It's time to cover my purchases from March to April 2019.
I started this series earlier this year to help me reflect on my makeup buys from the year before. You can find Part 1 here if you want to see the break-down and the entire inventory. I'm already wincing in anticipation of what I know will be some expensive purchases and some items I don't use nearly as much as I should.
March and April 2019 Purchases
Looking at my inventory list, my makeup buying began ramping up around this time last year. I bought a lot of stuff during these two months which came to a grand total of AUD$315.61. Damn. I'm comforted by the fact that my next update will only contain two items but I digress. Here's everything laid out in its fully glory.
Charlotte Tilbury Matte Revolution lipsticks in Sexy Sienna and Walk of Shame
I began with a replacement repurchase of one of my favourite lipsticks of all time. The Charlotte Tilbury lipstick in Sexy Sienna is my MLBB shade and I featured it as part of my Matte Revolution Review here. I can't sing the praises of this lipstick enough. It's easy to apply and works with any makeup look I want to wear. Sexy Sienna is easily my most worn lipstick.
Walk of Shame is a different story altogether. It's a darker berry shade which pulls a little plummy on my lips so it tends to give off a more sultry and vampy type of vibe when I wear it. I much prefer a more 'natural' understated lip colour so I reach for my darker shades less often.
I spent AUD$70.71 on the two lipsticks on Net-A-Porter as part of a larger haul but accounting for the regular price of Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks, it was a saving — at least on the lipstick I wear most often.
Lilah B Divine Duo Lip & Cheek in b. lovely
The Lilah B Divine Duo Lip and Cheek was another product in my Net-A-Porter haul from April 2019. Although it's marketed as a dual lip and cheek product, I find it too drying on the lips but it's a lovely cream blush. I also wrote about it here on my blog and gave it a good review.
The blush itself is a very pigmented product so a little goes a long way. Its high level of pigmentation is a big plus because the compact itself is so deceptively tiny. This purchase was a good reminder for me to check the weight of the product rather than rely on marketing photos. I like and still use this cream blush, particularly on really relaxed makeup days because it's easy to apply with all mediums so I can use my fingers, a brush or a wet sponge depending on what I feel like using. I paid AUD$52.40 which in hindsight makes it a really expensive buy.
Kosas Colour and Light Creme Palette in 8th Muse
This cream blush and highlighter duo was the last product within my Net-A-Porter sale haul. It's also something I've already posted about as well in a full review here on the site.
This product has a very short shelf life of 6 months because the clean beauty mantra of the company means that they haven't added preservatives to the product. Let's be real — no one is throwing out something this expensive after 6 months. I also think you'd have to use this every day and apply it so liberally to pan this within that time frame.
I paid AUD$37.68 for it and as of time of writing, I've used more than a quarter but less than a third of each side of the product. It's still something I enjoy and while I make an effort to use this due to being conscious of its lack of longevity, I'm not forcing myself to use this every time I wear makeup.
Laura Mercier Caviar Stick in Copper
This was a nostagia-fuelled purchase. I had previously panned an entire full sized stick a few years ago and I had a hankering to use one again even though I had just purchased the By Terry Ombre Blackstar sticks two months earlier. I do use this all my cream stick shadows very often since they are my favourite type of eyeshadow product but these full sized sticks last for ages. I wish they would sell the minis all year round instead of just in the holiday packs because this one is going to take me another 4 years to finish. I paid the full price of AUD$44 at Mecca who has an exclusivity contract (which is a fancy way of saying they run a monopoly in Australia) with Laura Mercier .
Luma Beauty Just A Touch Lip & Cheek Tint and Illuminating Highlighter
I really enjoy these potted creams. Cream blush and highlight products are easily my favourite types of complexion items. I haven't used these as much as the other ones mentioned in this post simply because they have a much better shelf life and I've been more focused on ones I know will go bad faster. I have similar types of products from other brands and they're still good two years on. The Luma Beauty pots contain a very stable solid formula that will take a little bit of warming up with a finger during the colder winter months or you can go in with a duo-fibre brush and pick up product.
I purchased two Just A Touch Lip and Cheek Tints in the shades Muse and Signorita and two Illuminating Highlighter pots in Luminous Light and Moonlit Ivory. I passed on the latter to my sister-in-law after she expressed an interest in trying cream highlighters. These Australian-made products are sold at Priceline Pharmacy and are included in the biannual 40% off makeup sale so I grabbed all four pots for AUD$56.82.
Tarte Gone To Maui Set and Tinted Brow Gel
I'm obviously a sucker for free international shipping because I used this as an opportunity to buy the Chrome Paint Shadow Pot in the shade Park Avenue Princess directly from the Tarte website. I had wanted the cream eyeshadow for a while but it was actually cheaper to buy this in the set with a mini liquid lipstick (which was destashed) and a mini mascara than to buy the item on its own. I got the set for AUD$21.75 and have since used up the mascara. The eyeshadow itself has only been used a handful of times so oopsie I guess.
While I was there on the site, I picked up a Busy Gal Brows Tinted Brow Gel in black/brown as a replacement for my finished Charlotte Tilbury Legendary Brows. The Tarte product is very similar with a teeny tiny brush but has a lower price point. I picked it up for AUD$20.25 and I'm only just at the end of it now because I only own one brow gel at any given time and I like to milk my money's worth out of every item.
Nude By Nature Glow Mini Highlight Stick Collection
This was a bad purchase. I got suckered in by people online saying how much they love Nude By Nature products. It's a brand which I first tried as a teenager and even back then I thought their products were mediocre. I bought this holiday pack containing a trio of two mini highlighters and a shimmery bronzer stick for AUD$12 as part of my Priceline Pharmacy order. The formula is so hard and stiff that it's hard to apply product out of these sticks. The shades are also a little strange. There's a shade in there that's somewhere between a blush and a bronzer with shimmer in it so they can still call it a highlighter so it ends up looking a bit like a bruise. They're all sitting somewhere in my shame drawer.