I completely forgot I had this sitting in my drafts waiting for me to finish labelling the photo. So without further ado...

OK, getting down to the nitty gritty. So I’ve got my Bamboo Beige samples – you can check out how my Swatch n Compare of some of the shades in the middle of the range went here. As I have normal skin the lovely sales assistant at Sephora Melbourne Central gave me a generous sample of both the Moisturizing and the Oil Free formulations since the foundation stand listed the Moisturizing as ‘Normal to Dry’ and the Oil Free as ‘Normal to Oily’. I road tested them over the space of a fairly warm week (still summer here) with a minimum of 10 hours wear time each day to see how it would hold up.

I love the Laura Mercier Caviar Sticks but haven’t really tried anything else from the line until now. I’ve read some great reviews about the reformulated Silk Creme Foundation which were all over the blogospere back in April of last year so figured I’d give them a go.

The new formulations come in Moisturising or Oil Free and having had oily skin for most of my life, I decided to start with the Oil Free formula. The first thing as usual is to find a colour match. Looking online I worked out that my NC20-25 skin would probably be one of the ‘Beige’s’ so I managed to get a hold of a sample of each of them and swatched them against other foundations in my collection that match my skin tone at some point throughout the year.

 

Laura Mercier Silk Crème Oil Free Photo Finish Foundation.
Each foundation was swatched heavily then blended to the right and allowed to set for a few minutes. Photo taken in natural light.

This year I’m going to try posting my empties monthly so they aren’t so big. January usually finds me cleaning out and tidying my bathroom cabinets and vanity so this month’s empties include some things that just needed to go.

January

 

I had acne in my late teens and early 20’s until my sister’s wedding prompted me to finally sort out my acne situation with a course of Roaccutane. But until I was 35 my entire skin care regime consisted of using St Ives Apricot Scrub on my face in the shower, the occasional clay mask and a basic moisturiser with SPF during the day which did nothing for my acne scarring or textural/tonal issues. With so much beauty blogger/vlogger coverage of what Retinol can do to help renew your skin, it was a given that eventually I’d start looking for a product that would address these issues.

I tend to be fairly brand loyal. When I find a product that really works for me, I am compelled to try out the rest of the range that the brand offers. Peter Thomas Roth is one such brand.
 

After researching dark circle treatments and reading heaps of reviews, I worked out that PTR Power K Rescue Eye Treatment might be the thing for me. The very generous Rachael at Kit Cosmetics Doncaster (now Mecca Maxima I think) was so lovely and gave me a HUGE scoop to try as a sample which gave me enough product to try properly for a full 2 weeks and in that time I saw a remarkable improvement in my dark circles. After that first successful trial I earmarked a bunch more products to try and buy within the PTR range and have slowly collected the following which have become core items in my beauty arsenal.

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.

The end of the year is usually fairly productive for me when it comes to finishing products. Here’s my round-up of empties for the last quarter of 2016 and a little of what I thought of them...

October