Update on Project UIOLI

I'm halfway through Project Use It Or Lose It (the two week mark), so I thought I'd do a bit of an update. I have to admit, this past week I haven't been wearing much makeup as I've been sleeping badly and getting up late, so for a few days it was just tinted moisturiser and a swipe of mascara. However, on the days I have worn makeup I have stuck faithfully to only using the items from Project UIOLI.

Project 'Use It or Lose It'

I've done a bang up job of reducing my stash in the past few months by either selling, giving away or throwing out a ton of stuff. I don't own near as much as I did this time last year - in fact probably less than a quarter. Way less. However, I still have a tendency to just head to the same products over and over each day and there is quite a bit that is hovering around being ignored.

Therefore, I've decided to undertake what I call Project Use It or Lose It. For the next four weeks I am going to use only these products (as colour, still using my same foundations and concealers as always as I don't have any of those being particularly neglected). If after the four weeks is up I don't love the products, or I'm likely to shove them back in a drawer and forget them again, I'll get rid of them. If I do love them, they can go in the regular rotation and I'll make sure I use them. So here are my products for use for the next month (the links are to swatches and/or reviews if I have them)...

My ELF collection - part two (pic heavy)

The blushes and lip products are what I mostly like when it comes to ELF - the majority of their eye products are a bit meh.

Luscious Liquid Lipsticks

Bark, Cherry Tart, Pink Lemonade, Baby Lips.

 
I love these - for $1US, you can't go wrong. The colours are sheer and don't last a hugely long time, but I find that with any lip gloss. They have a twist up doodad that releases product via the sponge, like Stila Lip Glaze does with the brush. I've reviewed them before - you can read that here if you're interested.

Spring is sprung... er - sort of....

Yesterday I was all excited because the sun was shining and the birds were singing and the bees were trying to have sex with them... as is my understanding. So I decided to haul out some Spring makeup and put it in a basket in the bathroom where I would be able to reach for something pretty and Springy every day. Then today I woke up and it was all grey and horrible again, and it's going to be that way for the rest of the week. Oh well, I'm wearing my Spring makeup anyway. So ner to you, rainclouds!

Maybelline Color Sensational Creme Gloss

As you may be aware, I'm not a big fan of lip gloss, mostly because of my intense dislike of All Things Sticky. However, as glosses go, Maybelline Color Sensational Creme Gloss is quite nice. I was sent one to review for the Beauty Heaven trial team, in the colour Hooked on Pink. It actually looks more berry than pink, with fine gold shimmer through it.

Review: ELF Liquid Lipstick

A few weeks ago when I got my tax return, I decided to have a teeny splurge at Nonpareil (who currently have 20% off everything, by the way), even though there was absolutely nothing I needed, and not even anything I was really craving. But I haven't bought any makeup products since May, and I just wanted to buy something. Enter ELF Liquid Lipsticks.  At $1.10US each, it satisfied my need to spend some money without making much of a dent in my bank account. I also bought a couple of Milani eyeliners, but I'll talk about those in another post.

They're not really a lipstick at all - they're a lip gloss. The packaging is similar to the Stila Lip Glazes, except it has a sponge-tip applicator rather than a brush. The formula is nice as lip glosses go - not too sticky, not too wet. They don't last long, but what gloss does? Noodles has kindly agreed to be my lip model for swatch purposes, but as she has quite pigmented lips (as do I), it's hard to tell much difference between the colours, so I've included an arm swatch as well for a better look. I think I did the font too small on the pictures too. D'oh!

Swatches: NYX Lip Gloss

Rambling.

I've been thinking about ways of using up some of my stash, and reading lollipop26 talking about her Project 10 Pan progress a couple of days ago got me on to the idea of working on some lip glosses. As I've mentioned in this blog before, I really hate any kind of sticky feeling, and for this reason I've never been a big fan of lipglosses. In fact, a year ago, this was my lipgloss collection:

Now I have this:

That's not really all that much compared to most beauty junkies, but bear in mind I only wear lip gloss once or twice a week, and yet I keep buying them. So my project for now is to:

1. not buy any more lip gloss for the rest of the year, and
2. make more of an effort to use what I have.

I don't like the combo of lipstick and lip gloss (on me), and that's one reason I hardly use it. So for the next two weeks, I am going to use lip gloss exclusively, and give the lipsticks a rest. That probably won't make a huge dent in them, but it's a start.

February is for pinks and purples.

In an effort to "shop my stash", I've been thinking about doing some kind of monthly theme for my makeup. There are lots of lovely neglected things in my bathroom that need a day out. I decided to go with a colour theme, and since I've been wearing a lot of pinks and purples lately, I'm sticking with that for the rest of February.

 

  

  

 

As you can see, I have no shortage of options, and there are loads more pinks and purples in various lip and eye palettes I have.

I'm still deciding what to do next month. I should probably give one of the 88 palettes an airing, since I haven't used them much, but I'm not overly impressed with them either. I'm keen to drag out my greens - I have a lot of those, and green is my favourite colour, so that's top of the list at the moment. Oh well, I have another couple of weeks to think about it, so no hurry.

Swatches: NYX, NARS, Milani

Here are the swatches from the previous post's haul stuff.

First, blushes. From left: Milani Mai Tai, Milani Luminous, NYX Natural, NYX Peach.

And because I forgot to include it in the photo above, NARS Crazed. I can't get over how pigmented this is. I've been practicing with the biggest, fluffiest brush I have putting it on with a really light hand. Still haven't quite got it right, yet. Gorgeous colour, though.

 Lip glosses and lipliners. From left: NYX Mega Shine Gloss in La La, Crystal Soda, Tea Rose, Gold Pink. NARS lip glosses in Harlow, Gothika. NYX Lipliners in Citrine, Dolly Pink and Tangerine.

NYX Tinted Lip Spa in Copacobana and Spirit, and NYX Round Lipstick in Chloe.

NYX Single Eyeshadows, swatched over NYX white eye base. From left: Ocean Frost, Morocco, Deep Purple, Red Bean Pie, Beauty Queen, Sparkle Cedar, Golden.

And NYX Slim Eye Pencils in Sapphire and Emerald City.

NARS Eyeshadows in Edie, Fathom and Baby Girl.

Now, these next ones I bought because I saw swatches of them where they looked like a beautiful sparkly dark black-ish purple and green. When I got them and swatched them on my arm, I just had two different shades of black with a bit of glitter in them, which was kind of annoying. I have been playing around with bases and I think I've figured out how to use them, though the green one (Night Clubbing) still doesn't show in the photo - the third swatch of that one is much more green in real life.

First of all, here is Night Clubbing, from left with no base, NYX white eye base, and NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Horse Radish.

Secondly (and in this picture you can really see the difference), here is Night Fever, from left with no base, NYX white eye base, and NYX Jumbo Eye Pencil in Oyster (a very light frosty pink).

Pretty!

Final haul for 2009.

I received some of the last of my orders this week (still waiting for a couple - Shop Craze is taking FOREVER, starting to wonder if it's been lost), and these are my last for at least the next three months, as per my resolution post. Such pretty things - I'll do some swatching later when I've had a shower.

First up, taking advantage of the Cherry Culture 20% off Christmas sale:

Then the Nonpareil 20% off Christmas sale:

Recently I made an exciting discovery - Strawberrynet now has some NARS products! This is a brand I've always wanted to try, but it's hard to get hold of in Australia, and the one site I know of that does sell it charges ridiculous prices ($62 for a blush - I don't think so). The Strawberrynet prices are about half of this site's, so I had to take advantage of that. I know the eye colours look quite similar in the photograph, but they're not really.

These are the Everyday Minerals eyeshadows that I have already swatched. I wish they would stop coming out with all of these lovely colours - I thought I was done with this lot! I have some more coming too - Makeup BFF J got me this for Christmas.

And finally, some more BPAL imps, because one can never have too many perfumes:

So, still to come: BPAL Christmas present haul from The Photographer (come onnnnnn), a small order from Smart Poppy (just a couple of lip and eyebrow pencils), the hopefully-not-missing Shop Craze order of NYX eyeshadows and lipsticks, a couple of small decants from The Perfumed Court, and my share of a group order from ELF. And then I'm done-diddily-done. *sob*

Swatches: NYX

Makeup BFF J came over this morning and we went out for breakfast. She brought over all of her NYX to swatch, since I've noticed that many of the search parameters of people who find their way to my blog are looking for NYX swatches. And you know me - I give the people what they want!

First of all, this is J's new NYX Runway Palette. She wouldn't let me swatch it because it's all new and shiny, so we just took a picture of it with flash and without flash:

I like the look of this palette, very wearable neutral colours, but not boring. I'd probably buy this if I hadn't already sworn off new purchases for a while (more about that later in the week).

Anyway, on to the swatches. First up, NYX single eyeshadows - these were all swatched over Benefit Lemon-Aid primer:

From left: Opal, Highlight, Cotton Candy, Shimmer, Jungle Fever.

From left: Champagne, Iced Mocha, Utopia Gold, Deep Bronze.

NYX Jumbo Eye Pencils (a couple of these have been swatched before as I also have them):

From left: Milk, Cottage Cheese, Iced Mocha, Horse Radish.

NYX Round Lipsticks:

From left: Vitamin, Jupiter, Watermelon, Thalia, Frappucino, Sky Pink, Pumpkin Pie, Chambord.

From left: Cinnamon Sugar, Uranus, Perfect, Cream, Darling, Earth Angel.

From left: Iced Honey, Ceto, Clio, Iris, Summer Love.

 And finally, NYX Mega Shine Lipglosses. The sun caught the shine of these and there's a big streak across them, so the colours didn't show up as well as I'd have liked.

 From left: Lollipop, Oro, Iced Latte, Chestnut, Sponge Cake, Natural, Smokey Look, Copper Penny.

My 5 favourite makeup products in 2009.

This was the year I discovered the joys of cheap makeup, and websites such as Cherry Culture, Makeup Geek, and my personal favourite (they're currently having a 20% off sale - get shopping!), Nonpareil. Consequently, my makeup collection has pretty much exploded in the last few months. However, eventually I managed to narrow down five particular favourites, and here they are:

5. Joey New York Semi-Permanent Concealer Set. Unfortunately, the one I have now is probably my first and last, since Strawberrynet have sold out of my colour (#01), and I haven't seen it anywhere else at a reasonable price. This is a cream concealer which comes with a powder to set. At first I didn't like it - it was fiddly and I couldn't find quite the right brush for the powder. However, a friend gave me a Coastal Scents blending brush which turned out to be the perfect implement for this purpose, and after that I was as happy as a clam. This is the first product I think I've ever hit pan on in my life. Aaagh! What will I do when I run out???

4. Stila IT Lip Gloss Shimmer. This actually came free with a Strawberrynet order, and I almost gave it away. I've never been a fan of lip gloss - I hate having sticky lips, and I often wear my hair down, so you know what a pain that can be. They just seemed to be a waste of money to me. However, the one I received was such a pretty colour (Sweet) that I had to try it out, and as it happened, I loved it. It's smooth and shimmery, and doesn't feel heavy or sticky on my lips. I've since begun a small collection of various lip glosses, and I am finding that I don't hate them so much after all. Thanks for fuelling my addictions, Strawberrynet!

3. NYX Single Eyeshadow. I think there are about 160 of these, and I would love to own every one of them. They're cheap, have great pigment, and come in a huge range of colours. I only have about a dozen, and since I have eyeshadow coming out of ears, that's where I plan to stop for the time being, but I'm sure I'll be back collecting them at some point in 2010.

2. Revlon ColorStay Makeup with SoftFlex. Another free product! My friend Jodi bought this and then sent it to me after it irritated her sensitive skin. Although this year I also fell madly in love with Chanel Mat Lumiere, I would have to say that the Revlon ColorStay tops it because of the price (about half the cost of the Chanel). Both products are fabulously long-wearing and give good coverage. I usually apply them both, as one is lighter and the colours mixed together seem to be better on me than either one of them on their own. It really does peeve me that this product is available in the US for about $12US, but here it costs about $37AUD. Such a rip off.

1. NYX Round Lipstick. I am totally in love with these lipsticks. They are cheap, reasonable quality, and come in a huge array of colours. I have about 20, and there are about another 10 being shipped to me as we speak. They don't last a hugely long time, but no lipstick ever does on me - I have $50 Lancome ones I have to replenish every couple of hours. If you want a huge wardrobe of lipstick colours, this is the brand to get into. I can't recommend them highly enough. My only gripe is that the websites that sell them (as listed above) have ridiculous computer-generated colour swatches that bear absolutely no resemblance to the product itself, so you have to either take a wild shot in the dark and see what you end up with, or spend ages Googling swatches to have a proper look at them. (See, I say that like it's annoying, when in fact looking at swatches is one of my favourite things to do on the internet. So I should probably thank those websites for their crappy swatches.)

So that's my Top 5 - next up is Bath and Body. Feel free to tell me about your favourites for the year!