Last month, I decided to introduce a new series into the blog, “Shop My Stash.” A lot of my favorite YouTubers have similar series in an effort to curb a bit of consumerism and appreciate what we already have. At the same time, I introduced by “Low Buy,” though I’ll have an update on that in Thursday’s blog.

Essentially, I went through my products and picked a few I wanted to use in the month of January. This is my version of Kondo-ing. I’m not getting rid of my makeup, because let’s be honest, it ALL brings me joy – but I can just pick a few things each month so my bathroom has a bit more focus, and I really can enjoy what I have that much more.

January

This was my first month trying this, and I’m already learning a bit more about my preferences, which is cool!

Foundation

Let’s just get this out of the way – the shade ranges for both of these foundations are garbage. I think both brands should really focus on their complexion products this year and focus on a true shade range. Not every brand needs to have 60 shades. But having an even gradient from light to dark would be really nice if you only had a handful of shades. I’m just so annoyed because I think everyone should be able to get the things that I love and that’s just not the case. And it sucks. It’s 2019 – brands need to get on board.

THAT SAID. I really love the Physician’s Formula Healthy Skin foundation. So much so that I bought 3 more of them when I saw they were a $5 add-on item on Amazon. (I had also seen on Twitter that they might be discontinuing this line so that was part of the reason I loaded up. But… I have no idea if that is true or not. EVEN THOUGH I READ IT ON THE INTERNET.) It’s a very lightweight foundation, with light coverage as well. It feels like you aren’t even wearing much foundation, which is what I like. You can still see some blemishes and freckles when you wear it, which is what I like, since I like my skin to look like my skin, just slightly better, versus a full-coverage mask of foundation.

But when I actually started using foundation this month, I actually ended up using a combo of the Physician’s Formula and the No. 7 Stay Perfect Foundation ($15.99), as I realized that I like a more medium-coverage foundation on my nose/t-zone area, to help keep the oils at bay and prevent my base makeup from breaking up, and use the Physician’s Formula all over the perimeter of my face. So while I do love the Wet n Wild foundation, I’ll probably use it in combination with another more medium-coverage foundation sometime in the future.

What I learned from this is that I will probably end up cocktailing some foundations going forward, as I really liked using two different formulas for two different reasons! I have a lot of foundations, so I think it will be fun to work to find the perfect combination!

Eyeshadow

I was excited to use all three of these eyeshadow palettes this month, but I surprised myself by using the Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam Palette the most. I was going through a big neutral phase and I kept reaching for it over and over. When it first came out last year, I scoffed that it was just another neutral palette that no one actually needed, but I do think it’s quite special. You can check out my full review here.

I am going to write full palette reviews for both the Kylie and Pat McGrath palettes (Self-Made Billionaire versus Self-Made Billionaire? 😉 ) but so far, I do really like both of them, and here is a quick-n-dirty review of both:

The Pat McGrath palette is one of the most beautiful palettes I own. The palette itself is HEAVY. Feels like a brick. When I use it, I feel like a Fancy, Rich Bitch. And I like that. The packaging of the palette is gorgeous and worth saving. It’s seriously art. So much so, that I actually bought the palette from the Museum of Modern Art. (For real! And they had a better sale on it than Sephora!) The matte shadows in the palette are gorgeous, but there aren’t enough light transition shades in the palette for a full look on my skin tone, so I’ve been using it in combination with the Soft Glam palette.

The shimmer shades is where this palette really shines though. Pun intended. The duo-chrome-y shades are amazingly unique and unlike anything I own. However, they do cause a lot of fall-out, so I recommend doing your eye makeup prior to your face make up so you can clean things up.

The Kylie x Jordan palette is the first product I’ve ever purchased from Kylie Cosmetics, and I have to say, I was pretty impressed. The palette has a nice weight to it (though not BRICK weight) so even though it’s in thinner, cardboard-type packaging, it doesn’t feel cheap. Speaking of the packaging, I really did like the packaging of the palette. I don’t really care about Kylie as a person, and I don’t know anything about her friend Jordyn except that she’s ostensibly Kylie’s best friend, but I thought the illustrations on the packaging were really pretty and cool. I’m saving it. (IT BRINGS ME JOY, KONDO.) The shadows themselves were really nice. The mattes felt almost as nice as the Pat McGrath ones, if I’m being honest. But I did truly buy this palette for one shade, and one shade only: Wild Love.

Wild Love is described as metallic olive with violet flip, which is exactly what it is. It’s very difficult to photograph to show both the violet and the green flip, but I think you can kind of see what I mean. I saw one YouTuber do a look with this shade, and I fell in love. I searched high and low for a dupe prior to buying the palette and I couldn’t find one anywhere – I HAD TO HAVE IT. (Though after I ordered this, Stila released something similar. More on that in a bit) So I was happy to get this palette for this shade alone, but then I was also happy for the rest of the shades, too. I didn’t use the bright purple or silver shades, but I really liked the neutral shades and used them regularly throughout January.

Special Eye Things

As you know, I love the Hourglass Scattered Light Glitter Eyeshadows, as I described in my dedicated blog here. I think they are just beautiful shadows and I intend to keep them within arm’s reach on my vanity even when the month is over.

Just look at how beautiful that is. The Stila Shade Mystére in Hypnotic is the product I referenced earlier when talking about Wild Love. Months after the Kylie palette came out, Stila released a new line of their Shimmer and Glow liquid shadows, but in interesting, duochrome shades. The shade Hypnotic is basically a liquid version of Kylie’s Wild Love, and it’s totally gorgeous. It’s “officially” described as “burgundy with olive & antique gold flip pearl.” I actually wear both Hypnotic and Wild Love together a lot. I’ll apply Hypnotic with a synthetic lip brush, just to have a bit more control than the doe-foot wand. Then I will use Wild Love to sort of blend out the edges a bit more. (YES I USE A SHIMMER IN THE CREASE. DON’T @ ME.) I also will use Wild Love on my lower lash line.

As I’ve mentioned, it’s pretty difficult to photograph duochrome shades, since they change from different angles, but I did get one great shot in my car! So it’s not the best picture in the world, but I think you can really see the green shift on the left eye (in the picture) and how lavender/purple the right eye looks. I surprised myself by how many times I wore this, and I loved it so much, I bought a new shade for February, Spellbound ($24), which is violet with fuchsia & blue flip pearl. It’s so pretty.

Bronzer & Blush

These are my favorite blushes and bronzers that I think I am going to keep using in February. I just can’t imagine reaching for anything besides these products at the moment. Though the star is the Milk Makeup Matte Bronzer stick. It’s a cream bronzer, and it blends out so beautifully and effortlessly. I think it looks so beautiful on the skin. I also manage to be able to contour my nose with it, which is a trick I’ve never really been able to figure out before. I wear the shade Baked, but they also have a deeper shade for darker skin tones called Blaze. I have seen people use a beauty sponge to blend it out but I personally use a duofiber brush from that BH Cosmetics brush set I love so much.

I think I might do a blog all about the Glossier Cloud Paints, but I have three of the shades now. Though one of the shades is more of a bronzer shade, and I didn’t really realize that when I bought it. I don’t use that one as often, because of my obsession with the Milk bronzer, but I do use the peachy (Beam) and the pinky (Puff) shades regularly. Glossier has a ton of different shades for various skin tones, which is amazing. What I’ll do is squeeze out a little bit on the back of my hand, then use my beauty sponge to dot it on and blend out.

Quite honestly, I have been pleasantly surprised about how good cream products look on my skin. I’ve always been nervous about them because I’m on the oilier side and I thought they would just slip slide all over my face. However, they do NOT actually do that, and they look so much more natural than putting a layer of powder on top of the skin. They look especially nice over texture or wrinkles, as powder sometimes emphasizes these areas. I will use powder very judiciously – only where I need it – but then just let my skin look like skin. I think it’s been looking so healthy and nice when I’ve used cream products and I’m definitely interested in getting more!

But when I want my makeup to last 10+ hours, I’ll use a few more powder products to make things last, and my fave blushes are the Jouer and Hourglass. I would happily take more shades of both, but Money + Low Buy, means these might be lower on the priority list.

Highlighters

The Dose of Colors x iluvsarahii highlighter in Bathe might actually be my all-time favorite highlighter, and I am going to have a hard time rotating it out, so it’s possible that I will not. Whatever, I MAKE THE RULES.

I recently got the ABH Amrezy highlighter for Christmas, after hearing so much about it over the past year. It was one of the most popular highlighters all over YouTube but it was limited-edition, and I never picked it up. Until they released it again and the FOMO caught up with me. I have to say, I think I like my Melt Cosmetics Digital Dust highlighter in Stargazer more, and might rotate that one in next month. Both have that baked geleé texture, so they aren’t overly powdery. But I think I like the reflect and the color of the Melt one a bit better than the ABH. Though I don’t hate the ABH one – it may grow on me more.

As I mentioned, I’ve been experimenting with cream products more and more recently, and if I’m doing cream products on a more relaxed day, I’ll use a Colourpop highlighter, as I feel like they melt into the skin beautifully, but also give a beautiful, shiny reflect, which is what I like. I like to look shiny all the time. But like… purposeful shiny. Not OILY shiny, obvs.

Lips

So what I learned from this exercise is that I can’t really pick out only four lip products and only use them during the month. I basically use a different lipstick every day, and enjoy doing so. I do like the idea of looking through my stash every month to see if I have anything I’ve sort of forgotten about, but when it comes to lipstick, I’m like old-school Miley – I can’t be tamed. I do like all of the lip products I Iisted though! The Colourpop lipstick is one of my all-time fave shades, and I really love the formulas of the Morphe and Julep lip glosses, and consider both of them, though especially the Julep ones, really underrated. I will likely pick up a few more of the Morphe glosses since they are so affordable and now in my Ulta!

I couldn’t even find all of the lip products I included when I went to take pictures. I’m sure I left a few at work or in my purse somewhere? Who knows. Now I know that I can’t be expected to keep up with lip products.

February

Knowing what I know now about some of my preferences, I picked out a few things to use in February!

Foundation

Eyeshadow

A few of these are pretty old – the Morphe x Jaclyn Hill and the Modern Renaissance. But I realized the other week that I missed using both, so I’m excited to put them back into rotation!

Special Eyeshadow Things

Highlighters

I missed my Melt Cosmetics highlighter, so I decided to bring it back! I also really love the Stila Heaven’s Hue formula.

Bronzer

I can’t get rid of my Milk Makeup Matte Bronzer, but I thought I would add back in my Marc Jacobs bronzer, an older favorite. I have used this one so much I have no idea how I haven’t hit pan yet.

As for Blushes and Lipsticks, well. I’ll be using the same blushes from January and I love too many lipsticks to attempt to try to narrow it down again. But I might try to see if there are any lip products I’m reaching for over and over and add those to the recap.

So that’s it! Are you doing your own “shopping” of your stash? How’s it going? Let me know what you think of this series, and if you think it’s helpful at all to get reviews of older products! 🙂

Purchased; All opinions are my own
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A self-proclaimed beauty junkie/hoarder with a serious Sephora problem. This blog is a total rationalization of that problem. Everything is TOTALLY fine. Her free time is a mixed combination of making fun of reality TV with her husband, hanging out with cats and finally trying to figure out how to do her hair.

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