little white truths

And here's how it's looking now:

As you may already know, I've been using this one by separating the two colours in every pan with a sewing needle. 

This is why you'll see a lot more progress on those blushes that contain more of the pale colours (which I can use as finishing powders and highlighters), while the pink (left) seems to contain very little pearl so progress is slower.

Here's how my palette looked last month:

Of the three, this one's showing the least progress. This is for two reasons: first, it's my least-favourite shade of the three; and second, there's a lot more pink in this than pearl so I haven't been able to separate the pale swirls and use them alone as I have with the other two shades.

I can see this blush lasting until the end of the year, unless I discover more pearl hiding underneath.

Incandescent Electra last month:

And now:

This is showing a remarkable amount of progress, and that's got a lot to do with the fact that I've been using this daily for my 'paper face' (see my comments in the intro above).

I've found that I need to use twice the amount of product on paper that I would on my skin in order to get it to show up. That's why I've managed to get through so much product in only one month.

Do note that I haven't been applying my more expensive/newer powders to paper (so the Burberry and Hourglass products always get used on my face), but many of the powders in my custom palette are older, cost less, or I don't love how they look on me anyway - that's why I've been happy to apply them to paper. Indeed, I've never enjoyed using them as much as I do now!

Here's how my palette looked last month:

And here's how it's looking now:

And here's how it's looking now:

Now before you ask - 'What the hell happened?' - let me explain.

That purple pan (top middle) has been flipped over because once it was finished, I needed it immediately for a highlighter I'm also panning (on the side, the clue is that you saw it in last year's challenge). 

What happened is that a good chunk of highlighter lifted itself clean out of the pan when I accidentally knocked it, and since I needed to find a smaller pan for what I had left of the product, I used this one because it couldn't have been a better fit. I then re-pressed it into the pan and added some outside portions of said highlighter that I needed to re-press anyway. Bob's your uncle. You'll see the highlighter in my empties soon enough - I'm just working on the last remaining bits from the original pan.

How did I use the purple? First on my paper face as blush, eyeshadow, lipstick, you name it - and then (once I'd finished the pale green), I was able to use it as an all-over setting powder for my paper foundation mix because it didn't have a lot of pigment so it didn't turn my paper face purple.

As for my two unknown greens (also mixed myself from old shadows), you might have expected the teal to go first but I burned through the pale green, not only as a setting powder for my paper foundation, but also to set my eye primer. Again, it didn't have a lot of pigment and it had already been re-pressed twice, so it was very powdery and I was always going to get through it quickly with frequent use.

As for the teal, I've been using that quite a bit on my own eyes this month and also to do fun paper lip and eye colours. I expect that to be gone next month.

Bottom left: the oblong pan (Nars Sin) hasn't been used much this month but I'll start using it more now that I've panned other shades. Stila's Sunset was finished around ten days ago, which isn't surprising because there wasn't much left. Next to that is what's left of theBalm's Hot Mama and I expect that to be gone next month, too.

And finally, the orange Stila shadow, which I've used quite a bit mixed with the Burberry quad to get a more muted lid shade, and of course the pan I re-pressed that contained a mix of theBalm's Mary-Lou and Cindy-Lou. 

If you're wondering how I got through this much, if you look at January's shot, you should be able to see a huge dip in the centre of the pan that's large and travels up towards the top. I hit pan in this shade the day after January's photo, and the powder in the dip part of the pan was very thin so I expanded the pan super fast. But of course, all the hard work was done much earlier than this. I've been using this as my body highlighter (collarbones, shoulders, down the shins) and also as the highlighter for my paper face. Can I get through it within the next two months? I certainly hope so! We'll see.

Last up, the round pans along the bottom. Here's how they looked last month:

And here's how they're looking now: