Inventory 2012: Eyeshadow Palettes

I love palettes. I am such a sucker for a bunch of pretty colours grouped together, and it always seems like such good value. The problem is that I usually forget to use them, so a lot of my palettes are sadly neglected. Maybe I need to do a challenge where I use one every day for a week or something.

I did manage to get rid of a lot of my wasted palettes in the past year - I sold off 8 or so Sleek ones, threw out a bunch of crappy Maybelline ones, gave away a few others, and so on. I still have way too many, though. Time for another cull soon.

Inventory 2012: Lip Gloss and Lip Pencils

I have actually done pretty well in reducing my lip gloss stash down from what it was two years ago. I know even back then that wasn't a quarter of what a lot of makeup junkies I know own, but bear in mind I'm someone who doesn't actually like lip gloss. I might wear it once or twice a month, and even then it will be a swipe in the morning and maybe another one after lunch if I can be bothered.

Silk Naturals Lip Stain Vamp and Doll. These remind me of the Benefit Lip & Cheek Stains. They're not actually a gloss, but I forgot to include them in lipsticks, so here they are! I haven't used them much, but I do quite like them despite being a little drying.

Urban Decay Lip Junkie Naked. This comes with Naked 2. I haven't tried it yet so I have nothing to say about it.

NYX Mega Shine Lip Gloss in Sweet Heart, Gold Pink, Smokey Look. As lip glosses go, these are my favourites. HUGE range of colours, and cheap - especially if you grab them from Cherry Culture or Nonpareil when they have their sales on. They're not sticky and they don't have that weird plastic smell that the NYX Round Lip Glosses have.

Australis Lip Gloss Happy. I picked this up for $3 in Target from a clearance bin and it's still sealed. It's the old Australis branding so who knows how old it is. I'm not sure I want to open it...

Maybelline Super Stay 10 Hr Stain Gloss. Again, not technically a gloss, but this is freakin' awesome. They're not available in Oz yet - and who knows when or if they ever will be. *sigh*

Sleek Pout Paint Milkshake. The povo's OCC Lip Tar. I just bought this in the recent Crush Cosmetics sale out of curiosity. It's okay, but I don't love it. It's too much work - you can't be slapdash with these things. 

From top to bottom:

• Prescriptives Sheer Lip Pencil Sheer Candy
• Jordana Easyliner For Lips Retractable Pencil Rock'n Rose
• LA Colors Auto Lipliner Nude
• Benefit D'finer D'liner
• Maybelline Super Stay Lip Liner Icy Beige
• NYX Lipliner Pencil Tangerine
• NYX Lipliner Pencil Nude Pink
• NYX Lipliner Pencil Natural
• NYX Lipliner Pencil Citrine (plus 2 back ups)

I think I've that's all the relatively 'normal' sized collections done. Next stop, Crazy Town!

Crush Cosmetics Sale Haul

I don't normally pay much attention to Crush Cosmetics, because most of the time the stuff I would want from there I can get cheaper from Nonpareil or Cherry Culture, even when shipping is taken into account. The only advantage to buying from Crush is that you get the package within a couple of days, and since I'm used to buying online from overseas, the waiting part doesn't faze me. I'm on their mailing list but I usually bin their emails without even looking at them.

However, recently they had a sale with 20% off everything, and sent out an email saying, "Only a few hours to go! Hurry up, everyone!" and for some reason, I clicked those links at 10pm at night and there I was. Honestly, if it weren't for the fact that they now carry Beauty UK products, I probably wouldn't have bothered with anything else. But I am a GRADE A SUCKER for UK drugstore brands so I was reeled in. And of course, once I'd bought a couple of products from that brand I had to throw in a few other things to make the shipping worthwhile, and then I hit a certain level where I qualified for free shipping, so hey - in that case why not grab a couple more things? Yeah, you all know the online shopping freefall.

I took these pictures close to dusk so the colour definition isn't great, but I was itching to get the photos done so I could start sticking my fingers in things.

Brush Guards: A whim, one of the things I added once I hit free shipping. I have some fluffy eye and face brushes that have gotten a bit splayed (bloody Sigma) so I'm curious to see if these help get them back into shape.

ELF Eyelash Curler: I had been wanting a Tweezerman curler for years and I finally lashed out (ha, see what I did there!) and got some at Christmas after my old drugstore ones had kicked the bucket and I HATE them. I don't know if one of my eyes is a weird shape or what but they pinch the lid of my left eye, and if I position them so they don't, only half my lashes get curled. Total bummer. So many people rave about the ELF ones (and emilynoel83 is always singing their praises), so I figured for a few dollars it couldn't hurt to give them a go.

Sleek Pout Paint in Milkshake: One of those things I was vaguely curious to try one of these days and a sale seemed as good a time as any. The colour selection didn't look all that great on the website - after Googling for swatches this was the only one I liked out of the shades available. It's quite bright but I think I can make it work. It's a stayer - Noodles was complaining several days and at least two showers later that the stain was still on her hand.

ELF Cream Eyeshadow in Eggplant: I don't know a lot about these and I'm not sure whether they're not widely talked about because they're crappy or because not that many people know about them. I wanted Bronzed but it was sold out so I went for a purply one. It's a pretty colour - I will swatch it over the weekend some time.

Beauty UK Baked Blushers in Peaches and Cream and Wild Berry: I know nothing about these. As I said above, I'm just all over any chance to try UK drugstore brands so here they are! The packaging is flimsy and cheap and a bit rubbish, but the colours are pretty so I'm looking forward to trying them out.

Beauty UK Eyeshadow Palette in Earth Child: Again, know nothing about these. I've swatched a couple of shades and the pigmentation is good. It looks a lot like the 88 palettes so I'm assuming it comes from the same mysterious Chinese factory that they come out of. I soooo don't need another neutral palette (or, let's face it - any palette ever again), but I can't resist one that has greens in it.

Wet'n'Wild Color Icon Trio in Walking on Eggshells: I owned this for a while after buying it on Nonpareil, but it sat unopened in my drawer so I ended up getting rid of it in a blog sale. I always half regretted it though, especially after I saw emilynoel83's MAC dupe video where she compared this to some MAC shadows whose names escape me at this moment. So I bought it again. And this time I opened it (yet to use it, though).

They also sent a free Wet'n'Wild lipstick, but I'm not keen on that particular WnW lipstick and it's a yukky brown colour so I'll probably just bin it.

If you want reviews or swatches of any of this gear let me know - happy to oblige!