The end of the year is here, which means it's time for my traditional posts with best products or best buys in 2015, so products that I got this year and they really impressed me. I already posted the budget version with all the products under 5 €, but I found many more excellent products that are above that price range. I think I covered almost every category, unintentionally that is, but it was a good makeup year for me, especially when it comes to foundations. By popular request I split my favourites into two parts. This one will include all the makeup bits and the next one all the rest (nail polishes, skin care, etc,…). Links to my previous such posts are at the end of my All-time Favourites page or you can search for best buys label, but here you have makeup favourites of 2014.
After years of being on my wishlist, I finally got my hands on a bottle of Sheer Glow, which got for my birthday. I call it my princess foundation for one simple reason - it makes your skin look so perfect. It is a medium to full coverage, so it's noticeable you're wearing makeup, but I really like the level of coverage it gives, even though I'm an "invisible foundation" kinda girl. I mostly don't even need to use concealer with this, yet it doesn't feel heavy nor does it sink into pores or make a cakey mess. The shade range is another huge plus at this foundation. They don't just have really pale colours, but they also thought about undertones, though Siberia, which I'm using, is very yellow (I'm neutral), but it works. It has no pump (did I mention this foundation costs 40 €?), but I found that the pump of Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum works fine.
This is my summer foundation when my skin is a little bit oilier. It's a foundation with a matte finish and it sets quickly, so you don't have a lot of time to work with it, but it gives medium coverage and doesn't look flat on the skin. The best feature of this foundation - it disguises pores like nothing else I've tried. I've got before/after in my review if you want to check. The downside of this foundation is that it can cling to dry patches, so it's not for dry skin and now in the colder months, I mix it with more moisturising foundations if I want to wear it, though currently I'm mostly using other bases. The colour range is a bit of a miss as both lightest shades, Porcelain and Vanilla, are pink toned and L'Oréal is terrible at making foundation colours, so it can end up looking a bit orange if your skin tone is very warm, but on my neutral skin, it's decent enough in the summer.
I found this one when I had a sudden urge to re-explore our drugstores for very pale foundations. I was delighted to discover that things have very much improved over the years and this good old classic won me over. Colorstay foundations are not the most natural looking, lightweight products, but the medium-full coverage, fantastic staying power and a satin-matte finish certainly impressed me. With this my skin stays matte pretty much all day and it's not even a foundation for oily/combination skin. I got the shade Ivory which is a very pale pink toned foundation and it fits me so well, despite the fact that my undertone is neutral. The one downside at this foundation is the lack of a pump.
KIKO Long Lasting Stick Eyeshadow
These eyeshadow sticks are the best cream eyeshadows around. I currently own just two, 06 Golden Brown and 38 Golden Rose, but I would love to expand my collection. These are so creamy and pigmented, they blend easily and last ages on the eyes. I love using these on their own or as a base.
I got several eyeshadow palettes this year, an overwhelming majority were drugstore, but this one was the one that truly won my heart. I'm not a patient girl, so I don't like to build up colour for ages and at Nude'Tude I don't have to. The eyeshadows are so pigmented, soft and they blend beautifully, also the selection of shades great and I use pretty much all the colours. This has become my standard "I need to look good and I don't have time for building up the colour for a million years" palette. It's like Bourjois' Nude-ist, so the thing I grab when we're getting serious with the makeup.
I've tried a lot of eyeliners this year and it's a bit funny that this one, which looks like a toy for five-year olds is so impressive. The formula is really black, smooth and the applicator is one of those brush ones, so it's very precise and easy to work with. Actually I think I could include this one in the under 5 € post, since I've never seen it being full price, so it's very affordable as well. Plus the panda design is super cute.
Tapered crease, blending eyeshadow and flat definer
I have the whole set, but I'm mainly using just three brushes. The whole set suits small eyes, which is just perfect for me, so the tapped crease brush, blending eyeshadow brush and the flat definer became my everyday brushes. These are very soft synthetic brushes, so they are great at blending and not so much at picking up colours (unless they are very pigmented like theBalm's and Urban Decay's eyeshadows). I also love that the handles are shorter than at the majority of eye brushes. It's a weird thing to say, but if you are near-sighted and you experience handles hitting the mirror all the time, I'm sure you get me. I think you can get these individually, but I'm not sure they are actually the same (the names are).
There was a lot of Physicians Formula products on my blog this year, but this one is the true winner for me. Max Factor's űber hyped-up Creme Puff blushes left me cold as that famous glow was not all that visible on my cheeks, but this blush turned out to be exactly what I wanted. I have the shade Rose, which is a mix of two shades, a peachy-pink and the hot pink in the middle. It's a bit difficult to use them individually, but I always focus on the peachy pink more. It gives a nice rosy flush with a very glowy finish and the blush even smells like vanilla. Physicians Formula has some of the prettiest packaging ever and it's functional too. This one hides a very handy mirror and a brush in the back.
These blushes were on my wishlist since the moment I laid eyes on them. The design is the reason enough to get at least one. I heard these aren't the best as they are supposedly very powdery and I must say I don't have the foggiest what they are talking about. This shade, Romantic Rose, which I believe is one of the original ones, is beyond stunning. It's a dusty nude pink shade that is my type of shade. The quality is great, these are really strongly pigmented and apply nice as well. I would love to own more of these.
Would you believe that this is only my second powder highlighter I own and my only gold toned as well as my only high-end one? Strange for a beauty blogger of 5+ years. There is nothing subtle about this highlighter, it was clearly designed for glow lovers. It's quite gold, but it still works for me even when I'm at my palest, I just avoid overdoing it. The glow it gives is very glamorous looking, so if you're one for more subtle highlighting, you'll probably save this one for special occasions, but believe the hype, it's worth giving a go.
And the top place in the best products of 2015 goes to… Nude-ist. I'm completely smitten with this. It is an outstanding shade and my most worn lip product in this year. I just instinctively grab it almost every time I leave the house. It's a beautiful muted rose-pink shade that is actually exactly the natural tone of my lips, however, a shade or two darker, making it look quite natural on my lips, but just giving that definition to my pale face. The staying power and the matte formula are winners as well. Gorgeousness in a tube. And to think this was the only shade I hated at first sight when I swatched them when they launched - silly me.
Meet the most comfortable lipstick I've tried to date. This is my standard goes-with-everything-shade in a formula that is basically better than a lip balm. It's nicely pigmented, super soft and light on the lips, it's moisturising plus best of all, it smells like Planica ice cream (a Slovene thing. Basically three flavours of ice cream in one: vanilla, strawberry and chocolate). On me Rose is a lovely, neutral pink shade that is a shade or two darker than my natural lip colour.
I love the formula, but only in THIS shade. Why am I emphasizing that? Because this is a lipstick that doesn't contain wax, hence why it's very soft and a red or any bright/dark shade in this formula will be a mega huge mess. So stick to light shades in this formula if you don't want to be disappointed.
When lip products are concerned I'm a matte girl through and through and I think Milani's lipstick is one of the best, if not the best I've tried so far. The finish is actually matte, not creamy-matte, it kind of almost reminds me of matte lip creams, though it's most similar to Mac's Retro Matte formula, but these are a bit creamier. I only have this one shade, though and I hope all of them are like that. I got the shade Darling which is a beautiful peachy-pink shade that is similar to Catrice's I got you Babel lip pencil. I'd really love to have more shades of these, I thinking Love, Flirty, Confident and Passion.
I got myself five MAC lipstick samples when I last ordered on The Body Needs and I found two new absolute favourites - All Fired up and D for Dangerous. I'm head over heels in love with the latter, it's a shade I've been looking for at least five years - a warm purple-pink-red. The other one, All Fired Up is another stunning colour, a warm fuchsia shade, so a typical me colour. Both of these are retro matte, which is my favourite formula by Mac, however, it is quite a thick formula that some might find drying. I'd love to have full sizes of these two.
This completes the first part of my favourites in this year. Next will include all that isn't makeup and should be up soon.
Have a great day!
