Empties Galore Part 2: Makeup I've Used Up!

Alright, you've seen my skincare empties in the previous post, and now, we're moving on to the makeup items that I've used up in the past 6 months or so! (There's also a skincare item that I forgot about for the previous post - oops - but otherwise, all the other items are makeup!) I'm pretty excited to talk about some of the items here, because some of these items are really my makeup staples, and although I don't often talk about them on my blog, they are some of the day-to-day backbone-of-my-routine type products.

Makeup and skincare empties that I can finally say I've used up in 2015!

On reflection, it's pretty appropriate that this post is going live on the last day of the year, because it really has that "out with the old, in with the new" vibe. And while I'm excited for the new products that I will be buying this upcoming year, it's also weirdly satisfying to see that I managed to use up some of my older products, too.

All the skincare and makeup empties I've accumulated over the past half a year or so

So, without further ado, let's get started!

First, we have the Etude House Magic Any Cushion in Peach, which I've reviewed and swatched before, along with the other Magic Any Cushion shades. I've also blogged about the launch of the Magic Any Cushion, too. The Magic Any Cushion is pretty good for a sheer wash of colour and shine, and it also has SPF too, so it's a great base. This isn't the first Magic Any Cushion I've used up - I've used up other colours and featured them in this previous empties post, and also further back in this other empties post from last year.


Base makeup empties: Etude House Magic Any Cushion and Coastal Scents Powders
The other thing that I used up, in terms of base makeup, is my loose powder! As some of you might know, while I happily buy and use loose powder off the shelf, I also like to mix in my own ingredients and make my own loose powder. There isn't really a specific reason why I do this, but I find it fun, and loose powder is fairly safe to experiment with, as far as the realm of DIY cosmetics go. But I also find that mixing my own powder allows me to add ingredients for my own needs (e.g. slight shimmer but not OTT, good oil control properties), and is also cheaper. I generally use silica, talc, and some shimmer (e.g. boron nitride, mica), and whatever other loose powders don't work for me anymore (e.g. wrong shadse/shades that are too dark are great for this).

The small sachets in the photo above are basically small sample-sized amounts of Coastal Scents Boron Nitride, which doesn't have much colour, but provides a nice shimmer. There are two types of boron nitride, boron nitride 16, and boron nitride 30, and the difference is particle size - I believe boron nitride 16 has a smaller particle size. This in turn corresponds to how shimmery they are, and larger particle sizes are more shimmery. Personally, I prefer the more subtle shimmer of boron nitride 16, but I get good use out of both. You can see the original haul of boron nitride and mica and methicone powders I made. It was originally posted on my Instagram):

Coastal Scents powders in their full glory when I bought them

The large empty bag you see in the empties photo is actually the Coastal Scents Silica Powder Spheres, which I really like, and which forms the base of my loose powder. This is 2lbs (907g) of powder, and it took me literally years to use this up! I got this in 2010 or 2009, and I've only just used this up, so yes, 2lbs of loose powder really go a long, long way. This is also a product I've been waxing lyrical about for a long time, because I absolutely love its oil control and soft focus properties. While it can leave a white cast if applied to thickly (especially on darker skins), I find that if I mix it in with other loose powders or foundations, it still imparts some oil control properties without leaving as much of a cast. Below, you can see a photo of the bag of silica powder when it was nice and full (photo is originally from this blogpost in 2012 way back when):

Coastal Scents Silica Powder Spheres: I'll never know why they discontinued it, it was a bestseller, too

Sadly, Coastal Scents no longer sells its DIY ingredients, which means I need to find another source for my powders! There are a bunch of them, so I won't have to go without, but unfortunately none seem to beat the price of Coastal Scents.

And, colour makeup, as well as the one last skincare item I forgot about earlier. First, there is my Kitoko Kalani Acne Ampoule. I'm on my last few bottles, and I really like this ampoule. It's actually been featured in previous empties posts, too - the previous one, the previous previous one, and another old one from last year.


Colour makeup empties: Covergirl and GOSH Lipsticks, YSL Lipgloss, Stila Eyeshadow and Blush, and an Acne Ampoule
I've also used up my Covergirl Blushberry Trushine. This is my third or fourth Blushberry Trushine, as I bought a whole bunch of these when I found they were discontinued. I think I'm going to run out of Blushberry Trushines soon, though - this is my second last backup! As an indication of how many Trushines I've bought, the Trushine has been featured in this empties post, this other empties post, and in this post from 2009, way back when my blog first started!

There's also the GOSH Lipstick in Bourgogne 66. This is a gorgeous bright pinky-plum, and it is one that I've reviewed before in a post from 2010, which is super long ago! So yes, I've finally finished using up this lipstick, and I'm surprised it never went bad during that time, haha. I'm a pretty big fan of GOSH Cosmetics though, I think that as far as drugstores go, they're one of the ones with consistently great quality.

My YSL Gloss Pur in #5 Pur Fuschia is also another empty that I've had for awhile. In fact, YSL has discontinued the Glos Pur range, so that should give you an idea of how embarrassingly old this gloss is! Nevertheless it's a great lipgloss, with a sheer but still visible pop of colour. Pur Fuschia is a sheer bright fuschia pink, which livens up the face without overwhelming it.

Lastly, we have Stila Cloud Eyeshadow, one of my favourite eyeshadows of all time. It's a lovely silvery purple taupe shade with a frosty finish, and you know how I love my taupes! I'm kind of sad that my little pot of Cloud is all gone, and would consider buying another if I didn't have another 32435324 eyeshadows sitting around. (Figure quoted may or may not be exaggerated - I'm not sure which myself.) Anyway, I've swatched Stila Cloud in this long-ago-from-2011 post, and you can see the eyeshadow being used in this FOTD post on my blog.

The last empty is my Stila Blush in Hint, which I believe is one of those old, old products that has been discontinued. It's a bit of a pity that Stila discontinued this powder blush range, as they did have some very gorgeous, wearable colours that were the best at subtly adding just a touch of colour to the cheeks. Hint was one such colour - its a matte, light beige-pink, with heavy emphasis on the beige, and looks like a skintone blah shade in the pan. But when applied, it gives the barest hint of colour to cheeks, so it was very useful for the "I'm not wearing blush but my face isn't colourless" look. I personally used this as a "base blush" of sorts, and would add a brighter blush just on the apples of the cheeks for a little pop of colour.

Like my skincare empties, most of these makeup products were staples in my beauty wardrobe, which is how I managed to hit pan on them in the first place. I already have more silica powder in my stash for mixing, so that definitely is a repurchase for me. And that's it for my makeup empties, and for my final post of the year! Happy new year everyone!