My Current (Lack of) Beauty Favorites

It seems that somewhere along the way I just organically abandoned the idea of writing regular favorites posts. Mostly because I don't acquire that many new products to show you, but recently, I've just been feeling a bit blah towards beauty stuff I use on a daily basis. Let's overanalyze together.

At the recent Sephora spring VIB sale, I was hard pressed to find ANYTHING I wanted to buy. Well, there was an Amore Pacific $24 duo with the Treatment Enzyme Peel that looked tempting (and useful enough as I just run out of all my other powder exfoliants) and then I figured I could also get some hair goo to style my pixie. That still (especially with the discount) landed me short of the free shipping threshold, and after agonizing for a day or two, I convinced my sister-in-law to choose something for herself so I could place the order. Yeah. In the end, the hair goo was a fail and I sent it back, and in retrospect, I should have just skipped the sale altogether.

My daily make-up tray (an organizer drawer, really)

This whole conundrum though serves as a good example of my general feelings towards beauty products. It's not just that I don't want to purchase anything new, there isn't really anything new that's tempting. Furthermore, I experience a big fat 'MEH' when using most of the products in my daily make-up tray. In the past, I would have swiftly dealt with my ennui by going on a make-up shopping spree so that I could feel excited again about my renewed routine. However, most likely because of project panning/ limiting spending/ decluttering stuff for the past couple years, I'm currently under no illusion that a nice big haul would actually solve anything in the long run, as I would eventually bore of the newer products too, and start lemming something else again, and again, and again...

So I've been doing a lot of soul searching to figure out the exact reason why I feel so ambivalent about my make-up routine. Here's what I came up with: firstly, I think my style/ tastes have changed a lot since having a baby (or because of *cough cough*... age?). Secondly, at the moment I'm rather unhappy with the condition of my skin and how make-up looks and lasts on my face.

As to the first reason, a great portion of the products I own now seem very much over the top for my day wear make-up preferences. While trying to finish a pencil eyeliner recently, I more or less decided that I dislike lining my top lash line, and will only occasionally use a pencil to tightline. Furthermore, I don't even like wearing eyeshadow all that much (and as a consequence haven't been tempted by ANY eyeshadow palette releases, which used to be my downfall in the past), and when I do, I like it to be quite subtle and simple, as in no strong metallic finishes, no dark smokey shades, no colorful brights. I also don't want to wear bright bold shades on my lips either, as you were probably able to surmise from my 'Keep or Declutter' series. I'm definitely leaning towards 'less is more' approach towards make-up looks these days, and frankly it's not at all due to the 'new mom' lack of time to do my make-up - Julian naps like a champ in the mornings and even when he's up, I can usually set him to play on his activity mat and have a good 20 minutes (with some interruptions when he gets too bored and shrieks for attention) to do my face.

I've also been wearing my pre-reformulation bottle of Koh Gen Do Aqua Foundation and the Viva Glam Cyndi lipstick.

I was debating whether my current 'Shop My Stash' make-up favorites were even worth sharing, but hey ho, maybe you've also owned these products for years and need a little reminder about how good they are. You may remember that I tried to use up my Clarins Instant Light Natural Lip Perfector in 01 Rose Shimmer in a Project Pan, and  a year (or more?) later it's still going strong. And you know what, I'm not mad at it, I still think it's a fantastic, plushy, moisturizing gloss formula. I'm also still into the Clinique Cheek Pop blush texture, although I've gotten rid of Pansy Pop (reviewed here), which I deemed not that flattering on my skintone, and have been reaching for Heather Pop all the time instead. My current favorite mascara is Max Factor Masterpiece Max in Velvet Black, which I strongly disliked the first two weeks after opening and was *this close* to pitching it in the trash, but I decided to give it one more go some time later and now I'm really liking the combo of natural volume & separation.

The second reason for the beauty blahs - the pitiful condition of my skin - is what pushed me to re-examine my current routine and search for better solutions. I'd say that for the past year or so, I have been predominantly using skincare from my back-up stash, and largely products I was sent for review that were patiently waiting for their turn. The thing is, my skin was different during pregnancy than it is now, and even extrapolating from that, probably a good portion of the products I had stashed away wasn't even suited for my skin in the first place. All that coupled with changing hormones and possibly the introduction of adapelene (Differin) into my routine has wreaked havoc and my skin is currently impossibly clogged, oily and prone to painful under the skin bumps that never come to a head, and when they finally do go down, I'm left dealing with the red P.I.E. aftermath.

Aaand... That's not even everything I bought.

So... I binged on some Korean beauty skincare videos and have been digging up lots of information from the Asian Beauty reddit, and inevitably, shopping ensued. It will obviously take me a good long while to incorporate these new additions into my routine, test them out thoroughly and report back to you, but I do plan on reviewing these products for you in the near future. Yay! I'm excited to see whether I can get my skin back on track with their help.

I think that's about it for my little beauty update. I have plenty of ideas for posts and more products to review than I can find the energy and time, but I'm doing the best I can. What's been floating your beauty boat recently? Or have you redirected your enthusiasm towards some other non beauty related pursuit?