I’ve got my best beauty discoveries
series coming up this month starting with makeup today! These are not
necessarily new products released in 2205 but that just happened to be the year
I discovered them and fell in love!
For base products, the Haus Labs Triclone Skin Tech Hydrating + De-puffing Concealer in shade 04 Fair Neutral RRP $45.50 CAD| £27 has become my go to concealer! It’s a great colour match
for me and works well under the eyes and on blemishes or dark spots. It
contains niacinamide to brighten, arnica to reduce the look of redness and
hyaluronic acid to plump and hydrate. I love the packaging and the formula
feels so hydrating and blends easily as well as offering good coverage!
I was sent the limited edition MERIT Archival Lip Essentials Gift Set in September and the Signature Lip Blush in
Archival RRP $36 CAD* and Shade Slick Sheen in Archival RRP $33 CAD* have
not left my lips since! The lip blush is a diffused soft matte in a cool mauve
and the slick sheen is a sheer pearlescent lip oil in a cool mauve. The lip
blush in particular is such a special formula! It feels lightweight, glides on
so smoothly and doesn’t feel drying at all despite being a matte, the shade is
beautiful and looks so natural but helps pull my makeup together! I haven’t
worn a matte on my lips in forever but this is the perfect formula for me!
Obsessed! I love adding the Slick Sheen over the top when I want my lips to
look glossier and the combo gives me the perfect my lips but better shade! I
hope they bring this shade to the permanent line!
Last year I managed to snag a $100 Rouge
Reward so knew I had to pick up something luxurious! I decided on the Yves Saint Laurent All Hours 24H Hyper Sunkissed Glow Bronzer in Shade 2 Dune RRP $88 CAD| £48 and I’ve happily used it all year! I am obsessed with the
packaging of this and the product inside isn’t bad either! It contains a little
shimmer but to be honest I thought it was matte! The formula is smooth and
blendable and leave my skin looking sunkissed and never orange or dirty!
The Tower 28 Beauty GetSet Blur + Set Matte Powder Blush in Long Beach Iced Tea RRP $32 CAD| £22 was my favourite
blush I picked up last year and I definitely want to explore this brand a bit
more! This is an earthy rosy pink shade with great colour payoff and buildable
pigment. It helps smooth the look of texture and give my cheeks a healthy flush
of long lasting colour! Need to get more shades!
Lastly, the Pixi Natural Brow Duo in
Deep Brunette RRP $24 CAD | £15* has been a constant in my makeup bag for
the last half of the year! I love the dual ended packaging and it’s so quick to
use with the angled brow pencil which makes it easy to fill in any sparse sections
of my brow then the gel to set them! The gel isn’t crispy and keeps my brows in
place all day!
Top to bottom: YSL bronzer in 2 Dune, Tower 28 blush in Long
Beach Iced Tea, MERIT Signature Lip Blush in Archival and Shade Slick Sheen in
Archival
I’d love to know your best makeup
discoveries from the last year! Let me know if you have tried any of these as
well!
Happy New Year everyone! I’m going to try
and get all my best beauty discoveries of 2024 posts up this month but I’ve
been a little unproductive lately so I hope I can get my ass in gear and get
them written up! As always these are not necessarily new releases for 2024, it
just happens to be the year I’ve got to try them properly!
Starting with base makeup, and I have a
few products here that I really like and work especially well together! The Bobbi Brown Vitamin Enriched Face Base RRP $34 CAD for 15ml* is a newer product
to my makeup collection but one that stood out immediately! I feel like this is
such a cult product but I’ve never had the chance to try it before now and the
consistency was so different to how I expected! I thought this was going to be
a gel formula but it is a thick oil free cream. It’s non greasy and very moisturising
so has been perfect for me this winter as it’s so dry where I live! This preps
my skin well for makeup making sure it doesn’t settle into fine lines and helps
plump my skin and keep it hydrated all day. I will be sad when this runs out as
it’s on the expensive side but I see why it’s such a classic product now!
It works particularly well to provide a
good base for the Urban Decay Face Bond Foundation in 5 Fair Neutral RRP $57 CAD| £36.50*. Billed as waterproof, sweatproof, and transfer resistant
with up to 24 hour wear and a medium buildable coverage, this foundation comes
in 40 shades and while I wouldn’t say it’s been able to knock my number one
foundation (Estee Lauder Double Wear) off its top spot, I find myself reaching
for this a lot! It’s great for oily and combo skin, though I have heard less so
for dry skin, it’s mattifying, the wear time is great and it doesn’t oxidise or
separate. I love the packaging too, it looks sleek and saves so much space!
I do like to mix it with the Pixi
Flawless Beauty Primer $37 CAD | £24* to add a little something extra
though! I think Pixi makeup is so underrated! This helps add some luminosity to
the UD foundation and I only need a tiny blob to do so! There is quite a bit of
sparkle but it still somehow manages to be subtle and helps make my makeup look
better!
Sticking with Pixi and the H20 Skin
Veil in Translucent RRP $34 CAD | £24*. This is a weightless, loose water
powder that sets makeup and mattifies my combo skin all day without looking
flaky or cakey! The pot looks small but this has lasted me months and I only
need a tiny amount to set my whole face. I don’t feel like I need to top up
during the day either and my face never looks flat or dry! Definitely worth a
try it you are oily or combo, it works so well!
I am a complete convert to the Urban Decay All-Nighter Long Lasting Makeup Setting Spray RRP $48.50 CAD| £28.50*. I’m
cheating a little with this one as I have had minis before in 2023 and not been
blown away but them but since I’ve had the full size, I’ve been using this
every day and testing it more fully so I’m including it because I love it! I
recently flew home for Christmas and had numerous delays and an extra flight in
order to get to my destination and when I finally walked in the door, I could
not get over how good my makeup still looked considering I had been traveling
for around 30 hours altogether! This spray promises to last up to 16 hours, is
waterproof, transfer free and kept my makeup looking fresh! You only need to
spray after makeup application, not before and I ended up giving my mum the
rest of my bottle in order to save a little weight in my luggage on the way to
my home in Canada as I have a backup here and she had used it a couple of times
over Christmas and was enjoying it too!
For blush, it was love at first use with
the Armani Beauty Luminous Silk Cheek Tint in Rosy Peach (50.5) RRP $56 CAD| £36*earlier in the year. I have previously found liquid blushes a little
intimidating but this one is fool proof! The formula is lightweight and
buildable, blends easy and has good wear time. It’s a peachy shade with a hint
of pink that gives a beautiful, brightening healthy glow. I apply a couple of
dots on my cheekbone then use a brush to blend, add another dot if needed to
build it up and it gives me a diffused, airbrushed finish. I want all the
shades!
I hesitated on whether to add the YSL Make Me Blush Liquid Blush in 44 Nude Lavalliere RRP $56 CAD| £31as I
just recently got this at Christmas. However, I’ve been using it non-stop since
then and it’s a beautiful nude pink shade that, like the Armani, has a
beautiful formula! It looks like it’s going to be pigmented when you first dot
it onto your cheekbones but it sheers out and is easily buildable. It gives a
lovely flush of colour and a diffused finish like the Armani too!
Top to bottom -
YSL
Make Me Blush Liquid Blush in 44 Nude and
Armani
Beauty Luminous Silk Cheek Tint in Rosy Peach (50.5)
Next up is a product that has a special
place in the category of “products previously send in PR that I have
repurchased” – the MERIT Clean Lash Mascara RRP $36 CAD| £23. This is a
tubing mascara that defines, separates, and lengthens lashes for a wide-awake
look with zero smudging. The bristles make it easy to coat my lashes and it
works well to lengthen. There are no clumps or flakes and no smudging as the
day goes on! Although this is a more natural looking mascara and doesn’t give
as much volume as some I have tried, I am so happy to finally have a smudge
free mascara that doesn’t bother me! I took this on holiday to Mexico earlier
this year and was so impressed with how it lasted in the heat! I am also
obsessed with the packaging! It looks so luxe on my dressing table! See my full MERIT post here!
Finishing up with lip products and the Armani Beauty Prisma Glass Hydrating Lip Gloss in 02 Candy Halo RRP $52 CAD| £30*
is much more of a luxury pick! It’s an oil in gloss formula giving volume shine
and care and contains 15% squalane. It has a lightweight formula, feels comfortable
and hydrating on my lips and there is no scent, stickiness or tingling. It’s definitely
a nice to have in my collection!
Lastly, and probably my favourite lip
products of the year, the Naturium Phyto-Glow Lip Balm in Petal RRP $10 USD| £12 at the very end of 2023 and despite having some issues with the
packaging (the end popped!), customer service were great and I duct taped it
and used it up anyway (using my new Peach shade for the photo as Petal is
already finished and in the bin – another sign that I loved this product!).
This is a very hydrating lip balm with a beautiful shine and non-offensive
vanilla scent! It has the perfect amount of stickiness for me and was long
lasting so I didn’t need to top up too often! Petal is a lovely my lips but
butter shade and this kept my lips so smooth. Like I said, I just recently repurchased
in a new shade as I couldn’t bear not to have it in my collection despite the
bad packaging!
Wow, that was a little longer than I
intended this post to be and I probably forgot a few products too! Have you
tried any of these products? Let me know what you thought if them and what your
favourite makeup product was of 2024!
