey on me. I could experiment and make it work, but the reality is that I don’t want to. She can sheer it out if the color works for her, as she’s got nice skin and no redness to cover, so sheer works for her.

The other finished items are two from my project pan and one little sample. I finished my mac pro longwear foundation. To be honest, I am sad about that on so many levels. It’s the foundation I wore for my wedding. It looks better on my skin than ANY other foundation I’ve ever tried. It sticks to my nose. You’d think, “Ok, why won’t you just purchase more of that then?” And the reality is that the shade I had it in requires me to either be using something like jergens natural glow in order to be the appropriate shade for this foundation or it has to be summer. They don’t carry it in my best mac shade match. I do think I’ll do a little bit of sampling in the near future, in an attempt to see if I can find a shade that will work better than the one I had. I do want that foundation in my life again. However, I also have plenty of other foundations to work through so it’s not an immediate need.

As for the other two items, I finished my benefit dandelion twinkle which is really cool! I can’t believe I managed to finish an entire highlighter. It did require fairly consistent use. I do like that particular highlighter and I would consider purchasing it in the future. However, I’ve got more highlighters than any other one makeup item in my collection now so I won’t be repurchasing any time soon.

And finally, there’s the cerave sample moisturizer. I liked this quite a lot and definitely would consider repurchasing sometime in the future. I am all set with moisturizers at the moment, but I like that I got to sample a less expensive option this way.

I had 3 items leaving over what entered in my last post, this post makes it 9 items so far this month. I know that I’ll have two more at the very least by the end of the month, but we’ll have to wait and see if I can bump that up even more. I DO still need a back up texturizing spray and I am having some dry skin issues that might necessitate another purchase but I am trying to avoid that.

I do believe this will be my last beauty balance post until the end of the month though, I don’t think I’ll have anything coming in that cannot wait until then.

I’ve got two more looks for my small eyeshadow challenge. I am working through all the shades of this palette:

Butter London Natural Goddess palette.

Yesterday I chose to use Diva. I used my newly depotted JH morphe palette mattes for my crease and undereye shades and then just used Diva all over the lid:

This ended up being a rather pleasing neutral look.

Today I got to use the lightest colored shimmer, enchantress. Again, I used mattes from the depotted JH Morphe palette. I used slightly warmer colors in this case though. And then Enchantress all over the lid.

I lined with a teal eyeliner in this case as I just wanted something with a little more interest.

My conclusion, without having used the matte teal shade again, is that the shimmers in this palette are worth keeping. The brown matte shadow isn’t necessary in my collection. I’ll have to make a decision about the teal at a later date. But, I also think that I don’t really NEED this little palette, so I may instead allow this one to go to Miss Butterfly if she wants it.

It’s been one heck of a week, I haven’t gotten much blogging done at all. Even less crafting really. We’ve been out every evening so far and I am exhausted! Hopefully I can get some buttons sewn on a little sweater and get a craft related post up next!

At the end of last month, I had 16 items leaving my collection over what entered it. That’s a really nice total that I felt great about.

One tiny piece of housekeeping before I get any farther. First of all, since I do not currently have any sachet sized samples in my collection to use, I’ve decided not to continue adding them to my count when they arrive or leave my collection. I will still show them off when I use them up, but I am not going to count them in my totals anymore.

Regular sample or travel sizes will still count though. Things that I can get more than one use out of are to be counted. I’ve still got a lot of them in my drawers and I do want to use them. Plus, it seems like every time I place an order, new arrive.

Now, let me explain what I did this month. I had a nice chunk of ulta points to use. They weren’t expiring, and I’ve had them for a while. Over the past few months I have kept putting eyeshadow palettes in my cart, then pulling them back out and replacing them, and then putting new palettes in my cart, and repeat. I figured I’d spend my points on the things I loved the most.

But then I got to thinking about how sometimes I don’t even feel like I am getting use out of all the lovely palettes I own now. I feel out of touch with so much that I really love. The change of seasons has me eager to pull out my cool-toned palettes which I haven’t messed around with since early spring. I just did that major depotting and have renewed interest in my “new” magnetic palettes. My reality is that I do not need any more eyeshadow, and at the moment, it would have to be something pretty spectacular to not make me feel a little stressed out about having more in my collection.

In addition to this, there are so many other brands who sell eyeshadow I’d love to try. Brands who are not sold at ulta. If I am going to add to my collection at this point, I’d like it to be from one of those brands.

So I did something to put a hard stop to contemplating which eyeshadow palettes I should spend those points on. I spent the points on not eyeshadow palettes. More specifically, I used the hair event to purchase some hair products half price that I wanted to try. My new weird style requires a lot of work to get it to sit as high on my head as I want, and trying new products for that is fun. The white hairspray came as a gift with purchase, so that was lovely.

I also picked up some lipsticks I wanted to try and then some other more logical additions to my collection of things that I’ll actually work through in a reasonable amount of time. My favorite waterproof mascara, some soap for brush and sponge cleaning, some concealer I wanted to try, some body wash.

I picked up two mac lipsticks, one in the brand new formula, the love me lipstick, and one cream formula. The new formula is a violet color since I’ve been craving another violet color after finishing my nyx intense buttergloss earlier this year. The cream formula is a pinky nude. Then I picked up a L’Oreal colorriche shine lipstick because the formula sounds exactly like something I’d enjoy. It’s a brown nude. I am really eager to give these a try.

And then, of course, there are the freebies and samples that come with the purchase.

Now that I am not counting foil sachets, this category has been greatly reduced. There were a LOT of foil sachets. I gave all the conditioners to Miss Butterfly and saved the shampoos for myself. There was also a large amount of foundation samples. The samples are so small that it’s funny to imagine being able to cover my entire face with them. Maybe one from each brand? Hah. Anyhow, these three are the only measurable items that count toward my beauty balance now.

That’s 16 in, so I am back to balance unfortunately.

No matter, I do have a few things that I finished:

I finally finished the verb texture cream. I am glad it’s gone. I finished my living proof texture spray, really glad it’s gone, I didn’t like it at all. And, after many many many months, my belif toner is finished. I won’t be replacing this in my collection, I have another toner that will take its place. That’s now 3 items leaving over what arrived for my October balance.

I may pick up another texture spray or two, I would like to find ones that I like that I can pick up at ulta. But, my morracan oil texture spray truly is my favorite. I am not sure I’ll find one that compares. Other than that, I am good for this month and can ride out the month anticipating that my project pan will give me the rest of the empties I am hoping for this month.

 

This week I plan to use my Butter London Natural Goddess palette in my little challenge for myself. The challenge is to use every color in the palettes I haven’t experimented with very much.

It’s not the most beautiful photo here, but if you want to click elsewhere to see a better photo, you can. There are only two matte shadows in here, Temptress and Femme Fatale.

For day 1, I chose to use a light brown matte as a transition and then place Temptress as an outer corner deepening shade. It was patchy and didn’t blend well at all. That was my previous experience with Femme Fatale as well, but I will use that matte again during this challenge just to make sure. I spent way more time on this morning’s eye look than I would like to have done. I am a lazy makeup person, if it doesn’t blend well, I don’t want to deal with it at all at 6 am.

After I finished using the mattes to the best of my ability, I used Queen all over the lid. Under the eye, I used Temptress at the outer edge and the original light brown matte shade as well. I used a waterline brightener and I used a brown liner at the outer corners of my eye. I also used a highlighter as an inner corner shade. I did highlight my browbone as well with the thrive causmetics brightener I have in my project pan.

I must say that the shimmer color, Queen, performs fine. I did wet my brush. It looks pink in the pan but goes a bit warmer on the eye, it’s more of a copper color.

I appreciated being able to pair this with my nudestix lippie that is so close to being panned!

Day 2: I wanted to use the green color, Star, today. I also wanted to have a different experience with blending. So, Star is the only color from the palette that I used. I chose a mustardy brown color for a transition from sydney grace. It is one that fell out of one of my palettes and broke, and then I repressed it. I hear that mattes don’t repress particularly well, so I wanted to test it to see how it went. It works fine. That was good news since I also was using a dark brown for the outer corner that had been repressed. The same issue, it fell out of a magnetic palette. That one is a depotted Pur shadow that I saved. What a different experience from yesterday, despite being repressed, it was a dark brown that blended much easier than the one from the Butter London palette.

Then I popped Star all over the lid. I used the same two mattes on the undereye, used a highlighter for an inner corner brightener, and the thrive product on the browbone. The look is one I like, it’s warm, it’s fairly understated (for me), and all shadows performed well.

I was able to use the nudestix lippie I am trying to pan yet again, and I was thrilled to do so. I am a day or two from finishing that one now. It is getting very difficult to sharpen and the cap is close to useless. After that, I am going to have to start on some cooler toned shades to work on my other project pan lippies.

Two more shimmer shades to play with before I end this project, and then the teal matte color. I might save the shimmer shades for next week as I am eager to play with my warm-toned palette I depotted recently. And, I also think I’ll save the teal matte for a weekend look. I do not remember having a nice time with it when I last tried to use it, so I just don’t want to start my morning on a workday with that type of frustration. As of right now, I am leaning toward depotting this and saving the shimmers, tossing the mattes. But I should save my verdict for a future post.

I’ve been itching to do this thing for quite some time. I do not love my morphe Jaclyn Hill palette. It’s just too large and because of this, I just never ever bring it out to use it. I’ve been thinking for quite some time about it and imagining 2 or 3 different smaller palettes.

Over the weekend, I finally decided it was time to have a go. Here’s the palette. You can see that it has been used. Mostly by Miss Butterfly but now that she has a number of her own lovely palettes, she doesn’t pull it out to use anymore either.

I’ve depotted a few other things and it hasn’t gone particularly well. Mostly because, I believe, I am attempting to dig out the shadow pans from above. This time I figured it was time to go after them from a more logical place. I used an x-acto knife to remove the packaging around the cardboard that the pans sit on.

This ended up coming off in 3 pieces. Initially, I cut the lid off. Then, I cut around the outside of the palette and pulled off the top piece. Below that was the cardboard I was trying to get after and under that was another thick cardboard piece. I was able to remove the cardboard under the palette as well.

Then, I pulled out my iron and set it on the lowest setting. I put the cardboard on the iron and held if there for about 2 minutes. This loosened up the glue that the pans were stuck on with and I was very easily able to pry them up gently without bending or otherwise disturbing the pan and cracking the shadow inside. Sadly, my iron then broke. It refused to turn back on, so I pulled out a hair straightener and started again.

Here I am partway through. As you can see, some of the pans were coming up with the glue still on them, and on some, the glue stuck to the cardboard instead. When the pans came up with the glue still on them, I just flipped them over and scraped the glue off while it was still hot. It worked a treat!

I had originally intended to make up 3 smaller palettes, but I realized that the magnetic palettes I had actually lend themselves better to combining a good portion of the shadows. Here you’ll see the large warm-toned palette I created on the left. This is mostly the shadows from the depotted palette along with a few sydney grace singles and a depotted pur palette single I felt matched nicely. Many of the mattes in the JH palette are redundant, so I removed some of the redundancy. Then, I ended up pulling out the pops of color and putting them in a different palette. I added back in some of the redundant mattes and a vanessa’s vanity single shadow that never had a truly appropriate home. It now looks nice with the darker purple from the JH palette.

JH palette originally had 35 shadows and it was “too big.” The analysis paralysis was real when I’d pull out that palette. The large magnetic palette has just 7 fewer shadows, but are arranged in a way my brain can make a little more sense of it all. Mattes on one side and shimmers on the other. This might not be its final arrangement, but it is a heck of a lot more inspiring to me already. Plus, the size of this palette fits nicely on my vanity. I haven’t used it yet because I ran out of the little magnets I need to affix to the back of the pans. But I am eager to use it now, and that’s what counts.

I did take a photo of the vast majority of my single shadows together in the palettes I’ve created for them.

I’ve got two other tiny palettes that I forgot to pull out for this, but it really doesn’t add much to the collection as a whole. The cooler-toned palette is mostly sydney grace shadows from their taylor bundle, deep and light. Then, the small yellow and green palette has sydney grace, vanessa’s vanity, and some depotted pur shadows. I was looking for something similar to melt’s gemini palette and I feel like I can really dupe the vibes with that little palette. It lacks some of the orange-toned shades but that wasn’t what interested me the most anyhow.

In any case, I am ridiculously pleased with the turn out of this palette. For me, depotting has to get to the point where I am considering decluttering the entire palette if I can’t depot it. I have to be ok with losing those shadows. I have to be ready to live without the palette at all in its current form. Then, I am ready to attempt depotting it. That is definitely the case for this palette. I hadn’t pulled it out to use since December 2018. Tomorrow I plan to post about another palette that I am considering depotting. More about that then.

 

I am back to my exploration of the BH cosmetics zodiac love signs palette.

Upon taking a closer look at this palette, I realized that the only unexplored shadow left was the Taurus shimmer. I haven’t used that before. So, that’s what I worked on using today.

I decided to use the Libra matte as a transition and the Sagittarius matte as an outer corner darkening color. I also blended that into my crease a bit but tried to stay away from the inner third of my lids.

I’ll tell you this, one thing I can say about this palette wholeheartedly is that the mattes are beautiful. If I had to buy this palette all over again knowing what I now know, I’d do so just for the mattes. The shimmers are fine too. But the mattes perform so beautifully for me.

Then I added the Taurus shimmer to my lid. I highlighted the inner corner with the middle highlighter shade. Under the eye I kept it matte, using both mattes I had used on the transition and crease. I lined with a navy blue liner.

I don’t really know why I was expecting the color to be more of a pink than a burgundy. But, on the eyes it’s solidly burgundy. Using the mattes I did, the overall tone is pretty dark and smokey.

I also experimented with a new mascara this morning. It’s the trestique one I got in a boxycharm. Honestly, I am about to just start purchasing the clinique waterproof one I love and calling it good. I am not happy with either of my two essence mascaras currently open. The waterproof one transfers more than any other mascara ever. The regular one transfers too, as does the trestique. It may just be worth it to start using the clinique one I love and calling it good. I am getting really sick of wiping transfer off my browbone and undereye during the day.

Anyhow, that’s it for this palette. I am going to have to choose something else next. I think this time it’ll be something I got in a subscription box, and I’ll then make a decision about whether or not to keep it.

On the theme of continuing to use BH Cosmetics Zodiac Love Signs palette until I’ve at least used every single color in the palette once, I created my second look.

The Leo shimmer is the next color I’d never used. When looking at it, the matte matches it beautifully, so I thought perhaps a monochromatic look might be fun. I used the Leo matte as a transition shade, but then couldn’t leave it be. I used the Virgo matte in my crease for a little additional dimension and then popped the Leo shimmer all over my mobile lid. Under the eye I used the Virgo matte which was left over on the brush I used for a soft wash of color. Then, I put the cancer shimmer on the inner corner. It wasn’t light enough, so I popped the middle highlight color on top of it to lighten it up a bit. It retains its gold color but was light enough to be a highlight. I blended the Cancer shimmer a bit more onto the eyelid to mix it in with Leo, again, for a little more dimension.

For eyeliner, I started with my wet n wild highlight on my waterline. Then I used my new UD brown shimmer liner and actually made a very soft wing which I smudged out quite a bit. I paired this with the nudestix lippie I am trying to pan, and had a pretty good autumnal makeup look, I think!

It’s going to rain all day, so this is really as light a photo as I could possibly get.

I expected to have a few more of these this week, but as it turns out, I couldn’t stick to one palette! This project will stay in rotation until I finish using all the shades, so I will resume again next week.

Over the weekend I found myself tempted by new eyeshadow palettes. The new and shiny is always a temptation! And, I’ve got ulta points to spend. But I don’t need to spend them Right Now, I’d actually prefer to wait for a proper sale. Plus, if something holidayish comes out that I really like, it would be nice to get that instead. In fact, with us approaching November sales and so on, it’s really better to save my points until then.

The palettes which are tempting me right now are the ABH original Norvina (14 pan), the ABH Jackie Aina palette, and the Too Faced gingerbread spice palette. The original, not this year’s palette. There’s a danger that I’ll miss out on that one by waiting, I don’t think it is meant to stick around. But, I’ve decided that’s a risk I am willing to take.

And why am I willing to take that risk? Because it occurs to me that there are palettes in my collection which I haven’t even used all of the shadows in. So, my new challenge to myself is to take my palettes and spend as much time with them as it takes to use ALL the shades in them at least once.

Because I am also tempted by the new BH Cosmetics 1991 palette, I decided to start with my BH cosmetics palettes. Since they are large, they don’t fit in my main eyeshadow palette drawer. And because of this, there are times I forget to reach for them.

So, beginning this week, I am working through my BH Cosmetics zodiac love signs palette.

Here’s a photo of the inside of the palette. There are many I haven’t messed with in this palette. Of the shimmers, I’ve used Capricorn, Sagittarius, Scorpio, Libra, Virgo, Gemini, Aries, and Pisces. I’ve used all, or close to all the mattes.

Today I decided to add Aquarius to the list of shimmers I’ve used. I don’t know what possessed me to channel my inner Angelica Nyqvist, and I am certainly nowhere near as talented as she is, but I went for full dramatic color today. I began with the scorpio matte to set my primer, this lightened everything up to get the best results for the rest of the look. I used the capricorn matte as a transition shade and the aquarius matte as a crease shade as well as at the outer corner. I then used the aquarius shimmer on the outer half of my lid and the capricorn shimmer on the inner half. Under the eye I used the capricorn matte and a little of the aquarius matte at the outer edge just to blend it in nicely with what was going on above the eye. I used the big highlighter in the middle on my inner corner. I lightly lined the outer edges of my eyes, top and bottom, with a navy blue liner. I used my wetnwild brightener on my waterline.

I wanted to use a project pan item on my lips, so I chose the MUFE lipstick which is a nice cooler-toned pink. It’s really an “old-fashioned” lipstick. I don’t mean that in a bad way at all. It’s thick and creamy. It’s not at all matte. It has fantastic color payoff. It feels great on my lips. It’s exactly the type of lipstick I actually enjoy wearing. Though getting through it will be slow, due to that same color payoff.

I also want to make a quick note of my mascara choice. I used my essence waterproof mascara, the new one. Lash princess. But waterproof. Black and blue container. It is not waterproof. Every time I use it, it transfers. It’s so very irritating. I thought it was just me, but I was recently watching a youtube video (can’t remember which) where the person in the video was complaining about the same thing. It is a definitely will not be repurchasing product.

More things of note. Now that my ears are pierced again and my hair is very short, I’ve really enjoyed wearing earrings. I’ve purchased 2 pairs in a short amount of time. One pair was the spiders, a more artsy decision, and the other an impulse purchase, a total of one dollar, I felt sure the cheap metal would bother my ears but they have not. I’ll show them off here since I am going on about them.

They are ridiculous. And I love them. But that’s not the point, I’ve gone on a tangent. I have a bunch of earrings from way back when, before I let my earlobe piercings close up. All the silver had tarnished pretty significantly and they weren’t really wearable anymore. At least not as they were. I didn’t want to spend the money on cleaner so I looked up how to clean silver jewelry with products I had in the house. Turns out, half a cup of white vinegar and two tablespoons of baking soda works a treat. I put all the jewelry in that concoction for a few hours and then used an old toothbrush to give them a good scrub. Some pieces took longer than others, depending on how tarnished they were. I had one pair that I was certain would never be wearable again. But in the end, every single pair cleaned up nicely with the vinegar and baking soda concoction and a little elbow grease. This entire tangent is basically to say that cleaning up a bunch of old earrings made me feel like I can wear a “new” pair of earrings every day for two weeks and it’s very exciting!

In any case, this post turned out a lot longer than I expected. It got rambly. I had a bunch of thoughts. The main point is, I created a look with the BH Cosmetics zodiac love signs palette and I am going to continue doing so, and posting about it until I’ve used every shade at least once. And then I’ll move on to another palette and do exactly the same thing until I’ve gone through all the palettes I haven’t used all the colors in yet, or maybe, even all the palettes I haven’t used very often.

I swear I do have crafting related content coming. Soon. Soon!

Here we go! This is the final three months of the year, and the final push for finishes this year. I am eager to see how this ends up. The project has definitely kept me consistent this year, and has helped me truly feel like I am making significant progress on that which I brought into my collection this year and in 2018. I am glad I was able to catch the potentially out of control collection that happens for many of my hobbies before it got truly out of control. Learning about the project pan community truly helped that tendency, and I also think that the community has helped me to learn to apply the desire to work through stash to other hobbies in my life.

Now that I’ve spent time rambling about it, let’s get into the refresh, shall we? First up, the fragrances. Same photo as from two days ago.

I am hoping to work through my Atelier sample this month. It’s a vanilla scent and it seems like a really nice autumn fragrance. Cocoa Woods and black opium are also nice autumn fragrances so those are also nice options. But I’ll start with the Atelier and see how it goes.

When I began this project, my goal was to just get some use out of my sleek cream contour kit. But as it turned out, I hit pan on two of the colors. This was a surprise. I haven’t used it during the warmer months as trying to use a cream project when what I really need is a whole lot of powder just wasn’t working for me. But, I think during the final months of this year I will see how much farther I can get. I am also adding my tarte palette. I’ve used this two or three times only. I got it in a subscription box and was too busy concentrating on other palettes to give this one any love. I think the tones are good ones for autumn and cooler weather since I tend to enjoy a cooler toned eye look as well.

Here’s a whole load of other items, most of them new! I have a Mary Kay exfoliating product for hands. As you can see, it’s been in other projects, I think even earlier this year. But, my hands don’t get overly dry in the summer months so I removed it. Now that cooler weather is arriving, I am going to see if I can finish this off. It’s rather old, the pump no longer works, and I would like to move it out of my collection. I think two months of consistent use should do it.

I have kept my mac pro longwear in the project. Not sure if it’s easy to see, as it clearly got tipped over, but the mark is below the first two lines of the lower text. If it stays a good color for the next month, it’ll be gone. And that’s what I am hoping for! I also added my Born This Way foundation. It’s not a great shade match, a bit dark and a bit warm. But I’ve used it to darken foundations that are too light. Hopefully, I can get my money’s worth out of it, I just want to move that mark a bit in the upcoming months. It certainly won’t move as fast as the pro longwear foundation because I can’t use it as regularly.

I have a Skin & Co finishing spray that I want to use. Now that I’ve realized that my makeup stays best with a good powder and then a good spritz of finishing spray, I think I should be able to. This one is one which is supposed to illuminate, so it’ll be good for the upcoming cooler months.

And I have added 3 primers. I haven’t used the no poreblem primer beyond giving it an initial test run. So there’s no mark on that one. The Becca primer is one of my favorites, but I have two travel sizes and I’d like to get use out of one of my favorites in the upcoming months. And finally I’ve had this tiny sample of porefessional for at least a year now, and I want to get it used up.

Next bit! I am so close to being done with both the benefit dandelion twinkle highlighter and the tarte paaarty blush that I figured adding them to this final quarter could see them finished. Plus, I wanted something other than the tarte palette I wasn’t sure I’d love. I am positive I can use the AOA studios powder up within the next month or two. The It Cosmetics brow product I’d LOVE to finish this year, but I am not positive it’ll happen. It’s just never ending.

I have a small container of Sol de janeiro bum bum cream. I mentioned in yesterday’s post that it’s too overpowering for me. I plan to keep it to use on my legs after a shower and hopefully that’ll get it used up and out of my collection without me getting too irritated with the scent. The mac paint pot as an eyelid primer continues forever, I’d love to hit pan before the end of the year but I also seem to be working at the sides more than the bottom of the pan right now.

I have added my Bare Minerals serum concealer, I want to finish this by the end of the year. It’s been in my collection since spring 2018 and I think it’s time for it to go. It is not my favorite but I don’t hate it either. There’s not a ton in there so it should be doable. Next to it is a thrive causmetics highlighter. I am going to use this consistently over the next 3 months and see how I feel about it. To be honest, it is unnecessary in my collection but I don’t hate it, so I’d rather use than declutter. It’s a subscription box product, which is why I have it. And then I’ve got my wet n wild creme brulee eyelid setting shade that I’ll just keep working on through the end of the year. I bet I hit pan by then.

For lips, I kept the nudestix in the project. It’s so close to being done, and it’s the only warm-toned lip item I pulled. I just want to finish it! I always like to have one liquid lip even though I rarely use them, so I chose this ofra one since it’s my favorite lip formula. Then I’ve got a pinky nude makeup forever lipstick that I like, and a bite beauty lipstick that I love the formula of but the color is deeper than I prefer. I figure that it’s a good autumn/winter shade, so I’ll concentrate on it to move it out of my collection. I am pretty committed to finishing the bite beauty and the nudestix. Any use on the other two is just a bonus.

That’s a lot of items this quarter. So many! On the other hand, I won’t be rolling more in as I finish these, since I’ve got more than I can use in three months of each and every item.

I am looking forward to this quarter. I am also looking forward to figuring out what to do next year. I don’t think I’ll do this particular project even though it’s been fantastic. I may do a roulette-style pan or maybe just a number of seasonal ones. We shall see!