Month: November 2020

Rolling Project Pan update #11

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It’s time for a little project pan update, the only project I am still working on right now. This is the one where I use prompts to help me choose items to pan rolling style. I am going to keep after this, I’ll not end it this year, continuing into the new year. I’ll keep listing the prompts I have completed crossed off and adding in the next prompt as I get to it.

1.  A product with cute packaging
2.  An expensive product
3.  A product in loose form
4.  A drugstore product
5.  A product I bought because of youtube
6.  An old favorite
7.  A product you haven’t used in a while.
8. A product of your choosing
9. A product from a previous project.
10. A unique product
11. A product you don’t like
12. A product you bought online.
13. A product you received as a gift.
14. A product you’d recommend to anyone.
15. A product you haven’t used much.

And here’s last month’s photo:

And this month!:

4. A drugstore product is sill my nyx eyebrow pencil. I’ll be using this forever it seems. But I am making progress!

6. An old favorite is my hula bronzer, I used it all month but I am not entirely sure it shows.

12. a product I bought online is my UD eyeliner, the bronzy one. I have hardly used it this month but it did get sharpened once.

13. The product I received as a gift is my UD born to run eyeshadow palette and I have hit pan in the lower left hand corner shade. I am also pleased to have used this palette quite a bit overall. It looks used, while it did not before. But it gets rolled out now.

14. A product I’d recommend to anyone is my colourpop supershock shadow, and my goal was to hit pan, which I did. I am still using this but I can roll it out now.

15. A product I haven’t used much is my mac powder, and since it’s a baked item, it’s pretty hard to see any progress. I have been using it! But I really don’t need a lot at a time.

So, I need to roll in two new items.

16. a Product You Regret Buying-I’ve chosen my catrice foundation. Or rather, Miss Butterfly’s catrice foundation. The color is too light for me. She says it makes her face itchy. So that’s why it came to me. And that’s why I regret purchasing it. I’ve added a progress line, though much of it went into my other catrice foundation, my own color, which is slightly too dark on me. Now I want to see if I can use this one as a mixer for other foundations that are slightly too dark and use it up that way. This is a great time of the year to try that, as I am at my lightest.

17. A product out of your comfort zone-I’ve chosen a liquid eyeliner, eyeco brand, as this is best suited for a winged eyeliner, which I do not do. I am going to try to concentrate on it anyhow, but not with a wing. I’ve got a number of liquid liners and it would be good to go through a few in my collection.

With the items I have in the project this month I highly doubt I’ll be able to finish any and roll in anything new next month. All of these seem like longer term items to work on. I think I’ll do my best to concentrate on the copper eyeliner to see if that could be the one I get to roll out next month. The goal on that seems like it might be easiest to hit. We’ll see! Nevertheless, this is the project I am most enjoying out of all the projects I created for myself this year. Happy Panning!

A Small Reveal

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Here’s the thing. I am doing a lot of knitting right now. Quite frankly, we are in quarantine after my daughter tested covid positive. Don’t worry-none of us are particularly ill. I still don’t know if I even have it, and Mr. Ink has been the sickest but we don’t have his test results either. We are the classic case of thinking “are we or aren’t we, no couldn’t be, better get tested anyhow” and then being extremely surprised when Miss Butterfly tested positive.

I’ve got a little extra time on my hands. Our foster got adopted about 2 weeks ago. Right before that, Rose, our coonhound, somehow managed to tear open a hole in the side of her body needing stitches. So, all our many weekly dog park trips came to a sudden halt. Giving me more time. Then the day Rose was to get her stitches out, we found out at Miss Butterfly tested positive, so in the end, we had to take Rose’s stitches out ourselves, because we couldn’t go to the vet. So we also can’t go to the dog park, leaving us, again, with loads of extra time on our hands.

I’ve continued knitting. After yesterday’s big reveal I felt the need for a palate cleanser. Thick yarn, easy pattern. 1×1 rib seemed perfect. And, I had a skein of Miss Marja’s handspun that would precisely do the trick.

This resulted in a very fast and very pretty squishy scarf. As soon as that was done, I was on to my next project, which is a post for another day.

A Big Reveal

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It’s about as fantastic a project I could ever knit, let alone on a year I really haven’t knit much at all.

I’ve kept it quiet, but I did the westknits mystery shawl this year, titled Slipstravaganza. I finished last weekend and managed to get the blocking done this week.

I used almost a full 4 balls of sockweight yarn for this. That’s as much knitting as any sweater.

The details were intricate.

I added a final blue stripe to the border beyond the 6 stripes written in the pattern. I wanted to have a little more blue making an appearance. I managed to finish the final blue row with just a yard of yarn left. It was a nail biter.

This is one of those knits that looks harder than it is. On the other hand, I did learn a lot of great techniques. I am so pleased to have knit this shawl! It was a delight and honestly, I’d do it all over again.

November Beauty Balance

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This is the incoming stuff, and it’s a lot. I had 55 items leaving my collection over what entered it for the year last month. I am afraid that grand total will be decreasing this month. I purchased a number of things and those things also created a freebie sample bag with my order so that was a lot more items coming in.

It was the gorgeous hair event at ulta so I tried to stock up on things. I was still working on a mousse but I picked up the joico ones because I prefer them. There’s a lot of product and a little goes a long way.

I picked up the batiste dry shampoo texturizing version to use, turns out it’s not a favorite of mine but it’ll work.

I picked up some wella invigo volume boost product. Then came a few sample sizes, the southern belle is already used up so I won’t count that.

I also stocked up on some mascara, I am really just using essence mascara at this point. So, in this photo, that’s 11 items since the southern belle is already gone. Down to 44.

And then the whole host of samples. I am not going to go through each of these, but I used up the ellis myth fragrance, I won’t count that, and I gave away the kat von d mascara to miss butterfly, I won’t count that. So that’s another 11 items in. 33 items left over what showed up this year.

I can do empties though!

I finally finished my shower gel, that was months and months of use. I finished up two belif products, a full size eye cream and a travel size face moisturizer. I also finished another ROC retinol.

Another powder play bites the dust, I am running low on this but may try a less expensive product next.

It took me ages to finish the elemis face mask. It’s done, wouldn’t repurchase.

There’s an it cosmetics cc cream, I wouldn’t repurchase that either, I prefer their other cc creams over the original.

I am decluttering my catrice concealer, that goes to Miss Butterfly.

And I used up a mascara.

The other items are samples or the “proof” that I did finish what I pictured above but didn’t count.

So that’s 9 items leaving my collection, bringing my grand total for the year to 42.

I imagine I’ll probably pick up a thing or two during the black friday sales, but I have decided not to do my usual NYX advent calendar. I just don’t feel like bringing in lip products I won’t use and can’t use due to masks. If I choose an advent calendar it’ll be one that has products I like more than NYX. I used to do the NYX ones for the novelty. I’ve got my eye on the mac one but it’ll have to go half price for me to purchase and I seriously doubt that’ll ever happen before it sells out. So, what I am trying to say is while I may get a few things in the upcoming months, it’s more likely that I’ll have more empties and I won’t be trying to account for the glut of the advent calendar 24 products this year. So, I am hoping to get that number back up over 50.

Partners in Cream project pan finale

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Since I am just not feeling this project pan right now, I am shutting it down. It would maybe be different if I didn’t have to wear a facemask all day. But I do, so cream projects just don’t work right now. Moving into the winter and with the whole of the US and our stat in particular doing terribly, basically unless I am home I am in a facemask. And that’s not great for cream products.

Here’s the photo of where I was at the beginning of last month:

I had finished the no poreblem primer and the small perfume. Everything else I was plugging away at.

This month’s photo:

I have cut into my sunscreen and I continue to use that regularly but there’s a lot in the base that I couldn’t get out while the tube was still whole. So, it has continued to take me a lot of time.

I made the normal amount of progress on my facial spray.

The Juice Beauty primer is balling up on my face quite a lot, it interferes with something. Perhaps the sunscreen. I hate using it. I will try it again with the next sunscreen to see if it improves at all, but I may end up decluttering it. I made progress though, I just couldn’t see the progress I made to mark it.

The foundation is way too dark for my skin as we move toward winter. I didn’t mark it but you can see that I did have a bit more use. Now it’ll be put back on a shelf waiting until spring/summer next year.

My sleek cream contour palette did see a bit of use, I did actually use it. But not enough to really make a difference in the pan. I only used that darkest shade.

The only things I’ll continue to use are the sunscreen and the facial spray. Then the primer once the sunscreen is gone. But in the end, I am ready to put this project to bed.

Eyeshadow Roulette project update

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This, too, like my project pan is rather a late post. But not as late. This is my project where I work through eyeshadows in my collection using them 30 times or until I hit pan, whichever comes first.

I changed up the rules a bit in the past few months as I wanted to concentrate on my Urban Decay Born to Run palette until I hit pan in it. This should give it a good used feel to it once that happens. So I’ve been making decisions about what colors I draw in a semi-random way. I use my random roulette app to choose a shadow. If the shadow is part of the Born to Run palette, that’s the one I get. If it is part of a different palette, I randomize the colors in the Born to Run palette and choose one that way. And, if I use the roulette app, and it draws me a single shadow, I use that single shadow.

Here’s my photo for this month:

The ones circled in red are the two shadows I hit pan on. I used the mint color a total of 24 times in order to hit pan. It’s a VERY small pan, but it’s there, I promise! And, with the pink single shadow from NYX, I used it a total of 29 times.

Right above the pink single shadow is Sherbet, that was also in the project, and I used it 30 times. No pan achieved.

The colors circled in yellow are all my current colors I am working on. Here’s how that breaks down:

-Hell Ride, the pink in the UD palette, I’ve been concentrating on it. Substantial dip going on but no pan. I’ve used this now a total of 22 times.

-Baja is the orange right under it, I haven’t used it much yet, only a total of 5 times.

-Next to Baja is Punk, I have not yet used it but it’s in the project.

-Below Punk is Double Life, it’s been in the project a fairly long time now, and I’ve used it a total of 12 times.

-Also chosen is Ignite, it was rolled in but hasn’t seen any use.

-And, serendipitously, the single shadow I rolled in is Urban Decay as well, it’s a moondust single in starlight.

The specific eyeshadow colors I am working with.

Since the vast majority of these colors are warm toned, I am going to keep concentrating on the berry color Hellride I may try to incorporate the cooler toned brown called Punk into my berry toned looks, but I only have 8 more uses on Hellride so I am ready to finish that one up. Previously I had been rolling in a new shade just as soon as I roll out an old one, but I have so many unused or barely used colors this time that I think it’s better to wait until next month.

All in all, as I put the Nyx single back in the magnetic palette it came from, where another single from the project resides, I felt rather proud to have that little quad I made myself looking quite used and abused! This project has been really effective, and I may handle the project similarly in the future. I’ll choose one palette to concentrate on and make look used until I hit pan on a shade and then roll it back out and pick a new palette to concentrate on.

Rolling Project Pan update #10

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It’s been busy around here, so my update is late! Our latest foster dog is a sweet, cute little love but also the most challenging foster dog we’ve had yet. Our neighbor’s old dog is ailing and we’ve been over assisting her withher dog regularly as well. Work is busy, blah blah, and then of course the week was stressful just in the not knowing sense of what was going on here in the states. And our state’s virus numbers are rising in an alarming manner.

All this is to say, my update is 8 or 9 days late because I couldn’t get it together.

Let’s review:

1.  A product with cute packaging
2.  An expensive product
3.  A product in loose form
4.  A drugstore product
5.  A product I bought because of youtube
6.  An old favorite
7.  A product you haven’t used in a while.
8. A product of your choosing
9. A product from a previous project.
10. A unique product
11. A product you don’t like
12. A product you bought online.
13. A product you received as a gift.
14. A product you’d recommend to anyone.

Last month’s photo:

And this month:

4. A Drugstore Product is still my NYX eyebrow pencil. Progress has been made, it’s slow going.

6. An old favorite is my Hula bronzer. I’ve expanded the pan and I did finally hit side pan on the thinnest side.

8. A product of my choosing is my IT cosmetics cc cream which I finished up this month!

12. A product I bought online is my Urban Decay eyeliner, I wanted to use it through the 24 of 24/7. It did get sharpened this month but I didn’t actually use it often.

13. A product I received as a gift is my Urban Decay Born to Run eyeshadow palette. My goal is to hit pan on one shade. It’s in my eyeshadow roulette until I do. I’ve got a good dip going in a couple colors but no pan yet.

14. A product I’d recommend to anyone is my colourpop supershock shadow in color frog. I had hit pan before putting it in this project, but I rearranged and squished all the product back into an even layer and am looking to hit pan again.

Now for item15. The prompt is “A product you haven’t used much” and I chose my mac mineralized skin finish. It’s a light glowy finishing powder. I figured this would be a good item to use through the fall, winter, and early spring. I hadn’t touched it at all before putting it in this project so I am eager to get use out of it.

Not a bad month, though I did wear less makeup overall. I am working from home again for a few days each week and though when I was working from home in the spring, I did my makeup almost daily, that has changed in the fall. I just can’t be bothered. Finishing a product was great. There’s only one product, the eyeliner, that didn’t get a ton of use. The goal is to use product I own, so in that respect, I am doing fine!