Melanin and Makeup | Collection History & Breakdown
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I was recently talking makeup with one of my co-workers, and I think I got a little too into it. As I sat there discussing my brushes, eyeshadow palettes and other miscellaneous makeup items, I thought it prudent to maybe stop before her eyes rolled back in her head.
It's times like this that I really see the difference between being a regular consumer and a makeup enthusiast.
To me brands like Colourpop and Natasha Denona are familiar, both brands having been around for a couple of years, but for someone who doesn't spend huge amounts of time watching YouTube videos, and scrolling through Instagram, they won't ring a bell.
I've spent the last 10 or so years slowly building my collection, I started with things that were easier and cheaper for me to get like makeup brushes, loose mineral eyeshadows and single pro pan blushes. From there my collection has gradually gotten larger and larger.
In the beginning I focused on cheaper drugstore products that were said to be good, but having been burnt too many times, I eventually cleared most of it out of my collection.
My collection hasn't grown in a linear fashion, I tended to focus on how I was using products in my routine. So my makeup brush and eyeshadow collection are greater in scale compared to foundation and concealer products.
Face Products
Within the last year the amount of face products that I have has increased not exponentially or anything, where I used to have 2 concealers, I now have 6 or 7. I still haven't found my holy grail, this makes my under eyes look amazing concealer but I have hopes that I will get there one day. Since I rarely use foundation, I just have 1 in rotation right now.
Blush & Highlighter
My blush and highlighter collection have stalled out a little bit, not because I haven't seen new products that I'm interested it but more so because of duplication. Highlight wise If I'm buying something now it's not going to be because of colour, it will be based on the formulation and the quality. For my skin tone I think I have a good range of products, I've got duo chrome shades, bronzes and champagnes and even a few rose gold/pink tones, so unless the formulation and skin feel is amazing I will be able to talk myself out of the purchase.
Blush wise, it's the same thought process, I have a wide range of blushes and honestly most companies aren't creating blushes that work well with my skin tone right now, so it's been fairly easy to contain my collection. However, should companies start creating some exceptional formulas along with an expanded colour range then I would for sure be adding to my collection.
Liners, Lipstick & Mascara
I'll group lipsticks, eyeliners and even mascara's together because these are categories that aren't that expansive. I have a few lipstick bullets and some Colourpop lippie stix but apart from that my lip collection is very low key. I don't wear lipstick often and nowadays when I do, I'm typically going for a deep rich tone. After building up my collection to a decent amount I realized that I'm not a lipstick person, I simply prefer lip balm or lip gloss, so I ended up clearing out 95% of my collection.
Liners, both lips and eyes are on the back burner for me. I've been steady using my Fenty black liner. Since I'm not wearing lipstick as often, it follows that I'm also wearing lip liner less. They are literally collecting dust, thankful I don't have that much to begin with.
Last up mascara, I mentioned to my co-worker during our conversation that it's been years since I last purchased a mascara, I've just been using deluxe sample sizes from Sephora. My requirements for a mascara are pretty simple, it needs to be black, able to separate my lashes and be black enough that it shows up on my faintly coloured lashes.
Eyeshadows and Makeup Brushes
I've grouped these 2 together because when I mentioned them earlier I paired them up. Makeup brushes and eyeshaows are the makeup items that I've been purchasing the longest. Since both of these categories bring me joy (the makeup brushes not so much when I have to clean them).
I have alot of both and I'm certain I will be adding to both in the future, I do think that maybe it's time to cull some of the makeup brushes but the shadows are in good standing with me. There's not one palette in my collection that I would classify as difficult to use. I tend to pass those palettes on if possible and if not then they get thrown out.
Last Words
Okay, I think that's it for my collection History and Breakdown if you want me to go into more detail about the particulars in each category then I can make a separate post on that. I used broad strokes when I spoke about the different products but you can drill down further in each category. For example, I have blushes in palettes and I have single pan blushes, likewise for my highlighters and eyeshadows. I do have a post on some of my favourite makeup brushes, that you can find here. So let me know if it's something that you guys would be interested in reading more about.
How would you breakdown your makeup collection? Also what's your history with makeup, is it something new or well developed?
