little white truths

Hello and welcome to my next makeup inventory update!

I had planned to write this at the end of March, but then realised that my last makeup inventory was at the beginning of December (see here) - so it's been more than three months since the last one and I may as well do it now.

I'm excited! Nervous too...

Primers

Last update, I had ten: five open full-sizes and five unopened ones. Now I have eight: four open and four unopened.

Too many. My goal is four or five. I should be able to achieve that by the end of the year.

Setting sprays

Last update I had one and I now have two. That's fine. I use one for setting makeup and one for hydration throughout the day so I'm happy with this amount.

Liquid illuminators

I had two and I still have two, both unopened.

My goal was one, but I'm not too stressed about this category because I do use liquid illuminators (I find them to be more versatile than glowy primers), so I'm happy with my two for now.

Liquid foundations

I had three and I still have three. That's my goal so yay.

Shade adjusting drops/foundation mixers

I had four and I still have four. My goal here is three.

Powder foundations

I had zero and I now have one.

My goal was zero (I have dry skin and prefer liquids) but I've revised that to one because I realised that I do use them occasionally for touch-ups - so I'm at my goal in this category.

BB/CC creams and tinted moisturisers

I had two and I now have one.

I'm surprised about this because lighter bases are my favourites, although I suppose that the three foundations I own are all quite sheer so in practice they have tinted-moisturiser coverage and that's why I don't feel the need to buy any more. For now!

I'm happy with this category.

Correctors

I had two and I still have two.

One is enough for me so I'll aim to pan one this year.

Concealers

I had two and I now have three because I received a mini as a GWP (that one's unopened).

My goal here is two, so I'm not far away from that because I've almost finished the two I have open.

Setting powders

I had one and I now have two because I was desperate to try the fabled Coty Airspun so I bought it when eBay had a sale. 

My goal was one but I don't mind having two and I'm not stressed about this category. 

Finishing powders

I had one and I still have one. Happy with that.

Face palettes

I had three and I still have three. They're all Hourglass holiday edits and I would like to pan one of my two Surreal Glow palettes (I loved that one so much that I bought a back-up), so my goal here is two. I doubt I'll achieve that this year, but you never know.

Cream blushes, contours and highlighters

I had zero across the board and I still have zero.

That's my goal. Yay!

Cream eyeshadows/bases and primers

I had three and I still have three, being two dedicated eye primers and a glitter glue (all open). I'd like to pan one of the primers: I don't need both.

Two's my goal here.

Bronzers/contour powders

I had six and I now have five because I've just panned one.

One of my bronzers is neutral/cool so I suppose you could call it a contour and say that I only have four bronzers, but I'd rather just roll it in with the others - otherwise I start confusing myself if I have too many categories.

My 2018 goal is four, so looks like I need to pan another bronzer this year!

Blushes

I had nine (one being a half size and one being a three-pan palette) and I now have eight. 

I depotted two so they're counted in my custom palettes below, but my husband also bought me a full-sized Hourglass Incandescent Electra for Christmas because I didn't want to pan my Hourglass three-pan palette (which includes that shade) before owning it separately: it's my favourite blush of all time.

My 2018 goal is seven stand-alone blushes, meaning I've got some work to do here. If I manage to make enough room in my custom palettes and de-pot another blush or two, then I should get there this year. Fingers crossed!

Highlighters

I had six and I now have seven (one being a half-size and one being a three-pan palette). 

The story here is that I initially bought the aforementioned Incandescent Electra for myself, but the one that arrived was eighty per cent pearl and twenty per cent peach. (I bought it from an overseas seller because I didn't want the strobe version, which is now the only one available from Mecca and it's not the same.) 

Funnily enough I wasn't sad about this because Incandescent Electra is not only my favourite blush of all time, but it's also one of my favourite highlighters when I concentrate my brush so it's mostly pearl. Win win. That's why my husband bought me another one, and it's why I'm counting one of my Incandescent Electras in the highlighter section because that's how I use it anyway.

Anyhoo. My goal was no more than seven so we're good here. I would still like to pan a highlighter or two, however - just in case I 'need' to buy another one down the track ; )

Eyeshadow palettes (small and large)

I had ten: one quad, three quints, one septet and five larger palettes. 

I now have twelve because I was naughty and bought two more of the Marc Jacobs septets that I mentioned I would buy eventually. Ooops. And good golly I want to buy a fourth... 

Look, I guess I only have two twelve-pan palettes, one fourteen-pan and two nines (five larger palettes), so this certainly isn't my worst category because the smaller palettes aren't going to take me light-years to pan and I often mix some of them together when I use them.

My goal was seven and I'm keeping that goal because I would like to pan my way down to a more streamlined collection. I personally don't need that much eyeshadow. Blush, that's another story... ; )

Eyeliners 

I had one and I now have two because I replaced the brown one I'd finished.

One is my goal here. I don't need the mini black one I own so I'll likely pan it sometime this year.

Mascaras

I had three (two minis and one unopened full size) and I now have five (including two unopened full-sizes and two unopened minis: I only ever have one mascara open at a time).

I've panned a couple but I did buy the two full-sizes when I saw them for half-price because I'd been wanting to try those particular formulas, but the minis all came as GWPs.

Five isn't a terrible amount but my goal here is no more than three.

Brow products

I had one and I now have two. One of those is a GWP pencil that isn't the right colour for my brows, but it's not terrible so I would like to pan it and there's room here to buy a brow gel because I need one.

Two's my goal, so we're here.

Lip liners and lip crayons

I've rolled these into one category because my aim is zero for both: I just don't use them.

My numbers are the same as last time: no lip liners and one lip crayon.

I'm currently panning the crayon so it's on the way out.

Lipsticks

I had thirteen (three being unopened) and I now have seven. 

Good golly, how did that happen?! Just thinking about it, six of those thirteen were Rimmel lipsticks and I've mentioned before that the ones I owned weren't 'structurally sound', so they melted into oblivion as soon as I started panning them - meaning they only took around a month each to finish. That accounts for the big drop in numbers.

Twelve was my 2017 goal here but I'm revising that to no more than eight because I prefer glosses. So I'm kicking goals in this category! Hell, let's aim for six. 

Lip balms

I had one but Mum gave me one and I also bought one: I now have three.

That's fine. I use lip balms something chronic so three is a good number for me (one for the desk, one for the handbag and one for the bedside table ; )).

Lip glosses

I had six (four being unopened) and I now have five (two being unopened).

My 2017 goal was no more than eight, so let's revise that to six. Given that lip glosses are my favourite of all lip products, there's even room to buy another one when my no buy is over.

Custom palettes

I have six custom palettes: three larger ones and three smaller ones.

In my last inventory I had:

• three bronzers
• six blushes (one being a mini)
• nine highlighters (one being a mini)
• fifty-three eyeshadows

I now have:

• three bronzers
• six blushes (one being a mini), and note that I finished a blush and brought another one in - so there has been movement in this category
• one setting powder (Burberry's Earthy, a 'blush' that I can only use as a setting powder for my face and eyes because it doesn't show up on me - boo foo boo)
• eight highlighters (one being a mini, but a different mini: I finished the other one)
• forty-five eyeshadows

As mentioned previously, my goal with this section is not so much to get the numbers down (I want my custom palettes to be full), but instead to keep finishing pans so I can continue to de-pot my individual powders and bring those into my palettes. I reach for these daily and anything in them gets plenty of use. 

So I've done ok in this section because we can see there's been some movement.

The final tally

Here we go... *nervous face*

Including the individual pans in my custom palettes (but counting pre-made palettes as one item), I now have a total of 155 makeup items, which is a decent reduction from the 162 I had previously. 

If I count the custom palettes as only six items and don't count the individual pans, I have 98 makeup products, which is one higher than the 97 I had in my last inventory. Ooops. I blame the mascaras ; ) 

My overall goal for 2017 was no more than 100 items, plus whatever's in my custom palettes, so I'm still there and I hadn't revised that goal for 2018 - but let's say I would like to have less than 90 by the end of this year. Definitely achievable!

In 2017 I had also hoped to get my individual pan count down to 150, so I'm very close to that now and I should get there before June's inventory post.

Phew! These are always long posts and it's never easy to count all those products (especially lip products, which tend to hide in handbags, in jacket pockets, in the car, in the basket of papers and bills on my desk... You know the drill).

I guess counting would be easier if I didn't have so much stuff?! ; )

Hope all's well with you, and speak soon x