Penultimate Project Pan Post

I am taking a break from considering the developing nervous system and apoptosis to take pictures of my makeup.  Because I can tell I used some products and that makes me proud that I have been giving myself the tiny enjoyable treat of putting on makeup with some consistencies.  Also, blush is much prettier than brain tumor diagrams; call me an aesthetic, but that provides a much needed break.
However, I am not out of the woods yet so this will be brief.  Here is my progress as of December 16:

I think I can maybe kill the Tarte blush.  I will probably repress the TheBalm Balm Desert blush because the pan is so tiny in the sample container when it is all full, now with everything on the sides it is almost impossible to get product out.  I definitely won't finish the two eyeliners or the two lipsticks, but will continue to try to make progress on them.  I never need to buy lip products or eyeliner again.  Ever.  I will just have to be buried with all of the extras/probably still the nubs of the ones included in this project.  

Long Haul Project Updates

I have been using nail polish and eye shadow.  Way to go self on using your makeup, I am liking these projects to really motivate myself to actually finish things up.  I was going to say that November was a super boring month, but I did actually finish a nail polish! I used up the last of Nails Inc in George Street so that is now gone forever.  It took me 9 manicures, but I did not start with a ful bottle and it was a mini size.  I really enjoyed the color and think I have other similar shades in my giant hoard of nail polish that you will someday be introduced to.  Because I used up a shade I introduced a new one, Julep in Zelda.  This is a gorgeous polish that makes me feel like I am wearing jewelry on my fingertips.  I will be sad to see it go, but it's perfect for the holidays.  I am really trying to instill in myself the idea that I should enjoy and use the products I love rather than hiding them away like a cranky old goblin.  Anyway, after all that rambling here is a photo of where my project polish is at as of December 5:

My goals for December are to use up the rest of Revlon Minted.  I actually used most of it up but then thinned it out rather aggressively so all of the volume was replaced.  It is not very opaque now and takes three or four coats to look good.  That being said, it is an impressive polish in how little it chips.  I don't have any other color products from the Revlon range, but after such success with this one I would be interested in maybe picking up a few more someday.  I also would love beyond all reason to manage to power through the rest of the OPI mini.  I am wearing it on my fingers right now and really don't like it for that purpose.  It goes on very patchy and takes a lot of coats.  For that reason I will be going to using it exclusively as a toenail polish which means it is still slow going.  I should remember to just trust my past self about decisions she made.  She is wise and knew that this polish looked like shit on her fingers.  After this month I will stop trying to actively use up polishes and instead switch to trying to wear every single polish I use at least once.  This has been fun to use a few all the way up, and feels like a huge accomplishment, but I feel bad knowing I am neglecting over a hundred other shades that I bought because I wanted to wear them.  I will close this with an artsy photo of these polishes that I thought looked cool.  

For my pan that palette this really was a very boring month.  I repressed and managed to almost finish up cozy and made my pan bigger in the Ulta single in Bone.  My goal was to expose the whole first ring and that did not happen.  I am so excited to be done with this pan that palette challenge and start breaking out some of my other beautiful eyeshadows.  My plan for this palette is to repress a few Ulta singles into the empty pans so I can travel with a palette that I like, but am not scared to lose or damage.  I will break out and throw away the large transforming shade.  I did hit pan in it using it as an inner corner highlight, but have realized the glitteriness of the shadow irritates my eyes.  Beauty is not worth pain.

Next month my first goal is to use up the rest of Cozy, hardly anything remains. I like this warm brown to throw on as a transition shade for one of the darker colors or as a single shade wash.  I don't think it was anything particularly unique and have a pretty good Ulta single dupe in Camel that I will press into the pan at the beginning of the year.  

I will manage to full expose the entire inner ring of Bone by the end of the month.  I know I won't be able to finish this shadow, but I want to see how much of it I can manage to use up.  It makes me oddly gleeful to finish things.  

I would really love to hit pan on Miracle this month, which I think will be more likely to happen now that it will be my most wearable color with Cozy out of the picture.  Finishing four shades completely and hitting pan on three more seems like a pretty good accomplishment.  It also serves as a warning to me that I definitely never ever ever need to buy any more shadow because I already have enough to last a lifetime.  

Project Pan Update

Hello hello, I basically have fallen off the face of the Earth.  I don't know how I managed to pick the absolutely worst time to start  a beauty blog, but I did.  Grad school is not the time to also jump into this endeavor, so my posts will probably never be very consistent.  My apologies in advance. Anyway, I should feel worse about my lack of consistency than I do.  Mostly this blog is a nice outlet for me to play with a hobby and nice practice for writing.  No, the writing that comes across this screen is nothing like the scientific explorations that abound in my future, but it gives me a chance to practice getting words out.  

All that aside here is my (late) update for my project pan.  I am trying to finish all of these up by the end of the year, which is now looking more and more silly.  My original post can be found here.  I have managed to finish off five products, but the progress on the remaining items is a little slower.

I think the Maybelline concealer should be finished in time no problem as well as both blushes.  I am glad to have a back up of Tarte's Prim, which has only been available in small sizes or I would have given in and bought a giant one by now.  I am also loving TheBalm's Balm Desert so much more than I thought that I would.  It is the perfect ruddy blush for fall, very neutral while hinting more toward red cheeked than an unseasonable bronzed summer goddess.  I will be making a concerted effort now until the end of the year to wear lipstick and eyeliner every single day in an attempt to finish these off.  Unfortunately I was a bit silly with selecting my products, as these are the two things that tend to make me look/feel the most overdone.  

In other news, I am beyond joyous to have finished the Tempu highlighter and have been loving Becca's poured Pearl and Colourpop's Monster as highlighters.  For an oily lady, I am freakishly into being all about that glow.  

 

Long Haul Projects

It's that time of the month again.  Or rather it was and I had exams, so this is late.  Also, it sounds like post is about menstruation.  Or pregnancy.  What an exciting way to let you know I want to post a Pan that Palette and Project Polish update.  Yay.

Here is where I am at with my eye shadow palette that I have been using almost exclusively since January 1.  It is the It Cosmetics Naturally Pretty palette from last year, the second iteration of the line.  You can check out last month's update for comparison here.

I wanted to try to make some good progress on Cozy and I have indeed made my pan quite a bit bigger.  I think I will probably repress soon so I don't have to scoot along the edge to pick up product.  I have been using Cozy as a transition shade in the crease or as a wash of color, depending on how lazy I am feeling or how late I am running in the morning.  I really like the color, but it is by no means unique.  

I also wanted to try to hit pan on miracle in October which didn't happen.  I honestly can't even tell if I am really close with this pipe dream.  A quick glance is enough to show that I have been using the shade but because I rarely use it as anything more than a pinkish crease it is hard to see much real progress.  I do really look the color of this shadow though and hope to hit pan by December 31.   

I have also added in an Ulta single in Bone (which I recommend if you are forever running out of the lightest shades in palettes as I consistently do).  I hit pan this month and made it pretty big since!  I don't have aspirations of finishing this before the end of the year and will appreciate having it around if I need to supplement a well-loved palette in the future.  It can be a little powdery but for the price it is nothing to sneeze at, I don't mind a little extra blending.  

I also have a project polish going on with 10 polishes right now.  I used each polish once this month, besides the Nails Inc on the left in George Street which I used 3 times.  I am not sure I will be able to get another manicure out of that bottle.  It looks like a lot, but I have thinned the polish so much over the course of this project that I need to use three coats.  I will probably try to dump it out onto a paper plate so it is easier to get to.  

Goals for the future because I like to achieve: I want to hit pan a second time after I repress Coz y and I would love to hit pan on Miracle.  I want to be able to expose the entire first ring in the Bone single.  I want to use up Nails Inc George Street (far left) and Revlon Minter (third from the right) by December 1.  I keep track of how many time I use each nail polish every month and when I finish them I will try to remember to post how many times I used them since starting the project before I could finish them.  Nail polish and eye shadow are two colored products that will sit in my collection forever if I don't force myself to focus a little.  Using a smaller selection of shades helps save me a little bit of time, improve my technique in the case of eye shadow application, and appreciate the colors a little more as I get to know them super well.  

Monster Mash

I crack myself up with post titles.  I am the worst and they are not good or helpful, but for whatever reason they bring a smile to my face so suck it internet people.  As you surely saw from the highly descriptive title, I want to talk about Coloupop's Monster highlighter.  Also, it is October so everything is Halloween all the time.  I had been wanting to place a Colourpop order and remembered Auxiliary Beauty saying "Monster is magic. Monster is love." which is really the most ringing endorsement I have ever heard.  This caused me to throw monster in along with Hippo, a more purple/silver toned highlighter I have yet to properly explore.

Monster is nothing if not a tricky devil, appearing an undetectable nude or a bright magenta depending on the angle of the light hitting the magic little particles.  In the pan you can see this effect by simply tilting the entire playdough-textured tub of product around.  Observe:

Also, please admire that my nails in the above photo are orange.  They are orange because my boyfriend was in town when my Colourpop order arrived and he had to bear witness to me cackling like a banshee and trying to keep myself from swatching before I took photos.  Small miracles do happen and he did not run away in terror.  

The effects of Monster are elusively difficult to capture on camera in the form of either a swatch or on the cheeks so prepare for many a photo doing the best it possibly can.  Here is Monster swatched next to Between the Sheets, a blush from Colourpop.  

The first day I had Monster in my hot little hands I slapped it on my cheeks to go for a walk in the park.  I found my fingers to be the easiest application with the texture of Colourpop products.  If you are unfamiliar they are almost like clay, but dry to a more powdery finish on the skin. I went for a curve on the cheek bones and up toward the eye, I don't often find myself highlighting the other, more greasy areas of my face.  Apparently the sunshine made it very obvious and shiny, in that fairy way, but it continued to be an elusive nymph as far as being captured on camera.  Observe my squinted up awkward photos:

The shade comes across a little more strongly int he shadow then in the sun.  I like to think of it as lurking in the darkness.  I also wore it on an outing to the botanical garden for brunch, something about nature makes me want to express my inner fairy.  

And here are some of the cool plants I saw, in all of their fairy home good-ness.  

Alas, this is not a blog all about how cool I think plants are and how I like to pretend tiny little fairies live inside them wearing Monster on their cheeks.  Because we are instead here to talk about makeup I will leave you with some comparisons to Monster.  From left/bottom to right/top this is Temptu highlighter in Champagne, Becca Shimmering Skin Perfect Poured in Pearl, Colourpop Monster, Colourpop Hippo, and Hourglass Mood Light. The Temptu is not even close and serves as an example of everything that is not a highlighter on my skin tone.  I am currently tying to use up a little sample from birchbox though and trying to learn to love it as a blush topper.  Pearl is much more white and more constantly stark on the face, more likely to show from all angles.  Monster appears faint again in these swatches, it was hard to capture its full-on pink glory.  Hippo is cooler, leaning more icy lavender and also more consistently visible than Monster.  Mood Light is faint and lacks the sheen of the other highlighters.  This I use for a subtle glow when I want to pretend to be lit from within rather than a shimmering goddess creature of ethereal power.  

I am so glad that I bought Monster, I find it to be a unique and fun product to play around with.  As soon as I banish the last of the Temptu I predict I will find Monster in very regular rotation.  

Project Pan Progresses

I am pretty happy with the progress I made this month.  I knew it was a little silly of me to put in so many lip products, but look they're slowly moving!  This post is going to be super short and mostly pictures; this is where I am this month:

As you can see I made progress on everything, some more than others.  I am beginning to despair about ever using up a pencil eyeliner.  I probably could have sharpened the nude Rimmel one more time before this update if my eyes had not dried out and started bugging me.  Why would they do such a thing? Probably because I tried to go for a run outdoors instead of working out in the gym and I am allergic to nature.  

My surprise favorite product was the Balm Desert, it's a very flattering super-nude blush.  I like it on my less intense blush days and also enjoyed layering it with the now-used-up cheek stain in Dreamer.  I expected it to be too much of a warm brown and was worried about the shimmer.  Luckily the shimmer does not translate to the cheeks and the warmth is more red than orange, which I find more flattering.  

This month I want to use up Posietint (there is almost nothing left), the Sheer Ladyflower bubble (because why has that not been used up already?), and the Temptu "highlighter" (because I have so many that I love more).  I would also love to hit pan on the Balm Desert, but I have a feeling once I do the entire thing will be gone and I am not sure I am ready to part ways just yet.  

Meet the Pans: Tarte Cheek Stain in Dreamer

This one is basically done, I got some photos just in time to show you what this product looks like with one last use.  This was part of a limited edition set released by Tarte last holiday season.  I would not be surprised if they released a similar favorites collection this year including another miniature cheek stain, but if they do I will certainly not be partaking.  I did not enjoy this form of cheek color.  Toward the end I figured out that I should stop trying to just rub the stick directly on my cheeks like warpaint on a caveman and instead use a stippling brush for a more refined/less blotchy effect.  This piece of knowledge helped, but not so much that I would want to get through another one of these.

I do enjoy the adorable fancy pearls on the top, they make me feel like a high class broad.  Inside the product is a bronzey neutral with shine and faint shimmer.  It comes with a little plastic cap to help keep the freshness in, which I have held onto in order to help justify using this product for a year straight.  This photo is making it appear a little darker than in person color.  

Here you can see that I am indeed finished with this product, it lasted me about 2 months of more or less daily use.  I found that putting it on my cheeks before primer also helped to wear this type of product.  

This is a fairly sheer and low impact blush.  It keeps a glossy shine and can feel a little sticky when applied.  The swatch below is several swipes, even on my fair skin it is hard to get this to show up.  The photo below is also very color accurate, my apologies for the above photos being slightly off. 

Upon comparison to other blushes, it's easy to see just how faint the cheek stain is.  From top to bottom this is Tarte's Classic (LE), Tarte's Achiote, Tarte's Cheek Stain in Dreamer, Colourpop Between the Sheets, and Tarte's Prim (LE).  All three Tarte Amazonian clay blushes are much darker and opaque than the cheek stain, and even the more toned-down Colourpop is quite a bit more intense.  

You can see that Colourpop and Classic are both a pretty good match for Dreamer, Prim is a little pinker.  Achiote is much more deeper and leans much more toward straight red.  

Dreamer's sheerness translates onto the cheek as well as arm swatches.  I tried to build it up to be stronger but it still just registers as a faint flush.  You can see it toward the front of my cheek below as compared to the bare skin back toward my ear.  As you can see my freckles clearly show through the formula.  

Dreamer does translate to a nice, natural flush on the face.  I happen to have an undying love for blush for some reason so I don't mind a little clown cheek occasionally, but I understand that some people want something a little less pigmented.   Here it is on a full face.  Please excuse the slightly derpy expression, I wanted to use my real camera instead of a phone to try to pick the blush up better which makes for awkward selfies.  

Overall I didn't hate using this product, especially toward the end when I figured out better ways to apply it.  However, I definitely learned that Tarte's cheek stains are not products for me and I will not be picking any more up in the future.  

Meet the Pans: L'Oreal Color Riche Balm in Rose Elixir

I realized that if I wanted to share anything at all about some of the items in my project pan before they were all gone I needed to get on that yesterday.  So apologies in advance for the horribly mangled state of all of the products in this series and especially the product featured today.

We are gathered here today to discuss a lip product that, despite using up almost in its entirety, I cannot decide whether I like or hate.  I think like, but maybe I am having warm fuzzies because it's a lip product which I have almost used up entirely and will never have to see again, as long as we both shall live (which for the lip product is like 3 days tops).  I am a little punchy so apparently it is going to be best to just roll with marriage theme of this paragraph.

Here is a photo of the L'Oreal Color Riche Balm in Rose Elixir to make me stop rambling and start sharing potentially useful thoughts.

This photo makes the product look warmer than it is, the case is a very blue-based light pink.  This lipstick (? lip balm? lip product?) is very sheer with a slight pink tinge to it.  It comes in a gold twist up tube with a slanted edge.  

As you can see, I have hardly anything left to it, and will more likely than not be scraping my lips along the sharp edge by the end of the week.  I like the little piece up that clicks into the cap, it makes sure everything is on straight and looks as presentable as a cheap-ish drugstore lipstick will look.  This product retails for $7.99 on Ulta if you are dying to go grab it.  

The product is a soft pink with some sparkles to it if you look up close.  I don't find the sparkles obvious on the lip at all, especially is comparison to the general glossiness the balm provides.  

On the lips the balm provides a general glossy appearance with a slight tinge of pink if your lips aren't too pigmented (such as the delightful ones I own).  However, if you have darker lips I doubt there would be even slight color pay off with this shade.  It can be a bit milky and show up in that crease that touching your lips together makes.  I have never noticed it showing up on my lips in a gross puddle-y way when my mouth isn't tightly closed though.

I was trying to get some slightly different mouth expressions I guess so here is another close up of a fresh application.

I will say the balm was very moisturizing and made my lips feel better if they were chapped.  I have other clear, more classic balms that are more moisturizing and less sticky than this though.  I liked that it gave a slight liveliness to my face without looking like I had anything wild going on with my mouth.  

This photo hints at the beauty which is Colourpop's Monster Highlighter, more to come on that soon

In my head I characterize this as a cool pink, but in comparisons I found it to be more neutral than truly blue-based.  Below are swatches from left to right of Lipstick Queen's Pink Bluff, Urban Decay's Illicit, L'Oreal Rose Elixir, Nyx Rose, Benefit's Posietint, and Lipstick Queen's Hello Sailor.  

Pink Bluff is the closest in shade, but quite a bit more pigmented than Rose Elixir.  On my lips it does not give the same high gloss finish, but is quite hydrating as well.  Posietint is also similar, although a bit more blue-based.  On my lips it looks much brighter and, while sheer in it's own way, packs far more of a punch than Rose Elixir.  

Nyx Rose is an opaque and garishly pastel shade which really bears no similarity.  I thought they would be much closer in color family, but seeing them swatched side by side was obviously mistaken.  Hello Sailor I knew would be different but it gives such a similar effect in the wash of color when on the lips with a healthy glow I was curious to see if they would look remotely related in arm swatches.  They don't.  

The biggest flaw I have with Rose Elixir is it's longevity.  It lasts all of about 4 heartbeats on the lips.  Below is a photo of my lips 30 minutes and half a glass of water after application.  

You can see that already much of the shine is gone and most of the minimal color has disappeared as well.  I just don't have the ability to reapply lipstick throughout my day.  I do appreciate that it fades so naturally and evenly, but find it a little impractical.  When I introduced this product in my project pan post I explained that I like wearing it out to bars because I can reapply without a mirror or any focus.  It's a nice color for a barely MLBB look, but I found the gloss finish could be sicky and I just don't have the time to reapply often enough to keep the product on my lips.  Here is a photo fully an hour after application.  

It's as if the product never even existed.  An exciting physical conundrum of the black hole that apparently is my lips.  For this reason, I won't be repurchasing.  However, I will give brownie points to L'Oreal for an adorably mystical sounding name.  I like the idea of getting a Rose Elixir in the form of makeup, much like a magical healing potion for the lips.  Please keep up this naming pattern rather than the silly route of Crush and Pout and Simper that drugstore lipsticks so often fall victim to.