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 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"

Upcoming Makeup Capsule Themes: [Updated 1.19.2025]

Spoiler

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 determinations 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 The "lucky" colors have been uploaded in the spoiler below in a spoiler near the end of Week 3, to keep the original post from being too long. Please note that since these zodiac animal signs are based on the lunar calendar (where the first of any given year may not, and often, does not, fall on the first of the month, some of the years and animal signs listed below may need to be adjusted based on your actual birthday. The below chart is a general estimate for those with birthdays in January and February of any given year. If your birthday falls in either of those months and you would like to know a more definitive lunar zodiac sign, you can put that into an online search to get more accurate information.

Spoiler

🐍  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: 1.19.2025]

Spoiler

1 - The "New Year, New-To-You" Makeup Capsule  
2 - The "Mocha Mousse" Inspired Makeup Capsule
3 - The "Favorite Feature(s) Focus" 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.

[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. 😊🩷

[lmaster]

Thank you sweets!! @CynthieLu 

[peculiarzmakeup]

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

2024 was an amazing year getting to experience different products, find best fits, and find new faves. All of the products were new to me. I decided to write about what became the new routine.

Skin Care

Tatcha is my NEW 

my favorites are the 

Tatcha The Matcha Cleanse Daily Clarifying Gel Cleanser 5 oz / 150 ml 

Tatcha The Dewy Skin Cream Plumping & Hydrating Refillable Moisturizer 

Another NEW is a cleansing balm that smells like a dreamsicle from a skin specialist! 

Foundation

Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Soothing Serum Skin Tint Foundation with Peptides + Ceramides 2 

Concealer

Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Lift & Flex Hydrating Concealer With Hyaluronic Acid & Caffeine 2 

Bronzer

MERIT Bronze Balm Sheer Sculpting Bronzer Quince 

Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez Warm Wishes Effortless Cream Bronzer Stick Power Boost 

Blush

Rhode Pocket Blush (Sleepy Girl)

MERIT Flush Balm Cream Blush Stockholm 

MERIT Flush Balm Cream Blush Mood 

Highlighter 

MERIT Day Glow Dewy Highlighting Balm Bounce 

Eyebrows

Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez Brow Harmony Flexible Lifting and Laminating Eyebrow Gel 0.15 oz / 4.5 g 

Powder

Danessa Myricks Beauty Yummy Skin Blurring Balm Powder 

Lip

Rokael Beauty Velvet Lip Cremes Lipstick

Eyeliner

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

Mascara

Too Faced Better Than Sex Mascara Duo Black

Eyeshadow

PAT McGRATH LABS Mini Eye Shadow Palette: Sublime Smoke 

Body Care 

54 Thrones African Beauty Butter Mini Gift Set54 Thrones African Beauty Butter Mini Gift Set

Biossance Squalane + Enzyme Sugar Body Scrub 6.76 oz/ 200 mL 

#rare beauty lotion (peach)

Take Aways! 
There are a lot of NEWS for me and I’m excited to see what else fits and readjust when things evolve. It’s been fun going through trial and sometimes error but ultimatley leading to my New Faves ❤️

[Mellmars1185]

@peculiarzmakeup Great way to start the year off! 

[peculiarzmakeup]

Thank you so much! I really enjoy creating capsules ❤️ @Mellmars1185 

[Mcakes]

@peculiarzmakeup Tatcha is so good, and Vicky is a wonderful human. Love that you went all in on Tatcha!

[peculiarzmakeup]

Tatcha is wonderful for sure! I love their mission too and what they do for schools it’s very kind, great quality products I had to try them all haha 🩷 is Vicky someone from Tatcha? @Mcakes 

[itsfi]

Beautiful capsule @peculiarzmakeup ❣️ I love the products you chose for your capsule - they are lovely on their own and as a whole, present such a pretty look - it's healthy, glowy skin with just the right burst of warmth and color.

I like how you set up the Rokael Beauty lipstick and lip oil photo - the white, black and gold color theme is 😘 Question for you on the lip oil - how saturated / pigmented do you find the color? Is it something you typically wear over a lipstick or does it give you enough color on its own? I have a cart with a few (okay, more than "a few" 🤣) products - I need to whittle that down a little more first though. 

[peculiarzmakeup]

Thank you so much! @itsfi  it’s really neat to see what is New and also reflecting back on the past year and all I’ve learned here truly such a gift. I’ve honestly only tried it over lipstick and it looks great that’s how I envisioned it when i got both together I honestly don’t have an honest review of it on its own but the quality is good and a nice shine! And I can’t wait for you to try it especially the lipstick it’s so crème like but holds very well! I adore it! 

[itsfi]

Oh, that's good to know @peculiarzmakeup; thank you. I have a couple of his lipsticks and lip oils and I have told myself (and keep repeating it) that I don't need to buy everything at once. Maybe I'll grab two lipsticks and a lip oil first. Decisions, decisions. 🤔

[peculiarzmakeup]

I know it’s tricky there’s so many good shades but first something helpful is to know if you like the feel first I bought one lipstick then ordered more I know how that is tho! I am in that boat with you ❤️❤️ @itsfi

im excited to hear about it! 

[CynthieLu]

Wow! Absolutely fabulous looking choices for your capsule @peculiarzmakeup but wait.. a cleansing balm that smells like a creamsickle? That sounds divine. 😍

[peculiarzmakeup]

Yes! It is it lasts forever cause you only need a drop of it and that’s the reason I got it because I heard dreamsicle 

 It’s very cool and what less than a year at BIC has taught me! 
I’m very greatful 🩷🩷

[CynthieLu]

There really is so much to learn from everyone. @peculiarzmakeup Mee too! I am always learing from everyone here and so grateful. 🙏💝

[peculiarzmakeup]

I think it’s so great as well because of the ideas that click sometimes I find I’m missing that one thing or one idea and something just inspires it, this is a wonderful place to be. I absolutely relate 🩷 @CynthieLu 

[itsfi]

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

I have a few new-to-me beauties in this week's capsule. I've marked them in the product list below with an asterisk (*️⃣) following the product's name. 

COMPLEXION:

Primer: I'll alternate between Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base Moisturizer & Primer with Vitamin C + Hyaluronic Acid 1.7 oz/... 🐐 and Saint Jane Beauty Luxury Sun Ritual Pore Smoothing Face Sunscreen SPF 30 1.7 oz / 50 mL which has a beautiful formula and finish. For those sensitive to fragrance, it is noticeably perfumed. I don't mind it at all, but want to know that it's there and is decidedly floral. 

Foundation: Cle de Peau The Foundation SPF 22 evens tone, has a slight blurring effect and a lovely lit-from-within radiant finish. And well it should for the price tag that comes with this beauty! 😅  This will be one of my pan it! challenge products. 

Concealer: Armani Beauty Power Fabric + Longwear Matte Concealer is a throwback choice for this week - it was the first product (other than sheet masks) that I finished and repurchased since discovering BIC.

Setting Spray: Rare Beauty by Selena Gomez Mini Always an Optimist 4-in-1 Mist 1.18 fl oz / 35 mL - I have a few primers and setting sprays that are being put to a battle / throwdown over the next few months and this one from Rare Beauty is one of them battling it out for a permanent spot in the makeup collection. @ather, I may be reaching out to pick your brain for more info on how you did your head-to-head battles when your brow products. 

CHEEKS:

Blush: Saie Dew Blush Liquid Cream Blush Chilly *️⃣ (gratis)

EYES:

Primer: NARS Pro-Prime™ Smudge Proof Eyeshadow Base 🐐 - for the most part, I'll be alternating between this and the about-face eyeshadow primer for most of the year. 

Eyeshadow: Yves Saint Laurent Couture Mini Clutch Eyeshadow Palette 100 Stora Dolls *️⃣ (I've used this maybe once or twice before) - she's a beauty inside and out, and another product that will be part of my 2025 pan it! challenge items. Yes, I'm gonna give it a go @blackkitty2014. Another eye shadow palette but a smaller one. (Will tag the 2025 pan it! challenge as soon as the thread has gone up)

Mascara: Yves Saint Laurent Lash Clash Extreme Volume Waterproof Mascara Black - my intro to this was at Sephoria 2023; New York when the reps applied the blue version of the mascara to the tips of my lashes. This is black and waterproof. The blue may make an appearance later in the year. 😉

LIPS: 

The beauty category most likely to see options in this year's capsules will be the lips. 💋 

Lip Balm: Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment (Vanilla) (not pictured)

Lip Crayon: Ere Perez Coco Crayon (Grace)

Lipstick: DIOR Rouge Dior Forever Liquid Sequin Lipstick 323 Dazzle *️⃣ 

Lip Oil: NARS Oil-Infused Lip Tint (Reef) - I've been enjoying pairing this with Ere Perez Grace and am interested to see how the rosy-bronze/copper tint looks over Dior Dazzle. 

The "Fits":  

Not a new bag, but one of my favorites. I don't remember when this came out or where I picked it up but I love how spacious yet compact it is.

Here we go, another year of makeup capsules! 😚

[Mellmars1185]

@itsfi Beautiful capsule to start off 2025! I love your bag! The YSL quad is also so pretty to look at! The shades you chose are beautiful. I am going to add it to my loves (not that I need another eyeshadow...but how can I not?) .How do you like the formula of the Dior Liquid Sequin? It is so fun and festive!

[itsfi]

@Mellmars1185, here's an up close look at Yves Saint Laurent Couture Mini Clutch Eyeshadow Palette 100 Stora Dolls 

It's a beautiful palette, definitely a good one for every day and also in line with the mocha mousse trend. I have a few 😅 things that can fall into that color family. Will post to the Pantone Colour of the Year 2025 - Mocha Mousse.

 This one leans more neutral-cool but YSL released a more warm toned one last year - Yves Saint Laurent Couture Mini Clutch Eyeshadow Palette 710 Over Brun 

The Dior liquid sequin is really a fun one - it's not a daily lip color for me but I reach for it more than just on special occasions now. Do you have one? 

[Mellmars1185]

@itsfi Thank you for sharing and swatching!  I tend to lean towards buying and using more warm toned palettes but Stora Dolls is sooo pretty. I can definitely relate to owning a lot of shades that fit into the mocha mousse category too! I do have two shade of the Dior Lip Sequin. I have the shade Masquerade and I can't remember the other shade. For some reason it is not showing up in my order history.

[greeneyedgirl107]

@itsfi pretty quad!

[Mcakes]

@itsfi you are the cutest!! Love so much about this post, and that they all fit in that adorable Sephora bag, and that Wink snow globe in the background?!?