Beauty Favourites of 2013

Hi All! Happy 2014 and also it's my first post on this blog - this year! Hurrah! It's been a while and to be honest I've been lazy with blogging - so I'm gonna try and keep up since I do have some spare time right now.

Anyways... this will be a quick and sweet post! I've complied a bunch of beauty products in which I deemed to be my beauty favourites of 2013. I've seen many other bloggers who have done this post or in a video form, so... I thought I'd share my own version!

A Wrap Up of my Top 10 Favourites of 2012!

I know I'm not constant with monthly favourites (and I've tried!) but today I thought I'll do a quick (and impromptu) post before I head out tonight in time for NYE!

I could possibly say that these are my 'all time favourites' but I'll do a separate post on that sometime soon! For now this is just some of the favourite products which I enjoyed using throughout the year 2012!

So.. let's get to it! (Oh and excuse the dirty Real Technique's Brush I have there)

So first off, here I have a Real Techniques Blush Brush which I adore so much! (Also nearly everything from the Real Technique's Range). I love the RT brushes in general and I much prefer those brushes over the Sigma ones any day! I still use my Sigma ones but after discovering RT's I was hooked. 

No doubt I love my MAC products and here I have 4 MAC favourites. I'm madly in love with this blush and I shall consider it as my all time favourite blush (which I've recently discovered) and it's Peaches by MAC. It's the best blush out. If you own it and love it - It's pretty much self explanatory. It gives a nice subtle flush to your face and it's perfect with any look (I may say). I also own a few other MAC blushes (Like Margin, Peachykeen & Gingerly) and I could say that Gingerly comes second after Peaches. I like to use Gingerly as a contour from time to time. 

The Second MAC product here is the MAC Fix +, I love my Fix + and I have the full size (100ml) and the travel size (pictured here - 30mls) and I always spritz it on my face after powdering / setting my make up and also throughout the day to refresh my skin. I know many people often get confused with the whole concept of the Fix + and the thing is - it's more of a Make Up Fixer than a make up setter. Nevertheless, it does both jobs pretty well for me... (despite the claims and etc) 

While on the same topic, another MAC product I adore and use everyday is my MAC Mineralise Skinfinish Natural in Medium adn my MAC Studio Moisture Tint in Medium Plus. I use this everyday or otherwise (exclude the Studio Tint when I'm heading out and there's pictures bound to be taken). 

Studio Tint is my favourite everyday 'foundation'... technically it's a tinted moisturiser. To me this is kinda my 'BB cream' even though it's not labelled as one. I've been using it for the past year and a half and there's still less than a quarter of it left. It will probably be my first repurchase of a MAC product and I'm so glad I have it in my kit! 

As for the MAC Mineralise Skinfinish, it's amazing! All I can say is that I use it as a setting powder even though it's not translucent. I use a small pea size amount of foundation when I apply my make up and use the powder to even out the skin and also set it at the same time without looking cakey. 

The next item on the list is my Clarins Beauty Flash Balm. My mum gave me this not knowing that she could probably make use of an awesome product, but whatever! I used it a few times and didn't like it at first as I felt like it was just some ordinary moisturiser, but then after reading how it works (since it gives just unclear and minimal instructions) I did see why many people on Make Up Alley rave about how awesome this product was and what it actually does to your face. 

At first I used it as a primer but after a while after googling and all that crap. I found out that it's mainly used to even out wrinkles (which I don't have just yet), minimise pores...? and also minimise redness plus all over good stuff (which I cannot remember). 

I know that when I apply this product before foundation - it gets rid of the redness off my face and also provides a nice base for my foundation. My skin feels smooth and also felt like I've drank so much water my skin feels super hydrated. 

Despite it not being a primer, I use it like a primer from time to time. I love how it's like an eraser for my imperfections and allowing my foundation to do it's magic and make my face look flawless. I've gone through so much of this 30ml travel sized product that I'm ready to purchase the full 50ml sized product. 

Next thing is Seche Vite, after hearing the biggest hype about it in the bloggosphere I finally gave in and purchased this infamous top coat. I can say that it's the best top coat I've used - even though I have no tried Out the Door (which many people claim is just as good or even better than Seche Vite). Enough said, it dries so quickly (like I think around a minute or less) and also leaves my nails with this nice incredible shine. Best $7 spent on a top coat indeed. 

Three more products to go! Dolly Wink Liquid Eyeliner is also one of those liquid eyeliners that have been hyped about for sooooooo long, I did give in and I could say that I am highly impressed and that I'm going to purchase 2 more as back ups. It's stays on all day and also has a nice precision tip which makes applying your liquid eyeliner a breeze!

As for mascara, I cannot tell you how many mascaras I have and how many I need to get through. But by far, I do love my Australis Killer Curves mascara (Review Here) but than again I think my all time favourite would have to be the Tarte Lights Camera Lashes mascara. I have a travel size here, cause I bought it on eBay just to see how awesome everyone claimed it to be. It's freaking amazing and I've been loving it ever since. It gives decent volume and also length plus! despite having short stubby asian lashes I found that out of all the mascaras (ranging from Maybelline to Dior) this is the mascara that makes my asian lashes a teeny visible!

Lucky last, I know... another hyped up product from the bloggosphere!? But hey, I love this lip gloss to death and I am so glad I've purchased it. Thank god I bought it for $31 on StrawberryNet and also it's really rare to find this colour online now (since it's sold out everywhere *for those who want to purchase via Australia at that price). This gloss is amazing. I never thought this gloss from YSL would be so great, I use it everyday - work and going out. I also use it on top of most of my favourite lipsticks to give it an extra staying power. (Review Here)

I hope you enjoyed reading this lengthy post and sorry for the rush but hope this impromptu post keeps you occupied!

Oh, and before I go... Happy New Years everyone! It's been a lengthy and stressful year for me but also I'm excited to see what the new year unfolds! :D Stay safe everyone!

Love, J

Hello YSL

It's been a long long time since I last blogged. It's almost 3 weeks for me (which seems forever for me). I'm not quite back yet but I thought I had to post something after not posting for 3 weeks! I haven't finished with my Uni Exams yet, I still got 2 more and I am free after Wednesday night! Til then, I'm looking forward to 3 months of holidays as well as looking forward to Stereosonic next Saturday, (insert other 'fun and exciting' things I'm planning to do) and also going to Swedish House Mafia's One Last Tour in February next year! (Thanks to the boyfriend for scoring us the Pre Sale Tickets and also getting the Arena Floor tickets! I literally screamed at work today when he called me that he got the tickets... I'm one huge SHM fan.)

Anyways, I'm not going to bore you any longer and so I'll cut to the chase and show you my new prized possession which I've been admiring so so much as well as itching to blog about! 

I'm madly in love with the Yves Saint Laurent Rouge Pur Couture Vernis A Levres Glossy Stain in Corail Aquatique (No 7). (Yes, that's a freaking long name for a Lip Gloss... but whatever! It's ama-zing!) 

After so much hype in the 'beauty community' I took the liberty of visiting the Myer store near my Uni and tried the gloss/stain out. I didn't really like it at first but after coming back to it and also going to a David Jones store trying it on a handful of different shades as well as contemplating on purchasing such an expensive lip gloss, I took the plunge and I splurged - after working so hard for the past 2 months of course I deserve to treat myself.... after spending so much on cosmetics already. I promise I'm not purchasing anymore make up for the rest of this year. I swear!

From the beginning I'm not a huge lip gloss person but recently I've been more and more interested and I think this lip gloss/stain has got me into lip glosses... Let's hope it remains that way!

Corail Aquatique is a nice pinky coral shade (which is my type of colour). It wasn't the exact colour I had in mind when I ordered it from StrawberryNet but after a few wears I adjusted to it and admired it since. 

The applicator is a pointed lip sponge which doesn't bother me, it applies on the lips quite lavishly and also somewhat evenly. At first, I couldn't help but kind of cringe a little when I open the lid to apply the lip gloss, since it has this strong alcoholic smell... the only kind of smell you would find with YSL Lipsticks (which I found) and probably also High End Lipsticks (from my experience) but it doesn't bother me cause to me it's such a beautiful and also luxurious product I've looked beyond it's flaws. 

That being said, there is one little flaw... It claims to last pretty long on the lips. That's only with the stain, which is probably a good all day wear (8 hours+) even with eating and drinking. As for the gloss itself, roughly once you start eating or drinking it starts feathering away and afterwards it kind of just sits on the lips (if you have dry lips, exfoliate them or wear lip balm first or else it will accentuate your dry lips!) and then you would reapply to have your lips looking lush again. Other than that I have no other issues. 

For me, I line my lips with my Make Up Forever Aqua Lip Pencil in 15C and then apply one generous layer of the gloss. That's pretty much my everyday/work lippie which I've been wearing often lately. 

Ever since I received it (probably nearly 2 weeks ago?) I've been wearing it everyday non-stop. My mum and also mummy-in-law love the lippie so much that my mum asked me to purchase one for her (since I purchased my one, it's been sold out/unavailable on StrawberryNet and a bunch of other websites online, but I do not want to pay the AUS RRP price for this so I just gotta wait :( sigh). Considering it's such a nice natural everyday shade, it will most likely suit anybody of any age. 

Here are some swatches. I apologise for not doing a lip swatch, my skin has been heaps horrible so I didn't want my DSLR to pick up the nastiness... LOL

But anyways, swatched from left to right is just how it is as a stain and how it is as a gloss. So hopefully that would give you an idea, of even better you can probably google better images of lip swatches and what not. 

Considering the RRP for this lippie at Myer & David Jones is $50. Purchasing off StrawberryNet was a breeze! It was really quick and also it was roughly the same price as the RRP in the States! (State is $32, I got it for $31.50 with free shipping! It only took 4 days to get to me) 

I really like this lip gloss/stain and maybe I might end up with another shade in the future. But in the meantime I'll be using my new MAC Viva Glam Nicki Lipstick (with my recent MAC Haul which I will post up soon) in conjunction to this gloss, for a somewhat long wearing lippy. I forgot to mention that... I kind of use the gloss to layer on top of other lipsticks to make my lippies last a little longer! (Works)

I'll be back soon with heaps of products to share with you and also reviews as well. After this horrid week of exams as well as slowly crunching away through my busy schedule - I'll be able to unwind and relax as well as post more on the blog! 

See ya'll soon! 

Love, J 

*This product was purchased with my own money. I was not paid or reimbursed in any way. I have not been paid by any respective companies mentioned and all my thoughts are my own. For more information please see my Disclosure Policy.