Late to the Party

Urgh! I've felt so lethargic in the past few weeks and I'm no fan of the New Year as it is. I need a good project to sink my teeth into and try and myself to gee up a bit at the start of a new decade. 20/20 Vision Project Results This was a mega 18 month long project that I took part in with a degree of success. What did I learn? That it takes  forever  to finish up makeup items! Of the twenty skincare products I chose, I managed to finish all of them. But of the twenty makeup products I chose, I only managed to finish 12 of them. I de-cluttered another four (Elf Highlighter, Nars Cream Highlighter Stick, Inglot Cream Blusher and MUA Loose Powder). Four remained from this project that I'll be rolling over into the next project (see below). Twenty Skincare Products - all finished! Twenty Makeup Products: 12 finished/4 de-cluttered/4 rolled over to new project Twenty in Twenty Panning Project My aim for 2020 is to use up twenty of the oldest prod...

It's been a whole year since I started this mega panning project. With six months left to go, I thought I'd do an update on how I'm finding working through so many products. The idea behind this project is to choose 20 makeup items and 20 beauty/skincare items to use up by 1/1/2020 Here's where I started at in July 2018. 20 Skincare products chosen 20 Makeup products chosen And a year on - here's what I have remaining: Not too bad! Just two skincare items left from a starting point of 20. And ten makeup items left from a starting point of 20. Progress: As I suspected, I found it easier to get through the skincare products faster than the makeup products. Before starting this project I had never even finished a lipstick! I only have a couple of uses left of The Body Shop Drops of Light Peel , so that should be finished up within this month. The Ordinary EUK 134 has been much harder to finish as I find it hard to fit into...

The 20/20 Vision Project is a mega panning project which ends on 31st December 2019. The idea is to finish twenty makeup items and twenty skincare items.   I started this project in mid July 2018 - so this update covers almost 6 months of use. In total I have finished 15 out of 40 products. Makeup Items The makeup items, as expected, are taking the longest for me to use up. I still haven't hit pan on any of the products, so I am wondering if I'll get to finish all of these - even with 11 more months of the challenge to go! 5 down - 15 to go! 1. MUA - Matte Perfect Loose Powder - used rarely. 2. TonyMoly - Cats Wink Powder Compact - Used every day - not hit pan yet. 3. Nars - Copacabana Highlighter Cream Stick - Hardly used. This has turned into a bit of a mess! The consistency is like putty so I've almost having to mould it back into a stick shape after use! Starting measurement was 22mm - no change. 4. L'Oreal - Lash Paradise Mascara -...

The 20/20 Vision Project is a mega panning project which ends on 31st December 2019. The idea is to finish twenty makeup items and twenty skincare items.   I'm slightly ambivalent about panning projects - I absolutely love the essential idea of using what you have in your stash and being more responsible about what you buy. BUT! I have a tendency to rapidly go off products that I feel forced to use and so sometimes these projects, albeit necessary, can feel like more of a chore than a joy!   I started this product back in mid July of this year - so this update represents almost four months of use.   Let's start with the makeup choices. Three finished off - 17 to go!   1. MUA - Matte Perfect Loose Powder - used regularly. 2. TonyMoly - Cats Wink Powder Compact - Used regularly - not hit pan yet. 3. Nars - Copacabana Highlighter Cream Stick - Hardly used. 1st measurement was 22mm - current measurement is still at 22mm. 4. L'Oreal - Lash Par...

    Not a brilliant month! Just 3 out of 6 products finished.   * Scinic Aqua All-In-One Ampoule I only just scraped by finishing this up by the evening of 31st July! I've been using 2-3 skins of this ampoule every morning and night for almost every day in July. I really like this product for it's intense burst of hydration but it's such a huge pot of product (250ml) and only has 12 months shelf life once opened. This is definitely on my 'will consider repurchasing' list for the future but at the moment I have more hydrating products I'd like to use first.   * Cosrx Advanced Snail 96 Essence This was such a chore to get through! There wasn't too much product left but I found that when I included this in a routine, it would generally be to the detriment of another product. It always left my skin feeling a bit tacky so wasn't great for morning use and it had a tendency to cause any facial oils to pill, so didn't work great in the ev...

This year I started to notice on Instagram, the concept of Project Panning - where people would choose certain items (usually makeup but skincare also) to try and 'pan' - meaning to finish up a product so that the pan is showing (like an eye shadow pan).   This concept was fascinating to me because I love the idea of really getting your money out of a product but also somewhat intimidating - as I don't think I've ever completely finished any makeup product (with the exception of mascaras and foundations). I've never finished an eye shadow, an entire lipstick or a bottle of nail varnish. I've been far too preoccupied with going on to the 'next shiny thing'.   But this obsession with forever finding and buying the 'next shiny thing' has lead to an excessive abundance of makeup items that I will never be able to finish before they expire.   My introduction of the 'weekly makeup bag' has been a nod towards the project pan concept...

Here are the items I've chosen to try and use up this month:   * The Ordinary - Glycolic Acid 7% Toning Solution The 7% strength of this was always just a little too much for me and I've favoured other 5% strength glycolic toners. I've found that I can use this on my body also, so it will probably get used up in this way.   * Cosrx - Advanced 96 Snail Mucin Essence I didn't manage to finish this off last month, so it remains in the project.   * Nuxe - Rieve de Miel Lip Balm This has a lovely scent but it's extremely rich. I started off using this as a lip sleeping mask, but I would wake up feeling greasy-lipped! It's taking forever to get through this small pot as is it so rich.   * The Ordinary - Hyaluronic Acid Another item that was in last month's selection that I didn't manage to finish off.   * TonyMoly Apple Tox Peeling Cream Initially bought as part of a fruity packaged set, I don't mind this product as a peelin...

  A new week and three new make up buys!   I just had my face threaded and waxed for the first time and it's left me in a bit of a mess - itchy lumps along my jawline and general splotchiness. This is a bit of a pain as my skin was in great condition before I did this so I'm hoping it won't last too long!   I've also decided not to wear any make up until it calms down a bit as I don't want to make it any worse. So I'm itching (literally!) to start wearing make up again as one of the benefits of threading facial hair is that you get a smoother canvas to work on!   So here's what I've chosen for when this mess clears up a bit!       * Primer - Laura Geller Spackle Treatment - I think I've used this once before but can't really remember what it was like! So I'm giving it another try.   * Foundation - Bare Minerals Pro foundation (sample) - I picked up a sample of this at the end of last week to try out. If I use th...

Last week's items were mostly chosen to see whether I wanted to keep or de-clutter. I ended up keeping the Hikari eye shadow quad but decided to de-clutter the Pop Beauty eye shadow trio as it was just too chalky and shimmery for me. I also already thought that I might end up de-cluttering the Bobbi Brown cream eye shadow stick but I wanted to give it one last chance. It only took one use for me to realise that this cream stick just wasn't for me. Another switcheroo was the Touch in Sol foundation that I only bought last week online. I loved the concept and the application but it was just far too light for me, so I swapped it for my Missha BB Cream.   * CC Crème - New - Erborian - I received this as one of my Latest in Beauty choices last week. It's a pretty amazing product and conceals, brightens, primes and blurs pores all in one go. This is my first CC Crème and I admit that some of the 'alphabet creams' are confusing to me, so I was glad to get the...