The Depotting Dilema

We are having yet another snow day in my neck of the woods so I am trying to have a productive day at home by organizing some of my (admittedly large) makeup collection.

The area of makeup that I seem to have most of (other than Nail Varnish) is eye products.  Eyeshadows, eyeliners and mascaras seem to be a weakness of mine.  Part of the problem is that I have a lot of single eyeshadows in bulky packaging (No7 I'm looking at you) and also eyeshadow palettes that don't get the love they deserve because I rarely open them because I only really love a few of the shades.

I feel as if I need to do a bit of depotting but I've never done it before - eek.  I would still like to have actual palettes.  I am thinking I might have to invest in some unii palettes.  I mentioned them in my wish list of items to get after project pan finished but I might be naughty and buy them in advance.  Tut Tut.

Lets have a look at some of the worst offenders in the 'taking up more room than they should' category.

These are the singles and palettes that I would like to depot.  The open ones are the ones that I reckon are taking up the most room.  A lot of these were freebie gift with purchases that I have only kept because I like one colour so it is definitely not a good use of space.

Here you can see all the colours that I have in my sleek palettes.  The bright blues and oranges are ones that I would never wear, I think I could probably say that at least 12 of these are ones I don't really need.

Oh No7, how I loved you back in the day.  One thing I have never loved is the packaging (although the new style is much much nicer).  There is just so much plastic here, I cannot wait to have all of these in one place.

I think that just writing this post has convinced me that I do in fact need to have a couple of unii palettes so that I can free up some space in my Alex unit.  Now to decide what colour to get...

Have you ever depotted your eyeshadows to make more space?

I wish, I wish, I wish

As promised this is a wishlist of the products that I will want to buy after Project Pan.  I realize it seems counter-intuitive to think about buying whilst on a spending ban but it has made me focus on which products I really want and why I want them.  It also means that hopefully when I have finished Project Pan I won't go on a mad spending spree and end up in the exact same position.  If I do purchase these during my project pan they will, out of embarrassment and shame, turn purple.

Therefore I have made a list of the 10 products that I am currently lusting after.

1) Real Techniques Brushes (from the amazing Samantha Chapman of Pixiwoo fame).  I already have the  Core Collection and use them nearly everyday so I would love to get a few more.  In particular the Travel Essentials.  You can find a list of stockists here.

2) UNII Palettes so that I can organize my, hopefully smaller, makeup collection.  These have been getting really good reviews.  Plus another selling point for me, because I am shallow, is the fact that they are beautifully designed and come in various pastel colours.  Perfect for colour coordinating.  You can see all the beautiful shades here.

3) Benefit 'Hello Flawless' powder foundation in Shell.  This is my favourite foundation of all time.  I am a powder or tinted moisturizer girl at heart and I am sad to say that I am very nearly out of this.  It pains me because I won't be allowed to buy another one due to the fact that I do own other powder foundations (usually either slightly to light or too dark for me - so I may be slightly odd coloured for a while).  You can see it on the Benefit website here .  (Update:  I caved in and bought this -read my attempts at justifying it here)

4) Nyx Blush in Taupe.  I have read on countless blogs that this blush is a wonderful contour colour for paler skin so I am anxious to try it out, especially since it is such a reasonable price.  There a few other of their blushes which catch my eye but Taupe is the one that I will start with, you can see it here.  Let me know which Nyx Blushes are your favourites.

5) Revlon Lip Butter in Tutti Frutti.  I already have several of these in other colours and I think I could write an entire post on my love for them.  I have barely been wearing anything else on my lips in over a month.  They are perfection.  There are millions of blog and youtube reviews of these so I won't add to the numbers but take my word for it - if you haven't tried these you really should.  You can see all the available colours here

6) Max Factor Max Effect Mini Nail Polish in Fantasy Fire.  This nail varnish is beautiful, and rumoured to be a dupe of the impossible to find Clarins 230.  I would only ever use it as a top coat as it is said to be fairly sheer but the effect it gives is gorgeous.  You can see a swatch and wonderful review here and see all the Max Factor nail colours here.

7) Liz Earle Cleanse and Polish.  This has been all over the blogs this year and I would love to try it once I have used up all of my other various skin care items.  The adorable Zoella did a review on her blog of this and a couple of other Liz Earle goodies which also sound incredible.  You can see the, surprisingly reasonably priced, cleaner here.

8) Alpha H Liquid Gold is supposedly a skin miracle worker.  I am quite lucky in that I do have good skin, but I do suffer from redness and this has been reported by some as helping this.  It is quite pricey but my curiosity has gotten the better of me so it made the wish list.  You can see a review here and buy it from here and various other places.

9) Moroccan Oil is, I'm hoping, going to be the thing that saves my hair.  I have recently had a slight dye mishap (I'll explain later) and my hair, which is uncontrollable at the best of times, is telling me exactly how angry it is with me.  This has had fabulous reviews from so many people that I can't help but think it would help at least a little.  I just can't decide whether, when I take the plunge, if I should go for the 25ml or the 100ml.

10) And now for something completely different...JolieBox.  I would love to get myself a subscription to this beauty box.  From what I have seen online it is the one that appeals most to me.  I also think that receiving a few luxury samples each month could help me fight my desire to go out and buy more products.  Plus I really do love getting post, especially when it is beauty products in a cute as a button box type of post.  Plus if you sign up for longer periods of time you save a little bit of money as you can see here.


Wow, that was a long post.  Well done if you made it this far.  As Project Pan proceeds I may swap things off and onto this list so that I have to remain strict even after my spending ban.  What is on your wish list at the moment?