18 Eyeshadows in 2018, Update 4;-

Okay, so its long over due (my last update was at the beginning of July) but it's finally the time again for me to share my next update in my 18 Eyeshadows in 2018 series!

I watch a lot of Pan That Palette videos on Youtube and a common thing to happen is after a couple of months of steady progress you reach a plateau. I feel like I'm there at the moment, this update definitely doesn't have as much progress as I'd like it to. I have spent a week away where I didn't take these shades (I was at a festival and I needed a rainbow palette) and I've been sick so I haven't worn a whole lot of makeup. But it's made me feel a little unmotivated, especially as I have a lot of products I'm not using so I think going forward I may use a companion palette a week to spruce this up and get more looks out of the shades I'm trying to pan. But here's what I have so far...

Smashbox Mini Trio - all shades left (1 done)

This. damn. shadow. I basically added this palette to my project because I thought it would be easy to finish considering I used the shades most days and its a mini. The shade left I use on my eyebrows pretty much every time I do my makeup and sometimes to deepen up my eye look so I thought it would have been all used up in the blink of an eye... but its still hanging on. I'm getting so so fed up of using this because I know I have a perfectly good brow pomade going bad in my makeup drawer! I feel like I've made such an effort to use this that I don't want to give up either, I've been working on wearing down the product on the sides, so I'm praying that one day soon this starts disappear quickly so I can finally get rid of this palette.

Mac Quad - Shades 1(done), 2 & 3

I feel like I'm slowly poodling along with my Mac palette. I still use the light pink shade as an inner corner and all over face highlight, but not as often as I'd like. I use another highlight that is more subtle on my face during the week and I often forget to highlight my inner corner a lot. Over the last week I've been trying my best to remember to use this on my inner corner every day, I think at this rate it will take me until the end of the year to hit pan.
I stopped using the taupe shade for most of the last couple of months as I'd got a bit bored of it, but I picked it up again at the end of last month. I'm still using a setting spray with it every day which is just an annoying step that I have to do to make this shadow look okay. I don't really love this but it makes an easy work look with a brown in the crease (the one from the Iconic 2) so I'm persevering until I see pan. I think it would look nice with a pinky toned neutral in the crease so I want to pair this with one this month.
I'm thinking that I may add a companion palette to my project to provide me with a bit more inspiration to create different looks and then swap it out every couple of weeks. Hopefully then I'll feel a bit more excited to use these shadows again.

Freedom single shadows - all shades

I want to first say that I don't envision myself hitting pan on the light pink, chrome or purple shades in this year. The light pink I haven't touched because I've been using the one from my Mac palette. The others are just not really wearable in my working week, I've used the chrome a couple of times and the purples quite a few, but I don't really see any progress and I can't see that drastically changing anytime soon. I mostly wear these on the weekends, but that's when I do most of makeup experimenting and recently I've been using different palettes at the weekend so I don't get bored of using my project palettes during the week.
The only shades I've really used from this palette is the two reds this month. Quite a few times I have worn the middle red shade all over the lid with the slightly darker shade in the crease. I don't think there is a lot of noticeable progress yet, but I think that there will be in the next couple of months.

Revolution Iconic 2  Palette - Shades 1-5

Ever since I decided to remove my Sleek palette from this project the palette I've turned to is my Iconic 2 palette. I use the cream shade to set my primer and I use the matte brown in my crease pretty often. The third shade is also pretty similar to the shimmery champagne shade that I liked from my Sleek palette so it has been a good replacement and the palette as a whole is a lot better quality to the Sleek one. I've also used the coppery shade a few times since I started using this palette. This is another palette that I've owned for quite a while that I don't really get excited about using anymore, but I think it will be quite good for creating work appropriate looks. The first 5 shades are the ones I can imagine myself making the most progress on so these are the ones I've decided to include.
As we're at the beginning of September I don't know how much progress I can make with these shadows by the end of 2018 so I'm not going to set myself a goal other than I want to see how much use I can get out of the palette, above is my starting place.

Do you have an ideas to get yourself out of a project rut?

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Cruelty Free Beauty: My Thoughts;-

Something that has been weighing on my mind for a long time is cruelty-free makeup and beauty so and I want to share some of my thoughts on that with you today. I've seen more and more Youtubers and Bloggers who only want to use and endorse cruelty-free products, along with the tag of 'How Cruel is my Makeup Bag?' it seems like it is finally becoming a forefront in a lot of people's minds. And as such I finally began researching it for myself.

I've never been somebody that agrees with animal testing, particularly in cosmetics. Considering there are so many brands that don't test on animals, its something I see it as completely unnecessary in this day and age. I absolutely love makeup, but its not a necessity to me, I wouldn't die without it. Therefore, I don't see why innocent animals should be harmed in order for me to wear it. For the longest time this is something I've put out of mind, never researched and remained ignorant on. This is not something I'm proud of and something that I want to change going forward. This year (as far as I'm aware) all of the makeup I have bought is from cruelty-free brands, which is something I'm really proud of.

So continuing forward I don't want to buy another makeup or beauty product that has been tested on animals and classing myself as cruelty-free. However, I do still have a number of non-cruelty free products in my makeup collection. I don't want to throw away these products as I feel like that would be wasteful when unfortunately the damage has already been done. As I have things like blushers and bronzers its going to take me years to use all of them up. I want to use Project Pans and declutters to get these out of my collection eventually. I also want to spend some time to find cruelty-free dupes for the non cruelty-free products I love.

This is completely a decision I've made for me and I never want to put other people down or make anyone feel bad if they don't want to be cruelty-free. I completely respect everyone's right to make decisions so I never want to seem like I'm ramming my opinions down somebody's throat. That being said, I also want to use my blog as a place to promote things I really believe in so any new products I review will be cruelty-free. But like I said I will be trying to move some of my current non cruelty-free items out of my collection, so naturally I will be using and talking about these things and I want to make sure I mention whether something is cruelty-free somewhere in the post, so you know. I'm really looking forward to sharing new cruelty-free products I bring in and I hope to provide a bit more information on what you can get your hands on without causing harm to animals.

This is something I am still very new on and things are always changing so although I try my best to do my research on brands there may be hiccups, or I may make mistakes. If you know something I don't about a brand please let me know! Another thing to mention is parent companies. If you don't know some companies are owned by bigger companies, so sometimes while the brand itself may be cruelty-free, the company that owns them may not. I've seen a lot of opposing views about this, but I have decided I will still be buying from these brands as I still want to promote these brands for being cruelty-free themselves. So in places of mistakes or my views being different than yours may be I would always recommend that you do your own research!

Cruelty Free Kitty and Logical Harmony are two websites I find particularly helpful when I'm looking to find out if a company is cruelty free and they are both a great read in general if you're interested in cruelty-free beauty for yourself

What are your thoughts on cruelty-free beauty, even if its completely different to mine I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts!

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My Ideal Makeup Collection;-

I watch a lot of Panning Youtubers and I read Planning Blogs and something that I've taken on board is makeup inventories. A makeup inventory is where you count up all of the makeup you have, usually in different categories.  Makeup Inventories are a way to hold yourself accountable for the sheer amount of products most of us own. From the makeup inventories I've seen a few panners who share the numbers they want to see in their collection, I kind of want to bring you my own version of that today. I'm hoping that by sharing what I want for my makeup collection, so I can work on what I bring in and what I use up so I have the ideal, which for me is something that doesn't overwhelm me, but also inspires me to create different looks.

Everybody's makeup collection and preferences are completely different, so mine will probably be nothing similar to yours and I wouldn't want it to be! I don't think these are the numbers everybody should have, this may be way too much or too little for you and that's okay. This is completely my own opinion on what I want for myself.

At the moment I only own one primer and I'm happy with this number. I tend to use mattifying silicone primers to prolong the wear of my makeup and I can't really see myself needing it for any other reason, so I only need to have one in my collection at a time.

I currently own four different foundations, but ideally I'd like only have three. I tend to use different foundations for different situations so I want to always have a little variety. I'd like a moisturizing lightweight foundations for good skin days or when my skin is a little drier. I'd like a matte but natural finish foundation for everyday and one with higher coverage for nights out and events. I'm not too worried about having 4, but I won't be buying anymore until I finish at least one. I'd definitely like to work down to this number by the end of the year, but I may buy another foundation by then as I still haven't found my perfect foundation for any of my categories and I'm still on the hunt!

Ideally I'd like to have two different concealers. I'd like a liquid concealer to brighten my undereye area and a potted concealer with a heavier coverage for spots and blemishes. I've recently finished up a couple of concealers and I have 2 liquid concealers as I couldn't wait to buy the Makeup Revolution concealer (which I will be giving my first impressions on soon) until I've finished the other. I'm quite happy with this as I'm really close to the number I want.

Powder is one of the few categories I actually want more of. I want to have a pressed powder, a loose powder for long wear and an illuminating powder so I can play around with a different finish. At the moment I have 2 pressed powders and I want to whittle that down to one, and I know I won't finish up one of these if I buy any new ones at the moment.

Setting spray is not a category I ever buy too many of and I can't forsee that changing. I love to always have one on hand, but they only really do one thing so I'm never lusting after a new one to my collection really. I currently have one and when I finish it I will buy a new one and so on and so forth...

I don't really buy bronzers too often anymore but I still have 5 in duos and palettes mostly. I'd like to whittle this down to just 1 powder bronzer and a cream bronzer as that's all I really need or want. As I don't buy them and I don't need a lot of variety I will definitely work on using these up, but I know this is going to take me a really long time.

I have a lot of blushers... I really do love blusher and I like changing up the colour of my cheeks most days, however the number 31 just seems ridiculous! I love a blush palette and I do have a few, which is why I don't feel like I have as many as I do. I do use the blushes I have in palettes and I like having them for variety, but I probably wouldn't have bought all of the shades separately so I want to work on using some of these up, but this will definitely take me a long time to get to my ideal number. As for the number I would like, I've found this number really difficult so I've literally counted out every shade I can think that I would ever need, including cream, matte and shimmery blushers. As I said I love to vary my blushes so my number is pretty high. But I really can't see why I would ever need more than 10, and realistically if I did I imagine the differences between the shades would be so small you wouldn't notice it on the cheeks.

Everybody says it, but I love a highlighter! Over the years I've accumulated a few in different types, singles and palettes. I'm somebody who uses liquid, cream, powder highlighters and I've even bought into the whole holographic/ oddly coloured highlighter trend, I think its quite cool to have your skin glow an eery colour for special occasions like festivals and gigs. So I new I didn't have a small collection of highlighters, but I'm quite surprised that I have over 20. To me that number just seems ridiculous, I don't think that all of these can look that different on the skin. I think my ideal number would be around 8, counting for different colours and types, to me that sounds manageable and would give me a lot of options. I am currently trying to finish one of my highlighters and I've been trying to finish it for a really long time. This is why 22 seems so ridiculous because it will probably take me years to finish up all of the ones I own! I definitely want to focus on using use up some of my highlighters in the future.

I used to be obsessed with lip balms, I think at one point this number was a lot closer to 20. I've been focusing on using up these for a while and I'm really proud of how many I own. I still own 8 lip balms which is way too many given that they don't really add anything to my makeup looks. Out of the ones I own I think only two of these are open and the rest I have owned for a while and are completely sealed, and a few were gifts. I don't really buy lip balms anymore. Ideally I'd love to have just two; one for everyday and then more of a treatment for when my lips are drier. I will keep using up the ones I have and hopefully it won't be too long until I reach my goal.

I want to completely halve the amount of lip liners I own. Most of the lip liners I use I actually got in lip kits so I'm not surprised I have more than I need. I really use lip liners to give a clean lip around my lips and as a base to keep my colour on longer, I don't really use them alone. For that reason I don't think I need that much variation and I don't think my liner needs to match my lip colour exactly. All I think I need for lip liners is a nude, red, everyday pink, bright pink, purple and a brown and I will be happy.

Lipstick is something I have built up steadily over the years, I used to be much more of a bright lip and neutral eye but now I'm more nude lip and colourful eye. But I still do like shaking up my lip shade, so if I see a shade I haven't got I will pick it up. Before I ever thought about panning I was on the hunt for the perfect shade of each colour, without thought for when I'd finish all of the lipsticks up so I have a tonne of dupes. I really want to whittle down the dupes by using them up and make more of an effort to declutter my lipstick collection frequently to make sure I only keep what I use (I did this recently and I still have 27...). 15 is half of my collection, but I still think with this amount I'd have loads to choose from.

I like liquid lipsticks, but I think I want different things from them than my lipstick. I tend to have brighter shades in liquid form as they last longer and I also really love metallic lipsticks. I think ten is a really good number, I have a lot of options but I don't feel like I have too many. I do have two matte brown shades so I want to use up one of them, but I'd also like a pillarbox red shade as I don't have one yet.

I like lipgloss, but I really only use it to top my lip colour, which means that owning three is a little too much. Over time I want to work on using these up so I only have 1 clear gloss to top any colour, because I really don't think I would ever need any more.


I feel the same about eye primers as I do about regular primers. They only have one purpose for me, so I only have one and when it finishes I will buy another, but I don't see any point in having any more!

Eyeshadow palettes is definitely the category that I struggled most with, eyeshadow is my favourite thing about makeup and I'm a girl who's not afraid to wear any colour so I always want a lot of variety. I can't really see a day where I won't see an eyeshadow palette with new shades and immediately lust after it. However, 19 seems a lot considering most of my palettes have over 10 shades in each. I am currently trying to use up some of my palettes in my 18 Eyeshadows in 2018 project and by the end of next year I'd like to reach 12. As I said I love variety, but I have a tonne of neutral palettes and I barely use them, so I'd like to have 12 palettes that I love and that give me the variation I want. Next year I'm hoping to do a 1 Month 1 Palette series and if I don't love a palette I intend to just throw it away.

The only single eyeshadows I own I have in a palette so I've included those in that category, however I do own four eye pigments. This is a category I really want to grow. I'm not going to lie I don't use these all of the time, but the shades I have are really special and look amazing. I don't mind picking up really unique shades as pigments or singles whenever I come across them. I also want to focus on single eyeshadows when I feel like my collection is lacking. Quite often I'll feel like I don't have enough of a certain colour and I'll run out and buy a whole palette because of this. I'd like to instead just pick up a single or two and I feel like this would be more manageable.

I have used a tonne of different eyebrow products in my brows over the years. Currently I have a brow pomade and a powder palette, both of which I really like. I also quite like using a brow pencil so I'd also like to add one to my collection, but at the moment I am using a shade from my 18 Eyeshadows in 2018 project in my brows so I probably won't buy one until I finish up that shade.

I don't have a massive collection of eyeliners, this is everything including liquid and pencil so I don't think I have to worry about how many I have. I have one liquid eyeliner, that in all honestly I don't use all that often because during the week I can't be arsed with the fuss. I then have five pencil eyeliners in various colours. I like makeup looks where somebody has used a colour eyeliner, but I know that I'd barely ever use it so I rarely buy eyeliner unless I've used one up! In an ideal world I'd have one liquid eyeliner, and a black and brown pencil liner. I would also like to buy and test out a gel eyeliner, but I've never used one and I don't know which ones are any good (please give me suggestions in the comments).

Mascara was a really easy category to decide on because I only ever have two in my collection at once. I only keep my mascara open for around three months and then move onto the next. So if I lust after a new one I know I won't have long until I can buy a new one and I'll just wait a while. I like to have two on hand at all times so that when I finish one up I can move straight onto the next - running out of mascara completely would be an absolute nightmare!

I hope you enjoyed this post, I dare you to count up your makeup... I'm sure you will be as surprised as I was!

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Anti Haul #1;

I watch a lot of Anti Hauls on Youtube and I really love the concept of talking about things that don't tempt me even slightly. I personally started my blog to share my opinions on things and its not always going to things I love or even want, but usually when I don't want something I pretty much forget about it straight away before I really have an opinion on the product or why I don't want it. But recently I've found a few products that I really don't want and want to tell you why.
This post is no way meant to be taken as me bashing brands or saying the products are bad, or that you shouldn't buy them this is literally my opinion on why I personally (probably) won't buy these things. I haven't tried any of the products so I obviously can't say anything for the quality, and if you buy these and love these then you do you!

 Re-Loaded Palettes - Makeup Revolution

The product or rather products that me want to write this were the newest additions to the Re-Loaded  eyeshadow palettes. Now let me preface this by saying Makeup Revolution is my favourite makeup brand, I'm very tempted by a lot of things they have come out with recently, I love the look of their new glitters and the Carmi and Tammi palettes look gorgeous. I'm sure the quality of this is amazing as with every eyeshadow I've bought from Makeup Revolution. However, I stumbled across these on Instagram and I knew I didn't want any of these palettes. All of the palettes have a few pops of colour, but are for the most part full of neutral browns. Its definitely a marketing tactic used by a lot of brands and I feel like I'm starting to see through it. They throw in a purple or a green, but the majority of the shades are brown and I have brown. I even have all of the pops of colour in other palettes. None of these palettes really give me inspiration to create any looks that I couldn't do with palettes I already own and I feel like this will be the same for most people.

Weekend Festival Palette - BH Cosmetics

Next up is another palette, a palette that sounded like it would be right up my alley! Festivals are my favourite place to be, for me the makeup is all about colour, glitter and all of the things I couldn't get away with wearing to work. I've just bought the Take Me Back to Brazil palette also from BH Cosmetics, so maybe I just have my fill for colourful eyeshadow at the moment. But even still I would expect this palette to pack more of a punch like the Take Me Back to Brazil palette which is full of vibrant, almost luminous shades. In comparison this palette has quite a few neutrals and a few of the colours are more muted. I would definitely have expected a festival palette to have brighter,  more glittery and shimmery shades. Compared to the Makeup Revolution palettes this is a lot more colourful, but for a palette named Weekend Festival I would have expected BH Cosmetics to have upped the amp by a couple of levels.

Hello Happy Foundation - Benefit

The next thing I don't want to buy is this foundation. Firstly I don't think I will buying anything from Benefit for the foreseeable future, I own a few of their products and really like them all but as they are not cruelty free I do not intend to buy anything else from them. My first thoughts about this foundation is that I don't like the packaging or the name. The bottle has a smiley face as is called 'Hello Happy' which to me sounds very childish, I know you can't judge a product by the outside but it doesn't really appeal to me as an adult and doesn't seem like a foundation that costs £25.50, it looks more like it belongs in Claires. It may be that everybody else thinks this is cute and great, but for me its the first thing that doesn't appeal. The bottle is also large and square with a spout on top, and again I could be wrong but I think its going to be messy and I can see it being a bottle that pours out way more product than you need. I've also heard next to nothing about this product, I've literally seen 1 review of this and I can't remember who did it or what they said which goes to show that nothing amazing was said about this. I've looked on the Debenhams website and it describes this as a lightweight foundation with to light-to-medium coverage. To me that sounds something similar to a BB Cream, which is not really something I tend to like, I prefer something more full coverage. I also think that £25.50 is a lot of money for a light coverage, if I'm buying a higher end foundation I raise my expectations and I definitely want more coverage. I just think that I could get something that does what this foundation does for cheaper, and I don't think its anything new.

Dream Glow Kit - Anastasia Beverly Hills

The last product I want to talk about is ABHs latest addition to their Glow Kit highlighter range. This is one that I have seen on a lot of anti hauls and seen literally no reviews on - it seems like nobody wants this! I am no different, but I think my reasons are a little different. This seems to me to be another holographic multi-coloured highlighter palette. Now personally I love different coloured highlights, I go to a lot of gigs and festivals and I think its really cool to have your face glowing purple or bright pink in the light and its something that I love to experiment with. But at this point we've seen it before, Anastasia have their own Moonchild kit and I personally own the Ultra Cool Glow palette that Makeup Revolution do. I think most people who do like a brighter highlight are still not going to be brave enough to wear it to work every day and it’s going to be reserved for special occasions so it will take forever to use up this kind of product, so I think right now is not really perfect timing to release yet another one of these. I think all of the people that want a bright coloured highlighter palette already have one and those who don’t just don’t want one!

Is there anything new out that completely doesn't tempt you in the slightest?

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None of the photographs used in this post are mine they have been taken from Instagram Debenhams and Beauty Bay.

18 Eyeshadows in 2018, Update 3;-

So it seems like my blog has basically turned into an update center for my 18 Eyeshadows in 2018 project. I haven't posted at all this month, I am working on a lot of ideas for posts, but I've been too busy this month to finish any! I have been using my eyeshadows all month and I'm here to share another update.

Smashbox Mini Trio - all shades left

I've managed to finish up the lighter brown in this palette this month. After my last update this eyeshadow became really crumbly and every time I used this chunks would crumble off until nothing was left. I'm really glad to be done with this because I definitely have dupes of this across multiple palettes. I don't think there's a lot of progress on the darkest brown, I've been trying to wear the shadow down on the outside edge. I'm still using this in my brows and I've also used been using this on my lower lash line since I finished the other shade so I'm hoping more progress will show soon. I'm really eager to get this one out of my collection as soon as possible now there's only one shadow left.

Mac Quad - Shades 1, 2 & 3

I'm glad to finally say I finished the cream shade in this palette, less than a week after my last update. I then moved onto using a mixtures of a couple of shades in my Sleek palette all over my lid, more on that later...
There's a bit of a dip developing in the light pink shade, I'm still using this on my inner corner and sometimes on my face as a highlight.
I've also started using the taupe shade this month, because I had barely used this in my project so far. I've remembered why I don't use this, its because its really not very good. When I first started using this it just looked like a glittery mess on my eyelid and I really didn't like it. However, I've now started to use this with a setting spray all over the lid with a cool toned brown in the crease, which makes a nice everyday look for work. I think using a setting spray has meant that I'm seeing quite a bit of progress already even though I've only been using it for a couple of weeks. I definitely have similar shades in my collection that are better quality I'm determined to see more progress before I give up on this one. I'm hoping if I continue to use this quite a bit I will hit pan in the next couple of months.

Freedom single shadows - all shades

I've finally managed to hit pan on another shade this month. You may not be able to tell from the photo but there is a tiny bit of pan on the bright pink shade. I'm really glad I've finally hit pan on this shade because if I'm honest I've got pretty bored of this. I'm sure I'll go back to this at some point, but I think its not likely to be until next year. When I started this project I said I only wanted to hit pan on the shades so I have met my goal on this one, I may try to expand this a little but I can't see me working on this too much more. I will say that although I don't get a lot of fall out from these shadows, but I do think they are on the more powdery side and from the two shades I have hit pan on so far it has taken around 2 months of using the shades for 3-4 days of the week, which I don't think is too bad.

I have also used the middle red shade a few times through the crease with a light brown all over the lid. I think it gives a very 90s grunge vibe, while be wearable enough to wear to work. I don't think you can see any progress on this one so far, but I didn't think that I would use it at all until Autumn so I'm happy to get a little head start.

I have also used all of the purple shades a handful of times, again I don't think there's is any noticeable progress in these. I did try all of the shades out in different ways with different looks to see if I can find a way to make this wearable to work, but I haven't really succeeded. So I'm going to reserve these shades to the weekend and hope I can at least make a little dent by the end of the year.

Sleek Au Natural Palette - Shades 1, 4, 5 & 6

So I started using my Sleek Au Natural Palette a lot more during this month after I used up a couple of other shadows. I used all of the shades that I was trying to pan. However, I noticed that the paler shades were super powdery and going on pretty patchy, I was struggling to get an opaque colour and getting a lot of fall out all over my face too! Because I was using the matte shades as a base it was making my overall eye look crappy and I wasn't really very happy with this. I took a break from this and have been using my Makeup Revolution Iconic 2 Palette and enjoying it so much more. I don't know if the quality in my Sleek palette is because this palette is getting old or if its because I have better shadows now. I knew that I wasn't going to finish the darker shades this year and while I do really like the shimmery champagne shade I don't think its special enough to keep the whole palette, so I've decided I'm pulling this palette out of this challenge and declutter all together. Part of me feels like I'm giving up as my 18 eyeshadows in 2018 is now down to 14, but if I hadn't done this project this would have sat at the back of my drawer not being used so I'm glad I tried to give this one last whirl. I may add another palette into my project, but for now I'm just enjoying using different palettes and pairing them with the shadows already in this project.

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