Hi everyone, There is something so satisfying in cleaning up the makeup drawer at the end of the year, taking out used up products and looking at the yearly statistics about my makeup consumption. Well, at last to me that is interesting. I love looking back at the products and see how I loved using something and if I would buy it again. Curating my collection down over the years made me more selective of what I want to buy and use, what is actually buy and use worthy. I have the overall photos of everything I have used up and it is so satisfying to see the use out of it all and I am moving on to the next year to start fresh. Let’s start with some base products. Face products are always kind of a big ticket items. I have used up Charlotte Tilbury pressed powder. It…

Hi everyone, Did you survive the Black Friday frenzy? I didn’t make a lot of makeup purchases and I am really happy about it. Previously I would use the discounts to try out all the things that intrigued me during the year and justified my purchases by all these discounts. However, I am getting better. I stocked up on some of my staples and replacements, as well as got a few really coveted products that happened to have been discounted. So, in this blog I wanted to talk about what I actually brought into my collection from January to Black Friday sale day. I have bought 25 products that stayed in my collection and 9 that I have either used up during the year or decluttered due to poor shade choices, being freebies or not being suitable for my skin. I have already talked about those 9 products but I…

Hi everyone, I have been using my eyeshadows a lot lately and I have mentioned last time, that I see some potential overlap in my collection. I have been experimenting with different eye looks and came to conclusion that I don’t like when my eye shadows look too dark on me. It turns out that my contrast level is low which means that if I wear mid to dark look shadows, it starts to look a bit too dramatic for my taste. I look overdone. I look like I am trying too much and it tends to look heavy on me. With that in mind I have let go of six eyeshadow palettes. I bought Too faced Sweet Peach last year at the final sale since they stopped making it. I thought I would get a lot of use from it, but half of these shades looks really dark on…

Hi everyone, As I have mentioned, today’s post is going to be about my makeup collection. So without further ado, let’s jump right into it. I have 3 primers. As times goes by, I think I don’t really need primers in my collection. I have had this Charlotte Tilbury multi use product since January 2019 and I am finally getting to the end of it. I like it, but I don’t actually need it in my life after I use it up. The same goes for Stivectin primer. I bought it half off from Ulta last spring sale, and (only) because it was half off. It is nice but I don’t need a smoothing primer in my collection. I will probably use it up by the end of the year so the only one in my collection will be this Elf mini primer. I quite like it, but I think…

Hi everyone, Do you have clothes that you are saving for special occasions, especially those that you need to change weight for or for the events that are not even scheduled to happen? Those events: Just in case, maybe someday type of things? I find that I do that with makeup. I love green eyeshadow and love how they look in the palettes. While I can pull off the green shadows, the truth is I will always resort to muted ones and not bright, bold colors. So, due to the house move, I took another hard look of everything I own and weeded out all the things that I realistically won’t get much use of. I didn’t want them to just go bad in my drawer, so here we are with another declutter blog. It should be the last declutter in a while. I had a lot of single eyeshadows,…

Hi everyone, I wanted to talk about the shower gels and scrubs today. I love to shower and I always find it therapeutic. That feeling in the evening when you step into the shower and the warm water runs down your body… and it is especially nice after a good run or a workout. So, what I am looking for in a good body soap/gel is that it is nourishing to maintain the integrity of my skin, good lather without stripping my skin and a great smell that lingers a bit. Over the years, I have saved the photos of the gels that I have used and used up, so let’s start in no particular order. I have tried a few bath and Bodywork gels. They have an array of appealing scents. As a shower gel, I found them to be average. I learned along the way they are not…

Hi everyone, We are in the summer time and it is really hot where I live so I have been inside the house most of the day and just doing light activities in the evening when it is still hot but the sun is not blazing in my eyes. I have been down the rabbit hole with the color theory again and refined my makeup collection even more. So, today’s blog will be a short one. I have realized that no matter how much I loved these products, they are not right for me, so I decided to let them go to a new home, to a friend that would look amazing wearing these, enhancing her beauty even more. I love Natasha Denona’s palettes. I have loved these for a while. These were always the colors of the shadows I would gravitate to when I thought I knew what colors…

Here we are again. Getting ready to see off 2023 and count up the make up that will leave my drawer. I have two drawers for all of my makeup, one for eyeshadow palettes and the other one for everything else. They are nicely organized and I can see everything I have. Let’s start with the make up I used up and the ones that have unfortunately expired in the process.  One setting spray from Charlotte Tilbury. I make a point of having only one setting spray at the time, but sometimes some samples find the way into my collection. This was not my favorite as it felt like a hairspray of my face. Two eyeshadows: the stick type from Trive causmetics which is very nice brightening shade. I liked it, however I don’t miss it. The other one was from Colorpop in the shade Koosh. I actually got two…

Recently, I used a professional studio to do my color analysis and it was really interesting. I knew a little bit about color theory through school and art and I have seen businesses that provide this kind of service, but I finally got curious enough to see what my best colors are. I have come across the youtube channel called Color Analysis Studio. The channel is run by Giulia and Alessandra, two Italians who live in Melbourne, Australia and do these kind of color analysis professionally. I really liked their videos and their energy, so when I realized that the color analysis can be done online, I reached out and scheduled my analysis. If anyone is curious about it, here is the link to their website: https://colouranalysis.au/ There are all the guidelines that you need, if you want to use their service, like I did. This is not sponsored, I…

I had the best summer of my life. My best friend came for a visit for two weeks and we had an amazing time in Puerto Rico. The other amazing thing is that I have completed my MA studies. It is nice to have that wrapped up and be free again. So, I welcomed the fall with more free time and more focused on my husband and our doggies. I thought it was time to write a bit again. Today, while getting ready for the day, I realized I had tried and used up some new face cleansers so I thought it would be a good topic to write about. My favorite cleansers are still from Skintegra, but I have found some new amazing options for then I am outside of Europe. One of them is from Beauty of Joseon Radiance cleansing balm. I always have a soft spot for…