2012 Beauty Favourites

Yaaaay, I'm finally doing my 2012 beauty favourites (sorry it's a tad late!!). 

I went through all my beauty products choosing my favourites (duhh hahha) & had to be incredibly self disciplined about which products are my ultimate, ultimate favourites for the year..so here we go!!

#1. Brushes

Surprise, surprise my first favourites are some of the Real Techniques brushes..although I've been beyond-in-love with most of my brushes from this collection, my 2 favourites are the Stippling and Contour. I have used both pretty much everyday since I got them and cannot even express my love for them..hahaha. The gentle-ness (is that even a word?!) of them leaves a perfect finish no matter what product you choose to use them with and I cannot rave about them enough!!

Another favourite brush of mine is the No7 Flat Eye Colour Brush..being a lover of eyeshadow & eye makeup in general, I have numerous eyeshadow brushes but this one in particular has never let me down!!! The soft, compact bristles make this brush ideal for both 'sweeping' the eyeshadow for a softer look, as well as 'pacting' the eyeshadow on for a deeper, more dramatic look.. this brush is a total bargain at around £5!

#2. Face Products

My favourite foundation for this year has to be Loreal's True Match Foundation (I'm shade N2 Vanilla)..I love the coverage that it gives- enough to make you look brighter & cover redness, whilst still looking natural and definitely not cakey). It also comes in a wide range of shades which seems to be unusual for some brands!! 

My next two favourites are concealer.. obviously the infamous Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection concealer (I'm shade 1) as the coverage it gives is unbelievable, especially for the price! My second is Loreal's True Match Concealer (I'm shade 4, 'Beige').. For me, it is unusual to have a concealer that dark yet this one matches perfectly, covers imperfections & redness as well as being really easy to blend and nice to work with.

My next 'face' favourite is Sleek's Contour Kit (I have the lighter shade). This product is so inexpensive yet so good, especially for someone like me who not only wants to add shape to their face, but also some colour (I'm not a huge blush fan, as I only have fairly pink cheeks, so adding blusher to the mix just makes me look constantly flustered..NOT attractive hahah!!)

My final face favourite is my No7 Eyebrow Pencil (Shade 10, Brown)..as you can see mine is in a bit of a state & I think a new one is needed fairly pronto, but I still had to include this in my favourites. I use this product everyday and find it so easy to work with. It is the perfect colour, consistency and had amazing staying power- all of this for about £7!!! Personally, I find having good eyebrows can make a face- they become the perfect frame for the rest of your makeup.

#3. Eyes

I think it's pretty clear that my favourite type of makeup is eye makeup, so it was beyond hard for me to choose my favourites. Obviously, my naked palettes are right up there, but I thought I would choose a couple of my other loves! The first is the MUA eyeshadow trio in 'Innocence'.. I think this cost me about £3 but it is absolutely incredible (a very good dupe for the bourjois eyeshadow trios!). The textures are easy to work with, have amazing colour pigmentation and, most imporantly, are very flattering. My second favourite is the Maybelline 24 colour tattoo in 'Pink Gold'. At first I wasn't a huge fan of these cream eyeshadows as I wasn't exactly sure how to work with them, but as I've got used to them I actually adore them, but this peachy/pinky shade is my favourite (unusually for me!). For me, it doesn't crease, the colour stays & is so flattering when you want a simple eye look.

My favourite eyeliner of the year was Maybelline's Liner Express. The fluidity and staying power of that particular liquid eyeliner was insane! (I need to repurchase it actually, as I thought I should give some other liquid/gel eyeliners a go first, but nothing matched up).

#4. Lips

Lip products are also one of my favourites, especially because they change with the seasons and can define a look completely, so once again choosing my favourites was hard!

To begin, I chose Rimmel's Lip Pencil in 'Spice'. If you've read my previous blog posts you will see that this features highly as it is such a versatile colour. For me, it is the perfect 'nude'..I know it isn't technically a nude, but if I have a natural lip colour that is too similar to my face shade I look awful, so to bring in a slightly darker, yet still nude-ish colour is the perfect alternative for me. I also adore this product as it can be worn by itself and look amazing (as well as hold pretty darn well!), but it is also perfect to go under various lipsticks in various shades, and just deepen the look.

For Lipsticks I couldn't choose one favourite, as I go through stages of each.. I thought a good way to combat this was to choose my most worn fall/winter lipstick and then my most worn spring/summer..... For the fall/winter (and what seemed to be all year round) my favourite lipstick was Revlon's 'Rich Raisin'. As it is a frost finish I found it easy to wear for all occasions as it could be build up or kept quite sheer. The shade of red has the perfect balance between vampy-deepness yet not washing you out. My more summery lipstick had to be Revlon's 'Kiss Me Coral'. (Yes, I love Revlon lipsticks- I love the different finishes, I love the range of shades and I LOVE the price!!!) I adore coral lipsticks as to me they instantly mean summery goodness..hhaha. Although the finish of this lipstick is Creme (so different to Rich Raisin) it once again has the ability to be built up to give you an even more vibrant colour.

#5) Nails

Over this last year I've become a complete nail junkie (take a look at my instagram if you don't believe me, @Georgie_Alicee), so like the lipsticks I chose a more wintery shade, a more summery shade & then a 'staple' in my nail collection...

My wintery shade HAD to be Topshop's 'Airplane'..I cannot even put into words how beaut this colour is.... hahahha. It's not a royal blue.. It's not a cobalt blue.. It's just so gorgeous & looks really nice on the nails. I also found that it doesn't chip overly easily, although I do tend to do two coats and/or put a clear coat on top. My summery shade has to be No7's 'Cheeky Chops', which is a bright barbie-pinky-coral... kind of... To get the full effect of the colour I would say 2 coats are definetly needed, but it dries pretty fast & doesn't chip really fast which is always good!!

The nailpolish I HAD to include in my favourites is Natural Collections Clear Nailpolish... It cost me £2 and I  use it EVERY time I paint my nails, without fail. It protects my nailpolish, dries pretty fast and does everything I need it too.. perfff :)

Why I don't have favourites of some products... 

As I said, I'm not a blush fan due to the natural pinky-tone to my skin (cheeks in particular).

I'm not a huge mascara fan..I use it everyday but I'm not fussy about which I use/what it does..sorryyyy!!

Like mascara I use skincare products everyday, yet I swap and change the one that I use daily, depending on what I feel like that morning/night- the fact I don't have one particular product that stands out in my mind suggests it probably isn't worth raving about.. hahah

So there you have it..my 2012 favourites...even if it is a little late. I hope you enjoyed this post and maybe will go try out some of my favourite products! Thankyouuuuuu :)