Products I'm Throwing Away/ Empties!

There are about 101 posts (not actually counted) on why you should throw away your make up and why they have use by dates and what those dates are, but I tend to go with the "it-still-works-so-why-throw-it" rule. In fact, even when I can't use a product anymore, I still like to hoard it if it holds a special memory or just because I don't throw things away (looks at receipt in purse from 3 years ago...). So I decided it was time to say goodbye to some of the things I should have thrown out a long time ago as part of the new year clean out...

First product I knew I was getting rid of was this 17 BB Blemish Balm in shade medium. It was really sad to let go of this since it was one of the first make up products I bought for myself, but it was about a year and a half old, was separating and was  starting to cause my skin to itch when I put it on. I liked this when I first got it, but to be honest, I didn't love it once I started on my Etude House BB cream. I won't be repurchasing this as I think there are other products that work better for me.

These 3 are liquid eyeliners from Korean brand Etude House. I love these as they make liquid eyeliner application quite easy as they have a brush end. It's super fine and makes really nice lines, but these eyeliners were about a year old and I decided to stop using them near my eyes. However, I going to use this as a striper in nail art so it's all good. I would repurchase these, but I have other eyeliners I'm using first so these are just ones I'm keeping in mind. 

Finally 3 mascaras. As you probably know, you should change mascaras every 3 months. These are about 7/8 months old so I decided to let them go and move onto the backlog of mascara I have. The one on the left is a clear one by Make Up Academy or MUA and I used it as a brow gel. As you can see it's really gross now so I decided to throw it away, especially as I've stopped using it. It was £1 so I may be repurchasing if I decide I want a clear brow gel again. I liked this as it didn't make my brows look crunchy and it worked.

The middle one broke my heart to throw away as it always got me such great compliments. It's the Maybelline Big Eyes Mascara and it's double ended. I got the waterproof version and while it did smudge after 6/7 hours, it made my lashes look really nice.  This was really hard to let go off as it was the mascara I brought with me to my 1st time in New York and it was the mascara I wore on my first date with my boyfriend. So for sentimental reasons I didn't want to throw it away. Those reasons aside, it was a good mascara so I will probably repurchase this again once I'm through my backlog of mascaras. I do love the Clinique Bottom Lash Mascara (mini review in my Sephora Haul post here.) But this one is a pretty decent affordable dupe. I actually used it everyday until it dried up, which is a major accomplishment if you ask me!

The last one is the Barry M Lash Vegas Mascara. I liked this for really big lashes. It was clumpy, but when you don't have much to work with, I'm not too fussed. I got this when it was on offer at Boots (free gift when you spent a certain amount on Barry M), but I don't think I'll be repurchasing as it isn't one of my favourites. It is still a good mascara, but it's a bit too showy and clumpy for my tastes.

I feel better now that I have cleared out a few things that I really needed to but I think I still need to be a lot more strict with my purchasing and really buy things when I need them as opposed to buying them to hoard. 

Have you done a make up clear out?  Let me know what products you've had to let go of and what you think about any of the products mentioned here in the comments section below!

Signing off now

Dusty Foxes.

Ch-Ch- Changes???

Hello!

A quick little mid week post here on the blog. This Sunday at 10:00 am GMT will have a new post up as usual, but I just wanted to talk a bit about the changes that have occurred over the past week or so here on the blog.

First off, I changed the colour scheme slightly. I know a lot of bloggers, especially beauty bloggers like white backgrounds for their text and as a general theme on the blog, but for me, I chose to use a slight blue tint still as that's my favourite colour. Hopefully it's easier to read the words now, especially on mobile.

Another thing I changed is the background of the blog. I wasn't really happy with the old background, so I changed it to this. I'll be sticking with this one until I find something I prefer, but hopefully you like it.

I also took Chaitra's CSS tips into mind, and made all my pictures into the same, large-ish size, so let me know if you like it! With that in mind, I also widened the blog slightly, so do let me know if you like that as well!

Finally, and maybe most notably, I changed my commenting system to Disqus! If you don't know what that is, it's a 3rd party system which allows you to be notified when I (or anyone else) replies to your comments (unless you sign in as a guest). I've been tempted to do this since I started my blog as I really like the engagement in comments, so now that I was tweaking things here I decided to take the plunge!

Don't worry if you don't have a Disqus account, it's really easy to make one or if you prefer, you can sign in with Facebook, Twitter or Google plus. I've also enabled guest commenting, so if you rather not hear from me ever again, you can use that (but please come back and visit my blog...). Hopefully this will help me engage with my readers a bit more, which I am looking forward to, so let me know what you think (with my new snazzy commenting system!)

Signing off now

Dusty Foxes

Project 10 Pan

Every year, I start off with a few days of rest, then cleaning everything up for a fresh start. This year was no exception to that, except, I realised that my few "sneaky purchases" ended up being more like a lot of very expensive, unnecessary purchases.

I originally thought that I would put myself on a spending ban and not buy makeup for say a month or 2, but then I realised that previously after my ban was over, I went and spent excessively which resulted in more stuff which I'm having trouble keeping (and since I'll be moving in summer, I'm already beginning to wonder what I'm going to do!)

Hence, I turned to the interwebs for tips for downsizing my makeup collection and the general consensus was throw out unused products, but that didn't work for me as all my makeup is relatively new (though I did choose a few products to toss).

Eventually I came across project 10 pan. It's one of those where the rules aren't clear and I can't seem to find who started it, but here it goes!


My rules:

1. I will not buy any more makeup unless that particular thing (eg foundation) is completely finished. If it's something like eyeshadow, I will use up the dupes in my collection before buying a new one. In this case, either I can choose a new product or my favourite one of the ones I've tried. I can buy one replacement only.

2. I will reward myself by adding a high-end product into my collection. In my crazy spending spree, I bought a bunch of makeup like the Naked palettes and haven't used them yet. I've decided not to use them until I've used up at least 10 products as I know I won't use the makeup I have already if I start using those! It's also a good initiative to remember this project! Most people would remove their spending ban, but I want to really downsize my collection first so I'm using a reward system instead!

3. If there is something that I really want, either a replacement (that I still have others of the same of, see rule 1) I will write it down in my notebook and see how I feel about the product once I've finished the other products. An example of this is the Benefit They're Real Mascara. I already know I want to repurchase it, but I have a lot of other mascaras to finish first!

4. I will post reviews of the things I finish on the blog! This is to make sure I don't get tetchy about not having things to blog about and also so that you (my lovely readers) can see my opinions after using a product up completely!

5. Anything can be considered an empty, including body butter and body scrubs, but not soap, shampoo, conditioner or single use masks. This is because I tend to use them up quite quickly anyway. Also, items that go off or I decide I don't want anymore because they're not that great, can't be considered. I have to actually use them!

More details:

Review: Barry M Natural Dazzle Matt Bronzing Powder Compact

Sorry for the long hiatus again, but if you've been following my instagram, you may have seen that I've been away and my laptop screen broke so I had to get it repaired. I have mentioned that blogging is just a hobby for me, and sometimes, hobbies have to take a backseat. Unfortunately, this is one of those times. I managed to find an extra hour or so to type up a review of one of my most used products so hopefully you'll enjoy and I'll be able to update my blog more in a month or so.

This is the Barry M Natural Dazzle Matt Bronzing compact and the one photographed is my backup compact and if that doesn't tell you how much I love this, nothing will. I mentioned this in my Project 10 pan as well, but as that one has been depotted, I decided to use the backup to take pictures. I use this mainly as a contour shade as it is matte and has a grey undertone instead of an orange one. It is super easy to use as it isn't too pigmented and thus is good for beginners. It is quite easy to blend so long as you don't put on too much product but can look quite stripy if not blended properly.

Here is a swatch and it may look scary but I had to build this up quite a lot. Forgive the shadow on it, but this was the picture that shows the grey undertone a little better.

Here it is blended out. If you can see the dip looking thing on the back of my hand, that's the powder. It blends in quite easily so it's not super noticeable, but provides a shadow look - which is great for contour! Just FYI, my hand doesn't actually dip like that when it is in a fist. That's the effect of contour. I don't use this much on my face, but I thought it would show the effect a bit more.

I apply this lightly with my Real Techiques Contour Brush, in the 3 motion and it just adds dimension to my face.

It costs £5.99 and is available anywhere that sells Barry M. I got mine from Superdrug.

Have you tried it? Let me know what you think in the comments below!

Signing off now,

Dusty Foxes

Makeup Revolution Mega haul and mini reviews

If you follow me on Instagram, you may have seen my Make Up Revolution mega haul a (large) number of weeks ago (back in October or November 2014) I've never tried anything from Make Up Revolution before so I went a little bit crazy and picked up a lot of stuff. So I wanted to try things out properly before giving my opinions.

L-R: Illuminate, Cappuccino, Promised Land, Mountains of Gold, So Good To Me,Just Me.

 First thing I got was the Promised Land Collection. These are shimmer single eyeshadows and I thought it would be a good trial for the singles.

I thought these were good eyeshadows, they are pigmented and there was no fall out (or very little). Illuminate is a good inner corner highlight; Cappuccino, Promised Land and So Good to Me I use as all over lid colours; Just Me is nice for adding definition and Mountains of Gold is a warm gold glitter that I think will look nice for parties. The problem with these are that they are singles so I tend to forget about them. I prefer using a palette most days, so my singles tend to be forgotten.

Next up is the Iconic 3 palette. I got this to see if the Naked 3 was worth the splurge as I wasn't sure if pink tones suited me and I was quite impressed with the quality of this palette. I added the split pictures so you can see the colours a little better. 

The quality of these are nice but I found they could be a little sheer and there were a few colours that were harder to build up. My favourite colour is the first one as a browbone highlight and it helps blend shadows beautifully. I would advise tapping your brush before applying to the eyes to minimise fallout.

Next is the Girls on Film Salvation Palette. For some reason I forgot to swatch this but all the colours are pretty. The rectangular ones are shimmer and the round ones are matte. That's 18 shades for £6. I like the colours, they blend well and look pretty, and it comes with a huge mirror making it travel friendly. I think this palette can do some really gorgeous looks from day to night.

But I don't use this palette as much as I would because the fact that the lightest matte shade is next to the darkest. Normally I don't mind the order of shades, but the fact that the other shades are kind of arranged lightest to darkest just makes that one shade stand out more, but overall a solid palette. Some of the matte shades are a bit chalky and the some shimmer shades aren't as pigmented, but still a pretty good for the price.  

I tend to use this palette when I want a larger selection of colours within the pinky-purpley range of colours.

I also got the blush palette in Sugar and Spice. Again, nice big mirror and 8 pretty pink blushers. Well, I would say the 1st and 2nd are more bronzer shades and the 4th is a higlighter, but still a nice palette. The shades are all very pigmented so I use it with a very light hand. I wish I got the Hot Spice palette instead as orangey peachy shades suit my skin better than pink. But I make these work.

While I was browsing, I decided to grab the Ultra Cover and Concealer Palette in Light-Medium. The shades aren't bad, but the darker shades are a bit orangey but I can mix them so it's ok. The consistency is very smooth, oily almost and I'm not really a fan of this. The shade range is alright, considering it is a palette and has to cater to a wide range of people, I am just not a fan of the consistency. If you can see from the pictures, it seems to really highlight all of the flaws in the skin texture. I am not a fan of this, but if you get on well with it, let me know how you make it work!

I'd also like to quickly mention that the darker shades are very orangey and if I am more tanned they still look a bit weird on me as I tan naturally brown, not orange.

Last but not least, the one that spurred the whole haul, the One blush stick in Matte Malibu. I thought this looked like a dupe for the Nars Matte Multiples so decided to try Matte Malibu as it looked like the colour I was most likely to use. I like it for bronzing up my skin as it is a tad too orangey for contour in my opinion (though I have made it work). The problem with this is that the stick is quite large so it's easy to go overboard. I apply this by using a small brush, gently picking up some product, taking some off on the back of my hand before blending it onto my face. A bit troublesome for something that looks like a swipe and go product.

Overall, I would say the Makeup Revolution line are a bit hit and miss. These are just my personal opinions so I would say that it's up to you to see what you like. As with everything, makeup is personal and what I like may not be what you like. I do think this brand is one to watch though as they have some really nice products. I personally am very happy with all my choices except for the concealer palette and am excited to try more from this brand as it doesn't really strain my bank account as some other brands do.

What have you tried from Makeup Revolution? What do I NEED to pick up? Let me know your opinions in the comment section below!

Signing off now 

Dusty Foxes

New Year Resolutions!

So now that Christmas is over and we're in 2015 (still processing that one) I thought I would get a move on and do some New Year Resolutions. Yes, I know my header picture says New Year's Resolutions, but I was sleepy when I made that and was too lazy to make another one.

Which leads me onto...

1. Stop being so lazy!
I'm someone who's middle name is procrastinate and my other middle name is lazy. Doesn't matter if it's taking photos for the blog or typing out a post, I'll convince myself that I really need to recheck my Bloglovin' feed or to try and learn how to balance a spoon on my nose (Still haven't mastered that yet). It's rather bad because then to get posts up by 10 am on Sunday (which is my posting schedule btw) I tend to rush a post so that's why this is no 1 on my list (and of course this applies to my life outside the blog as well)

2. Learn how to take better photographs
I have a CSC and I love it, but I am still using it on auto mode. Which defeats the purpose of me getting it anyway. I'm planning to learn how to adjust settings like ISO and aperture and other things that I take for granted in my auto mode. I'm hoping this will help with the problems I have with photos that are just not looking the way I want them to (maybe I should have learnt this before I took the header picture...)

3. Learn how to edit photos
Right now I'm just uploading pictures as they come but I'm thinking about learning some Photoshop to get the colours more true to life. But before that, I'm thinking for header pictures I could try some more basic software like Picmonkey to get words there (so I won't have to use paper). I'm not sure when I will start uploading these as I really want to get them to where I want before I start uploading them, but look out for that and please give me feedback! I don't think I'll do this with normal review- style posts, but others... Maybe.

4. Start planning ahead
Part of the whole procrastinating lazy thing from no 1 means that sometimes I post things without really planning them out, then when I go back and look at them again, I realise that I missed out some things I wanted to say. Also, this way I won't panic when the sun goes in and I don't have pictures and I need to get a post up soon!

5. Appreciate you more!
By you I mean my followers. I really have to thank you because if it wasn't for you, I'd probably have given up blogging. I can't believe I have been nominated for the Liebster Award and I have almost 40 followers on Bloglovin'. I'm so thankful for all of you who come visit my blog. I'm thinking about doing a giveaway one day but I'm still figuring out the mail system in the UK (I never send mail). If you've done a giveaway before, I'll gladly appreciate the help!

So these are my 5 blog related resolutions. What do you guys think? What are your resolutions? Let me know in the comment section below!

Signing off now,
Dusty Foxes