Favorites of 2013

Hi everyone!

So, first off: a huge apology is due for the weeks and weeks (months, to be completely honest) that we've neglected this blog and haven't uploaded a single post - absolutely shameful! The Christmas holidays have finally arrived though, and we now have a little time off from work and university and revision and exams to concentrate a bit more on our darling blog.  To make our comeback at least a little interesting we decided to put together a little list of our favorites products and pieces from the best of the world of fashion and beauty this past year. A lot of them are classics that have been around forever, and some are new discoveries, but here goes, our 'favorites of the year 2013'!

1- Grey-Camel Boyfriend Coatigan / Primark 

I'll start off with fashion, cos most of my favorites this year have been beauty-related so I'll get that out of the way. I only recently bought this coat at Primark, it was reduced down to 15€ which I think is such a bargain! Since most of my coats are black or khaki I was really looking for something grey or beige-y to add a little bit of a different touch to my all-black daily uniform of skinny jeans and jumper. I really love this, it's grown on me and become one of my absolutely favorite ones! I usually wear this with my trusty black Asos cut-out boots, some thick wooly socks peeping out, a colorful (tartan!) scarf and some skinny jeans or Zara leggings and the sleeves rolled up a little to show the sleeves of my jumper underneath, it's really become my standard outfit these last few weeks.

2 - Strappy Lace Bralette / Monki

This is another recent purchase, but I loved it so much as soon as I opened the parcel it came in that I simply had to put it into my favorites list. I've been shying away from bralettes/strappy bras because they usually don't go up to my brasize, but this one was so goddamn cute that I couldn't resist and took the risk, which I'm soooooo happy about because it fits like a charm despite my cup size. I'm super excited to wear this with camis, as the straps are so thin that they're really elegant. And the pattern, and the lace, everything about it is just drop dead gorgeous. Monki, you did it again! (ps: shoutout to the boyfriend for buying me this)

3 - Necklaces / Kukee 

One last fashion-y bit that I've really been loving recently and thus decided to include here are these two necklaces. I love the dainty little detail of the brass pendants and love how they look paired together. The little quartz stone on the shorter necklace is sweet too, and all together I'm really fond of these two. They're from a little online jewelry store called Kukee, which has been mentioned here many times as it always carries interesting, original designs and definitely caters to all kinds of tastes and styles! I was actually lucky enough to win this necklace when I participated in a twitter competition and got this and a few other goodies, but these two are definitely my favorites out of the lot. You can pick them up here.

4 -  Bufferbrush 182 + Concealerbrush 195 / MAC Cosmetics

Now to the beauty part of this! To start off with the base, I thought I'd include some of my favorite brushes. Neither of these are much talked about in the beauty world (especially not as much as the 217 and the 239 eyebrushes!) but I really adore these. Especially on a bad skin day, the concealer brush is amazing to dab on concealer in a very precise spot without too much rubbing off on the brush, and it really helps hide all the blemishes (you little bastards). The buffing brush is great too, though I tend to use it as an allover face powder brush on the go and just chuck it into my make-up bag because of its handy size.

5 - Essentials Kit & Face - Base Brushes / Real Techniques

I know, I know, the swooning over these brushes never stops and this has been said millions and trillions of times in the beauty world, but Samantha Chapman just really is a hero. It might get old after having seen them so many times, but I just can't exclude them from this list, cos these brushes are perfection. Despite owning a few more, I decided to only put the face brushes in there, cos those are the ones I use the most. The contour brush for contouring and highlighting (and sometimes for blending in under-eye concealer), the expert face brush for foundation, the buffing brush for pretty much any job since it's so versatile, the flat pointed foundation brush for concealer and brow bone highlighting, and the blush brush for any all-over-face powdering job, bronzing or blusher. The bristles are so soft that it genuinely makes applying make-up fun and exciting. I don't care how often this gets said: Sam Chapman, you're my goddess!

6 - Colorstay Foundation for Combination Skin / Revlon

 

Being the youtube addict that I am, one of the earliest make-up artists whose tutorials and recommendations I followed was Lisa Eldridge. Not only does she have the most beautiful face and elegant, soothing voice, she also just reaaaally knows what she's talking about. Having quite an oily t-zone, I was on the hunt for a good foundation that would keep its promises of lasting forever, suit my complexion and pretty much not budge from my face until my Bioderma cottonpads wipe it off at night. In her 'foundation' series, Lisa Eldridge recommended this for my skin type, and after having seen this on quite a few more blogs, I went ahead and bought it and have not regretted it for a minute. I might have gotten a shade lighter than I wanted (I have it in '150 Buff'), but it's winter time so I'm pale as fuck anyway. This is lovely, blends nicely, sits comfortably and doesn't feel cakey or chalky. All in all I think this is the best foundation up to date and can definitely keep up with its high end competitors. All thumbs up for my foundation of the year!

7 - Stay Matte Finishing Powder & Scandaleyes Nude Eyeliner / Rimmel

I've been using the Stay Matte powder forever, and to be honest I don't think any other powder can compete with this. I've used Mac powders, Shiseido powders and many other high end ones, and at the end of the day, I just like this the best every single time. It doesn't sit on the skin uncomfortably and it just does the job nicely. I wear the shade ' 00 transparent' or '03 peach glow' in this. Long story short: this works amazingly and it's really affordable, so it deserves its place in the top picks of 2013. Only negative: I really hate the packaging, it looks pretty cheap and the lid can sometimes come off.
As for the nude eyeliner, this is another one of my absolute must have daily make up items. I wear it in my bottom waterline every single day, to brighten tired eyes and just generally make them look more awake and pretty. It's from the Scandaleyes collection, so it's waterproof, and I think I own 3 of these cos I'm so worried I'll run out. Rimmel: I love you.

8 - Eyeshadow in 'Cranberry' / MAC Cosmetics

To be honest, I picked this eyeshadow in the shade 'Cranberry' (frost finish) because it suits the autumn/winter season, but there's a dozen other MAC eyeshadows that I would have wanted to add in here, so this will have to represent them all. I've been buying eyeshadows there for nearly 10 years, and I don't really care about any other brand, because these are just the best. No one makes colors like MAC! I love this particular one because of its frost finish and the luminous glow it leaves on your lid, it creates the most gorgeous smokey eye looks but also looks great simply lightly dabbed onto the lid or used to line the bottom lash line for a grunge-influenced look. Some of my other favorites are 'Ricepaper', 'Patina', 'Brulé', 'Charcoal', 'Sumptuous Olive', 'Twinks', 'Trax' and 'Expensive Pink'.

9 - Eyeshadow Mini Palette / Estée Lauder

This little palette is pretty close to perfection in my opinion. I've had Estée Lauder's "truffle" quad (and mentioned it in a post here last summer) for a while, but my brown and champagne shades were nearly empty after many many wears, so I was chuffed when I got this. I'm not quite sure whether this palette is actually in shops, because this is a pr sample (the eyeshadows are full size though). It features four matte shades (a plum-y brown, a chocolate brown, a champagne-y cream color and a light pink), as well as five shimmery shades (an olive green, a sparkly cream, and different shades of shimmery pinks and browns). All the shades make a nice little palette for a nude eye, or you can build it up to create beautiful smokey eye looks, and with nine shades in a small palette this is amazing for traveling, too.

10 - Vampy Lip Pencils / Lord & Berry, Gosh, IQ Cosmetics, MAC Cosmetics

As I've mentioned many times I'm before, I'm a matte lips kinda gal. I'm yet to find a lipstick that really meets my expectations for a matte lip, soI tend to just wear lip pencils as an all over lip color instead. Because of the fall/winter season, I have been loving a really dark, vampy red or purply lip with a nude eye (only mascara). My most recent acquisition is the lip pencil selection of Lord & Berry, that came in four gorgeous shades: two nude-y pinky tones ('Blossom' and 'Blush') and two reds, a bright, slightly brick-red-y vibrant color ('Sienna') and a very dark, burgundy red (my favorite, 'Black Red'). The pigmentation is amazing, and they really do apply completely matte. They are very drying though, so I recommend doing a lip scrub and moisturizing very carefully before you rock these darker colors to avoid chapped lips and flaky patches. The 'Black Cherry' lip pencil by Gosh has an even better lasting power. Make out sessions with the boyfriend, meals, nights out: it's stood by me through it all, incredibly! Head over to Asos if you want to snag up these gorgeous pencils here.

11 - Cleansing Cream & Lip Treatment / Kanebo Sensai

The Sensai line of Kanebo Cosmetics International is actually an anti-ageing line, but I got a few samples of these products so I fell in love despite the fact that I'm not yet battling the wrinkles. The Silky Purifying Cleansing Cream is one of my bedtime routine staples, it's smoothing and makes the skin feel so soft and clean. The Cellular Performance Total Lip Treatment is really my favorite here though: it's like some sort of insane amazing magical lip thing that makes your lips feel like silk overnight. Both these products are super pricey, so check if you can get some samples! For saving my chapped lips from the grips of the cold winter, these deserve to be in my top picks.

12 - Detangling Hairbrush / Tangle Teezer by Shaun P.

This is yet another much-raved-about product in the beauty world, but once again I didn't wanna pass the opportunity to say that all the praise is deserved. Cos of my ombre hair (and because it's reaaaaally long) I have slightly dry and brittle ends, and this detangles them gently and without pulling or breaking my hair. The bright neon color is perfect so I always know where it is when it gets lost in the depths of my handbag, and to be quite honest I never want to have to use another hair brush again; full marks to you, Tangle Teezer.


13 - Short Stories Collection "The Dubliners" / James Joyce 

It might seem a little random to add a book in my favorites when this blog is 99% of the time dedicated to beauty and fashion related things, but I didn't feel like this list would be quite right for me if I didn't add a little bit of it anyway. I picked Joyce's 'Dubliners' (a naturalistic/realistic short story collection about Irish middle class life) because it's one of the books I am currently reading and loving, but truly it could have been a ton of other books I discovered and fell in love with this year. I just felt like adding it to make my favorites list complete!


So, that's pretty much it for my Favorites of 2013 list. Forgive me for the random bits and bobs, the awful picture quality (the lighting in my flat is abysmal) and the repetitive posts about products that have already been much raved about, but I just can't really deny that these have just been my most fave products and items of the year. I hope you enjoyed the (long, oops, sorry!) read. Kym's favorites post is coming up real soon, too. In the meanwhile: which have been your holy grail products that have taken your heart by storm this year? I'd be really interested to hear about them.
I wish you all the merriest of Christmas and a really happy holiday season!!!