At the start of the year I chose 14 items that I liked well enough to use up, but that I wasn’t interested in repurchasing. The goal was (is!) to clean out my collection of items that kind of just sit around because I don’t reach for them daily. Usually when I force myself to use a product over a period of time, I discover new ways to use them. And since I’m a fan of progress updates (there’s a fitness one coming this Friday on how I’m progressing with my fitness goals this year!) I thought I’d give you an idea on how I’m doing with my chosen 14 for the year.

Since I made the mistake of junking one of the products without thinking about it, let’s get to that one first. It was MUA‘s Matte Foundation in Shade 1 Soft Sand. I used to think I liked it – it goes on really smoothly on the skin and the colour match was really good. However… over time it turns my face into a greasepit! I’m not even an especially oily-skinned person either so that was super disappointing. It wasn’t worth finishing so when I got to halfway in the tube, I just chucked the whole thing out. (It was in my previous Empties.)

I’m quite proud of this one actually! CoverGirl & Olay’s Tone Rehab CC Cream foundation was my most used foundation throughout the winter months this year. It was too dark throughout those months so I mixed it with a lighter foundation (Bourjois’ Healthy Mix Gel foundation in 51 Light Vanilla) and it worked out wonderfully. Of course, now it’s too pale for the summer months on my tanned face so I’ll have to wait till  the autumn months to wear it again. Interesting to note is that the swirled in Olay cream eventually gets squashed down as the product decreases in the tube.

This one is totally dunzo. Jack Black‘s lip balm is really only flavoured vaseline with SPF.  I wore it mostly while running at the gym (I get dry lips while running) and it didn’t do a whole heck of a lot. Like any vaseline product though, this was great at protecting my lips from windburn in the freezing winter months when I wore it outdoors.

MAC‘s limited edition Strawberry Malt lipglass is beautiful… for the first fifteen minutes after application. Over the years I’ve just gone off of lipgloss because it really doesn’t have any kind of decent lasting power, particularly when you work in an office environment and don’t have the luxury of checking your makeup every waking second.  My best example of this is that I had put this gloss on shortly before an hour long meeting I had at work, one in which I was expected to speak out loud, but not carry on the entire meeting. I was even complimented on my lip colour when I walked into the meeting! So I spoke a bit throughout that hour, but not extensively. By the end of the hour, all of the gloss was gone from my lips – to the point that the person who had complimented me actually asked “what happened to your red gloss??” at the end of the meeting. That’s just ridiculous. So lately I’ve opted to layer this over top of lipstick so that it at least lasts a little bit longer. I’m a little bit over halfway done with the tube, so it really shouldn’t last that much longer.

Finishing up four eyeshadows is actually a bit more of a ballsy thing to do than most people may think. I wasn’t even sure I was going to be able to do it! But when I really started focusing on it, I started plugging through the shadows relatively quickly. Brule was the first one I finished up – I used it primarily as my daylight browbone highlight shade. Next up was Haux which became my go-to lazy day shadow – not something I wore too often, but often enough that I was finally able to finish it up.

As for the ones I haven’t finished… there’s Shroom, which is really close to being done. It’s slightly shiny/shimmery, so while I use it as a browbone highlight, I don’t use it on the daily.  The other remaining one is Swish, a frosty pink hell-ish nightmare. I think I’ve used it once this year and I have to say I really, really don’t like this shade. I bought it in my teens and it’s not a shade I’m particularly interested in using in my adult life. The texture of this has also gone very, very soft and crumbly. If I don’t use this up by the end of the year (and I won’t) I’ll just end up chucking it out.

What a mistake choosing this bronzer was. I have no chance in hell of finishing this guy up. I used it daily for roughly four months straight and the only thing I succeeded in doing was obliterating the sun emblem in the middle of the product. If I look at the pan intensely, I don’t even see a dent in the product. I don’t know what this is made out of, but it might as well be a brick. I became so frustrated with my lack of progress on this product that I ended up moving on to other bronzers that I enjoy using more. One thing’s for sure though, the lack of progress I’ve made on this bronzer has stopped me from buying anymore bronzers completely.

Revlon Just Bitten Lipstain + Balm in Twilight

No progress to report on this one. I wear Revlon‘s Twilight lipstain every now and then, but due to the nature of the tube I can’t tell how much is left. It still seems to contain plenty of product though since it’s still very moist when I apply it.

Awkward and disorienting “Now” shot! Revlon‘s Sunset Peach gloss is about halfway done and should be gone by the end of the summer. It’s an easy summer shade to pop on, so I’ve had a lot of use out of it lately.

Yikes, my lip butters need work! Cherry Tarte is done, but Creamsicle and Red Velvet need some serious work done to them.

Well, I’m a lot less far along on these products than I thought I was going to be halfway through the year, particularly with the lip products. I had expected to plough through the lip products but struggle on the eyeshadows. When in actuality it’s the reverse. And let’s not even talk about that bronzer, I’m totally pissed off at it. *grumble grumble*