2017 Favorites | Beauty, Skincare and Hair
Well folks, 2017 ends today and tomorrow will be a new year with new possibilities and hope! I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by and I feel like I say that the older I get – slow down Father Time.
I love seeing other people’s favorites videos so I wanted to round up my favorites for 2017 that I’ll surely be taking with me into 2018.
Makeup
The Hourglass Mineral Veil Primer is a fantastic primer for those of us who have oily skin and can’t keep foundation from slipping off our faces. It boosts the longevity of my foundation and doesn’t break me out. It has a silicone-like texture but I don’t mind that because it isn’t heavy. Any foundation that I’ve tried lays beautifully over the top of it.
DiorSkin Forever Fluid Foundation has been added to the holy grail list. I got this foundation back in March and I can’t stop going back to it ( I have condition where I have to try out any foundation that offers maximum wear). I can’t even explain to you guys how much I love this foundation. It provides buildable, medium coverage with a natural finish (might feel matte to some) that lasts all day! I can wear this 90-degree weather or I can wear it in -2-degree weather and it will battle all those conditions. It doesn’t give me any dry patches or fall off my nose halfway through the day. There is a slight scent but it goes away once applied to the skin. You can use a beautyblender or a buffing brush to apply this and both results are completely fantastic. RUN OUT AND GET THIS FOUNDATION.
Tarte Shape Tape concealer. Do I have to say anything else? This product has been so hyped this year but for good reason. I have dark circles and this baby brightens them up in a flash! You only need a little bit of this product and it will provide amazing coverage.
CoverFX Perfect Setting powder came into my life late in the game but I had to include it because I know this is the only powder I will use in 2018. I loved my Laura Mercier setting powder for years but it always ended up settling in my laugh lines which made me look old. The CoverFX sets my makeup and doesn’t go into fine lines or dry my skin up like a raisin – it’s like magic! Try the poof trick with setting powders, you won’t regret it!
Highlighters have been popping like crazy this year. Everyone is a fan of a good heavy highlight but I like to keep things natural and fresh. Having oily skin and working in an office environment, there aren’t many days that I want to shine bright like a diamond. What I do love using highlighters for is perking up my skin to make it look fresh. I’ve had the Anastasia Glow Kit in Sun Dipped since 2016 and no one can compare to the versatility and soft finish these highlighters provide. I have tried SO MANY highlighters this year and I always go back to this tried and true. They are buttery-soft and blend into the skin without sitting atop as a glittery mess. I also appreciate that they don’t accentuate any pores. In love with the Anastasia highlighters.
The Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes have been on my ride-or-die list for years now and I still haven’t found a blush that tops them. I have bought several shades and love all of them dearly which is why I won’t throw a favorite shade. I just wanted to let you know that these are the best blushes on planet earth and you need to go buy yourself one! They stay on forever and have such an amazing shade range, you can’t go wrong!
I love a good bronzer for year-round but I like my bronzer to have no shimmer and not make me look like I belong in the cast of the Jersey Shore… Having a neutral skin tone, it is very difficult for me to find a bronzer that doesn’t look ashy or too orange. Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Matte Bronzer is the answer here. I have Milk Chocolate for winter and Chocolate for the summer. Just try not to eat it, the chocolate smell of this makes me crave chocolate chip cookies every single time.
Let’s continue the Too Faced brand and talk about their greatest product of all time – the Better Than Sex mascara. I have short eyelashes and not that many of them, so they need all the help they can get. Last year I had eyelash extensions because of my wedding but that habit got to be too expensive… I’m not going to say that this mascara is better than eyelash extensions ( I wish I could justify the cost) but it’s pretty darn close. Two coats of this stuff gives life to my eyelashes by providing a lot of volume and length.
Benefit knocked it out of the park with their brow line this year. The Goof Proof Brow Pencil is a savior for any girl that doesn’t have time to spend hours on her brows and just wants a non-fuss product to fill them out and give them shape without looking crazy. I owned the shades 3 and 4. 4 ended up looking way too dark for me so I used 3 when I had ombre blonde and when I turned back onto dark.
I don’t know why there isn’t so much hype about this next product but there really should be! The IT Cosmetics No-Tug Eyeliner has been phenomenal to me this year. This eyeliner is easy to put on (without any pulling to the eye area), blends like a dream (for smokey looks) and stays put all day (even without primer). It’s another one of those no-fuss products that I wore all year round.
This was the hardest part of my favorites post because I love lipsticks! I used to hate lipsticks and now I can’t stop buying them and experimenting with different colors. The older I have gotten, the less I care about what people think when it comes to my wardrobe and makeup. However, I wanted to stick to one holy-grail lip duo that was there for me the whole year. Charlotte Tilbury’s Lip Cheat lip liner in Pillow Talk’s hype is real. I can wear this under any color and it works. If you don’t have any lip pencils in your collection (which you should) give this a go, because it is so versatile. It’s also very smooth so that it doesn’t tug at my lips when I put it on or make them super dry.
Hourglass came out with a new range of stick form lipsticks and I honestly wanted to buy every color but my wallet said no. One of the colors I did purchase became a staple that sat in my office tote all year. The Hourglass Girl Lip stylo in Creator is the perfect pink-nude shade. The finish of these are glossy without being tacky and I find them to be very hydrating and long-lasting, even though long-lasting isn’t really a claim (don’t think long-lasting like a liquid lip, I’m talking four hours of wear before touching up again). It’s easy to use due to its crayon-like packaging and I’m just in love with the formula.
If you asked me what my favorite product of 2017 is, I would say this next one has to be it! The Tarte Tartelette in Bloom palette is amazing. The pigmentation, the buttery shades and the versatility makes this a holy-grail for me. I have taken this on numerous trips, wore it to death and I’m still amazed that I have only hit pan on one shade (by the way this is huge because I buy so many eyeshadows that I never hit pan before the expiration date). I love this palette, I never want to be without it and will re-purchase forever. Thank you, Tarte!
Skincare
I really didn’t have any face wash, toner or lotion duo that wowed me until this month, so I didn’t think it was fair to include them. This year was a crazy rollercoaster ride for my skin due to pregnancy. My skin shifted in ways that I didn’t think was possible. I got drier and then I got oilier, and then I started breaking out like I was going through puberty and then my skin normalized but kept dryness around… The two products that really wowed me and helped with all of these were the Peter Thomas Roth Pumpkin Enzyme mask and this little wonder that came from a FabFitFun box, O.R.G. Skincare Mineral Peel Face. They both provide similar cures but are different in application. The PTR one is a mask that you leave on for 3-7 minutes and grit away the dead skin and helps with your pores. I can feel this tightening as the minutes go by on my skin which really convinces me that it is working.
The O.R.G. Skincare Face Peel actually works in front of your face. You spray it on your face and starts rubbing it for 30 seconds and you can feel the dead skin come off (it’s gross but oddly satisfying). Then you are left with smooth skin. A girlfriend of mine who has very dry skin has used this and loves it as well.
Hair
If you haven’t noticed, ever since my pregnancy I am on the hunt for finding my natural products that don’t have harsh chemicals in them. There are a ton of beauty brands out there that are natural and I think 2018 will be the year of me exploring them. Until then, my essential oil obsession led me to these gems; the Young Living Shampoo and Conditioner duo in Copaiba Vanilla. This is great for color-treated hair that needs some love with moisture. The scent is very natural with a heavy dose of vanilla and I love it. Besides the scent I love the conditioner. It makes my hair feel like silk without dragging it down or making it oily. I highly recommend you check Young Living’s haircare line out.
Last, but not least is a product that I have recommended to thousands of people (okay, I don’t even know thousands of people but you get the point). This magical spray has given me the ability to blow dry my hair. Until this year, I never blow-dried my hair. I have thick hair and a lot of it, so blow-drying sounds like torture to me. However, I wanted that salon blowout and not have to straighten my hair all the time. Oh Kenra, I don’t know what you put in this bottle but I will never ever leave you! I spray the Kenra Blow Dry Spray all over my hair and go to town with a round brush. First of all, it provides protection from heat but it also cuts my drying time in half!!! I’m not kidding. This stuff is magic.
That is it for my 2017 recap in beauty favorites. I know it was long and winded but so was 2017. Hope you all have an amazing new year's eve and I'll talk to you next year ;)