something old, something new

The results of shopping my stash... and just plain old shopping.

The January urge to go through everything I own has truly got me gal. I am blasting through the house like a tornado, muttering “Do I use it? Does it spark joy?” at every object I meet. We are moving again in a few weeks, so now really is the time to prune the unused and unwanted.

I started with a mini makeup clear out and said goodbye to some foundations (including the Fenty Beauty skin tint — I tried, but we are not to be), lip glosses, and palettes that were not getting any play. Now my sister has some new-to-her products to try and my drawers have a little breathing space… for the moment. 

In the process of decluttering, I found a few things that I want to put back into rotation over the next few months. I’m a big believer in ‘shopping one’s stash’ (to use YouTube parlance) and rediscovering old favourites. Why was I sleeping on these products? 

Charlotte Tilbury Filmstar Bronze and Glow

This is a bit of an antique. I believe it was a gift from my friends for a long-ago birthday that occurred after CT first launched in Ireland. I was dying for a piece of the action and thought the gold packaging was just the height of glamour. There was nothing like it on the market at the time — at least not that I can remember. How jaded I am about beauty launches these days, LOL.

As you can see, I used this quite a bit, but seemingly got distracted by something else (probably that Becca bronzer). It’s still a winner though — the bronzer shade is just right for me, the formula is buildable, and the highlight is cute, too. I’ve moved it from my palettes drawer to my ‘everyday’ makeup container to ensure it gets the proper attention. 

Charlotte Tilbury Beauty Light Wand in Pinkgasm

There was no universe in which I could get a good enough photo of my beat up, faded packaging so… official product shot you get.

Yes, this is because of TikTok. The various Beauty Light and Contour Wands have ‘gone viral’ (ugh) over there and being the little sheepie I am, I was inspired to dig them out again. I stopped using them regularly because of the finicky packaging — CT has never met a foamy applicator yoke they didn’t like, which is annoying because the products themselves are great.

Pinkgasm is a gorgeous highlight-blush hybrid that makes you look so fresh and luminous. Peachgasm is also nice, but a little too light to be effective as a blush on me — I like it more as a highlighter. I was absolutely obsessed with Pinkgasm when it first came out a few years ago, so it’s high time she got another outing.

Armani My Armani To Go Cushion Foundation

This was a PR sample from my days at STELLAR that was hiding under my powder compacts. How rude of me! I obviously love Luminous Silk, so chances were high that I’d enjoy this too. 

You’re supposed to apply cushion foundations with the little puff that comes in the case but I just couldn’t get the right finish with it, so I used my own beauty sponge. The coverage is light and glowy, which is probably why it languished in my drawer for so long — I wouldn’t have loved it when my skin was acting up. 

Surprisingly, it lasted well during a period of heavy mask-wearing and still looked relatively fresh at the end of the day. The lighter foundation I was looking for was in my stash all along! I should have known.

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And as for something new… yeah, of course I have some new products to play with. They’re both from brands by Kardashian-adjacent makeup artists (weirdly enough) and come highly recommended by my favourite beauty content folks. 

Patrick Ta Major Headlines Blush Palette

I’ve had my eye on the singles of these for ages, but they are always sold out on Cult Beauty. So when I was doing my annual St Stephenseseseses Day online shopping trawl and saw that the palette was in stock, I said, “Why not, Valerie? Why not?” It has since sold out again, so I’m glad I went for it.

The concept is so unusual — each shade has both a powder and cream version, and you apply the powder first with the cream on top. This goes against everything I know about makeup (usually they say to set creams with powders for longevity). Like, how THRILLING. I need to trial it a little more, but I wore the shocking pink shade last weekend and loved it. I love blush! 

Makeup by Mario Master Mattes Eyeshadow Palette

I’m really bad at having the basics when it comes to eyeshadow because I love shiny, glittery things too much. Why would I buy a neutral palette when I could get one that has the rainbow in it? Anyway, I haven’t been going to a lot of sparkly rainbow events recently, so I felt it was finally time for a neutral matte palette in my life. This is pretty much the perfect one.

The packaging is compact, it contains every shade you could ever need for any kind of look, and the formula is very user-friendly. Strangely, it’s almost €10 cheaper on Cult Beauty than it is on Mario’s own website. I tried it out last weekend with a soft little smoked-out wing thing — this is most definitely the palette for those stunning 90s supermodel vibes. You know, because all I need to look like a 90s supermodel is a bit of eyeshadow.

Thank you for reading Vanity Project! Are you organising your life this month? Are you also obsessed with those ASMR videos of people restocking their fridges? Why is it so nice to watch? Why are the clicky sounds so amazing?! These are the questions on my mind these days. See you soon for the next instalment!