Hey everyone! First post of 2014, wheeee! Sorry for the lack of posts the last few days, I know I've been very consistent with posting at least every other day since this summer, but I just had to take a few days off to take my mind off of school and the stress of the holidays. Now that I have pretty much recuperated (I've been playing a lot of sims 3! Let me know in the comments if you're still into that game as well!), it's time for me to do my yearly favorites post! I've done one of these almost every year since I started blogging (apparently I missed 2012 for some reason) and I think it's really interesting to see how my tastes in makeup have evolved over the years. In case you're curious, you can check out my best of 2010 and 2011! Now let's get onto this year's favorites!
♥ Brows ♥
2013 is the year that I started paying attention to my brows. While I'm still experimenting and I'm not too comfortable with bold brows yet, I have found at least two products that help my brows look more put togheter but still natural :
1) Maybelline Great Lash Clear Mascara : Great as a brow gel, but I also use it to tame my crazy baby hairs sometimes! It's super cheap as well.
2) Milani Brow Fix Brow Kit in Light : Perfect shade for my brows, it doesn't look powdery and it appears natural when applied. It's super inexpensive as well! Love it and been using it all lot this year. It's been in my monthly favorites countless times.
♥ Brushes and Tools ♥
While I'm obviously still very faithful to the Eco Tools brand, this year I have discovered makeup sponges and Real Techniques brushes. I won't list all the brush names here, because it would be too long and because they don't all have official names. The sponge is by Quo and it's 5$ at shopper's Drugmart! It's a steal and I love it! All the brushes are incredibly soft, pick up product well and don't shed. If you're curious about a particular brush in this picture, don't hesitate to contact me or leave a comment about it and I'll be glad to give you more detail!
♥ Face Powder Products
1) NYC Sunny Bronzer : This one has been in three yearly favorites so far. It's pretty impressive considering the 2.97$ price tag! I've gone back and forth between this bronzer and others, but for some reason, I keep coming back to this. It looks effortless and subtle without ever looking orange.
2) ZA 2 Way Cake Foundation : This powder so finely milled that it hides your pores and smooths the skin making it look perfect. It blurs your imperfections, kind of like the Hourglass Ambient powder apparently does (haven't tried that, although I'd love to). I use it as powder over my foundation and it works great to set my makeup and keep it in place all day.
3) Stila Highlighting Duo in Kitten : I bought this because Shaaanxo kept raving about it in her videos and I've been following her forever. I have to agree with her, this highlighter is just perfect and I use it every time I wear makeup.
4) Benefit Hoola Bronzer : Too bad I'm probably never going to want to spend 30$ on a bronzer, because this bronzer just looks so gorgeous on. I mostly wear it in the summer time when I have a tan, since I'm so pale during the winter.
5) Rimmel London Blush in Bronze : I've always loved the Rimmel London blushes, but I used to prefer pinkier one called Pink Sugar. This year I've been more into bronzey cheeks because I feel they're more natural and subtle. This color just look beautiful on the cheeks.
6) Hard Candy Bronzer in Tiki : While the name may be misleading, this is actually a golden highlighter rather than a bronzer. This year was my first year playing with highlighters and this was the first one I ever got. It's an amazing golden shade that gives your face a beautiful healthy glow!
♥ Foundation and Concealer ♥
1) Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation : I've purchased this foundation because Tanya Burr kept raving about it. It's so beautiful and dewy, it's perfect for my dry skin! I love that it's got medium coverage and that it's super inexpensive. It gives a really radiant finish.
2) Maybelline Age Rewind Foundation : This foundation has a light to medium coverage. It doesn't cover so much that you can't see you natural skin underneath which I love especially if I'm going for a very natural look. It glides onto the skin and make it look hydrated even if you have dry patches. Love it!
3) Maybelline Mineral Power Concealer : I've been using this bad boy like crazy for over 2 year now. I prefer it during the summer time when my skin is more hydrated though. It covers really well.
4) Garnier Skin Renew Roll On Tinted Eye Treated : This was a recommendation for one of Alexfashionbeauty's video on Youtube. A few months back she shared that she was using this concealer in her summer routine and I just had to try it. I love the very thin consistensy and the cooling effect on the under eyes. It's perfect for light coverage, espeically if you tend to have cakeyness under your eyes like I do.
♥ Liner and Lashes ♥
1) Ardell Lashes : Particularly the 120 demi lashes, the wispies lashes and the 315 accent lashes. They look beautiful on and are very comfortable.
2) Bewitched (?) Black Liquid Liner : I got this in Thailand and I'm not exactly sure of the brand or anything but I've used this liner non-stop for the whole first half of 2013. It's super black and a little shiny and it looks very nice.
3) E.l.f. Black Liquid Liner : This is the liquid liner that I've been using for most of 2013. It's very black and the tip of the brush is so fine that you have a lot of control when applying this. It's kind of sheer on the first swipe which some might not like, but I enjoy since it's more forgiving if you make a mistake.
4) Milani Liquid'eye liner pencil in black : so black, so creamy, doesn't pull at your eyes, stays on forever and is only 6$. What else could I ask for in a liner?
5) Rimmel Liner in Nude : Not many drugstore brands make nude liners at the moment so when I saw this I was really excited. Not only is it a unique drugstore offering, but it's also creamy and looks very nice on the waterline. It instantly makes your eyes pop!
6) Cover Girl Clump Crusher Mascara : I've been using this mascara almost exclusively since last January. It's separating, lengthening and volumizing and as the name suggests, it doesn't clump up even if you build it up. I haven't found anything that comes close to this, it's so much better than anything else I've tried that I'm kind of wondering why I keep buying other mascaras.
7) Duo Clear Lash Glue : In 2013, I've also started wearing false lashes. At first, I was kind of discouraged because the glue that comes with some lashes was really irritating my eyes and I thought I simply couldn't wear them. That's until I tried the duo glue, which doesn't irritate my eyes and is super easy to use!
♥ Lip Products ♥
As you can see, I'm still obsessed with lip balm this year!
1) NYX Butter Gloss in
2) NYX Mega Shine Lipgloss in Beige : Definitely not a beige color, more like a really natural pinky color. It looks beautiful, and it's super pigmented. It smells like sweet cherries which I really love.
3) Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Stain in Honey : Love the smell, love the balmy and shiny texture and love the fact that it leaves a stain behind. One of the only product that do not look horrendous on my awful chapped lips.
4) Maybelline Babylips Lip balms : I love all of them, but the shades pictured are the ones I tend to go for the most!
5) Sally Hansen Lip balm : super slippery, kind of glossy, light and the smell is nice. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but I love them! I finished two of them.
6) Sofltips Pure Lip Balm : Probably discontinued, but I stocked up a while back so I'm still using these. My all time favorite balms. Kind of reminds me of the Sally Hansen balms but even glossier!
♥ Eyes ♥
1) NYX Jumbo Pencils in Milk and Yogourt : perfect bases for your eyeshadows. Milk is perfect for any colorful look (although I find it a little drying) and yogourt is amazing for all my natural everyday looks.
2) Stila in the Light Palette : always a favorite. It has everything I need in term of everyday natural looks. The shades are pigmented and look amazing applied.
3) Darling Girl Cosmetics Shadows : I love all the ones I got, but the one pictured is called Lucky. It's a white color with a strong green shift that is accentuated when applied either over green or a dark color. For some reason this color has been very handy in many looks I have done this year. The quality of the Darling Girl Cosmetics shadows is outstanding and I just cannot get enough.
4) Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to The Bronze : this is so convenient. I like it applied by itself or underneath my taupe or bronze shadows which are the ones I gravitate most towards. Been using it a lot for the past few months.
5) Urban Decay Primer Potion : Second tube of this and I already have a backup waiting for me. I wear it everytime I use eyeshadow and never experience creasing. Love it!
6) Urban Decay Naked 2 Palette : I got this palette at the beginning of the year following the craze on Youtube around the Naked Palettes. The hype was totally justified and I've been using this palette non stop all year. I love the cool toned neutrals, the packaging, the out-of-this-world pigmentation, everything!
♥ Runner Ups - Honorable Mentions - New Favorites ♥
This category is dedicated to new finds, products that are of amazing quality, but that I don't use on a day to day basis, or products that are quickly becoming favorites, but that I feel that I haven't used enough yet to dub as yearly favorites.
1) L'Oréal Infallible Shadow in Amber Rush : Love the texture, love the color, but only had it a couple weeks. I can definitely see this become a regular in my makeup routine though.
2) CoverGirl Stay Fabulous Foundation : Another product I haven't had long enough to justify adding to the list. I love it using the quo foundation sponge. It looks flawless, but not overdone.
3) Maybelline FIT Me Foundation : I'm not a 100% sure about this one yet. It looks great so far, but I need to give it some more time to be certain of how I feel about it.
4) Naked 1 and Naked 3 Palettes : One is surprising (the 1st one) this other, not so much (the 3rd). While many have had the Naked 1 Palette forever, I only got it for Christmas this year thanks to my incredibly sweet and thoughtful boyfriend. Which means I got it only a few weeks after I got the Naked 3. Since I got both of these in December, even though I'm obsessed with them already, I feel like it wouldn't be completely fair to include them in a yearly favorite post, hence why they are in this category.
5) Quo Glamour Box Palette : I love everything about this palette so far, but haven't had the occasion to play with it enough yet. Fast becoming one of my favorites though.
6) Sephora Pencil Liner : This one is in a Forest Green shade, but I've swatched a bunch in store and all of them looked amazing. I don't use this regularly because of the color, but the color range is mind blowing (17 shades I think), the price is right (11$ vs 26$ for Urban Decay Liners), they are super creamy, but set really well so that they don't budge.
7) NYX Slide On Pencils : Again, I have this in an Electric Blue Shade, so I don't use this that often, but it's an amazingly creamy and budge proof eyeliner. It's 10$ at target and the color range is pretty great. I kind of want a bronze shade from this line.
8) NYX Studio Liquid Liner : This one is in coffee, but I also have one in a deep blue shade which I adore. They are super opaque (not always the case with colored liners), they don't flake (also not always the case) and they don't sting your eyes (do I need to say it again?). I love these. So far, I only have colors that I don't necessarily wear on a daily basis, but I'm loving the coffee shade more and more, especially paired with the Naked 3 Palette. May very well become a staple look for me in 2014!
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That's it for my 2013 Yearly favorites! This post was crazy long! I'm really sorry about that and thank you for sticking around if you're still with me! I guess I just had a bunch of things to say about everything. They're the products I've been crazy over for this whole year afterall... Actually, I've tried to keep things as short as possible because I feel like I could have rambled even longer about every single product if I hadn't stopped myself!
Let me know what you're favorite, go-to products were this year! Did you also enjoy any of the products on this list? Let me know in the comments! Thank you so much for reading :)
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