My Eye Shadow Collection and Organization

So I don't have as many eye shadows as some beauty bloggers or YouTubers, but I do have more than enough to last me a lifetime. Also, I've figured out pretty much what I like to wear and what I don't, so my collection consists of mostly things I would use at one time or another throughout any given year.

Now probably 99% of my collection is depotted, meaning I have removed it from it's original packaging. Once I have just the pan of eye shadow remaining, I stick a thin magnet to the back and put it into one of three of the new style MAC pro palettes that don't have an insert in them and have a clear lid. I like these because they feel sturdier to me than a Z Palette, but I can still put pans of all shapes and sizes in them and arrange them however I desire. I have one palette for cool colored eye shadows, one for warm colors and one for matte shadows that are either warm or cool. The reason I separated the mattes out is that I cannot stand when glittery bits get into my matte shadows. Completely defeats the purpose. I try to avoid this entirely by segregating my mattes from my shimmery and glittery, even just satin eye shadows. The only shadows not one of the three MAC pro palettes are my one MAC eye shadow (in the shade Sketch) which sits alone in my MAC quad waiting for 3 more friends, as well as my Guerlain Coup de Foudre shadow quad from Spring '13 (the packaging on this one is just too pretty to destroy) and some individual shadows I list below.

My eye shadows have come from various and sundry sources. Here's a list of brands/palettes they have come from:

• Urban Decay Naked palette
• Urban Decay Naked 2 palette
• Urban decay Naked Basics palette (so I like neutrals...)
• Lorac Mint Edition palette (was available in spring '13 and came with a blush and a higlighter)
• Mary Kay individual shadows
• Bare Minerals The Next Big Thing Quad
• Revlon Colorstay quads in Sea Mist and Siren
• the yellow and red shades from the Kat Von D Starstuck quad (discontinued if I am not mistaken, I didn't hold on to the bronzey shadows because the UD palettes provide all the bronze I'll ever need in this life or the next)
• Wet 'n Wild palettes including Comfort Zone and others I can't remember, but I'm not too worried about remembering
• a few (4?) shadows from a Stila palette that had a cream product in it as well (can't remember the name of it as I got it in a swap and started depotting it almost immediately)

I also have individually potted shadows:

• MAC pigment in Tan
• L'Oreal Infallible Eye Shadow in Amber Rush and Endless Sea
• Maybelline 24 Hour Color Tattoo in Inked in Pink, Barely Branded and Bad to the Bronze

Here's my eye shadow collection. If you have questions on the origin of an certain eye shadow, I will do my best to identify it.

                                                      

Products I've Used Up but Won't Repurchase

This is the companion post to the Products I've Used Up and Will Repurchase post. I'm not saying any of these are bad products by any means. Either they didn't work for me, or I've just found something I like better. I hope no one takes offence to this post. It's just to give you another opinion on a product before you spend your hard earned money on it.

First up, is the Tresemme Platinum Strength Strengthening Conditioner. I bought both the shampoo and conditioner when I was blonde because I saw eleventhgorgeous on YouTube talk about how they liked it for their blonde hair because it didn't have proteins. At that time had realized a lot of the breakage I was experiencing was due to protein buildup from "repairing" hair products that used proteins to strengthen hair. There's nothing really wrong with this conditioner, it just wasn't as thick and moisturizing as my hair needed at the time. I stopped using this to try other products out, but, as happens with all conditioners I don't like for my hair, I finished up the bottle using it as shave cream. It makes me feel better that I'm not wasting it.

Next is another hair product that was fine, but nothing extraordinary. I don't know if it's just me, but I have a hard time telling the difference between hairsprays. One cool thing about this product is that the nozzle has three settings so you can control the amount of spray that comes out depending on whether you want light, medium or heavy hold. I probably won't repurchase this as I got it from a salon and it was a bit pricey for something I don't find to be out-of-this-world awesome. I'm not too picky when it comes to hairspray.

I did like this Pure Silk Sensitive Skin Therapy shave cream. It was nice and moisturizing and cut down on the amount of razor burn I got. The reason I'm not repurchasing this right away is that I've got other hair conditioners that I'm going to use as shave cream a la the Tresemme one above. I'm really trying to declutter!

I bought this Pond's Luminous Clean Cream Cleanser because it looked like it could be a dupe for the Algenist Rejuvenating Cleanser I mentioned in the Products I Will Repurchase post. It's a good cleanser, but not quite a dupe for the Algenist. I used this with my Clarisonic Mia2 and I did like the way it foams up. I won't be repurchasing this because I'll be getting either a Michael Todd cleanser or the Algenist.

I got the Macadamia Healing Oil Treatment because a sales associate at Ulta recommended it as a heat protectant when blow drying my hair. I already had the One 'n Only Argan Oil Treatment but I assumed that since the Macadamia brand was more expensive that it would be even better. The One 'n Only oil smells divine, so I was expecting nothing less from this "higher end" oil. Turns out, it smells like men's cologne. I wish I could say it would go away eventually, but I could still catch a wiff of it on my hair throughout the day. Secondly, I found this oil to not be as thick as the One 'n Only. Not exactly what I'm looking for for my parched hair. Finally, even though it didn't feel as thick, it would stick in greasy patches to my hair, whereas the One 'n Only soaks all the way in. So...definitely not buying this again.

I picked up this eye cream because I saw makeupbyalli and missmai27 from YouTube talk about how much they liked it. YouTube made me buy it! While this moisturized my under eye area well, I really didn't see any change in my fine lines (yeah I've got 'em). I don't know why I was expecting so much from a drugstore eye cream, but I'm gonna step it up next time I buy one and get one with some legit active ingredients.