My Favorites of 2012: Makeup & Beauty

 The year 2012 has been mightly fine...No It's been one crazy roller coaster ride. I have seen and done a lot and now I'm ready to shine! I'm sharing with you all my Favorite of 2012 beauty and makeup. It's a long one so bear with me.

Cleanser/Moisturizers/Primers

Purity Made Simple by Philosophy: This has been my hands down favorite face wash for years now. This cream cleanser gets my face squeaky clean. It removes all traces of makeup. I'm also sad cause I'm running low, as you can see.

Vitazing by Origins: I like to use this moisturizer when my skin gets extra dry; especially in the cold winter months. I love how it gives me a tint and also a bit of a dewy glow. Sometimes I like to wear this over foundation to give me an even extra glow to the skin. 

Pure Maracuja Oil by tarte: I ran out of this oil because I use it everyday. Right after I wash my face at night I like to put a few drops into my hands and apply to my face and neck. It leaves me waking up to smooth, moisturized skin.

POREfessional by Benefit: I had this sample size for a while now and I know I need to purchase the full size, because this primer is by far the best I've tried! A very little goes a long way with me. I also notice a huge difference with minimizing my pores.

Behind the Scenes Eye Primer by Lorac: I just recently get this. It came a long with my Lorac Pro Palette. I have to say this primer is working well for me, better then my Urban Decay Primer Potion and Too Faced Shadow Insurance. I have oily lids so it seems like every primer I've tried doesn't do the work or does it for a little bit. But this one is a keeper! It keeps my shadow crease-free and my eye shadow are bold and beautiful.

Lip Balms

EOS: I love how moisturize this lip balm is. It leaves my lips feeling so smooth. I used this before I go to bed at night, and wake up with soft feeling lips.

Baby Lips by Maybelline: I like to use this lip balm after moisturizing my skin in the mornings. I also prep my lips with this baby before applying lipstick. {swatches here}

Foundation/Concealer/Press Powder

Colorstay by Revlon: This foundation has been one of my top drugstore brand for years now. I have trouble finding a foundation that fits my skin tone and skin type. This one gives my combination skin a lovely finish. Stays put for hours. It's a bit on the pricey side for a drugstore makeup but I would so repurchase again!

Instant Age Rewind Eraser Dark Circle by Maybelline: I have been looking high and low for a favorite drugstore concealer and this one is really good. It covers up my dark eye circles pretty well. I love the fact that you roll in on. I have tried many and this is a keeper!

Dream Matte Powder by Maybelline: I love, love LOVE this press powder! I get a bit oily around my T-zone and this matte powder seems to do the trick. I've had this for some time now and I still haven't hit pan and I used this religiously.

Blush/Bronzer/Highlight

Peach Blush by NYX: This is the blush I've been using non-stop this year. I love it so much that I'm thinking of getting a few more colors.

High Beam by Benefit: This highlight is so pretty on the cheek bones, down the nose bridge and on the cupid's bow.

Park Avenue Princess by tarte: I have been using this bronzer non-stop! It gives my face such a beautiful glow. With this bronzer a little goes a long way. {swatches here}

Eyeshadow Palettes
Pro Palette by Lorac: I just recently received this palette as a birthday gift. I love this palette so much. I'm loving how there's a mix of mattes and satin shimmery colors. I have tapped into each and every color, and just love them all. Glides on smooth like butter!

Naked by Urban Decay: Another palette that I had for a while and still loving. This is my go-to everyday neutral colors. I'm also thinking of getting the Naked 2. I just love both palettes equally!

Liners, Mascaras and Cream Shadow
Dolly Wink by Tsubasa Masuwaka: I'm going to be sad when this liner runs out. I love how it stays put and how easy it is to glide over the eye lids. I also love how the flat tip on this liner. It makes it easy to wig out for a cat eye. It's a bit pricey so I'm going to have to look for another great one this year. :(

Brow Liner by Wet n Wild: This brow liner is a prefect color for my brows. I like to lighten them up a bit and this works well.

Falsies by Maybelline: This has been a really great mascara for me. It gets my lashes dark and keeps it curl and full.

Great Lash by Maybelline: Another item I recently purchase and love. I like to use this clear mascara for my brows. It keeps them in place.

Color Tattoo by Maybelline: My favorite cream shadow by far! Bad to the bronze is such a lovely bronze color. Goes well with my brown eyes, makes them pop! {swatches here}

Lipsticks/Lipgloss/Lip Balm
Lip Butter by Revlon: As much as I love cupcakes, I love this one the most! It's such a pretty light pink color. {swatches here}

Lipstick by Revlon: In Peach, another pretty color that glides smooth on my lips. Needs to pick up some more! {swatches here}

Lip Glaze by Stila: I love Stila! This is the one color and I'm always grabbing and I have a bunch! The color is in Sea Shell. A muted pink with shimmer.

Just Bitten by Revlon: I like how these lip balms stains stay put on my lips. This one is a pink/purple color which, of course I love! {swatches here}

Beauty Tools
Makeup Brushes by ecotools, tarte and Sigma: These are the brushes I seem to be using all year long. I love using the ecotools brush for applying bronzer and press powder. The tarte brush is for blush, and the three Sgima brushes I grab all the time for applying eyeshadow.

Heated Eyelash Curler by Panasonic: I hate eye lash curlers but this one is the bomb! It curls my lash so well and keeps it curl for hours. Just be careful, since it's a heated curler.

Nails and Perfume
Top Coat by Seche Vite and Carry On by essie: I love how Seche Vite keeps my nails from chipping. It also has a glossy finish. This essie color I have been wearing a lot. I love how dark and deep the color is.  It seems to brings out the color of my skin. A really great color for fall too. {swatches here}

Ageless by Harvey Prince: This perfume smells so good and it's light and airy. It's not so strong which I love. Notes of fruits and flowery scent. 

Well that was long! Sorry about that but can't be helped since this was my favorites of the year 2012. Till next year!

What are your favorites of 2012?

Liz
xo

July's Favorites

I think I missed posting a June's Favorites. Hmm...that can't be right! So let me share with you my favorite's for the month of July's!

There's two items on here that were my faves from the month of May. Garnier B.B. Cream and NYC Matte About Me nail polish. Still loving these two, and they'll probably be my faves for next month also!

Garnier Skin Renew Miracle Skin Perfector B.B. Cream

Still loving this B.B Cream! Love how it covers up my imperfections, and gives me a dewy finish. Kinda like I hit the sun. God knows I need too...lol I apply this with clean fingers. It's easy and fast! It tends to get a bit oily on me because of my oily skin and the summer heat. I do blot with powder cover-up. Full review here

Bio-Oil

I've been using this on my stretch marks, dry spots and redness around my body and face. Bio-Oil helps improves the appearance of scars, stretch marks, uneven skin tone, aging skin and dehydrated skin. It works great, especially around the redness of my face. The ingredients in Bio Oil are Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Calendula Oil, Rosemary, Camomille oil, Lavender oil. Also contains a breakthrough ingredient called PurCellin Oil.

Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad to the Bronze

Been using this all month long and love it! This cream shadow is a gorgeous color for summer, heck all year round! It's lasting power is pretty good too, especially with this summer heat. Doesn't melt off, so it's a great base color or a color on it's own. Full review here.

Revlon Just Bitten Kissable Balm Stain in Darling

Very pretty purple lip color with pink hues. It's a wearable lip stain, so don't be fearful of this color. Smells like mint and glides on smoothly. I will be doing a review of this baby soon.

NYC Matte About Me

Used this on my latest NOTD post {here}. Been using this a lot and loving it! Mattifying top coat is a great change from the usual glossy top coat. Review here.

St. Ives Green Tea Scrub

This has been one of my favorite face scrubs from St. Ives. Been using this scrub since It came out and love it! It helps with some of the dry patches around my cheeks and nose. This is a great exfoliator that's packed with tiny micro beads. Definitely helps clears breakouts and reduces redness.

Knotieties

I won these cute hair ties a while back and love them! I have very curly hair so every tie I had before would break or pull at my hair. So these are comfortable on my hair. Knotieties are great and come in lots of styles and colors. Check them out! {Knotieties}

Looking forward to hearing what your favorites are? Until next month!

Liz

xo

May Favorites!

It's been a while since I've posted favorites of the month. So here it is!

These are the beauty products I've been loving this month!

Kirkland Daily Facial Cleansing Towlettes

I got these in Costco a couple of months back. I found out about these facial wipes from itsjudytime. She rave about them and I just had to try them! I use these every night to help remove makeup. After I wipe my makeup off I would rise my face with a face wash, just to make sure I've removed all traces of makeup.

Eucerin Everyday Protection Face Lotion

This face lotion has been working really well for my skin type, which is dry to oily. Eucerin has SPF 30 which is gonna come in handy this summer, since I burn easily in the sun. I also love the smell of this lotion. Smells like sun screen, duh...lol

Garnier Skin Renew Miracle Skin Perfector B.B. Cream

I've really been loving this B.B. Cream! This shade fits my skin tone really well, and covers up my imperfections. So I find sometimes I don't need any concealer with this B.B. Cream. Also has SPF 15 and smells really good too! Drys really quick and if I'm worried about my face getting a bit oily I would dab on some powder to my oily areas. (full review here!)

tarte park ave princess mineral bronzer

This bronzer is really perfect for summer! It glides on just right and shimmer. The shimmer isn't over powering so your not gonna see big flakes of shimmer on your face. This color is just right! What I love about this bronzer is that you can build the color. I start with a little and work my way till I think it's prefect. (swatches here!)

N.Y.C Blushable Creme Stick in Pink Flash

This is a great blush for summer. It's a pretty pink almost coral color. Why is this a great blush? Because my cheeks get really dry and I find when I apply this it seems to blend better then powder blushes. I love powder blushes but this creme blush seems to minimize the dryness. (swatch here!)

Benefit The POREfessional

I got this in my December Birchbox, and I love it! It does everything it states on the package, like minimize the appearance of pores, also primes my face well for foundation. Plus a little goes a long way! ^_~

Ageless by Harvey Prince

I win this eau de Parfum in a giveaway on The Sunday Girl Blog. This parfum smells so good! It's a very light scent with notes of pink grapefruit, pineapple, mango, apple, leafy green, pomegranate, jasmine, lily of the valley, cherry blossom, peony, soft musk, precious woods and vanilla. That seems like a lot of scents but they all marry and just smell soooo good! Even my bf who doesn't like when I wear parfums loves the smell!

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter in Cupcake

I'm in love with this color! I have about six lip butters and this is the one I seem to grab all the time! It's a very bright girly pink color, that has slight shimmer. Can be a bit frosty. But I just love this color! I know I said that already...lol (swatches here!)

NYC Matte me Crazy Mattifying Top Coat

I just got this color recently and love it! This is my first time using a matte top coat. It works really well and lasting power is great too! It's about $1.99, so you can't go wrong! (swatches here!)

Stila lip glaze in guava

When I'm on the go this is the color I grab! I have a bunch of these lip glazes but this is my fave of the all! It's a pretty matte, mid tone pink color. It's goes well on top of Cupcake.

Well that all of them! I hope I didn't leave any beauty faves out..

What are your favorites of May?

What I'm Loving...

At the moment is the Maybelline Falsies Mascara in Drama Black, water-proof formula.

My eyes tend to water on me. Weather it's from the weather or allergies, it just waters up and I get so frustrated. It also seems to mess up my eye makeup. Then my mascara smudges on me, a lot. And no one loves raccoon eyes expect for raccoons...haha

Anyways this mascara is super great for my lashes. Its smudge proof and long lasting. What I really love about this mascara is that it hold my curl really well. I tend to lose my curl with other mascaras. Even after using a lash curler. I also don't like using an eye lash curler after applying mascara, cause I hate when my lashes stick to the curler...ahhh

I think this is by far one of my favorite water-proof mascara!

I'm also liking the curve of the wand. The formula is pretty okay, it doesn't do much for thickening my lashes. But that's okay since I wanted more of a hold for my curl.

I use this mascara for my top lashes and for my bottoms I use Tarte's Lights, Camera, Lashes.

 

As you can see from the pics how well it holds my curls. Long lasting too!

Hope I didn't leave anything out...

Thanks for reading!

~Liz

June Favorites!

So it's that time of the month.....No not that time.....lol It's time for June Favorites!

This is my first time posting a favorites of the month, so I thought I get on the band wagon. Anyways here are my faves!

As you can see everything is beauty related.

Order from left to right.

*Swatches down below*

Origins VitaZing SPF 15 Energy-Boosting Moisturizer ~ This moisturizer is just what I was looking for this summer. I don't like to wear heavy foundation cause I'm afraid my face will fall off, so I'm loving that this is tinted. Just the right amount of tint too. Plus it has SPF 15, which is great! Most likely I wont turn into a lobster...lol You can see how tinted it is when I swatched it. (I applied it heavy for picture purposes)

Garnier Nutritioniste Skin Renew Anti-Dark-Circle Roller ~  This stuff ROCKS! I've been using this for about 3 months and I'm in love with it! It works just as good or even better than concealer. I find that once I apply this under my eye and I don't need to use under eye concealer. This makes my eyes seem brighter and more awake. It doesn't come in different shades so I don't know how this will work for darker skin tones. But none the less try it out and if it doesn't work for you, you can always return it! ^_^

New York Color Blushable Creme Stick in Pink Flash ~ I've been using this blush all this month and I get so many complement's. Everyone's always telling me that I'm glowing, and how pretty I look. It's such a pretty pink. I apply this with my Sigma SS109 contour brush.

L'oreal Lipstick in Fairest Nude ~ OMG this has got to be my favorite color of all. (well until I find another color.....lol) I've hear so many good reviews on this lipstick from blogs to makeup gurus on YouTube. I've been looking everywhere for this color, but every store that had it was all used and gross. (I just hate it when people open and touch the lipsticks!) Anyways it's such a pretty color as you can see form the swatch! I also get many complement's when wearing this lipstick. 

Maybeline Fit Me! Pressed Powder ~ I love using this on top of my Origins VitaZing. It ROCKS! It's just the right amount of coverage. I have this in 130 Buff Beige. The prefect match for me, but since I'm getting a bit darker from the sun this summer I was thinking of getting a shade darker. I'll wait for the sale! ^_~

Stila Sun Bronzing Powder ~ I've had this bronzer for a long time now. It seems to be the only bronzing powder I grab all the time. I have a few too. This one has always been the one.....lol The shade is in 01. I also have this in shade 02. This bronzing powder has SPF 15.

*Faves*

*Swatches*

Origins VitaZing

 Origins VitaZing (blended)

Garnier Circle Roller (right blended)

N.Y.C. Creme Blush in Pink Flash (right blended)

L'oreal Lipstick in Fairest Nude

Stila Sun in shade 01 (right blended)

You can find the Origins VitaZing here, also Stila Sun here. You can mostly find the other products at your local beauty or drug store!

Let's see what I have in store for next month! ^_~

What are your favorites of the month?

~Liz