I recently had a wedding to go to which prompted this little Mecca haul.

A small collective haul from my last few shopping trips. Some of these I’ve been eyeing off for a while now and others were opportunity buys, i.e. a sale was on that I couldn’t pass up or it was finally back in stock so I grabbed it while I could.

Start of a new year and I’ve decided to do a bit of a clean out of my makeup draw. It’s not so much of a project pan as it is a list of items that I want to concentrate on otherwise they’re most likely going to be thrown out at the end of the year, finished or not.

I've been struggling to beat a nasty head cold lately and just as I started feeling human again a migraine hit. But life goes on and I had places to be and things to do and this face made me feel so much better... ah the power of makeup.

Even while using my MAC palette I knew that my NARS shadows would be next. I’d been looking forward to finally using the Earth Angel duo and it didn’t disappoint.

Here’s how I put these together:

I passed a stand of these lippy's at Priceline a few months ago when they first came out and though I'm not normally a fan of Revlon, I swatched one thinking that with the cheap looking packaging these will be crap. I'm not ashamed to admit I was wrong but at the time I couldn't justify buying another lipstick I really didn't need. Instead I made a mental note to keep an eye out for a sale and about a month later Chemist Warehouse had a 50% off all Revlon sale and these 4 came home with me.

This use it or lose it is from back in May but I thought it might be interesting to post it anyway.

After the success of my first shadow challenge, I was really keen to keep going. My MAC palette is kind of a cheat because I know there are many combinations that I’m happy to wear but it still feels restrictive to limit myself to just one set of shadows.

These are the combos I put together:

I never thought I would be able to justify the cost but I've quickly come around to accepting the high price tag of high end makeup. But in saying that I can't bring myself to simply spend if I won't genuinly use a product and if I'm honest there's alot of makeup I already own that doesn't get much of a look-in. So I've been trying to rotate products on a weekly basis, like my blush and lipstick, and with my eyeshadows I'm taking it a step further.

Inspired by my sister who shops her stash and focuses on a different eye palette every week, I've started doing something similar. In my case I'm focusing on brands rather than just palettes so I can also get use out of my singles and duos which are being neglected. And since I can go days without wearing any makeup, I'm going to attempt to stick to a palette/brand for 5 days of wear instead so I don't conveniently avoid wearing makeup for the week where I've chosen shadows to wear that are out of my comfort zone.

 

These are the items that are getting some serious loving at the moment...

School is back for the kids and since I have less than 6 weeks to go until bubs is born, I’m in slowdown mode so my makeup is simple looking and designed to make me look not so haggard from the constant lack of sleep I’ve been experiencing... and yes it took 19 products to make me look human today. I’m going for a healthy natural glow with more emphasis on the healthy and natural than the glow. Coz sometimes you just gotta fake it.