I’ve kept working on my bin of samples and travel size products as well as a number of items I am was close to being done with. More samples have entered my life and they got thrown in the bin as well to be used. Here’s another grouping of finished items.

The big news, for me, is that I FINALLY started making progress on all the travel size dental floss. I find the travel sizes so annoying. You use them for a week and then you go to get another length of floss and you get half the amount necessary. It’s just too irritating. But over the past month I have seriously committed to getting them used. I’ve got loads more to go through, obviously the pile of these has grown for years, but I am now determined to keep after it.

This group has a ton of sachets that I used up. Nothing here is super duper remarkable. I’ve enjoyed the project quite a bit, but it has also shown me that so much of what I use is pretty interchangeable. At least for me. I’ve got my skin in a place that is fairly good. Fairly normal. I deal with some masking related acne which is annoying but I also have products to use for that. I am no longer dehydrated, definitely not terribly oily during the winter, pretty balanced overall. And honestly that means that I can change up a thing or two here and there, use up these products, and it doesn’t screw up my skin or my routine. Kind of a fun place to be!

I knew in December that I was going to do this project or one like it, and as such, took photos and began working through the items at that time. I posted the official start of this project at the beginning of the year. But at that time, I did not take update photos because I wanted to make a little more progress.

Here’s the photo from the start of the project.

And here’s where I am now:

At the beginning of this year I said that the mac foundation was a “bonus” item and I’d remove it during update 1. I had also intended to wait to finish the bite beauty lipstick before posting an update. There’s been a massive change of plans. Due to the current situation with the pandemic in our state, and because I work in a healthcare facility, mask rules have changed drastically. The first change was that we have to mask all the time unless my door is closed and I am the only one in my office. Then, they instituted KN95 requirements, and, there’s a mask mandate for our city in general. Basically, we are back to where we were during the worst of the pandemic last year, or worse. Instead of happily finishing up a lipstick, I am working on a gloss that feels nourishing as no one sees my lips. Instead of putting the mac foundation that doesn’t hold up well under masks aside, I am wearing it regularly. I only need it to hold where the mask isn’t, and it’s totally up to that challenge. So now is the prime time to use it. It stays in the project.

I’ve made some progress on the bare minerals bare pro foundation. But I am definitely at the moment concentrating on mac.

I’ve made massive progress on my hourglass dim light powder. I think 2 more months to finish. The pan is expanded greatly, side pan is hit, but one side still has a fairly thick amount on the pan. Unfortunately when getting the update photo I didn’t notice part of it was out of the picture, that’s the area with side pan.

I am plugging away at the sunscreen and it is going fine. My main complaint about the sunscreen is that it smells not great to me. I will be thrilled when it is gone.

The juice beauty primer works well over this sunscreen which is perfect since it has tended to make other sunscreens pill up. Now is the perfect time to finish it off, except that I have a terrible time remembering to use it! But, with the jellypop primer gone, if I can remember to use it, I think I can be done next month.

And, the bite beauty lipstick had some progress, but sadly is at a stand still. Once the weather warms I imagine I can wear it to all outdoor events, and perhaps the situation here will get better in a month or two. At that time, I’ll work at it again. It’s a bummer since I was so so close to finishing!

Since the situation has changed, I am adding in a tower 28 lip jelly (number 13 below.) This works great as a bit of a balm under my KN95 so I am eager to use it now. I have not even opened this yet, but I recently finished another of this size and it went pretty quickly.

I am also adding in my Ilia lip mask (number 11 in list below) as I have been dipping into it pretty hard when working from home or in the evenings. There’s a danger that if I don’t add it now, It’ll just be gone before I document it in any way.

I will attempt to do updates midmonth, though planning that way these days doesn’t always work for me. I am hoping that I can have one finished item next month!

The list I posted at the beginning of the year, I will cross items off as I complete them:

1. Hourglass Dim Light powder
2. Bare Minerals Bare Pro Powder Foundation
3. Cerave sunscreen
4. Juice Beauty primer (deluxe sample size)
5. Bite Beauty lipstick
6. Sephora green color corrector
7. Tarte Amazonian Clay color corrector
8. Colourpop supershock shadow Frog
9. Benefit eyebrow pencil
10. Elf putty primer (deluxe sample size)
11. Ilia lip balm (deluxe sample size)
12. Tarte lip balm (deluxe sample size)
13. Tower 28 gloss (deluxe sample size)
14. Sleek Face Palette (darkest contour shade only with use of the light bronzer shade as well)
15. Makeup Forever Lip Liner
16. Makeup Forever powder (deluxe sample size)
17. Laura Mercier secret brightening powder
18. Coola spray (sample size)
19. Maybelline setting spray (travel size)
20. 1 mascara of any type
21. Benefit tinted eyebrow gel
22. Ofra liquid lipstick travel size any color

Bonus items:

elf eyebrow wax
Stila lipstick
Pan of blush
Mac foundation

I began this project in February 2021 and I’ve decided I am at a point I am ready to stop it. So this is the finale. Let’s look at last month and then this month.

And my list:

A: Mario Badescu facial spray with Aloe, Herbs, and Rosewater. This is finished, but I forgot to save the empty container. (21 uses this update, total uses 40.)
B: ABH Sultry palette Bloom-goal is to hit pan. (1 use this update, with 12 uses total)
C: ABH Sultry Palette Cinder-goal is to hit pan. (1 uses this update and 13 total)
D: ABH Sultry Palette Dystopian-goal is to hit pan. (1 uses this update with 41 uses total)
E: ABH Sultry Palette Ember-goal is to hit pan. (0 uses this month, 6 total)
F: ABH Sultry Palette Fresh-goal is to hit pan. (4 uses this update with 40 uses total and goal met!)
G: Grace & Stella Spray all Day Rose Spray-goal is to finish. (17uses, with 67 uses total and now used up)
H: Pur Highlighter-goal is to use up. (20 uses this update with 144 uses total)
I: IT Cosmetics CC cream-Goal is to finish. (9 uses to finish, so a total 24 uses in the project.)
J: Elf Jellypop primer-goal is to finish. (15 uses this update with 104 uses to finish)
L: Estee Lauder Doublewear-goal is to finish. (6 uses this update, 40 uses to finish my goal)
M:Tarte palette Mermosa-goal is to hit pan. (5 uses this update with 33 uses total and goal met!)
N: Tarte palette Nude Beach-goal is to hit pan. (5 uses with 34 uses total and pan hit!)
O: C.Y.O Lifeproof foundation-goal is to finish. (13 uses with 29 total to finish)
P: ABH Sultry Palette Pearl-goal is to hit pan. (5 uses with 93 uses to hit goal.)
Q: Tarte blush color Quirky-goal is to hit pan. (9 uses with 88 uses total and I have hit pan!)
R: Rom&nd bronzer: goal is to hit pan-goal achieved!. (34 uses with 105 uses total)
S: ABH Sultry Palette Steamunk-goal is to hit pan. (2 uses with 31 total uses to meet goal with massive pan!)
T: ABH Sultry Palette Twig-goal is to hit pan. (6 uses with 41 total uses and a goal met)
U: Urban Decay Eye Primer-goal is to finish. (24 uses with 61 total uses before finish)
V: Urban Decay eyeliner in Voodoo-goal is to use past the 24/7. (10 uses with 74 total uses)
W: Lancome Teint Idole Ultra Wear foundation-goal is to finish. (12 uses with 28 uses total and I am finished.)
X: Too Faced Boudoir Eyes (soft and sexy) eyeshadow palette use up In The Buff eyeshadow. (1 uses with a total of 35 uses) While I did not make this goal or even hit pan, I gave this palette to a friend and that still feels like a goal met.
Y: NYX eyeshadow pan (forgot to get a photo this update) goal is to use up. (18 uses for a total of 98 uses)
Z: BH Cosmetics Zodiac Palette-goal is to hit pan on the matte Virgo shade. (3 uses for a total of 29 uses to meet my goal)

The big progress this month was finishing the jellypop primer and hitting pan in the zodiac palette. 2 goals met.

I decluttered one item to a friend and did not meet my goal on 7 items. But I still feel like this was a very successful project overall. A total of 11 pans were hit. 3 of those were face products and the rest were eyeshadow. And I completely used up 7 items. Using up a full highlighter was always an ambitious goal, but I hit pan, repressed, and I have two tiny baby pans on the repressed highlighter. This year I plan to actively work on finishing the highlighter and the nyx cream colored eyeshadow. I know I can finish the nyx, and I think I can finish the highlighter if I keep concentrating on it.

I chose not to put any of the items from this project in my 22 in 2022 project I just started, so I am hoping that the the finishes I make with these items in 2022 will just be additional items I get to move out of my collection after finishing. Little bonuses!

As stated in yesterday’s post, I have been looking logically at my collection and deciding what I can work through in a planned manner over the year. I’ve chosen 22 items total plus a few bonus items to work on in case I struggle with some on the main list. I really do want to hit that 22 item goal. This project is not meant to be a rotate through my collection project, it’s a use it up project. I may mess around with a usage project in the future.

Let’s start with the photo I took last month, I am not providing new photos yet.

My intention for this project is for it to be a rolling project. Photographs otherwise get too overwhelming. I will still use the other items in the project but photograph those I am really concentrating on. But I am going to list out all 22 here plus the bonus items. For the record, the above Mac foundation will not be featured as a main 22, it’ll be a bonus item because I don’t actually think I will be able to finish it. I will not be photographing it again unless major progress is being made.

1. Hourglass Dim Light powder
2. Bare Minerals Bare Pro Powder Foundation
3. Cerave sunscreen
4. Juice Beauty primer (deluxe sample size)
5. Bite Beauty lipstick
6. Sephora green color corrector
7. Tarte Amazonian Clay color corrector
8. Colourpop supershock shadow Frog
9. Benefit eyebrow pencil
10. Elf putty primer (deluxe sample size)
11. Ilia lip balm (deluxe sample size)
12. Tarte lip balm (deluxe sample size)
13. Tower 28 gloss (deluxe sample size)
14. Sleek Face Palette (darkest contour shade only with use of the light bronzer shade as well)
15. Makeup Forever Lip Liner
16. Makeup Forever powder (deluxe sample size)
17. Laura Mercier secret brightening powder
18. Coola spray (sample size)
19. Maybelline setting spray (travel size)
20. 1 mascara of any type
21. Benefit tinted eyebrow gel
22. Ofra liquid lipstick travel size any color

Bonus items:

elf eyebrow wax
Stila lipstick
Pan of blush
Mac foundation

I will go through all these items now and try to do some progress lines, and then I’ll start taking photos of them at the end of this month.

I’ve been using the app GlowinMe to track my makeup collection. I have everything in there now from face primers to color products. I do not have skincare in there. I do have sample/travel size projects. If an eyeshadow is a single shadow but in a curated magnetic palette, I counted it as one palette. If they are individual shadows, I counted them individually.

This is all to say that working on this project has been a lovely way to see what I have when I go to purchase other items. Much like with my yarn stash on Ravelry, I have easily been able to make better decisions because I am easily able to see from anywhere what I have, and what is often an abundance.

These seems like a bit of a hobby pattern for me. Purchase quite a lot because trying new things is inspiring but eventually getting a bit overwhelmed and wanting to find a way to cut back again. Then at some point evening out to a place where the collection isn’t too overwhelming but remains inspiring. I think with makeup, I am at the place of wanting a bit more balance and knowing what types of things I enjoy.

Yesterday I took this screenshot with my phone from the app.

You can see on there that it says stash 239. Now that number is a bit deceiving because if I have more than one of an item, the stash entry says 2 but the app does not count that as 2 separate items. The good news is that there are only 5 items that I have doubles of. There are also two lip balms I didn’t enter into my collection yet, but lip balm seems more of a skincare item to me than a makeup product so I may leave those two items out.

For project panning, I have finally fully decided to do a 22 in 2022 project. I will also be shutting down my A to Z that I started last February, but I just want to finish one more item before I shut it down. It’ll likely be shut down before a year is out. I am not entering much eyeshadow into the 22 in 2022 project as I want to play in my eyeshadow collection.

As for purchasing, I’ve decided to slow things down a bit. First of all, for eyeshadows, I’ve decided I really like the Nabla and Pat McGrath formulas. For the most part, I want to limit myself to those. And since they are pricey, this ends up being self limiting. I would like to build myself some wiggle room there, with a potential purchase of one other palette from a US based brand and one from a K or J beauty site. I want to continue to try some K and J beauty items in the upcoming year, but I want to limit myself to one new foundation total for the year. I will allow myself 5 total lip products, 1 primer, 3 powders, 1 setting spray (unless I run out and need to replace) and 4 colored face products (blush, highlighter, bronzer.)

Meanwhile I hope to be working through my collection well enough that those amounts make some sense. And, that my total collection numbers actually drop.

That’s it! That’s the plan. A low buy (and I will allow replacements if that ever happens) and a well thought out project in order to drop my overall collection number. I would kind of like to end up with my collection number under 200 by the end of the year. We’ll see if that’s possible. But all this will be a good start. Tomorrow will be my 22 in 2022 intro.