Best of 2010. Part 1 - Makeup:

I wanted to do the 'best of 2010' post that is making it's way around blogger, but I don't like posts without pictures so decided to split it into three seperate posts so they're not overly long :P

So here's part 1, the best makeup products of 2010:

♥ Foundation: Without a doubt, Yves Saint Laurent Teint Resist. This is the perfect colour match for me and feels comfortable on the skin, lasting all day. It's long wearing so it is a little drying on my skin if it's not well moisturised, but I can look past that for everything else. Read my review here.

♥ Concealer: I don't use/need concealer anywhere other than under my eyes so the classic Touche Eclait is still my favourite. It lightens and diffuses my undereye area perfectly. Honestly I'd rather that area look a little imperfect than have it caked in heavier concealers. Love this. No review as everyone knows this one :)

♥ Powder: 2010 was the year of no powder :) I realised I don't need it and my skin looks and feels nicer without it.

♥ Blush: MAC Dainty was my most used blush this year, same as last year I think! It's the perfect shade on my skintone and gives me a little bit of a glow without being overly shimmery or sparkly. I love this and recommend it to anyone! Swatch here, shown on top of middle finger.

♥ Bronzer: Bronzer was worn a maximum of 3 times in the past year so that's why I've not included it! I'm not a bronzer girl, it makes my pale skin look muddy and I prefer to keep my face looking fresh and porcelain :)

♥ Highlighter: MAC Lightscapade! Somehow this has made it through 2010 and is still going strong despite pretty much daily use. I really, really hope they reproduce this one as I havn't been able to find a highlight shade anything like it. Terrible swatch, flash made it superrr bright, but it's on the finger to the left here.

♥ Eyeshadow: Top to bottom, left to right - Unbasic White, Patina, Vanilla, Tempting, Showstopper and Typographic. These were my most worn and most replaced shadows this year, all by MAC. I like neutral bronzey shadows as they flatter my skintone and eyes like no others. There are swatches for all of these right here.

♥ Eyeshadow Base: MAC Painterly Paintpot. Perfect colour and consistency. Never without one of these in my makeup bag.

♥ Eyeliners: More MAC! Feline powerkohl (to be rereleased with Champale, yay!) and Teddy kohl. Both creamy, pigmented and long lasting. Not much more to be said! Swatch here, with Teddy swatched 2nd and Feline 3rd :)

♥ Eyelash Curler: Shu Uemura, though rarely used.

♥ Mascara: A new find for me, but definately the best mascara I have used, despite it having a few hang ups. Review coming soon! Yves Saint Laurent Faux Cils in black.

♥ Lipstick: I'm a nude or hot hot pink lipstick kinda girl and surprisingly both of my favourites this year have been from the drugstore - Sleeks Fuschia and Natural Collections Apple Blossom. Fuschia review coming soon, Apple Blossom on lips here.

♥ Lipgloss: I'm not a huge lipgloss wearer, in fact I only own one and that is very rarely worn so it's a tinted lip balm instead. Sleeks limited edition offering, Raspberry Souffle. Click for review and swatch.

♥ Nail Polish: None pictured as 2010 was the year of french manicure acrylic nails :)

Looking back, many of these products were firm favourites in '09 too. Maybe I'm boring or need to start switching things up, but I'm quite happy here in my little world of neutrals, bronze and hot pink! :)

Link me to your best of posts! Body products coming next!

Beauty Blog Link Love!:

Dare to wear red lips this holiday season? Check out these three options on Katie of My Lips But Better.

Amy Antoinette reviews Estee Lauder's Double Wear Foundation and Concealer.

See a sneak peak at the Nicole by OPI liquid metals collection, and a nail of the day!

Dare to wear red lips this holiday season? Check out Katie's picks ranging from sheer to bold on My Lips But Better.

Do you love rock n' roll? Find out what product Cindy at Prime Beauty uses to channel her inner Rocker Chick. Soft Rockers, don't fret; there's a look for you as well!

Shela at Confessions of a Beauty Guru is going cuckoo for Korean lip products!

Curious about more unconventional skin products? Rachel tells all about Witch Hazel Wonders at Queen of Turquoise.

Retrodiva experiments with the Estee Lauder Holiday Collection and likes what she sees.

Got a sticky compact and don't know what to do? Musicalhouses shows you how to clean up a sticky NARS, Smashbox, or Becca casing!

Need holiday makeup look ideas? Check out Audrey Dao's Holiday Look Book for ideas and tutorials!

At theNotice, Rae checks out a Benefit cult favourite -- but doesn't like what she sees.

Red lips are hot for Christmas! Lipglossiping trawls through her collection and uses a Red Lip Series as a great excuse to buy more!

Daily Polish falls head over heels (but manages not to lose her head!) for Rescue Beauty Lounge's 'Catherine H' from the new Tudor collection.

At Pink Sith, Joeybunny introduces you to the Wet n' Wild Night Elf Palette. See why she's swooning!

Chanukah may be over, but that doesn't mean you still can't enjoy this LUSH Fizztival of Lights gift set!

Beautywoome has published its Christmas gift guide, because you know you haven't done your shopping yet.

Hellcandy stumbles across her first dupe! Find out which drugstore brand matches the gorgeous fucshia of Nars Funny Face lipstick here.

Acquaintance gifting causing you stress? Jeweled Thumb shares her coworker holiday gift guide to put your mind (and wallet) at ease!

L from Beautifully Addicted To rediscovers Erase Paste.

Kim Porter shares some skincare tips for the cold weather.

Take a sneak peak at Dior’s Cannage eyeshadow palette from the upcoming Spring collection over at Pleasureflush!


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Jenn over at Spiced Beauty is celebrating her 2 year bloggerversary with a Huge Annabelle Cosmetics giveaway!

Phyrra is giving away 5 eye shadows from the Aromaleigh Wonderstruck Collection!

Over at The Glamorous Gleam, Mz. More loves Revlon's Perplex Nail Enamel so much that she is giving away four bottles to her readers!

Beauty Crazed loves Burberry Beauty and wants to give you a chance to love them too!

Jumping Aboard The Bandwagon:

I'm a little late with this one :)!

Like many others I was sent the John Frieda Precision Foam Hair Colour to try out. I actually knew all along I wouldn't use it myself - I rarely colour my hair and when I do it's strictly a salon job only - but I knew my Mum would appreciate trying it out :) Stupidly enough, I still chose the shade I would like to have - 5G Medium Golden Brown, not a shade my Mum would choose - something darker and cooler. Head-desk moment ;)

Luckily Mum's a good sport and said I could try it on her regardless and if it did turn out a disaster we could just colour over it, so here we go!

So as you can see the kit comes complete with 4 items (plus gloves but forgot to photograph these). A colour developer bottle, pump, colourant and a rather generous sized tube of conditioner. The gloves are black and rubbery, MUCH better quality than any others I have used with at home colouring kits. (Do not even mention the paper thin type that are stuck to the instruction leaflet)!


To start you pour the colourant into the developer and tilt the bottle 4-5 times to mix. DO NOT shake as you would with regular dyes, a few small tilts is sufficient and will allow the product to be dispensed evenly.

Then pump to release the foam! At first I was looking to press down on the pumo to release the foam but soon realised that actually all you need to do is squeeze the bottle lightly until a golf ball sized amount is released into your fingertips. Apply smoothly throughout your entire hair and massage gently to ensure it is distributed evenly all over.

Application:

Easy! Much easier than regular dyes which I used to find dripped and were slightly hard to spread throughout the hair. With the foam, there is literally no dripping and you can be sure it will stay where applied.
Mum has short hair, but would usually use the entire bottle of dye regardless, but with this we had about half left and literally nowhere needed anymore product. I think one bottle would work well for medium to long hair, but thick hair like mine may benefit from two bottles. Can't vouch for that though as I obviously havn't tried it. Feel free to enlighten me - did you need two bottles?

We left the solution on for 25 minutes as she had some greys we wanted to make sure were covered, rinsed and applied the conditioner.

Results. Before/After:

Glossy bright colour!

To sum it up, a few things I liked about this product:

♥ Ease of use, no dripping.

♥ Barely any scent. None of the breathtaking amonia smell associated with most at home dyes.

♥ Non staining! I can be a little carefree when dying hair (It's only Mum!) and ears and hairline are usually left somewhat patchy, but this one washed right off the skin during the rinse.

♥ Super glossy finish, hair feels very nourished and smooth.

Any cons? Not really, though I will say the colour did not turn out anything like that on the box, but I blame that on Mums original colour. Had it been applied to my light auburn hair as initially planned I'm sure it would have resembled the Medium Golden Brown, and not the bright mahogony based brown we got. But she loves it anyway and has actually since bought two more boxes of this very shade whilst it is on introductory sale.

Love this and highly recommended! It will retail for £9.99 a box eventually, but get it now while it's averaging at around £6 in Boots and Superdrug just to try :)

MUFE For Sale:

Is anyone interested in either of these products?

♥ Brand new MUFE Lash Fibres primer, still in packaging marked at £14.50, £11 posted.

♥ Brand new MUFE HD Elixer Instant Radiance and Hydration Serum. Also in packaging albeit slightly crushed complete with £25.50 price tag, £20 posted. SOLD!


Don't ask why I purchase things I don't really need, I think we all do it haha.

I would like to point out that the HD Elixir isn't totally full, but I've used it in the past and it never comes full to the brim. I'd say it's about 95% full looking :)

Paypal only if anyone is interested and I'll have them shipped ASAP!

SOLD! Thankyou :)

Oilatum/Pixiwoo:

Okay so, granted I would normally try something for more than one day before I reviewed it. In fact it would normally get around a months worth of trial, but at least two weeks, but this product has wowed me after just two uses and it seems it would be most useful to others now, whilst the weather is still icy cold and playing havoc with our skin.

I'm sure I wasn't the only one to see this featured in one of Pixiwoo's recent youtube videos and after hearing them sing it's praises and needing a super intense moisturiser for a while now I decided to head into Boots, pick it up and try it for myself.

The product is Oilatum Natural Repair Face Cream:

I'd not heard of the Oilatum brand before the video, probably because it's not really marketed/sold with the regular skincare brands such as Simple, Olay, etc etc but instead tucked away with the E45 and other excema/severe dry skin lotions and potions. From what I could see this was the only face product from the brand, with the rest aimed solely at the body. It took me multiple stores to find one that sold this and or had it in stock currently.

Why did I feel the need to buy this? I have sensitive skin that burns easily in the sun, but chaps even easier in the cold and wind, and as my UK readers know, we've had our fair share of 0 degrees and colder this past month. My skin was sore and irritated and some of my regular moisturisers were actually stinging upon application and others were being absorbed within seconds and not actually helping with the condition of my skin. My forehead was rough and chapped and the area around my nose had actually broken out from the cold, so I was super happy to hear about Nic's (Pixiwoo) experience with this product.

What can I say? It works! After only two applications my skin is smooth and soothed again, the breakouts are almost gone, my forehead is back to normal and my skin feels nourished. What I like best about this product though is how it seems to create a barrier on my skin, and the cold winds just arn't able to penetrate through it as easily as before, my face feels very protected and I will continue to use this throughout the next few months!

It's quite lightweight, yet feels substantial on the skin and almost balmy during application. It is fragrance free and hasn't irritated my skin (and trust me, it would have by now if it was going too, but I'll keep you updated).

It retails at £7.49 for 50ml and I highly recommend it :)

Giveaway Update:

Just a quick update to those who have already entered, please feel free to head over to the post (link above) and check that I have entered your extra entry(s) if you so require them.

Some of you posted second comments stating the lipstick you would like or your email address if you forgot. Any extra comments have been deleted - don't worry I'll contact you for your choices etc - UNLESS you posted on twitter/sidebar etc, in which case your 2nd comments may have been kept and I wont have manually entered you any more. Does that make sense? I hope so!

Basically, count how many comments are yours, wether you wrote them, or I did. It should match up to how many ways you entered. Every comment is an entry, regardless of what it says.

Any questions -ask and feel free to tell me if I've missed your extra entry :)

NARS Sheer Glow. Yes/No?:

I apologise for the lack of updates, a lot going on right now, but since I already had the photos taken, here's another of my foundation reviews, this time for the cult favourite NARS Sheer Glow.

This seems to be a love it or hate it kind of foundation, with most people loving it. Me? Sadly I'm among those who don't love it and it has since been passed on to another user. I did however give it a very thorough try for many reasons, especially since the shade Siberia is probably the best match I have ever found in a foundation with absolutely no orange tones.

This product is dermatologist tested, non comedogenic and fragrance free. It retails for £29 per 30ml.

The Packaging:

The main concern Sheer Glow users seem to have with the packaging is the lack of a pump. I actually purchased a pump seperately, with a price tag of £5 - a little extortinate in my opinion, but it will last you a while since you can just switch it to your new foundation when you run out. The price of the pump has recently changed to £3, a little more wallet friendly. If you choose not to buy the pump you have a simple screw topped lid topped with a satin finish, somewhat redundant larger lid.

Pump aside, this foundation is packaged in a glass bottle. Initially I thought "Wow this is a small bottle", but it holds 30ml which is pretty much the normal amount when it comes to liquid foundation. The glass isn't frosted so it's easy to see how much product is left and it's stamped with the NARS logo. I like the packaging, it's simple and sleek and there's no complaints here.

The Formula:

Sheer Glow is one of the thicker foundations I have tried. It's not super thick, but it's definately thicker than most in my collection. Not necessarily a bad thing, just an observation. There is no particular scent here either.

As you can see, this foundation is a great match for my super pale skintone. It's perhaps looks a little too cool for me in this swatch, but once blended it's a perfect match and any redness in my skin is neutralised by the lack of it in this shade, Siberia.

Application & Finish:

Okay here comes the part where Sheer Glow started to let me down. For me, it's neither sheer nor glowy, the very two reasons I was attracted to it in the first place. It actually offers me a lot of coverage and on my skin it dried to a matte almost cakey finish regardless of application technique.

I tried everything; my trusty Cover FX pointed foundation brush, MAC #190, Beauty Blender and even my fingers but there was no way this formula was going to work with my skin. Although it's marketed towards normal to dry skin types it instantly highlighted any dry patches on my skin and sunk directly into my pores (something which no other foundation has ever done, I might add). I had streaks galore and had to use a magnifying mirror to make sure they were sufficiently blended before heading out.
Did it at least last all day after the nightmare application? No. On my skin, it wears off in patches leaving me with red flaky cheeks, chin and nose. Overall, a disaster.

The worst part? Although NARS claim that with daily use Sheer Glow will improve skins brightness, radiance and texture, it actually irritated mine and upon removal I was left with patchy, sensitive and red skin. I tried to stick with it but after about a week of daily use I just couldn't be bothered with it anymore and it was passed on.

Before/After:

It actually doesn't look so bad in this image and the perfect colour/neck match is very apparent. I tried to capture the dry patches this foundation gave me on camera, but it proved almost impossible. Still, the overall finish this foundation gave me is visible and had it not have caused me a plethora of other problems I might have actually quite liked it. That is, if I had not been expecting something sheer or glowy ;)

I will give NARS a big thumbs up for it's extensive shade range. Never before have I found a foundation this pale, but for now I will give this brand a miss when it comes to foundations and stick with my trusty Yves Saint Laurent, who never lets me down.

Click for my previous foundation reviews:
Estee Lauder Lucidity, Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturiser, Lancome Teint Miracle and Yves Saint Laurent Teint Resist.