Downsizing and a DIY Lip Palette

Since coming back and having binged intensely on make up in Europe, I've been thinking...why can't I downsize?  Although this blog may lead you to believe otherwise, I've always been a person who wishes she had one go-to.  As in, one holy grail (HG) red lipstick that satisfies all my red lip needs and I'll never use another again.  We can all dream, can't we?

I've been reading several posts on essential beauty items and downsized makeup collections, I've decided to take matters into my own hands.  This past week, I've taken it upon myself to throw away anything I haven't used in one calender year.  I gave myself 12 months because my skin colours swings rather wildly throughout the seasons, so I end up purchasing for two skintones.  I started with my lip products, which needed desperate help.

Remember this?

I think that was about half.

I've managed to get it down to this.  I'm thinking of eventually doing a makeup collection, if you'd be interested.  Once it's all sorted and weeded out of course!

But one thing I knew I wanted to do in my downsizing process was to create a lip palette.  I normally prefer bullets, but I realized that this was a fantastic way to Back to Mac colours I wasn't sure I wanted to let go of quite yet.  Also, since I think I'm going to adopt a one-in-one-out policy (don't quote me yet, no big, sweeping declarations here), I wanted to find a way to fit a couple extra colours in here.

Hence, I read a random DIY article, stole a pillbox from my dad and went to town.  There are a million and one DIY videos/posts on how to make your own palette, but the gist is this:  Flame, bullet, spoon.  Light a candle, put your lipstick in a spoon and hold it over the flame, and pour.

I also read this really interesting post where a girl's lip colours changed after depotting them.  Of course this put me into a lip-depotting existential crisis where I couldnt decide how much of the bullet to leave behind.

Clockwise from upper left:  Revlon Certainly Red, MAC Pro Longwear Lip Creme in Good to Go, MAC Viva Glam V,  Joe Fresh Baie Sauvage

The answer?  None.  If you have wells as deep as mine, they'll just barely cover the bottom.  If you look in the upper left compartment, you can tell where I realized I didn't have enough product.  Also, lipstick hardens extremely quickly, in the time it took me to melt more of the bullet, the bottom layer had already solidified.

L: from the bullet, R: from the palette
Certainly Red, Baie Sauvage, Good to Go, Viva Glam V

I didn't lose too much pigmentation, but I will say that Viva Glam V (far right) lost some of its shimmer.  And it doesn't show up exactly in the photo, but I think Baie Sauvage has a touch less blue, which is actually fantastic for me -- it made me look the tiniest bit dead before (see it on my friend Peruana here).  Certainly red got a little more sheer, but I think that's to be expected if you plan to dab on your lip colour with your fingers.  I haven't used these with a lip brush yet, but I'm fairly happy with the way it turned out.  I chose these colours because I figured that wherever I go, you can't go wrong with bright fuschia, classic red, muted, shimmery nude and orange to warm everything up.  I know some people like to group colours together (all red, all nude, etc) in larger palettes, but I think for daily use, this works for me.

What colours would you put in?  Any downsizing tips for me?  I'm kind of struggling with foundations.