Capsule Makeup Collection Challenge 2025

[itsfi]

Happy New Year, BIC! It's year 2 of the capsule makeup challenge. 

What is this challenge about?

It's a mix of curating a group of products that are "must haves" for you and your lifestyle and shopping your stash by putting your beauties to use and seeing what, if anything, you need to declutter from your stash and/or to fill out your collection. 

How does this work?

To add a little bit of fun and creativity to curating a makeup capsule, there will be a weekly theme or prompt on which that week's group of beauty products will touch upon. There's no need to have every single product for the week fit the theme exactlay. All you need is one product. And, truth be told, how that product fits into the weekly theme is subject to interpretation. Yours, primarily. So, please  feel free to be creative. For example, last year for "green" week, there were a host of possibilities for what it means for a product to be "green" - capsules that included one or more products that were (a) green in color; (b) "clean"; (c) contained in green packaging or that (d) cost a lot of "green" 💸💸💸 fit the bill. 😉 For more examples, you might want to check out last year's thread - Capsule Makeup Collection Challenge 2024 to see what beauty products others in the Community have used and posted about. 

When and where are/will the weekly themes posted?

The weekly themes are (or will be) included in the original post - under the section titled "Current Makeup Capsule Theme" or "Upcoming Makeup Capsule Theme". Occasionally, I will post a link to a separate post with the monthly themes.

CURRENT MAKEUP CAPSULE THEME:

Week 2 (January 6 - 12) - The "Mocha Mousse" Inspired Makeup Capsule 
We're going for the soft, rich, neutral, comforting brown that Pantone has named its Color of the Year for 2025. Think of a combination of cacao, coffee, and chocolate - as eyeshadow, liner, blush, or on your lips. Whether it's a full face of mocha mousse or a look combining it with other colors to suit your style, put together a makeup capsule with one or more beauty products in keeping with Pantone's Color of the Year.

Upcoming Makeup Capsule Themes: [Updated 1.5.2025]

Spoiler

Week 3 (January 13 - 19) - The "Favorite Feature(s) Focus" Makeup Capsule   
There's a couple of ways to play up or play with this week's theme. This week's capsule focuses on either one or both of the following:

🎥  a look inspired by a feature film. This theme was inspired by @PDXXXX's fabulous head-to-toe looks on the super funThe Fit, The Fab and The Face: Outfit and Inspo Thread. 

⭐ the feature(s) you most enjoy playing up or shining a spotlight on. 🔦  
BONUS - if you love cheek products or playing up your cheekbones, you may want to take a peek at the fun happening on theCheek Challenge Winter 2024/25, The Frost, The Glitz and The Wardrobe thread. Or, if lips are your favorites, check out 100 Days of Lipstick Challenge. Eyes? Try 100 Shades of Eyeshadow Challenge or 💖 100 Days of Eyeliner Challenge 🌈.  If you've got an entire look going on, check out Makeup Challenge of the Week 2021/2022/2023/2024 for some additional themes and/or What are you wearing in 2025?? 

Week 4 (January 20 - 26) - The "How Low Can I Go?" Makeup Capsule 
"Low" can have a host of meanings for this week's challenge. Low can mean any one or more of the following: 

🌿  astoundingly affordable makeup products that perform amazingly well - either a capsule made of up products each costing (regularly priced) less than $25 USD / $36 CAD or a capsule of makeup products that, all in, totals less than $50 USD / $72 CAD. [NOTE: these thresholds are arbitrary and if you want to set a different ceiling, go for it!]

🌱  the minimal number of products you need for an everyday or full face look. BONUS: if you can do this with 6 or less products, and are up for another challenge, check out theSephora Six - Fast & Furious Edition thread

🌳  your interpretation of "low"


Week 5 (January 27 - February 2) - The Lunar New Year 2025 Zodiac Sign Lucky Colors" Makeup Capsule  
Lunar New Year falls on January 29 this year and 2025 is The Year of the Snake. For this week, curate a makeup capsule in celebration of The Year of the Snake. A few ideas for your capsules may include beauty products consisting of any one or all of the following ideas. Remember, you don't have to a full face of makeup for this theme, just one product will do, though you can certainly include more. 

🎊  Colors deemed to be a "lucky" color for you in 2025 based on your Lunar Zodiac sign. This is just for fun and there are different determin ations of what your sign's lucky color is this year, so please bear this in mind, but I thought this might be a fun and different approach to this capsule. I'll list the "lucky" colors in a spoiler near the end of Week 3, to keep the original post from being too long. 

🐍  Products from a Lunar New Year, Year of the Snake collection

🎋  The colors red and gold are often associated with Lunar New Year

🎏  Makeup brands from countries that observe Lunar New Year. FYI - Lunar New Year is not celebrated by all Asian countries, generally speaking. It's more significant and more widely celebrated in, among other East Asian countries, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Previous Capsule Challenge Themes: [Updated: 1.5.2025]

Spoiler

1 - The "New Year, New-To-You" Makeup Capsule  

Additional FAQs

Spoiler

Why weekly? 
Years ago, beauty & lifestyle blogger Serein Wu, did a weekly series (on her blog and YouTube channel), Makeup Bag Monday, where she rotated her makeup bag each week with new product launches and makeup already in her collection. Every Monday, she shared the products she selected for the upcoming week and provided detailed makeup reviews on the makeup she used for the previous week. My reviews here will likely not be as detailed, but I will at least try to include a few thoughts about the products at the end of the week or beginning of the next week.  If weekly works for you, great. If not, feel free to join in based on what works best for you. 

Having a weekly capsule at the ready at (or near) the beginning of the week has also been helpful with making getting ready in the morning easier and more efficient, and that, has made it more fun too. It's also a great way for me to see how well a product performs with other products and that makes the decision to keep, donate, re-home or toss an item a lot easier. Also want to note that if the makeup for the week's capsule is not something you want to use for the entire week, that's fine, too. I generally use the makeup in the week's capsule 4-6 days during the week, sometimes more, sometimes less. 

When are the weekly themes posted?
I generally try to post the themes for the next month about two weeks before the start of that next month (so around the 15th of each month, give or take a few days), except that, for this month, weekly themes for weeks 2 thru 5 for January will be posted by or before end of the day on January 2. Weekly themes are updated at the end of the then current week (e.g., Sunday). This year, I will plan to update the weekly themes the Sunday before the start of the next week's theme, around 9pm Pacific / 10pm Mountain / 11pm Central / 12midnight Eastern Time.

What if I don't have enough products to fit the theme for a full face?

There's need for your entire makeup capsule to fit the weekly theme(s). Just one item will do. And, even if you don't have one that fits squarely within a theme, feel free to post your makeup capsule. We'd love to see what you're using and hear your feedback on the products as you put them to use - are they a favorite or a potential favorite? Are they just 'meh'? Or, is it time to declutter the item(s) from your stash?

Is there anything else I should include in my capsule?
It's all up to you what to include in your capsule. Some weeks, my capsule consists of completely different items than the week before. Other weeks, I've swapped out just a few items or have included additional items in one category of products - some of us refer to this as giving us options for the week. 

You may see reference to "fits." That was creatively coined by our fabulous @danielledanielle and refers to the bag or component that will hold the week's makeup and, specifically, does all the makeup for the week's capsule fit into the bag / storage component. You ca also include the makeup brushes and tools you use for application, if you wish.

[itsfi]

Week 2 (January 6 - 12) - The "Mocha Mousse" Inspired Makeup Capsule 

• Primer: Dr. Jart+ Mini Cicapair Color Correcting Treatment SPF 30 15 mL/ .50 fl oz is good for reducing or just completely masking redness on my cheeks and around my nose. I also have just the little bit of GUERLAIN Parure Gold 24K Radiance Primer 1.2 oz / 35 mL left to use up.

Spoiler

• Foundation: It's going to be a light coverage week, for the most part - I'll rotate between the Live Tinted Hueguard Tint Skin Tint SPF 50 and the Victoria Beckham by Augustinus Bader Priming Moisturizer (Golden)
• Concealer: DIOR Backstage Concealer 2N 
• Finishing Powder: Hourglass Ambient® Lighting Finishing Powder Dim Light (part of my 2025 pan it! challenge)
• Setting Products: I'll switch between the Dior Forever Perfect Fix Setting Spray - this has a paired really well with the Guerlain primer and the SEPHORA COLLECTION Translucent Loose Setting Powder (gratis)

Eyes:

Spoiler

• Primer: about-face Shadow Fix Eye Primer
• Eyeshadow: Cle de Peau Quad (discontinued)
• Eye Liner: Danessa Myricks Beauty Infinite Chrome Waterproof Micropencil Eyeliner Bronzite (upper lashline) and Makeup by Mario Master Mattes Brightening Pencil - Light 1 (discontinued) (waterline)
• Mascara: Cosnori Perfect Setting Mascara Waterproof Long & Curl

Cheeks:

Spoiler

• Blush: Ami Colé Desert Date Cream Blush & Lip Multistick Hibiscus for some color. I love the monochromatic look but it doesn't always translate so well on me; I need a little color somewhere. This week, it'll be courtesy of my blush. This can also serve as a lippie if I tire of the neutral brown lip look.
• Highlight: Byredo Fluid Highlighter Stick Gilded Memoir
• Bronzer: Pixi On-the-Glow Bronze Stick - Soft Glow 

Spoiler

• Lip Balm: Sulwhasoo Glowing Lip Balm
• Lipstick: Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Fenty Icon The Fill Semi-Matte Refillable Lipstick She A CEO - on its own it's a deep, dark brown. Paired with the Fenty gloss or Fenty lip oil and it gives off those mocha mousse vibes.
• Lip Gloss: Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer Champ Stamp Fantasy 
• Lip Oil: Pound Cake Cake Theory Lip Tone Equalizing Oil - this was generously gifted to me by a friend. I'm not sure about the "neutralizing" claims of this product but it feels super comfortable on and looks beautiful paired with the liners and the lipstick in this week's capsule.
• Lip Liner: It'll be a heavy lip liner + lip oil/gloss week 😍 with my lip liner options consisting of Merit Lip Liner (Bespoke) (this was part of a limited edition holiday set a few years ago, hoping it is made part of the permanent collection at some point - it's one of my favorite neutral brown lip liners - creamy and glides on beautifully). Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat Lip Liner Love Trap and Dominique Cosmetics lip liner (I think the shade is Crush; it was part of a holiday set a few years back; a lovely pinky- nude brown shade that is the ideal mix of those two color families for my lips.

The Weekend Edition of this week's capsule.

The Process: 

Spoiler

I have a few approaches to selecting the makeup products for each week's capsule. 

• The Focused Approach - For last week's capsule (New Year, New To You Makeup), I started by pulling out a couple of the on-theme products I wanted to use (namely, the Saie blush (gratis), the Dior lipstick Dazzle and the Aerin fragrance, which I'm blending with other fragrances at the moment to see what combo I like with it). I focused my other products around those with the idea that I wanted to incorporate at least one 2025 pan it! challenge item (Cle de Peau and YSL eyeshadow quad) and filled out the rest with a mix of products I've used before. I had 11 makeup items (did not count skincare or fragrance) - for this year, I'm aiming for most of my weekly capsules to fall within the 8-12 product range. Some weeks will have more items and some, less.

• The "Cast My Net Out Wide & Pare Down" Approach - Set aside what I think I'd like to use for the week's theme and then edit from there, trying to be as realistic as possbile with what I'll use as well as what I'll want for options. This is what I tried for this week's Mocha Mousse theme - as you can see, I leaned more into options. 😮🤣 More on how I arrived at all of this in the spoiler below.

• The "Keep It Simple (& Stunning) Approach - This is when I really want a well-edited capsule, but without sacrificing options. It usually means my capsule consists of 6-10 products, depending on whether or not I'm going for a full face of makeup.  

Week 2 Process: 
I made the mistake of filling the bag with whatever I could fit in the bag. 🙄 This is a very spacious bag, so whoops! 😬 I guess "paring it down" is all relative. lol.

What I started with ... again, very spacious bag. Ha!


I didn't realize just how spacious until I emptied the bag and placed all the products into groups - complexion - eyes - cheeks - lips. As well as skincare, skincare/makeup hybrids, and fragrance.



The cheek products were easy to decide on as there were only 3 and in different subcategories - blush, bronzer, highlight. We eventually arrived at this, which, while less than what we started with, looks like a lot ... because it is a lot. Eeeeek!!! I could have done better with paring down the lip and complexion products. Next time. 

Edited to add: Tags and swatches added to post. Will update post later today to tag products and include swatches.

[CynthieLu]

My New Year, New-To-You Makeup Capsule   🎉🍾

The New:

✨Revlon Cream Eye Shadow Pods

✨Nyx Butermelt Blush

✨Saie Dew Blush Liquid Cream Blush Chilly ( Gratis 💝🙏)

✨Valentino Donna Born In Roma Eau de Parfum Travel Spray 0.33 oz/ 10 mL  ( Gratis 💝😊)

✨Clarins mascara

✨Rephr Eye Brushes 

The rest: 

Danessa Myricks Beauty Linework Paintbrush Fluid Liquid Eyeliner 0.034 oz / 1 ml 

Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Soothing Serum Skin Tint Foundation with Peptides + Ceramides 4 

Hourglass Ambient Lighting Edit Unlocked Palette Evil Eye 

Benefit Cosmetics Mighty Fine Waterproof Brow Pen 3 

Here's to another fun year of capsules 🎉 Thank you so much @itsfi for putting this thread together for us. 🙏 It's going to be another fun year of capsules, I'm excited to see this challenge unfold and peak at what everyone is using. 😊 Have fun everyone! 

I'm surprised I had enough in my stash to really focus on the theme New. But in the end I did have a nice group. A few of these were gifts, gratis and products in my collection that I'm just getting to open now. Plus my new brushes ( a little gift to self )  I'm having fun getting used to everything. 😀

[peculiarzmakeup]

Beautiful capsule, photo, and “News” I love your variety and how these products are new faves for you I also enjoy the Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Soothing Serum Skin Tint Foundation with Peptides + Ceramides 2  I feel like it does such a wonderful effortless job with good coverage I’ve seen you sport it beautifully 🩷 love the pink tones it’s so cool to see what everyone’s new loves are I find it so fun to discover 🩷 @CynthieLu 

[itsfi]

This is a wonderful mix of tried-and-true and new-to-you products @CynthieLu! I've heard good things about the NYX blush and the Revlon cream eyeshadows - those actually bring back a bit of nostalgia for me - Revlon had, I think they still have, these cream eyeshadow quads baaaack in the day; that was my intro to cream eyeshadows, well, other than the blue cream eyeshadow stick of my mom's that little me may have found a way to get her little hands on at the time. Oops. 😂

[CynthieLu]

Thank you @itsfi I've seen them get some hype on social media and a bunch of my co-workers absolutely love them. I have only used them a few times but my initial reaction feels pretty positive. 

I know what you mean about makeup nostalgia. I have certain products that when I see them really take me back. I like the feeling, and the way we evolve our makeup choices etc.. it's fun to remember and enjoy the changing times. 🩷

I remember enjoying an icy blue cream eyeshadow waaay back but I think it may have been a Body Shop product? It's actually really hard to remember exactly where I discovered it. 🤯😂

[blackkitty2014]

A great product lineup @CynthieLu 👏🌹

[CynthieLu]

Thank you @blackkitty2014 💝 I've got a good feeling about these new ones, it's time you start trying them out and see how they perform.🧐

[blackkitty2014]

I was out of town most of the 1st week so I will join your ladies on the 2nd week. I love Mocha theme. PS. I might have to cheat with the lipsticks. I’m trying to do 100 day lip challenge as well so I can see how many lipsticks I need to toss 😢 @itsfi 

[itsfi]

@blackkitty2014, I hope you had a fabulous time this week - it can be so nice to get away. Jump on in when you can; always love having you here.

Oh blackkitty, not cheating at all - it's awesome to engage in activities across multiple threads; and great when they intersect with one another. Besides, we are all on board if your capsule has "extras," or, "options" as some of us say. 😅 It'll be exciting to see you work through your lipsticks - that seems like it'll be quite the task - you have such a beautiful collection; I don't envy you. Good luck!

[blackkitty2014]

Thx you @itsfi 🌹

[lmaster]

Week 1 (December 31 - January 5) - The "New Year, New-To-You" Makeup Capsule

I'm working this week with:

Diamond of the first water eyeshadow palette by Pmg

Hourglass snake palette

Hourglass Phantom Volumizing Glossy Lip Balm  Thrill 165 

Rhode salty tan

Trial size Armani Beauty Lip Maestro Liquid Matte Lipstick 501 Casual Pink   

Saie Dew Blush Liquid Cream Blush Chilly 

DIOR BACKSTAGE Glow Face Palette 006 Celestial Glow 

NARS Laguna Bronzing Cream 

Fenty Beauty by Rihanna Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Longwear Powder Foundation 260 

Thrive cosmetics mascara 

Lancôme Monsieur Big Volumizing Mascara Standard Size Black - 0.33 oz/ 10 mL 

[danielledanielle]

Oooh, brilliant start to the year @lmaster 

[lmaster]

Thanks doll @danielledanielle 

[Mcakes]

@lmaster this is such a pretty capsule! Didn't get the Hourglass snake palette, but I couldn't resist the dragon one. 

[lmaster]

Thank you dearly @Mcakes 

[itsfi]

Ahhhh @lmaster, look at these gorgeous goodies! 😍 I'm so impressed how you rotate your palettes and put them to use - PML, Hourglass and Dior Backstage - they're all beauties!!! I think I spend more time just staring at many of my palettes. 😅 How do you like the Fenty powder foundation? (asks the girl who doesn't need another powder foundation, lol). Do you like to apply it with a brush or a sponge / puff?

[lmaster]

Thank you lovely @itsfi i use it with a puff, either to set, or to blend my bronzer and Blush

[peculiarzmakeup]

Fantastic capsule! You have such a beautiful pallette selection love your choices it’s so cool to see what goes into everyone’s capsules and preferences you look beautiful and can’t wait to see some on you! @lmaster  ❤️❤️❤️ lovely photo as well!

[lmaster]

Thank you darlin @peculiarzmakeup 

[CynthieLu]

These are very pretty looking products you've made a capsule out of @lmaster. 😍 I'm going to go google your PMG palette, I don't think I've seen the inside of this one before. 🔎

I think you'll make some beautiful looks out of this. 😊🩷