little white truths

Well, it's been three months since my last makeup inventory so I'm writing another one because I'm doing them quarterly.

Note that I'm more nervous about this one than I have been in the past: although I've been on a makeup no buy for most of the year, I did open things up in my birthday month and I received quite a bit and also bought myself a few things, so I'm worried that my numbers might have gone up.

Still, I've finished some items so what I'm hoping is that things will have evened themselves out - so I'll be able to say that although my numbers haven't reduced, at least they've stayed steady. We shall see!

Do note that, as always, I won't be including any item that I know I'll be finishing in less than a week. Eg one of my mixers only has two applications left, so I'm giving myself a pass on that one because it will be done before the end of September - it's just that I have the time to write this post today so I'm making the most of it.

Let's have a look!

Primers

Last update I had six, and my goal was four or five so I'd panned myself down and things were looking good. 

Unfortunately, though, I bought myself a couple before Laura Mercier left Australia and also received another one as a GWP - so I now have seven (being five open full-sizes, one open travel-size and one unopened full-size), so even though I've panned a couple, my numbers have gone up.

At least things aren't as bad as they were before, but I do have work to do here and my goal is still four or five.

Setting sprays

Last update I had one and I still have one. I'm ok with that and I do have room to buy another one because the one I own is only a travel-size and it's not hydrating enough for summer.

No more than two is my goal here.

Liquid/cream illuminators

I had one and I now have two because I received a cream mini in one of my Mecca Beauty Loop boxes. I would like to pan the cream because I'm not using it, so expect to see that on my Project Pan list eventually.

My goal is one.

Liquid foundations

I had three and I still have three. Even though I panned one, I bought another one.

My goal is no more than three so I'm happy with this category.

Shade adjusting drops/foundation mixers

I had four and I now have two because I've panned my way down. 

Two is a good number (one for darkening and one for lightening) so we're good here.

BB/CC creams and tinted moisturisers

I had zero and I now have two (one being unopened). I definitely needed to buy myself at least one, considering that tinted moisturisers are my favourite and I use them most days.

My goal is no more than two so we're there.

Correctors

I had two and I now have one because I decluttered one.

One is enough for me.

Concealers

I had two and I now have one, which is a good amount for me although the one I have is probably better for my winter skintone so I may need to buy myself another one during the summer. We'll see.

Two's my goal here.

Setting powders

I had two and I now have four (two being unopened) because I bought myself a couple of under-eye setting powders.

While initially my goal was one, I'm changing that to three or four because I would like to explore the setting powder category (something I haven't done before) and work out what the best ones are, whether budget or high-end. So I'm ok with this category for now.

Finishing powders

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

Face palettes

I had three and I now have two because I've panned one.

This is a good number for me, although I do have my eye on the new Hourglass Unlocked Palette so I can see myself going up another one in this category before eventually panning myself down again.

Bronzers/contour powders

I had four and I now have five (one being unopened) because although I panned one, I went ahead and bought another 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 was four, so I did get there but I've gone up one since then. Hoh well. I'll be panning more next year so we'll see this category reduce again.

Blushes

I had eight (one being a half-size and one being a three-pan palette) and I still have eight. Although I did manage to pan my three-pan palette, not long after that happened my husband bought me another one to replace it. Dammit, I never saw this category reduce - but at least it hasn't gone up ; )

My 2018 goal is seven stand-alone blushes, so I did hit that goal for a moment there but then it slipped from my grasp again. Boo! Hopefully I'll hit it again by the end of this year, once I've made enough room in my custom palettes to de-pot another blush and put it in there.

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 now have fourteen.

Even though I've panned one, I bought two more for my birthday and a friend also gave me one (which I totally wasn't expecting), so that's why my numbers have gone up.

Unfortunately this category has blown up over the last year (I used to have nine) and I want to get it back down again because I don't need this many eyeshadow palettes. Let's see if I can't pan some of the smaller palettes over the next year or two. Fingers crossed!

Eyeliners 

I had one and I still have one.

That's my goal because I don't use much eyeliner so we're there.

Mascaras

I had four and I now have five because I've received one mini as a GWP and also bought myself one. So at the moment I have two full-size mascaras and three minis, although two minis and one full-size aren't open because I don't like to have much mascara open at a time.

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.

Lipsticks

I had five and I now have four because although I've panned some, I bought one and also received one for review.

My revised goal for this category was six so I've surpassed that and I've decided to bring the goal down to four, for the simple reason that I prefer glosses and I'm happy to have less lipsticks but more glosses.

Lip balms

I had two and I now have one.

That's fine. I use lip balms something chronic so I'm happy to buy more later on, once I've panned a few more things.

Lip glosses

I had four and I now have eight because I bought myself a bundle of NYX Butter Glosses (my favourite) with a voucher, last time makeup was half-price at Priceline.

While this is probably too many and my goal was no more than six, I don't mind having eight because I've reduced my lipstick goal again and I'm happy to put the extras into this category.

Custom palettes

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

In my last inventory I had:

• two bronzers 
• six blushes (one being a mini)
• one setting powder 
• seven highlighters (one being a mini)
• forty-seven 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 haven't done that well with this section because there hasn't been much movement, but I do expect to see more movement by the end of the year.

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 146 makeup items, which is only a touch higher than the 144 I had previously.

If I count the custom palettes as only six items and don't count the individual pans, I have 90 items, which is only a slight increase on the 87 items makeup products I had in my last inventory so I'm not too worried about that.

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. Well, I'm bang-on 90 so that's good enough for now.

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

That's all from me. From now on I'm going to close the purse strings and be really careful about what I bring into my collection over the festive season, because I don't want to upset my numbers too much now that I've managed to get things down.

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