2013 Favourites

Hellooo my lovelies!

Since 2013 has come to an end, i thought it might be nice to share the products that i have been loving this year with you. Altogether i think 2013 has probably been the best year of my life so far and i hope that it has been good to all of you too! It is the year i passed my uni exams, met my boyfriend, the year i conquered my fear of flying, had an amazing holiday in Italy and the year i overcame my shyness. However i shall crack on with the blog post before i bore you to death with waffling!

I've had to narrow this down ALOT because i have loved a crazy amount of beauty products this year so i've tried to select the ones that have been my ultimate 'can't live without' products this year.

OPI 'Which is witch' nail varnish, YSL Manifesto perfume, Bioderma, Yankee Candle in 'Summer Scoop', Rimmel 'Wake Me Up' foundation, Nars 'Laguna' bronzer, origins 'gin zing eye cream', Revlon lip butter in 'Raspberry Pie', YSL lipstick in 'Peach Passion', Rimmel's Kate Moss lipstick in '107', EOS lip balm in 'Watermelon', Benefits 'Coralista' blush, 'They're Real' mascara by Benefit and Collections Lasting Finish concealer in shade 1.

A resounding favourite for me across this year, every previous year and no doubt every year to come is candles. I am a real candle lover and my room could easily be mistaken for a candle shop. My dad frequently tells me that my candle collection will probably outlive me cause i have so many hahaha! I just can't seem to resist them and a particular favourite of mine this year has been Yankee candles. The one i have chosen to show you is 'Summer Scoop' which my lovely boyfriend gifted me. It has a gorgeous sweet smell that reminds me of ice-cream and summer (hence the name). However, i just used this candle to represent my love of all Yankee candles this year, another particular favourite being 'November Rain'  which i'm not entirely sure what it smells like but it's lovely all the same and very Autumnal (can something smell Autumnal?? i think so hehe).

Left to right:- 'Kate Moss 107', 'Revlon Lip Butter in 'Raspberry Pie' and YSL 'peach passion'/shade 15.

Another real love of mine this year, especially throughout the colder months has been dark lips. Previously I've never had the confidence to wear a darker colour. I didn't even really feel comfortable in bright reds or pinks but this year I've totally come out of my lipstick shell and boy i'm glad i did! This also represents to me how my confidence has grown across this year and that has been a major thing for me, i will never be the type of person who is uber confident but I've overcome being shy and i'm immensely proud of that BUT i'm rambling again so back to the lipsticks! The first of the two dark lip colours I've picked is the Revlon's lip butter (which as a whole this year i have loved) 'Raspberry Pie' which is this gorgeous deep pink seen below. It has a glossy formula between a lipstick and a lip balm which can also be blotted onto the lips to form a lip stain. I actually bought this shade when the lip butters first came out in the UK which i'm not exactly sure when that was but it was last year sometime (i think). Anyway i was too scared to wear it for a long long time until one day i was brave and wore it to uni and one of the girls complimented me on it. Well the next day i went out and bought another dark lip and that one was Rimmel London's Kate Moss 107 lipstick which is a dark red that has alot of hype around it. The lipsticks matte which i usually don't like in a lipstick but in this one i don't seem to mind. However, if i'm having a really dry lips kinda day i'll just slick on some lip balm (particular favourite of mine being EOS) before hand and i'm good to go. The swatch below really does not do it justice as it truly is the perfect dark red for Winter! 

Left to right:- 'Raspberry Pie', Peach Passion, 107 Kate Moss'

 Whilst i'm on the topic of lipstick another favourite lipstick, more in the warmer seasons has been YSL's rouge volupte lipstick in shade 15 'peach passion' which my boyfriend also got me (he has very good taste it has to be said!) It's a beautiful coral shade which will be stunning in Spring/Summer and it smells delicious which is also a plus. So that's been a massive favourite this year. Another YSL product i've loved this season is the YSL perfume my boyfriend bought me (i did tell you he had good taste!!) which is called 'Manifesto'. As i've said before i'm not the best at describing scents but i'll give it a whirl. It's a very sexy smell and it's one of those perfumes you can put on before a night out and you instantly feel a little more sassy and glamorous. Even the bottle has a glamarous, luxury look about it. It's definitely more of a night time scent as it's quite heavy and the main notes in it are bergamot, jasmine, lily and sandalwood. It is pretty pricy (£64 for 50ml) so i tend to only use this for special occasions or when i just want to feel a little more glam! 

 I have two favourite skincare products for 2013, none of which will be a surprise to you i'm sure! The first is Bioderma which i picked up on my summer holiday in Italy this year and i fell in love. It's a miscellaneous water cleanser which removes your makeup perfectly and first time (even stubborn mascaras like Benefits 'They're Real which has been a favourite this year too) It is also quite expensive for what it is but i think it's totally worth it and it does last a long time, I've had that bottle since the first week in July and with using it every night, as you can see there's still quite a lot left! The good news is that Bioderma has now been brought to the UK (big cheer) although it is quite hard to source however it is quite easy to buy online from places such as Amazon for a reasonable price. I will definitely be repurchasing another bottle as soon as this one gets low. Like i said previously it removes Benefits 'They're Real' like a dream which is a stubborn mascara that does not budge for love or money but it does for Bioderma!! hahaha. I would definitely recommend it to everyone as I've always struggled with mascaras, i'm naturally lacking in the eyelash department so it takes alot to please me when it comes to mascara but Benefit ticks the boxes with this one! My only complaint with it is the difficulty to remove but since i bought Bioderma it's not been a problem, hip hip hooray. They're Real retails at £19.50.

 My second skincare fave this year has been Origins Gin Zing eye cream. Yes it is another pricey product but i really am a firm believer of you get what you pay for and you certainly do with this bad boy. It retails at £23 for 15ml which sounds craaaazy i agree but you literally need the smallest smidgen of it and it works miracles. I hadn't been much interested in this before but during my exams and after, my sleeping pattern was all over the place and i was struggling to sleep and it was visibly showing on my skin. So in an effort to battle the bags i gave it a bash and i'm delighted i did! It doesn't reduce my bags completely but i really struggle with under eye bags and paired with a decent concealer it makes my bags almost invisible. The concealer i pair it with is Collections lasting perfection in shade 1 and it is only about £4 from any drug store and it's better than any other concealer i have tried. So thanks to this fabulous combo no matter how little hours sleep i get, i can still look like I've got my beauty sleep!  

 My foundation love this year has got to be Rimmel London's Wake Me Up foundation (alas a drugstore foundation that's actually of good quality). This product has also had quite alot of hype around it but deservedly so, it has sparkles lightly through it which brightens your face and just generally makes you more awake. I can't put my finger on what it is i love about this foundation but it just applies beautifully, is the perfect coverage, not too full but not too light and it helps brighten my skin. It's definitely better in the Summer months as in the Winter sun it may have a tendency to make your face resemble a glitter ball however i still love wearing it all year round. It has SPF 15 in it which is great because it protects your skin however it's not so great if you're going to be getting your photo taken as SPF and camera flashes do not get on because of flashback and all that technical stuff. Unless you're a model or on a night out when those pesky nightclub photographers are lurking about to catch you out this isn't really a problem and the SPF is good for protecting your skin. Another massive plus is because it's from a drugstore it doesn't break the bank at only £6.99 and Rimmel is often on 3 for 2 so handy for picking up a powder and a lipstick at the same time, bargain!

 Well-loved Nars Laguna bronzer

What combination i have been loving on my cheeks and absolutely killing all year round is NARS 'laguna' bronzing powder (shock horror) and Benefits 'coralista' blusher. It's an expensive combo so i'm not looking forward to repurchasing but there's no way i can not repurchase them as they have fastly become staple beauty products for me. The bronzer is shot through with golden shimmer so it really warms up the face and makes you look sun-kissed and because of the shimmer it can be used to bronze up the whole face aswell as a contour. As a pale girl i LOVE my bronzer for tanning me up, i use it all year round, tanned or pale and feel naked without it so i'm pretty clued up on my bronzers! 'Laguna' is the lightest shade of bronzer Nars do and as much as i love being tanned i'm defo too pale to pull off 'Casino' or 'Irrestiblement'. As if my love for Laguna bronzer could grow anymore, when paired with Benefits 'Coralista', it's beautiful.. 'Coralista' is also well loved as you can see from the picture, it's a gorgeous peachy, pink coral colour which shimmers amazingly which is great if you want to miss out the highlighting stage on a lazy day. I'm definitely intending to try out more of Benefits blushers as they're incredibly pigmented and they last really well on the cheeks. Strangely they smell really nice, like perfume which pleases me. The bronzer costs £26 and the blusher is £23.50 so put together it is expensive but they are long lasting. This cheek combination is especially beautiful in Summer when paired with YSL's 'peach passion' lipstick.

Benefit Coralista blusher.

My last favourite this year is a nail polish and it's O.P.I'S 'Which is Witch' from the Wizard of Oz collection. It's a gorgeous glitter and i'm not actually a big fan of glitter nail varnishes purely because of the time and effort it takes to remove them. However, i could not resist this beauty and what i have loved doing with it is layering it over paler more neutral shades to jazz it up like O.P.I's 'I Theodora You' also from the Wizard of Oz collection and Essie's 'fiji', both pale pinks. Another colour I've loved it over is O.P.I's 'Big Apple' nail varnish which is a beautiful red shade and it's just perfect for the Christmas season. I really love O.P.I. nail varnishes as they always have amazing names, they're good quality and come with good sized brushes to apply them with (i do love a good nail varnish brush).

Those were my beauty and random favourites of 2013. I hope you enjoyed reading and maybe found something you'd like to try out!

Happy New Year

Abby x x x