Streamlining my makeup and storage ideas

I will dedicate this post to my sister. She is the main organizer, 'tidy-upper' in the family and today she would be proud because I finally decided to get my personal makeup stash in order. My pro kit is nicely streamlined and clean, yet I kept accumulating unnecessary makeup items in my everyday makeup box that I just didn't have the heart to get rid of. Things were getting out of hand so I decided to order nice makeup pouches and one of those see through Acrylic storage boxes. In this post I'm going to show you how I got from this:

to this:

I am quite obsessed with makeup storage so I was excited to pick a few for this private project of mine. I've had my eyes on these two companies for a while and I happily ordered this Muji box and the pouches from My Kit Co. They are both very practical, easy to clean.

Okay, so let's start with bases and concealers. Why would I keep the ones that are not the right colour or not for my skin type or the ones with old SPF?

After streamlining the pile looks much better, only keep the ones I will use every day. One full cover foundation, one light complexion enhancer with fresh SPF. One liquid, one cream concealer and a light colour corrector that doubles up as an eye brightener.

The next and the most crowded category is lips. How did I get to this? Goodness! The thing is, I'm wearing a different colour of lipstick, gloss or lip balm for every mood I have and then bought some for the blog too and they are all so pretty. But this has got to end here.

After streamlining it is still quite a lot for many people for sure, but this is a nice selection of nudes, pinks reds, and different formulations, so I am very pleased.

Next up: eyeshadows. this is the least crowded category of all, I still don't need as many. I will stick to neutrals, browns and bronzes so I will keep the two old Mac limited edition palettes (one matte, one shimmery)that are so handy and portable. I only need two bases: one natural, one bronze base. Done.

Moving on to mascara. Zoomlash in blue? Really? I'm wondering what made me think I'm going to wear that? I might do a fun Insta photo with that later on.

Let's be honest, do I really need anything else than a black and a brown mascara? No. 

That looks much better!

What's next? Eyeliners. Realistically I will wear mostly a brown or maybe a dark purple, aubergine, do I need and eyeliner in all the colours of the rainbow? No.
 

That is a severe cut-down, but very fair, I  can always put the rest back into my pro kit or do some fun blog photos with them later on. I kept my favorite pencil Teddy from Mac, a liquid eyelnier in purple and a cream in aubegine.

We have arrived to the brow category. I seriously don't need that many colours and formulations so I will keep my new favourite form Kiko that matches my brow colour and a darker one from Mac if I'm in the mood, keep that brilliant gel from Benefit and job done.

Last but not least, my favourie category: cheeks. This will be difficult.

There are too many products here that I don't use that often no matter how much I love them so I need to be strong and choose the best.

This is a good mix of colours and formulations, old and new, quite versatile too so I am very pleased with my choices.

That concludes this little streamlining challenge. My makeup kit is far from being a capsule collection, still, I feel it looks much better than it was. I am very pleased with my choices, the storages I've chosen are aesthetically pleasing yet practical. If you are a bit of a hoarder like I am I highly suggest doing a clear out sometimes, it does all kinds of nice to your mind and soul ;).

You can find the storage I used from Muji here here and from My Kit Co. here

Hourglass Girl Stylo - first impressions

Girl Stylo Dreamer

This beauty deseves its own write-up.I actually postponed my plans of posting about decluttering my personal makeup kit because of this. Yesterday I went to get the new Taraj P Henson Viva Glam lipstick from Mac, but they didn't have it in stock so I came back from town with this instead. 

Hourglass is the creme de la creme of makeup brands, whatever they bring out is classy, beautiful and good quality with sleek packaging. Girl Stylo is no exception. They introduced the range back in January, a collection of 20 diverse colours with thoughtful names of characteristics that can describe women which is a tasteful tip of the hat to 'girl power'(Futurist, Idealist, Dreamer, Influencer, Achiever, Peacemaker, Seeker, Explorer, Believer, Creator, Warrior, Protector, Liberator, Leader, Icon, Visionary, Innovator, Lover, Inventor, Activist).

Since no matter how I wanted to I couldn't part with £520 (ouch!) to buy the whole range, I picked one that I will try first and then invest in other colours if I like it, they all look beautiful and wearable. I'm pretty sure I've spent about half an hour to pick just one shade. Seeker and Dreamer were the runners up and I ended up getting the latter since I use more peachy shades in spring and I am a bit of a dreamer anyway ;).

Girl Stylo is a crayon style hydrating lip colour with a pointed nib. The texure is dreamy soft, light, infused with shea butter, jojoba, sunflower seed, mimosa so it's very comfortable to wear. It has a satin finish with great colour pay-off  that goes on smooth and stays on quite nicely.

Girl Stylo is a bit of an an ivestment piece (like the Tom Ford, Chanel or Charlotte Tilbury lipsticks), it's £26.00 so I think if you are a capsule makeup kind of girl, or if you just love to wear a bit of luxury on your lips,  it is worth it. As soon as I started wearing it, I fell in love with it, so Dreamer is definitely going into my everyday makeup bag for the spring and I will get more shades later on.

Wearing Dreamer in natural light

Girl Stylo is formulated without Parabens, Sulphates, Phthalates, and are not tested on animals.

Available in SpaceNK, Libery and Net-a-Porter.

Industry news - Alexandra Shulman leaving Vogue

Interesting times ahead in the fashion world, dear readers! On 25th January Alexandra Shulman, the Editor-in-Chief of British Vogue has announced her departure from the reputable publication and will leave its ranks in June. When she joined after leaving GQ 25 years ago despite having journalism and Vogue 'in her blood' (her mother Drusilla Beyfus was a Vogue associate editor in the 70s, her father, Milton Shulman, was a Vogue film critic for a while) she wasn't the obvious choice. Shulman has always been pleasingly free of pretention, self-aware dare I say normal. Her candid, self-depricating, down-to-earth approach was in stark contrast with her predecessor and felt incredibly refreshing in the weird and fancy world of fashion.

While as a 15 year-old I was blissfully unaware of what was happening behind the scenes at Vogue House in '92, fast-forward a few years, I was poring over fashion images in Vogue and other magazines, anything connected to the fashion industry, supermodels (Cindy and Linda were my favorites) watching Fashion TV all the time and was secretly nursing a dream about once being able to work in this world. Fast forward again a good few years, today I am a makeup artist and the world of Vogue has has had a lot of influence on the profession I've chosen and very much enjoy today.


Shulman took over editing the magazine in 1992. Remember all this?

This is just a taster of what happened since her takeover. Vogue has produced the most iconic images in fashion and under her leadership and it has become an unstoppable force influencing the global fashion world and modern culture. Taking the magazine through immense changing times Shulman has successfully turned London, Britain into a major fashion player by supporting local designers (like Alexander McQueen, Chrisopher Kane), British photographers, sylists, make-up artists, constantly urging established fashion houses to show their collections in London. She was championing London Fashion Week, making the city an integral part of the Fashion Week circle that used to revolve mostly around Paris, Milan and NYC. British Vogue can't be defined as only an isolated fashion entity any more but through Alexandra Shulman's hard work it exists within a context, it is part of British culture and it nicely reflects its richness and diversity. All  this can be attributed to the fact that Shulman has never been only a 'fashion person' but first and foremost a journalist with many  interests outside the fashion world.

While ironically she never showed as much interest in her own personal wardrobe as her predessecor, Liz Tiberis, she has a good number of iconic fashion moments, triumphs under her belt: making London Fashion Week what it is today, the centenary issue and putting a royal (The Duchess of Cambrige) on its cover, featuring plus size model Ashley Graham on one of the covers, a whole model-free issue revolving around real women, her many collaborations with Kate Moss just to name a few. She's been an avid cheerleader of the British fashion industry but not afraid of criticizing fashion houses about their miniscule sample sizes either.

 A few of Shlulman's fashion triuphs - Kate Moss collaborations, Ashley Graham cover and the centenary cover

"I feel strongly that women who are in positions of authority or  power, or who work in professions, should be able to indulge their interest in clothes and fashion without it seeming frivolous or that they don't care about their jobs." says Shulman and I think this above quote describes her best. It seems this strong belief proved to be a recipe for success for her -  Vogue's circulation grew 12% which is a big achievement in our digital age and with all the great fashion bloggers/vloggers around. She is now the most successful editor of British Vogue in its 100 years history.

Alexandra Shulman and Anna Wintour *

Writing about Shulman's departure, you can't leave out her ongoing (strictly professional) competition with her glitzier American counterpart, Anna Wintour at US Vogue drawing to a close. The rivalry betweeen the two towering figureheads of fashion has been the integral part of the history of both magazines, you almost can't imagine one without the other. The tricky relationship between the two women has sparked many rumours, anectotes yet they lived in symbiosis and I tend to think they kept each other on their toes, feeding each other's creativity.

Alexandra Schulman**

Alexandra Shulman has done what she could for Vogue above and beyond, the publication is left as a still well-functioning platform for the fashion industry. As she is off to seek new adventures, what the future holds for the magazine is still up in the air. If will definitely be interesting to see what direction Vogue will go from here. Her successor will be announced in due course.


(*Picture credits: http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/british-vogue-documentary-exposes-ruthless-8793976)
(**Picture credits: http://my.npg.org.uk/single/PSDetail.aspx?psn=415) 

Real Techniques - 5 tools, flawless complexion

Here's a little limited edition surprise from Real Techniques,  a handy collection of tools, a prep and prime set that all beauty lovers would be happy to own.

I was looking for some sort of a spatula that I can use for my creams and cleansers anyway, so this grabbed my attention straight away. It said limited edition so I went for it thinking 'I will miss out if I don't get it now!' Damn, I fell for the 'limited edition' sales trap! I'm really glad I got it though because I have used all of them every day ever since I got them.

 
The Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge is not new,already well loved by the public, it the perfect tool to work your foundation/tinted moisturiser/BB, CC Creams  into the skin, a fantastic budget version of the Beauty Blender.

I love the shape and how easy it is to use it, so having a spare always comes handy. The new bit is that you get a brilliant sponge stand that you can keep it in and let it dry! I find sponges quite difficult to store, so I love the idea of having a proper clean place to keep it in.

Another piece in the set is a firm prime brush that you can use for moisturisers, serums, primers and masks. 

I think my main use for this will be the latter but I can imagine even doing a quick foundation routine with this too. So you could do all your prep work with only one brush! How good is that?

I've found the next piece in the collection quite intriguing when I first saw it: an under eye reviver with a stationary aluminum ball. 

I love a roller ball action under my eyes, I remember ages ago I kept buying the Garnier eye cream just for that. This is not technically rolling on the skin but it's great to de-puff the eye area, working in eye creams and I find it perfect for massaging my face oils in at night.

Last but not least, the real reason why I bought the kit is the beauty spatula.

How many times I thought, 'Oh, I wish I had a spatula so I wouldn't have to dip my finger into a tub of product ever again.' but I somehow kept forgetting about it. I find this incredibly useful, not to talk about helping to keep everything hygienic and clean.

I've always thought the Pixiwoos are great talents and businesswomen, I adore their brush collection, but it's always good to see that they are trying to come up with things that are actually useful rather than bringing out gimmick after gimmick riding the coat tails of their Youtube fame. Top marks overall for this helpful little set.
The Limited Edition Prep and Prime Set is available at Superdrug for £19.99.