Wednesday, January 25, 2012

New Year: A Little Happier Post


HI All!
                So a new year has begun and a new semester! Boy time moves so much faster when ya travel or have a really busy schedule! Anyways, after my last, less bright post, I figured I would elaborate on what is going on with my “makeup life”.  After the holidays and holiday cleaning, I had a chance to take a good hard look at my makeup collection and in essence do a little soul searching when it came to my likes and dislikes. I realized that I really only wear neutrals, (think champagne to dark chocolate browns, golds, coppers, bronze…those things) and won’t ever wear “colors” which I am 100% okay with…okay maybe I’ll throw in the occasional dark hunter green but other than that….nope.
                I also came to the conclusion that I have a LOT of makeup. Now by no means is it as huge as those “makeup collection” films by youtube gurus that leaves you drooling over your keyboard. But I do have more than I have even touched, which actually brings me to my whole point…I have a TON of makeup that I have only swatched but never actually used! How is that fair to my wallet and to myself for purchasing things and then never getting around to using them. After checking my bank account for this last year (a major owie when I saw those numbers) I cam to the fact that I am enough of makeup that I would actually use and that I don’t need to buy every pretty new thing because I have something similar already.  (93 nailpolishes…OI!)
                So I’m not going on a no-buy or ten/tin pan project because I know I will set myself up to fail.  (case and point, one of my first posts on working through palettes but restricting myself so much caused me to break so soon) But I came up with something that is actually rather fun for me. I want to gather an opinion about my products and give reviews on them, so that means I actually need to use the products (duhr right?).  So, I figured what if I use products till I hit the pan? It would make me work through the product enough that I develop an opinion. Obviously when I have an eyeshadow palette there are colors I won’t really use or don’t like at all (mustard yellows or oranges…why have that in an eyeshadow “gold” palette…I don’t use them!) so I won’t force myself to use them. But if I hit pan on a certain number of colors (4 pans out of 12 for example) I have tried the product enough to see the versatility and can move to the next product.
                This method has been fun and has allowed me to start to work through my collection. Once I hit pan on my collection, I can go back to square one and start to finish out my least favorite colors or palettes so they don’t keep taking up space. As much as I love purchasing new products, I don’t want to keep buying just to buy and not get a chance to use it! Now of course if I find a product I want or find to be amazing, I will purchase it. But I plan to wait a little to get more reviews about them because I want my purchases to be a little more calculated and more budget friendly. I will include in future posts photos of how I am doing and what I have worked through. I’ve already hit pan on a duo and 4 out of 12 pans in a palette (which means I will move onto the next palette!). I hope this inspires others to work through their collections!

Xoxo,
Ema

Monday, January 16, 2012

Bye Bye Birchbox?

Hi All,
 So I have been away for a while and computer-less, which was surprisingly lovely because I had a chance to relax and not worry about being too connected. When I got back home I found my birchbox on my bed, and was frankly not very excited. What started as an exciting monthly subscription, became something that I felt no pitter patter in my heart. I came to realize that for the last few boxes, there has been maybe ONE product I thought was good, but everything else became a "blah" product.
   Now I am not at all saying that I hate birchbox or that it is a bad company, but that I had gotten tired of the company. It was not living up to the first 6 boxes I got, and was left with a buncha products that I actually needed to get through. Since I have so many products my mission is to try to work through my own products. I will be remaining with my gogo girlfriend box subscription just to see how that works out, but as of right now....bye bye birchbox.

xoxo
Ema