Happy New
Year Guys!
I can't believe it's 2014! Time is just going too quickly for me...
I've had
a very up and down year... I lost 2 jobs, I discovered my passion for makeup, i
joined a beauty course and I've met a lot of cool new people who will
hopefully be long time friends. I didn't want to make a new years resolution
this year as I never achieve them but I what I do want is to really focus my
energy on this blog, start making you tube videos and get as much experience in
beauty as I can.
So
today I thought I'd do a yearly favourites post as the last time I did a
monthly favourites, it was about October! Now I've narrowed these into 13
different categories so I guess its my top 13 in 2013... but I will feature
more than 13 things as I've used a lot of products this year and it's hard for
me to pick just one thing for each!
Eyeshadow
My all
time favourite beauty product of the year was by far the Urban Decay Naked
Basics palette. This palette is my perfect everyday eye shadow product as it
has 5 gorgeous matte neutral shades and one beautiful highlight. Its a very
nifty palette as its easy to travel with and this year i stayed out a lot so it
came in handy. The mirror is a great size and it makes it easy for you to do
touch ups or even pluck your brows! I've used it everyday since getting it and
i haven't hit pan yet! (Touch wood)
At first
i was dubious about spending £20 on something so small, but it was so worth it
and i really got my moneys worth out of it. I will definitely re-purchase if i
ever use it all up. I even bought my friend one for Christmas as i didn't want
her to miss out!
Now I know most people wont want to spend £20 on an
eyeshadow palette and trust me I understand! However, I have found a perfect
high street eyeshadow palette for a bargain price of £4 and that's the MUA
Undress Me Too palette. It comes with 12 beautiful pigmented shadows. 3 matte
shades and 9 shimmery pearlescent shades. The eye shadows are quite powdery and
there is a lot of fall out when you apply them but for £4 you can't really
complain. This palette is a dupe for the Naked 2, and even the names are similar.
I would say that this palette is perfect for most skin tones as it is a very
neutral palette. I love this product a lot and I forgot about it until I
rummaged through my makeup collection, but I did use it for a good 7 months
before my Naked basics.
Mascara
I have 2 mascaras that I've been loving
this year. The first one is a love hate Mascara in the beauty world and
that's the Benefit they're real mascara. This mascara is so incredibly black
that it makes your lashes look false. I have quite long lashes anyway but this
gives a more volumized and lengthening effect. It doesn't clump, crumble or
flake and it lasts all day! It can be a nightmare to remove but the N07
Beautiful Skin makeup wipes are amazing to get off waterproof or tough eye
makeup. It is quite pricey at £19.50 but if you're having a treat yourself day
then I would recommend it.
The cheaper option i have been loving for 2013 is
the Rimmel Lash Accelerator endless mascara. Its a great lengthening mascara
and the applicator is nice and thin so you can get to all the hard areas in the
corner of the eyes and the lower lash line. It doesn't clump and it's very long
lasting and easy to remove. This has been my go to mascara all year but
I'm trying to branch out of my comfort zone this year and try new ones but it
will always be re purchased and have a place in my makeup box. Rimmel is such
an affordable and good quality brand that you can't really go wrong!
Eyeliner
I'm
so picky with eyeliners but I have 3 I've been loving this year! One pencil,
one gel and one felt tip. The first eyeliner is the Rimmel soft kohl
eyeliner pencil which I've been using since I was about 14! There's not much to
say about it. It's just so black, lasts a long time and really inexpensive.
Next
is the Maybelline Eye Studio Gel Liner in Black. This eyeliner is so easy
to apply and it lasts all day. It comes with a little brush too which is handy
for travel but I use an angled brush to apply it and it just looks so clean,
sleek and precise. I love it!
Then the Best felt tip eyeliner I have ever used is the Collection 2000 extreme
24HR felt tip liner in black. It is £2.99 and it's just perfect! I have no
faults with it. So easy to apply winged eyeliner with, literally takes me
seconds! Its so black and bold and it lasts ages! Its brilliant!
Eyebrows
Brows! I
have big, bold, bushy, black natural brows and I love them! They are what frame
my face. So I obviously want to take care of them and give them some pampering
too. I've tried powders, waxes, mascaras and pencils and although I have to
agree with most people that powder does give a better application, a natural
look and long lasting effect...The product I use most days for my brows is the
MUA eyebrow pencil in Brunette.
I just find it so easy. My brows
are tidied, tamed and full in literally 3 seconds and I'll usually only use
powder when I'm going somewhere nice. The pencil comes with the comb to blend
in the colour and tame the hairs into place. It's a creamy, highly pigmented
pencil and it's only £1! So you can't go wrong!
Foundations
This year
I've tried, tested, purchased, loved and hated so many foundations. It's hard
for me to really love a foundation because I always find something wrong with
it. However I have selected 3 that I really recommend and like a lot.
The first
is the Maybelline Fit me foundation. The good thing about this foundation is
that it has shades for yellow and pink undertones and it matches to your skin
tone giving you a natural look. They also have other Fit me products that I
want to try out! This foundation is a gel based foundation and it is perfect
for dry skin as it gives you a nice dewy finish. It has really good coverage
and I would say its medium coverage but definitely build able. I used this all
summer as I found it so light and it just made my skin glow and breathe.
However, if you have oily skin I wouldn't recommend this particular foundation
as it will make you 'glow' in your problem areas! It retails around £7.99 which
I would gladly pay for something that works on my skin!
The next foundation is the Rimmel Lasting Finish 25hr Foundation. Now I
have pros and cons to this foundation, but mainly pros. The only problems I
have with this foundation is that the lightest shade is 100 ivory and it's
really light on my skin tone and also clings to my dry spots, The 200
is a touch too dark and I have to blend it down my neck to avoid an orange
mask! Then the next thing is that I hated it in summer! It was such a thick
heavy foundation and I found it cakey. So.. on to the good points. I used this for
the whole of October, November and December and I haven't finished the bottle
yet so that's a bonus. I do feel that a little goes a long way as it is such a
thick formula. It's very hydrating for my skin and it gives me full coverage
which I need with my redness and blemishes. I started working in November so I
wanted something that would last through the day without me having to do many
touch ups and this definitely held up! However, its not 25 hours as it states
but I realistically got 10 - 12 hours wear out of it! Its such a bargain
too!
The high end foundation I've been liking this year is my MAC studio sculpt
foundation in NW20. Which in winter is actually too dark for me which annoyed
me slightly. This foundation is again a gel based foundation. It's a very thick
formula and it reminds me of a thicker, whipped cream. This foundation is full
coverage and you really don't need much at all as I find it can be quite heavy
on the skin if you try to build it. However, for a night out its perfect. It's
also waterproof so if it rains or you sweat a bit, you wont have your makeup
sliding down your face. It's very pricey at £27 a tube but it works!
Cheeks
My second
favourite product of the year has to be my Sleek Contour and Blush palette.
I've used this so much! Almost everyday since getting it just like the Urban
Decay eye shadows. I love contouring every day.. I never used to and now that I
do I just feel strange when i don't. It's such an affordable product too at
£9.99 you get a gorgeous highlight, a rose gold blush and a really good contour
shade. The bronzer is so intense and dark that it gives a perfect shadow
effect. However, you don't want to add to much otherwise you'll look like
you've been punched in the face!
I
purchased the Benefit Rockateur boxed blush by Benefit about 3 weeks ago and
I've been using it non stop since I got it. I am so in love with this blush.
It's a rose gold shade and it gives your skin a healthy glow.
I use
this on days when I can't be bothered to contour and I want to give my sleek
palette a break. This is the perfect blush, bronzer and highlight in one! I
tend to stay away from pinkie toned blushes as I suffer with rosacea and I don't
want something that's going to attract attention to my problem areas but this
is just PERFECT!
Concealer
Now
concealers I have a lot of trouble finding ones that I love as they need
to be full coverage, brightening and don't crease. However, I have
found 3 that I loved this year.
My new
favourite concealer is the MAC pro longwear concealer in NW20. It's long
lasting,covers all imperfections, hides dark circles, doesn't crease under my
eyes and a little goes a really long way! It's £15.50 and the bottle is small
so at first I was dubious but now I see why! It's amazing...
The next
concealer is a cheaper alternative for the Pro Longwear concealer and that's
the Collection 2000 lasting perfection concealer. Its a thinner formula in
comparison to the MAC one. However, it's long lasting, doesn't crease and has
great coverage. The only bad thing is the applicator is a sponge tip and I hate
them as you don't get the most out of the product as the sponge absorbs the
product and its really unhygienic. It's a great price at £4.19!
The Maybelline age rewind concealer is my 3rd
favourite. I've found myself reaching for this concealer a lot lately and I
just bought a new one as I've run out. It's very brightening under the eyes and
it's very creamy in consistency which makes it crease a bit but I don't mind as
I really enjoy using it.
Lips
Last
year I made more of an effort to wear lip colours and lipsticks,
as when I thought about it I really didn't take any notice of my lips and I would just
mute my lips out with foundation and whip a nude gloss over. Which is fine but
it just got very boring and I love my lips so why would I want to hide them?
I've bought so many over the past year and it took me a while to figure out what shades I liked on myself, what suited my skin tone and what made my teeth look white and not yellow!
My favourite Lip Balm type thing this year was the Revlon Lip Butters. The one I have is in Cotton Candy and its a very sheer baby pink with glitter. Its so gorgeous on the lips and they feel soft and just lovely. I loved it so much I've only got a tiny bit left so I need to buy more!
Then I tried the Maybelline Superstay 14 Hour Lipstick in Infinitly Fuchsia. Now first off this lipstick doesn't last 14 hours. It lasts about 1-2 hours. It's very bold and vibrant and really true to colour. There are tiny bits of glitter and it is a gorgeous colour on the lips. I find it goes on quite creamy but then it becomes quite drying on the lips. I like that feeling though... I could just be weird. After the lip colour wears off it leaves a tint so I quite like that. I'm not sure if it would do the same for lighter colours. I have worn this lipstick for most of November and December and I really like it. It also smells like sweets!
In the summer I was obsessed with the Bourjois Paris Colour Boost Lip Crayon in On The Beach. This lip crayon is so creamy and glossy I love it. It applies really smoothly and lasts for a long time, keeping the lips soft. The colour is quite sheer as I went for a lighter shade. Its a Coraly orange colour and I really love it and want to try more.
On to glosses... Now these are quite similar. They're both Nudes but the Rimmel Stay Glossy in Non- Stop Glamour is a shimmery pinkie nude and the ELF Glossy Gloss in Ballet Slippers is a more brown nude with no shimmer. They're both very sticky, I think the ELF is stickier. They both last as long as a gloss tends to taking in consideration that I will eat or drink through the day, they always need to be touched up. Really gorgeous colours though.
Hair Care
In 2013 I was obsessed with (and currently still am) the V05 Styling range. My favourite hair spray is the V05 styling hold. This bottle has lasted me so long! I absolutely love it, it doesn't make my hair crunchy and stiff. It holds my curls in all day and although they drop out they still look amazing.
Then there's the V05 heat protect spray. This stuff smells incredible! I don't know what it is but I just love it. I've gone through so many of these bottles and its so cheap and always on offer so i will always repurchase it!
And finally for hair care I'm loving the Batiste dry shampoo range. My favourite one is the one for brunette hair or the original but I ran out of that one so I just have a mini one for my handbag, which is so handy because I stay out a lot. Really good product and couldn't live without it. My hair gets really greasy after 2 days so this comes in so handy. I tried a few cheaper ones but they just don't compare. They leave a horrible white cast where as the Batiste just blends in after you brush or rub it in.
Perfume
My favourite perfume of 2013 was the Flash by Jimmy Choo. It comes in this gorgeous glittery box and the bottle is just so glam! I love this so much and I was obsessed with it before I got it in June!
It's a very sweet yet sophisticated scent and it's just really lovely.
It's quite pricey though and I've had to stop using it as I don't want to run out of it. I have the 60ml and I think it was around £65.
Skin Care
In 2013 I'm ashamed to admit I only just started to take care of my skin. Before I used to just remove my makeup with a makeup wipe and be done with it.
The L'Oréal Paris Skin Perfection 3 in 1 Purifying Micellar Solution is by far my favourite Cleanser and toner. It's so cooling on the skin and it removes makeup so well. It doesn't last very long though. I find myself having to buy a new one every 2 weeks but its usually always on offer for around £3 so I don't mind so much. I still use makeup wipes to remove my makeup but then I go over my skin with this solution after I cleanse to make sure I have no excess makeup.
Sudocrem is a long time favourite product and it always will be. It is so amazing and it helps so many things, it's not just for bums! You can use it on acne and rashes too and I find that when I'm having a bad skin day, I just put this on my face before bed and when I wake up my skin is so much better.
I've been using the boots Botanics Shine Away Ionic Clay Mask for a few months now and I love this. It makes my skin really soft and helps my t-zone be less oily, and its just fun to pamper!
Nails
I have really started enjoying painting my nails so last year my nail polish collection grew and I have been loving two polishes.
The first one is the Maybelline Colour Show nail polishes. My favourite colour for autumn/winter was Burgundy. It is such a gorgeous dark cherry red colour with a hint of black. These polishes are so good and really cheap too!
Then the colour I was loving for spring/summer was the 17 Lasting Fix nail polish in Parma Violet. I have worn this so much and it's not even empty yet! It's just such a gorgeous shade. They dry quickly and the finish is glossy. They're about £2.99 too.
Brushes
And last but not least is brushes. 2013 I really just discovered makeup so I'm still building my brush collection. However, the best brush I have ever used is the brushes by Real Techniques. My favourite brush is the Expert Face Brush as I feel like it creates such a flawless canvass. It makes my foundation blend in so well. It doesn't shed and it keeps it shape after washing. Its a very dense brush so the product doesn't get lost in the brush. The real techniques range are really good quality and affordable brushes.
I hope you enjoyed my favourite beauty products of 2013.
Ezzie xox
