little white truths

Hello and welcome to my next makeup inventory post for 2018!

I had this planned for the end of June, and I've decided to write it a week early because I know I'll be getting some makeup for my birthday (30 June) and I don't want that to be included here: I would prefer to see the difference in numbers between March and now, so then I can feel motivated to keep going. If I don't see the numbers drop then I won't be motivated, it's that simple. 

In any event, the stuff I'll likely be getting for my birthday will only fill holes that opened up in my collection during the period that I was on a no buy (around five months), and those things will of course be counted in my next quarterly inventory post.

Let's get straight into it.

Primers

Last update, I had eight: four open and four unopened. I now have six, which is a much better number and I'm hoping to reduce it further this year.

My goal is four or five. Getting there!

Setting sprays

Last update I had two and I now have one. That's fine, although I could do with another one because the one I own hydrates ok but doesn't set my makeup.

No more than two is my goal here.

Liquid illuminators

I had two and I now have one because I've finished one. Huzzah!

My goal was one, but I may actually reduce that down to zero because I'm not sure that I need one, given that I generally buy glowy bases for my dry skin and don't really need a separate illuminator. We'll see.

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 one and I still have one.

That's enough for me because I have dry skin and prefer liquids.

BB/CC creams and tinted moisturisers

I had one and I now have zero. Yikes! Tinted moisturisers are my favourite kinds of bases so I'll need to rectify this, although admittedly the foundations I own are all lighter coverage ones anyway so I've been happy to wait until my birthday before I get myself another one.

My goal is no more than two.

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 three and I now have two, one of which is almost finished.

My goal here is two, so we're there and I'll be able to buy another one soon because one of them was a GWP mini that's a little too dark for me at this time of year.

Setting powders

I had two and I still have two.

My goal was one but I don't mind having two and I'm not stressed about this category - especially because I'm currently panning one of them.

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. I have made some pretty good progress on one of the palettes already.

Cream blushes, contours and highlighters

I had zero across the board and then I got a mini cream highlighter in one of Mecca's Beauty Loop boxes, so I now have one. 

Mental note to try it soon, after which I'd like to pan it because I don't really use cream highlighters. Looking forward.

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 five and I now have four because I've panned another one.

One of my bronzers is neutral/cool so I suppose you could call it a contour and say that I only have three 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 was four, so we're there. My aim is to finish another one this year and buy one I prefer to replace it (I'm not a huge fan of the Bobbi Brown one I have). Looking forward.

Blushes

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

My 2018 goal is seven stand-alone blushes, meaning I've got some work to do here. I'll finish my blush palette this year but I would also like to make more room in my custom palettes so I can move another blush in there and start working on streamlining my collection even further. Wish me luck!

Highlighters

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

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 ; ) - and I'm currently working on one that I hope to finish this year. We'll see.

Eyeshadow palettes (small and large)

I had twelve - one quad, three quints, three septets and five larger palettes - and I still have twelve.

While this is more than I would like and my eyeshadow collection has gone up over the last year, it's not a terrible amount because I often use the smaller palettes together so we can at least say that I can use each palette once per week when I'm not panning things so nothing gets forgotten.

Still, my goal was seven and I would like to pan my way down to that eventually so I've got my work cut out for me here. Hoh well.

Eyeliners 

I had two and I now have one because I've finished one.

That's my goal so yay.

Mascaras

I had five and I now have four (including two unopened full-sizes, one unopened mini and an open mini: I only ever have one mascara open at a time) because I've finished one.

That's not a terrible amount but my goal here is no more than three: one open, and one or two in back-up.

Brow products

I had two and I still have two: one pencil and one coloured gel. 

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.

Before I had one crayon and I've panned that so I now have zero, meaning I've reached my goal.

Lipsticks

I had seven and I now have five.

My revised goal for this category was six so I've surpassed that and there's room to buy more down the track, once I've finished off any shades I don't need in my collection long-term.

Lip balms

I had three and I've finished one so I now have two.

That's fine. I use lip balms something chronic so I'm happy with two and there's room for another one after I've panned a few more products.

Lip glosses

I had five (two being unopened) and I now have four because I've panned one.

My 2018 goal was no more than six, so I've achieved that and can buy more next time Priceline has a big sale (suspect I'll be stocking up on NYX Butter Glosses because I'm halfway through the last one I own). 

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)
• 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)
• forty-five eyeshadows

I now have:

• two bronzers (I finished one)
• six blushes (one being a mini)
• one setting powder 
• seven highlighters (one being a mini)
• forty-seven eyeshadows (I de-potted some extra ones and added them in)

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 144 makeup items, which is a decent reduction from the 155 I had previously. 

If I count the custom palettes as only six items and don't count the individual pans, I have 87 items - a significant reduction from the 98 makeup products I had in my last inventory.

My overall goal for 2017 was no more than 100 items, plus whatever's in my custom palettes, so I'm still there and my revised 2018 goal was less than 90 by the end of this year. I've made it! 

I'd also hoped to get my individual pan-count down to less than 150 this year, which I've now done so I'm pleased about that too.

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, jacket pockets, the car, 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