Saturday 9 January 2016

2015 Makeup Favourites

One thing I love to do at the end of year, is share my yearly favourites. These are the products that not only made an impression during a single month, but products that impressed me all year long. This will be a very long blog post, so lets get started….




Best Foundation 2015
This year I wanted to share the love for two different foundations, as I just couldn’t pick between them. The first is the L'Oreal Paris Infallible Matte Foundation, which I fell in love with when I was in America in June and July. For me, this foundation is beyond words and it really deserves the hype that surrounds it. A flawless matte finish, that isn't cakey or powdery - it just looks like skin. It covers a whole heap of imperfections and it lasts whatever the weather. The second foundation I want to highlight is the Maybelline Fit Me Foundation. The Maybelline Fit Me Foundation has become a staple in my routine, it buffs into the skin with ease, it covers imperfections and it doesn’t feel tacky on the skin. It has fantastic coverage too, which makes it good for days when you’re being a bit more demanding on your skin. 

Best Concealer 2015
Before I tried the Urban Decay Naked Skin Concealer earlier this year, I’d always used concealers from the high street. Moving to a high end concealer makes a real difference. You apply the concealer from a large doe foot applicator, it holds a lot of product and a little goes a long way. My favourite thing about this concealer, is that it works well for everything (dark circles, redness and blemishes too).  No matter how much you apply of this concealer, it still blends beautifully, leaving nothing but a flawless finish.

Best Powder 2015
The Bourjois Healthy Balance Powder is certainly one of the better powders you can buy, so I love that it’s available on the high street. The Bourjois powder is a perfect match for my skin, what I personally like about this powder is that it's incredibly fine milled, so it does not feel heavy at all. Still it gives you great coverage, sets makeup and keeps shine at bay all day long. Some powders can feel quite drying on the skin, but this is really comfortable. 

Best Setting Powder 2015
The Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder* completely changed my opinion on setting powders in 2014 and I loved the powder all year long this year too. I've had quite oily skin all my life, so it's rare for me to leave the house without a setting my makeup in place. The Vichy Dermablend Setting Powder is a translucent powder, which is packed with SPF30. It's incredibly fine and I apply it using a fan brush, the powder blends into the skin effortlessly and it keeps my makeup in place. 

Best Blusher 2015
Picking blushers was really tough as I really discovered blusher in 2015. The Creme Puff Blush from Max Factor, is a teeny little compact, which is a baked formula. The blusher has a marbled effect and its packed with multi-tonal pigments, much like the Hourglass equivalent we love.  I have the shade 'Gorgeous Berries', which I love as its deep berry shade, which is also great for sculpting. You can apply it with a light hand and have really pretty subtle highlighter effect sheen of colour. You can also build it up to create a real flush of colour.  The other blusher that I fell completely in love with is the Clinique Cheek Pop. It started with fickle love over the beautiful pattern, but soon progressed into full on obsession.  It’s a beautiful texture which is so light, it's not cakey and it's not powdery. It's pure genius! 

Best Bronzer 2015
My favourite bronzer hasn’t changed since 2014, once again the award goes to the The Body Shop Honey Bronze Bronzing Powder. I love that the packaging is both pretty and practical, it arrives with a beautiful honeycomb embossed pattern. The bronzer is completely matt and it's a completely even shade all the way through the compact. It’s so easy to use, so easy in fact, I’d highly recommend it if you’re a newbie to bronzers. It’s not too pigmented and it’s not hard to blend, it’s just perfect!

Best Highlighter 2015
Lets be honest, I’m a complete highlighter fanatic, so picking a favourite highlighter is pretty darn impossible. However, after much deliberation, I did eventually make a decision! The product that is getting the Best Highlighter award, is the Anastasia Beverly Hills Illuminator in Riviera, which will not come as a surprise to anyone who reads my blog frequently.  There's no doubt that this product looks incredible, it's one of the prettiest items in my whole makeup collection. The formula of these is really quite special too, it's very finely milled but there's absolutely no fallout as I swish my brush round in the pan. The highlighter blends into skin effortlessly and it actually has no glitter in it, so you just get the most gorgeous glow! 

Best Brow Pencil 2015
The product winning this category is a late entry to my makeup collection, but it jumped up the ranks very quickly! Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz has had it’s fair share of hype and it’s completely justified.  Brow Wiz is a tiny little pencil which aims to take the fuss out of doing your eyebrows. There's a pencil on one end and there's a handy spoolie on the other, the pencil itself is a very thin shape, which means you can literally draw on individual hairs. I’ve never tried anything quite like it and I’m a huge fan! 

Best Mascara 2015 
There was only one mascara that came to mind when I was choosing this category and it’s going to the Bourjois 1 Seconde Mascara. It’s the ultimate mascara for adding both volume and length to your lashes! The brush of the mascara is spherical which means there are bristles on every single edge. This allows you to wrap every single lash in a 360 degree motion, which actually makes a world of difference. It gives you extreme volume and there's not a clump in sight!

Best Eyeshadow Palette

I certainly didn’t drop my eyeshadow palette addiction in 2015 and tons of new palettes joined my collection. One palette that topped my list was the L’Oreal La Palette Nude palette which was actually originally released in November 2014. It was dubbed to be the L’Oreal answer to the new Urban Decay Naked 3 palette, bringing rose and pink hues to the high street. The palette was 10 beautiful neutral eyeshadow shades, all with a pinky, rose edge to them, with a beautiful purple shade and a champagne white thrown in for good measure. The eyeshadows are pigmented beautifully, but they are not too pigmented that you get yourself in a royal mess. There is no fallout on the shadows, which for me is a huge plus, I don’t have time to clean up my foundation before dashing to work!

Please share your 2015 makeup favourites with me in the comments below! I'd love to know what topped your favourites list and if we love any of the same things!
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