Used & Abused Makeup Products
The used and abused makeup “tag” has been around for a while and to be honest, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to do it because I’m such a clean freak. I mean, seriously. Everything in my life has to be clean and organized, even all the way down to my email inbox. I don’t keep clutter anywhere and I take care of the things I have. I’ve always been that way. I don’t know why, I’ve just never been a messy person. So when looking through my makeup, I really didn’t think I’d find anything that fit the “used and abused” description. But much to my surprise, there were a few items...
It’s pretty hard to make a mess with pencil products and concealers, but I have two that aren’t very beautiful to look at anymore. The NYX Jumbo eye pencil in Milk is one of my favorites to use for brightening the brow bone. I put a little bit on, blend it with my finger, and set it with a white powder. That works better than any other brow bone highlight I’ve used before and it lasts all day. Unfortunately, I haven’t been very graceful in putting the lid back on and there’s smeared white pencil everywhere.
The Maybelline Age Rewind Eraser for Dark Circles is definitely my favorite under eye concealer ever. I can’t even count how many of these I’ve bought over the years, it’s amazing!! The little sponge applicator on the top makes it pretty easy to get this one messy real quick. I’m positive that every one of these concealers that I’ve repurchased has looked like this at some point.
For individually packaged face products, I seem to have really made a mess with the NYC Smooth Skin Bronzer and the Maybelline Fit Me pressed powder in Ivory. I’ve hit serious pan on both of these products, so they’ve clearly been with me for quite a while. The Maybelline powder is basically just really messy. I don’t really know what else you could expect when putting a bright colored powder in black packaging!
The NYC bronzer used to be the favorite of every beauty guru years ago and it’s still such a good product. Even with many other bronzers on the market now, this is one of the best. Aside from how much product is missing from the pan, it’s obvious how much I used this because even the top of the compact is barely hanging on by a thread!
I don’t talk about this BH Cosmetics 6 Color Contour and Blush palette very much on my blog, but it is one of those products that I use all the time when I do my makeup. I don’t use the bronzer or blushes very much, but I always reach for the yellow and white powders in this to brighten my under eye area. The white in this palette is also what I use to set that NYX Jumbo pencil. The broken pan is actually a failed attempt at trying to depot these powders, but the rest of the mess is a result of constant use.
This Pür Cosmetics Midday Mirage Cheek palette isn’t torn up too bad, but I did want to quickly mention it because it’s not a pretty sight anymore and it’s definitely one that I’ve gotten a ton of use out of. This is a great all in one palette for me -- better than some of the rest just based on its ingredients, but the packaging is a little bulky.
This is an Ofra pro magnetic palette that I mostly filled in with my favorite Makeup Geek blush, bronzer, and eyeshadow pans. Since it houses my favorite products, of course it’s going to get used all the time. I’m clearly hitting pan on many of the products in this palette and some of them are starting to kick up some extra product everytime I load up my brush for application. This is the palette that I always travel with, which probably also has a lot to do with the mess on the outer edges.
These Ulta glitter eye top coats aren’t necessarily my most used products, but they are clearly very abused. I know I’ve dropped the gold one many times causing it to shatter more and more, but I’m not exactly sure what happened to the silver one. It’s a very chunky, dry formula which would explain the glitter being everywhere even though it’s all still in one piece. I just have no idea how the actual plastic packaging got so ruined.
I’m including this Elf Prism eyeshadow palette for the same reason as that Pür Cosmetics face palette. I’ve used it a lot and it’s got a lot of product on the packaging -- more than what is on the rest of my products. I typically apply these eyeshadows with my finger so even though these are huge pans, that would explain the pigment on the plastic. It’s also very clear which two shades are my favorite!
When it comes to other small eyeshadow palettes, I have another magnetic palette that I put my favorites in and I have an Almay trio that I’ve used for years. The Almay trio is what I used in high school. Even though I’m pretty positive I have repurchased it since then, it still looks like it could pass as my original.
The magnetic palette has a few eyeshadows in it that were either lightly hit by something or accidentally dug into with a nail. Most of the eyeshadows are MAC and the rest are some of my other favorite Makeup Geek shadows that wouldn’t fit in the face palette. As you’ll see in Friday’s tutorial, I’m loving the warm-toned browns right now which would explain those powders being everywhere.
This NYX Nude on Nude eyeshadow palette brings back so many memories for me! It was the first eyeshadow palette that I bought after discovering the beauty community and learning from Youtube tutorials almost six years ago. I bought it in hopes of finding a dupe for the Urban Decay Naked palette that was so popular at the time. This was also one of the first palettes that I reviewed on my blog back in 2015!
I still think it’s a beautiful palette with gorgeous eyeshadows, even though I still can’t get behind the whole pressed lipstick in a pan concept. It doesn’t have the most sturdy packaging, so it hasn’t held up as good as I would have liked it to over the years. Surprisingly, though, there’s no as much powder kick up in it as I would expect there to be.
This was really fun to go through my collection and pick up products that I’ve had for such a long time. It brought back so many memories! However, taking the pictures was a little difficult for me because these aren’t the prettiest products anymore and that’s half of the fun of beauty blogging is playing with all the pretty looking makeup. It’s okay, though. All of these products still perform amazingly well no matter what condition their packaging is in!
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~Christina~
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