Be forewarned...this is a long and even longer post...think Beauty Thoughts long and add to it LOL:-)  But I assure you there is a point to it all!!! xoxo 

So.

Remember, like, last week when there was quite the tizzy and hoopla surrounding the new Chanel quads?? Ok, maybe not last week but you know what I mean - things come and go so quickly in the beauty world it seems like last week! On a side note, that's one thing I've really tried to come to terms with...that no matter how much excitement surrounds a certain product or launch, everyone will have forgotten it in a month. Including me.

Ok, we're back...

OF COURSE I fell right in line, like the good little beauty soldier I am...ready, willing and haphazardly throwing my wallet at the Chanel SA. Poor thing barely had a chance, as I shouted 'LACE HIGHLIGHTER'...'NEW QUADS'...on the first pre-sale day for the Nordstrom Anniversary Sale. Heart pounding - check. Dentelle - check. New quads - oh crap, which ones???? Oh, yeah...Gabrielle...Vendome. But wait. Look at aaaaaaaaallllll those other pretty colors. So so so so soooooo very pretty. Nope. Decided to stick to my game plan of getting colors that were slightly out of my normal comfort zone. 

I took my little gems home and could barely contain my excitement. Wow they were gorgeous!!! Then they sat in the bag. I did nothing with them. What I did do, was proceed to read blog post after blog post of the colors I didn't get. Tisse Rivoli kept popping up.

Me: Geez, why didn't I get at least one neutral quad to play with???

Me: Because you are trying to expand your stash and not duplicate colors. 

Me: But just look at those swatches!!!

Me: Yeah, but you already have similar colors - remember???

Me: Yeah, but look at those Tisse Rivoli swatches!!!

Me: That blogger does look really gorgeous. Oh, you're right. You totally need that. 

Me: I knew you'd come around. I'll order it tonight. Plus ebates is 10% on Nordstrom, plus double points!! Cha-ching! I'm practically printing $$$!!!

Me: How are you like, the savviest shopper ever?!!! Go get your wallet, woman!!

Me: Already ahead of you. 

Me: See...so smart...I knew I liked you!!!

As I sat impatiently waiting for the Chanel quad I didn't have, I lamented about my current choices sitting untouched and unloved. Wait a minute!! Holy geez, don't I have a Le Metier de Beaute shadow that's kinda orange-y like the one in the Tisse Vendome quad? 

I rifled around and yep, indeed I did have LMdB's Tuscan Sun. I then proceeded to post this pic on Instagram:

My attempt to add something a little different to my stash? Fail. And guess what...the LMdB colors were actually more flattering that Tisse Vendome! *face palm*

What's worse is that this mistake would never have happened in the first place if I had bothered to play around with the LMdB shadows at all since I purchased them way back in December. Over six months and I didn't test or swatch any of them. I looked at a few of them sometimes. But that's it. Why did I do that???

SQUIRREL!!

That's why. 

I knew Tisse Vendome had to go back, there was simply no way to justify keeping it when the LMdB shadows were more flattering. Plus, an orange color like that I wouldn't use much...so again...how can I justify keeping 2 of them?

Tisse Rivoli arrived, much to my waning glee. Nevertheless, I proceeded to post this pic...

Still took me awhile to test them out because this was right around the time I got sidetracked with picture after Instagram picture of Tom Ford Fall. SQUIRREL!!

You know you saw these pictures. Probably, literally a thousand times. Ok, not literally. But it felt like it! Anyway, see...so easily distracted from the Chanel! 

For the 2 seconds I could stop obsessing about whether or not I needed any of the Tom Ford (who am I kidding, of course I needed it), I finally played around with the remaining Chanel quads - Tisse Rivoli and Tisse Gabrielle. The result?? Meh. The texture/formula was beautiful, just like Tisse Vendome had been but the colors were just not doing anything for me. Tisse Rivoli was not different from anything I already had, and 3 of the colors in Tisse Gabrielle looked almost identical once on my lids. Frickity frack. Really???!!!

I was so bummed. All my Chanel hopes...all my recent Chanel enthusiasm...crushed by 3 little quads. I was also annoyed that I let myself get caught up. Again. But maybe, just maybe I was wrong??? I pulled out the 3 quads again, and applied them all...bam...swipe it all off...repeat...repeat. Koh Gen Do cleansing water sure paid for itself that night. 

The result?? Same, same. Loved the texture, but the colors just weren't that extraordinarily different from things I already had. Defeated, deflated and sad...I returned them all. 

Fast forward a bit to last week when I was still dying over Tom Ford Nude Dip...

I knew I didn't need it. Plus swatch after swatch came out, and they all looked like they'd have way more shimmer and frost than I'd want and I thought 3 of the colors would end up looking much too much the same when applied to my eyes. Then Belly posted this her thoughts, HERE. YES! Even she said they were too shiny and frosty! 

Then I had my doubts...because, you know...it's THE must-have of the season. Until the next thing comes along ha ha. 

Then I decided I wasn't going to let Mr. Tom Ford get the better of me and I decided to fulfill my long awaited urge to deport things. Oh, wait I mean deport. Crap. DEPOT. I hate auto-correct sometimes. Seriously no matter how many times I tapped out deport on my phone in the last week it always auto-corrected to deport. Deporting, same thing happened. UGH noooo. Why didn't I catch that before it posted?? See??? Geez - I've trained it to automatically put NARS in all caps, and to correctly capitalize/decap LMdB...so why can't it finally get DEPOT/DEPOTTING???  

My reason for depotting my shadows is/was this: I have a lot of beautiful shadows, most of which get either little to no use because I'm constantly looking at other shadows. Totally goes against having a stash that is loved and actually gets used! If I depot my shadows, then I'll be able to see what I have, and it'll be easier to see whether or not something I want is similar to something I already have. 

Again, Belly came to the rescue. I looked up all her posts on DEPOTTING, especially this one here. Then I proceeded to read her link to Diabolus In Cosmetica's post about depotting Rouge Bunny Rouge shadows, here. I already had the tools, including a couple of Sephora Z-palettes that I had purchased during the last 20% off sale (knew I'd want to depot eventually!). 

Fire, melting plastic and this is what happened the first night...

And this is what I ended up with...

I was scared to depot the Burberry (btw, Diabolus has a fantastic Burberry depotting tutorial, here) so I started with Pale Barley since I have a backup. But it came out really well!! Yay! 

And the next morning, I discovered this was much quicker than a candle...

And I now I have this...

Ta-daaaaaaaah!!! All my Rouge Bunny Rouge and Burberry singles (except the PB backup) are now deported. DEPOTTED. 

There's something utterly satisfying and exciting with seeing all these singles in one fell swoop. I mean...seriously...beautiful and gorgeous colors!!! I don't even miss the packaging - how weird is that! However, even after depotting these and ordering more Sephora Z-palettes to depot my other singles (and maybe some palettes?), I had back and forth thoughts about Tom Ford Nude Dip. Even today!! 

Then I threw in the towel and gave up. I'm not buying anymore shadows for the rest of the year. Challenge??? Yes. Accepted??? Uuuuuuh, yeah. I mean, YES. Just to make sure I was in-it-to-win-it, I unofficially officially announced it on Facebook. Now that it's in a post, it's officially official!! 

But whyyyyyyyy?!!! 

Seriously I don't need anymore shadows. Between my singles and palettes I have way more than I'll ever use even in a couple of years. Or longer. It's time to dig into my stash and make good on what I keep telling myself to do...use it or lose it, lady! :-)  

I've gone back and forth over what to use as an incentive/reward to keep my eyeshadow obligation. It'll probably involve a pair of boots and a bag :-)  I can do this!!! 

So that's my goal...stick to an eyeshadow no buy until January 1, 2015. At that point I'll evaluate my progress and see if anything needs to be purged. I'm hoping to weed some things out. Then maybe I'll keep going??? 

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it :-)  Anyone care to join me??