Project 20 Pan items 4 + 5

The fourth and fifth items I have used up for my project 20 pan were a Covergirl pressed powder and a Body Shop Body Butter.

No. 4 & 5 empties.

As I’ve mentioned I’m a uni student on a pretty tight budget so I tend to purchase most of my makeup items from places like Target, Priceline etc.  A major downside of this is that the range of shades is usually quite limited (compared to some department store brands), especially for a fair skinned person like me.  This Covergirl pressed powder is one of the only powders thus far that I have found at Priceline that comes in a shade light enough.  I think Maybelline used to have a shade in the DreamMatte powder that was really light but I haven’t been able to find it recently so perhaps it was discontinued.  I also have a Bourjois mineral pressed powder to try out as well, which looks promising.  Apart from being a good match for my skin tone, I found the Covergirl powder to be really neither here nor there.  I just use it for setting my liquid foundation.  My major criticism is the smell – it’s really heavily fragranced, but an “old lady makeup” smell, if you know what I mean.  I’ve noticed the packaging of this has changed since I bought it so perhaps they have changed the formula as well and gotten rid of the smell– I hope so, because I will probably repurchase this after P20P is finished.

The Body Shop Body Butter was in the flavour (or fragrance, seeing as you’re not supposed to eat them!) Brazil Nut.  I used this as a hand cream as it was quite a small tub and would probably last very long if I used it over my whole body.  I actually quite like this kind of container for a hand cream as I can just chuck it in my handbag without worrying about a tube exploding or leaking all over the inside of my bag, which has happened to me before, and it is such a mess to clean up!  It is really moisturising and leaves my hands nice and smooth.  I have problems with dry skin on my hands due to using alcohol based hand sanitisers at work, which are very drying, but this really does the trick!  The other thing which I really like about this product is the smell – it’s a sweet, nutty fragrance which is nice and subtle and not overpowering – there is nothing worse than using a overwhelmingly fragranced hand cream which completely overpowers the perfume you are wearing.  I plan on purchasing another Body Shop Body Butter to replace this once I’ve finished the Palmer’s cream that I have moved onto, but I think I might try one of the other fragrances just for a change.  Let me know if you have any recommendations!

Thanks for reading!

NOTD: Australis Liquid Gold

Today's nail polish is Liquid Gold by Australis.  The bottle boasts "Best Formula Ever!" and "Streak Free".  I'm not 100% sure I agree with this - it went on quite gluggy and streaky.  It dried a little better but I think you can still see the brush streaks.  I would describe this as a beige toned gold, rather than a yellow, brassy gold, which is perfect for me as I'm not really a fan of yellow toned gold colours.

Pictures:

With flash - I think this pic looks more yellow than it is in real life.

Without flash (it's getting dark outside so I couldn't get a decent pic, sorry) - this one's really blurry but I think it this is closer to how the colour appears in person.

 Also, good news, another Project 20 Pan item has bitten the dust - a Body Shop Body Butter.  I will include pics and thoughts on this in my next post as my camera died after taking the pictures of my nails. This brings the running total to five items which I means I am one quarter of the way through!

Thanks for reading!

Perfume Wishlist + P20P update

Let me start by saying I love perfume!  In the past 1-2 years I have built up quite a collection, and I plan to do an overview of my collection in the near future (i.e. after exams), but for now, here are a few on my current wishlist....

Viktor and Rolf Eau Mega

Lancome Tresor In Love

Yves Saint Laurent Parisienne

Ralph Lauren Romance Always Yours

Dior Miss Dior Cherie L'eau

Images sourced from FragranceNet.com

Obviously these are planned purchases for a long way down the track, when I have finished off a few of my current perfumes.

In other news, yesterday, I finished product no. 4 of my Project 20 Pan, only 16 to go!  No 4. was a Covergirl pressed powder.

Have a great weekend!

Project 20 Pan

My interest in makeup and perfume is relatively recent (last 2-3 years) and I have amassed a reasonable collection in this amount of time.  I’d rather not think about how much I’ve spent haha!  I think in the beginning I was very “noob” about it and tended to go for quantity rather than quality.  Also, as I was very new to makeup, I tended to buy a lot of different brands just to try them out.  Now, I’d rather narrow down my collection to a smaller amount of products which I really enjoy using and use on a regular basis.  Also, I think my tastes, especially in eye makeup, have changed.  I used to wear a lot of colour and now I’m much more into more natural looks.  So some of the products which I have now don’t really suit me any more.  I’ll still probably purchase mostly “drugstore” brands (e.g. Revlon, Maybelline, Covergirl etc) as I’m still at uni and on a very limited budget, but I would like to save up for a few “splurge” type purchases as well.  Also, being in Australia, even brands like L’Oreal and Revlon get expensive (relative to my teeny-tiny uni student income).  “High end” brands (department store brands like MAC etc.) are just hideously expensive (unless purchased over the net – hooray strong Aussie dollar!)

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of things through the Vogue Forum Free for All thread (I like the idea of things I don’t want finding a new home rather than me just throwing them in the bin).  Perhaps the next time I do a cull I will do some kind of blog give away.

As a way for me to curb my spending on makeup, and also use up some products that have been lying around for a long time, I’ve decided to undertake Project 20 Pan (inspired by the Project 10 Pan, which I believe was coined by lollipop26 but has since been repeated in some shape or form by just about every beauty blogger).  So I am committing to not buying any new products until I have used up 20 items which are currently in my collection.  I’ve decided that the items may include makeup, perfume, nail polish and skincare, but not things like shampoo/conditioner, soap and face wipes etc (as I have seen on some blogs....seriously, what next? Toilet paper??)  The only exceptions will be if I completely run out of something (I think I may possibly run out of lip balm, but that’s not a very expensive item anyway).

I’m hoping that as well as helping to downsize my collection, this spending ban might also help me curb my addiction to buying new things (and save a bit of $$ as well).

So, after all that, what have I used up so far?

1.  Natio Ageless Brightening Eyecream

2. Vera Wang Princess Perfume

3. Nivea Light Kiss lip balm

My thoughts on these products:

Natio Eyecream – I really liked this and will probably re-purchase after I’ve finished P20P.  It has tiny light reflecting particles, kind of like glitter, but not actually glitter.  So it gives a kind of radiant look without making you look like a disco ball.

Princess Perfume – I love this perfume.  I bought it in a 30ml to use as my “handbag perfume” and I get a lot of compliments on it.  I bought a 100ml as a backup and am going to try to decant it into the 30ml bottle so I can keep it in my handbag (I don’t fancy lugging around a 100ml bottle of perfume in my handbag).  I would really recommend this fragrance, and best of all, it’s pretty cheap!  If you can get it on sale (at Priceline or My Chemist etc.) it’s usually around $30 or 30ml or $50 for 50ml.

Nivea Light Kiss – as I mentioned in the tag questionnaire, I didn’t really like this.  I think I bought it because it was on special at Priceline for like $1 or something.  Anyway, I’m not a huge fan of pot lip balms as I think they’re not very hygienic and you always get balm under your fingernails – gross!  Also, this seemed to separate after a few days of using it and had these funny little grains (of wax, I think) in it.  Remelting in the microwave fixed it, but I had to keep remelting it every week or so.  I definitely wouldn’t be repurchasing this (I think it might even be discontinued anyway).

The empties:

I cut the Natio Eyecream tube in half to get the dregs out of it - this is a great idea for making any products in tubes last a little bit longer.  I usually find I can get at least another week's worth of use out of things by cutting them open. 

Phew, that was a long post.  Thanks for reading (if anyone made it all the way to the end haha!)