Last Week's Looks: Kiko, Viseart, Ciate London, and Natasha Denona

I hope everyone had a good week and weekend. I know this post is pretty late, but that's because I was away for Memorial Day weekend and didn't feel like bringing my camera. I've mentioned in previous posts that I have a major surgery (the first of two) coming up and I've been slammed with my busiest time at work. Well, my surgery is this week, in a few days, actually. So, this will be my last weekly looks post for a while, I would think. I'm not totally sure. I'll be taking some time off of work to recover, so hopefully I will be able to write some anti-haul posts if I am feeling up to it. 

In terms of makeup, I've just been really enjoying my collection, and it finally feels manageable to me. I couldn't tell you why I necessarily chose the looks I did this week, but that's okay. I just had fun. 

Look 1: Kiko 200 Champagne

Champagne on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy) and Viseart Neutral Matte blended into the crease. 

Look 2: Viseart

Viseart 8 on the lid, Kat Von D Ludwin blended into the crease, and Kat Von D Succubus padded onto the outer corner.

Look 3: Ciate London Pretty Palette

6 on the lid and 7 blended into the crease. 

Look 4: Natasha Denona Nina's Orchid

Nina's Orchid on the lid and Bobbi Brown Camel blended into the crease. 

Look 5: Natasha Denona Antique Olive

Antique Olive on the lid and Bobbi Brown Camel blended into the crease. 

Kiko 200 Champagne

Status: Favorite 

I've written about this shadow before, but it is truly such a favorite of mine. It has a wet and dry formula, but I had never used it "wet" until last week. And by "wet," I mean that I applied it over Pixie Epoxy. And, of course, it looked gorgeous. I've used this shadow plenty dry, and I think it is just lovely. Using it wet just enhanced what was already great about it. I paired it with some of the gray tones in the Viseart Neutral Matte palette, and I think the look came out quite pretty. 

Viseart

Staus: Keep

I don't really know what the label this shadow as it is part of a custom palette with a mishmash of shadows. The main shadow is from a Viseart palette, either Paris Nudes or Sultry Muse. The shadow is pretty, but lacks a certain oomph that I have become accustomed to. I may try these under Pixie Epoxy and see what happens. Again, it was a pretty shadow, but if I don't love it the way I love almost everything else in my collection, it will have to go. 

Ciate London Pretty Palette

Status: Favorite 

I just wrote about this palette last week, so there is no need for me to drone on about it again. I went to an event the evening I wore this look, and I have this odd habit of wearing incredibly light makeup sometimes when I have a special occasion. I also had a very big meeting at work with the head of the organization I work at, and I try to wear light makeup on those days. The color I used (6) is my favorite in the palette, and I think you can probably tell from the amount of wear that the shadow has. Typically I would have added a dark shadow to the outer corner and lower lash line, but, again, I went for as light as possible this day. 

Natasha Denona Nina's Orchid

Status: Favorite 

I'll start by saying that I think Natasha Denona matte shadows (at least in the 5-pan palettes) are really bad. This one is slightly better than others, but it could be better. The reason it is a favorite is for the color alone. This exact look was my favorite look that I created with the Too Faced Peanut Butter and Jelly palette, and when I decided to declutter that palette, the only reason I was able to was because I had this shadow from Natasha Denona. This is the first time that I actually attempted to recreate that look, and I was exceptionally happy with it. I paired it (of course) with Bobbi Brown Camel, and I thought the look was perfect—exactly what I wanted. 

Natasha Denona Antique Olive
Status: Favorite

This is definitely one of my favorite Natasha Denona shadows. It looks quite bronze in this photo, but it is more olive in person. I'm sure there are many other cheaper shadows that look just like this, but I am happy to have this shadow in my collection. I again paired it with Camel because, well, it's the best. I also really like applying Antique Olive in the crease, but I think it looks lovely on the lid. There was a time when I wanted to declutter my Natasha Denona shadows—because the packaging was so bad that I genuinely never wanted to use them. I would still not recommend purchasing these shadows (in large part because of the packaging and the price), and I can't see myself buying anything else from the brand, but since I own these, I do like them for the most part. I am very happy I depotted the shadows and was able to make this one Frankenstein's Monster palette because I have gotten a ton of use out of it. It is made up of palettes I was severely neglecting and considering decluttering, so I am glad that I found a way to put them all together so that they would get use.

Read More

This Week's Looks: Fyrinnae, Tarte, Tom Ford, Too Faced, Laura Mercier, and Ciate London

This was a week of old favorites for me, which was not my intent when I was making choices each day. I just kind of went with whatever I wanted to do, and I ended up going in an incredibly neutral direction this week. 

I've been under a lot of stress recently, and I guess because of that, I just naturally gravitated toward easy, "classic" looks that I knew I loved. And maybe also, because of the stress, I knew these were looks that make me feel good. And maybe I just wanted to feel good. 

Here are five looks I did this week. 

Look 1: Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions 

Rapunzel Had Extensions (over Pixie Epoxy) on the lid and Melt Rust Stack blended into the crease. 

Look 2: Tarte Tartelette in Bloom

Firecracker on the lid, Rebel blended into the crease, and Smokeshow padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 3: Tom Ford Nude Dip

2 on the lid (over Pixie Epoxy), 3 blended into the crease, and 4 padded onto the outer corner. 

Look 4: Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons

Molasses Chip on the lid and Viseart Neutral Matte blended into the crease. 

Look 4: Laura Mercier African Violet and Ciate London Pretty

African Violet on the lid, Ciate London 3 blended into the crease, and Ciate London 4 padded onto the outer corner. 

Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions 

Status: Favorite 

This is the third time I've written about this shadow, so I'll keep this brief. I love this shadow. It is so peachy and shiny and really stands out against my eye color. This shadow definitely requires Pixie Epoxy to be something special, but it's a step I think is worth taking. I paired it with some of the lighter shadows in the Melt Rust Stack, which continues to be a top favorite, and I think the look turned out really pretty. 

Tarte Tartelette in Bloom

Status: Keep

Almost every time I have ever used this palette, I have used Firecracker. Had it not been for this one shadow, I probably would have decluttered this palette. And that's not to say it's a bad palette, because it's not, it's just that it is so neutral that I have all of these colors. I wasn't terribly inspired by this palette when I used it in my one week, one palette project, but I decided to keep it because I liked it enough. And I continue to like it enough, though this was the first time I used it since the one week, one palette project. At the end of the day, I think this is a nice travel palette. I don't travel for long periods of time very often, but I travel to weekend trips enough that I do "require" a travel palette. This is not my go-to travel palette, but I think it is good for this purpose. I have considered decluttering this palette so many times, but I never do. And I'm pretty ruthless when I declutter, and after using it this week, I still want to keep it. So there must be something there for me. 

Tom Ford Nude Dip

Status: Favorite 

I've written about this quad several times as well, so I'll also keep this brief. This is the one Tom Ford quad that I hear people say isn't worth the money, and I guess I can see why they say that (because the colors are so basic), but I also feel like this is one of the only quads that is worth the money. And that's because I think the colors are gorgeous and classic and the texture is incredible. Applied over primer, I think these shadows are incredibly shiny and gorgeous, but applied over a base like Fyrinnae Pixie Epoxy, I think the shadows are stunning. And for $80, I want stunning shadows that I know I will love and wear all the time, and I don't want to waste that money on glitter topcoat shadows. 

Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons
Status: Keep

I didn't really know what to call this as these are the depotted shadows from my Chocolate Bon Bons palette. Molasses Chip was one of my favorite shadows in that palette, and even though it was a bronze (which I clearly have a lot of), I still thought it was special enough to depot and keep. And I still feel that way. Even looking at photos, I think this color is incredibly shiny and pretty considering there is only primer under it. I paired it with some shadows from Viseart Neutral Matte, and I found the look really pretty for being so neutral.

Laura Mercier African Violet 
Status: Favorite

This was my favorite shadow from the Artist Palette, and I decided to declutter that palette and instead buy this single shadow. And I am really happy that I did that. I recreated my favorite look from that palette with the Ciate London Pretty palette, and I love how it turned out. I think this was a nice shadow to wear considering how bronze the rest of the week was for me, but I also think it was neutral.

Ciate London Pretty
Status: Favorite

I've mentioned this a lot, but this is my favorite travel palette. I never used this for a one week, one palette, and I think it might be my only palette that I did not use in that project, but I know that I love it. It has three of my favorite lid shades (champagne, gold, and taupe), perfect blending colors (peach and plum), colors to deepen the outer corner, and a matte cream for the brow bone. It really is a perfect palette for me, and it's one that I could use for a longer trip as there are many possible color combinations.

Read More

Recent Declutters and Depotting

I know a term people like to use a lot in relation to by blog, which is tongue-in-cheek, is "makeup rehab." And that's because a lot of people, myself included, have struggled with a very real makeup/shopping addiction.

Ever since I became interested in makeup seven or eight years ago, I have always had more makeup than the average woman. I have gotten several friends into makeup, and I have always enjoyed being a soundboard when they've had a question about a product because they know that even if I haven't tried it, I've probably at least heard of it.

But things became a problem for me in the last few years living in NYC and especially when I started graduate school. NYC is not for the faint of heart, and it's sometimes not even for the strongest among us. This city has battered me around more than anything I've ever experienced, but I am still here because of people and obligations in my life. But when things have felt particularly rough, I would turn to makeup. Every day felt like a fight, and on the days I lost, I would buy makeup. I talked with my dad about this, and he told me that the most important thing was to get through the day. And he said if I needed to buy something to get through, then I needed to do it. Because I needed to get through.

And I did.

And a few months after graduating from my program, I started writing this blog. The blog was supposed to be a way to keep me accountable and to really talk out my frustrations with the beauty community and how consumerism had run rampant. What I wasn't expecting was to learn a lot about myself, my preferences, and the products I enjoy. And that might sound a little foolish, but I honestly thought I knew myself and what kind of makeup I enjoyed before staring this blog and really trying to get to know my makeup. As I have mentioned a lot recently, the most striking and important things I've learned are that I do not enjoy palettes, I much prefer singles, and most shadows are just not that unique.

And with that realization, for me, comes decluttering and downsizing.

Recently, I got into a decluttering mood, and I wanted to share what has left my collection.

Milani Bare Necessities: Decluttered

I considered keeping this for a few hours after I wrote about it in a "This Week's Looks" post, but then I realized I had no reason to keep it, so it has been decluttered. I actually took the matte dark brown shade and repressed that into the Milani Earthly Elements palette, but I don't have plans on using that on the eye (and seeing if it was successful) until indie month is over.

Milani Plum Basics: Decluttered

The pink glitter shadow on the top right was enough to make me want to declutter this palette without another thought. Like the Bare Necessities palette, I repressed the matte white/cream shade into the Milani Earthly Elements palette, and I am excited to see how that turns out. 

Becca Ombre Rouge: Decluttered

This was not an easy declutter for me as I really enjoy this palette. The problem is, in the last year, I have maybe used this palette three times. I call it my "professional" or "interview" palette, and indeed, I used this palette for my job interviews and when I had a really important meeting at work in the first couple months I worked there. Now, I am much more comfortable at work and don't need to wear such a conservative look anymore. I think this is a really lovely palette filled with beautiful shades, but the majority of it was just redundant to my collection. I wasn't using it, so it was time to let it go. 

Ciate London Smokey Suedes: Decluttered 

This was also not an easy palette to get rid of, but I have only used it twice in the last six months. This was actually the palette that made me take a break from the one week, one palette project, because I just did not want to wear only this for a solid week. There are so many pretty shadows in here, but none that I don't have elsewhere, so I decided to let it go. 

Juvia's Place Nubian 2: Decluttered

This was the hardest item to get rid of in this entire lot. I fell so hard for this palette when I used it for the one week, one palette project, and I especially loved Nairobi, Nefertiti, Jezebel, and Leyla. Thing is, I have not reached for this palette once since I used it in one week, one palette. I know if the shadow pans were smaller, I would totally depot the shades I just mentioned, but they are not, and I don't want to repress them into smaller pans. I have similar shadows to those anyway, and the stress of feeling guilty about not using this palette finally got the better of me. It's a beautiful palette that I really enjoyed using, but I just have too much in my collection, and I wasn't reaching for it. 

Lime Crime Venus: Depotted/Downsized

This is a palette that I really enjoy, but I found myself never reaching for it because of the bulky packaging and because it was buried under some other products in my collection. I really loved the artwork on the front of this palette, and even left it out for display once upon a time, but me not wanting to get rid of the packaging was actually keeping me from using the products inside. So, I decided to depot. I didn't intend to downsize any shadows in the process, but I also decided to downsize my custom Viseart palette (see below), and wanted to move the shadows from the Neutral Matte palette into the new custom palette. When I decided to do that, I realized I didn't need Creation and Icon, so I ditched those two shadows. 

Here is the new custom palette:

Includes: Natasha Denona (top left), Lime Crime Venus (top right), Viseart Neutral Matte (bottom left), and Too Faced Chocolate Bon Bons (bottom right).

Pur Soul Mattes: Depotted/Downsized

I'll just say right now that if you have this palette, you should not depot it. I have never experienced a more challenging project that ruined every single shadow in the palette. But, here's the thing about this palette. It looks like the perfect pink/mauve companion palette, but across the board, it's just not. The three lightest shades (two on the far left, one on the far right) all perform essentially the same on my skin. The third shadow in did not look mauve on me at all, and definitely leaned more brown; the reddish shade was nothing special when compared with Muse from the Venus palette; and I had shadows like the dark and light browns elsewhere in my collection. I knew I didn't want the entire palette, but there were still shadows I was interested in keeping, which is why I attempted to depot them. Again, it was a terrible experience, but in the end, I'm happy with the shadows I kept, which were the two shades on the far left, the fourth shadow, and and the light brown shadow. They are now in the new custom Viseart palette. I suspect that as time progresses, these shadows may end up decluttered as well, but as of now I am happy with the ones that have remained. 

Viseart Sultry Muse and Paris Nudes: Downsized 

This is what my Viseart custom palette used to look like. This was a combination of Sultry Muse:

Paris Nudes:

And Neutral Matte. 

And, here's the thing. There were some shadows that I really loved in this palette, and that's what made me want to keep all of it. But there were also some shadows that were not great at all. And I think because I paid so much money for them, I just did not want to admit to myself that I didn't like them all that much. But really delving into singles and indie shadows has made me see what I like and expect from a shadow, and I just had to admit that I wasn't crazy about a lot of these colors. So, I decluttered 10 shadows from both of these palettes. I am now only left with these:

In this palette, there are 11 Viseart shadows from Sultry Muse (primarily) and Paris Nudes, Make Up For Ever Pearl, one Natasha Denona shadow, and four shadows from Pur Soul Mattes. 

This Frankenstein's Monster palette is now a perfect palette for me. I can see traveling with this in a heartbeat. I'm excited to see the use this gets now. 

And since I took all the shadows out of the Inglot flexi palette, I was able to put all my Inglot shadows together in that palette. I had a 10-pan palette and a 5-pan palette, and now they are all combined:

Looking at my makeup collection now, which is still very large, I have to say that I feel a bit of relief. My palettes are not crammed into drawers and buried in a game of Tetris. There is some room to breathe, and I think that will have a great impact on my mindset. 

Finally, I would like to close this post with a note about depotting. It is not for everyone, and if it is not for you, that's okay. But the main reason I hear from people who don't want to depot is that they can't imagine doing that to their palettes. And I think that mindset can be flawed in a lot of ways, because a lot of it has an undercurrent of the hype/consumerist mindset. Some people like to have order to things and don't like asymmetry, and my comments are not for the people who chose not to depot because of these reasons. 

At the end of the day, unless a makeup item is a collectible to you, it is a product intended to be used. And if you're not using something because of the palette it is in or because you don't like the majority of colors, you're essentially wasting your money and the product by having it just sit there untouched. I think a lot of people don't want to depot because if they do, when their favorite person on YT holds up that palette and talks about it, they will have the fear of missing out. But that's silly to me. Depotting helps you get the most out of your shadows, even if that means losing some of them or combining them with other shadows that aren't exactly the same shape. 

Depotting also really helps show the duplicates in your collection. It's essentially doing what I propose in many of my anti-haul posts, which is to look at the shadows as pigments away from the packaging. When you look at shadows that way, you see what you already have. And that's what happens for me when I depot.  

I have already gotten a lot more use of out several shadows that I wasn't using previously, so this has been a successful endeavor for me. 

Read More