Lancome Spring and Summer 2013 Collection + 10% Coupon

May 21, 2013 | regina

Hi makeup-haulics! I am so excited to share with you my Lancome purchase that my April’s Hit N Misses will just have to wait.. even though it’s almost time for May’s! I bought these items a little bit ago online when Lancome was doing a Gift w/Purchase – you know how much I am a sucker for those. I wanted to wait to review though so I could give you some of my thoughts.

I’ll be honest with myself, I really, really didn’t need this 6-pan color palette. I have plenty of eye shadows and even have a teal/turquoise palette from Lancome already. But I just couldn’t resist when I saw the ad campaign for Lancome’s Summer 2013 collection:

Such a beautiful collection and perfect for my current “green” phase (totally loving anything mint, turquoise, teal, etc).

The palette is the first that I have from Lancome that is not a plastic case. This one is actually cardboard but still very nice and sturdy, better than Urban Decay’s Naked 1 palette. It does have a magnetic close and a large mirror, so all around no complaints about the packaging.

The colors are just as beautiful and vibrant as the ads show. I have yet to use the browns/neutrals so I can’t comment but I cannot say enough about the greens! They VERY glittery, and there is some fall out, though not too much. Even if you place just a little shadow on the lid, you’ll get glitter everywhere it seems. But as a girl who doesn’t fancy the glitter too much (I prefer sheens and mattes), this glitter doesn’t bother me at all. Instead, it seems very fitting. Also, a little goes a long way. You just need a dab of the blue/green (far right); it is very pigmented. For $49.50, I think this palette is a steal. It’s 50 cents more than their usual 5-pan palettes yet it includes one more color and each is a large pan. I actually prefer equally sized large pans because who is to say what color you’ll like best? This is definitely a hit in my book and will be one of my go-to palettes this summer.

To pair with these shadows, I also picked up Lancome’s Kohl in Love in Jade Crush. I heard Rae from the Raeviewer rave about this eyeliner so I knew I had to try it (I also needed to spend more to qualify for the GWP!). I thought I would really love it but actually it doesn’t go so well with the green shadows above. The liner pulls just a bit too green for me and my eye color. I wish it was a tad more blue and that way could perfectly pair with the Summer palette. It is very creamy and pigmented, but too much of a pop for my taste. The only way I use this now is with a neutral brown eye, and then line my bottom lash line with this for some color.

Now, on to the GWP and the 10% off coupon! I’m not sure if it’s a one-time use thing but since I won’t be using it, I hope someone else can/will take advantage. The coupon says it’s only available on the gift products, but who knows? Here’s what I received:

Blush Subtil ($30)
Blush Brush ($43) — love Lancome brushes!
Hypnose Drama Mascara ($27) — great mascara!
Visionnaire ($69)
Renergie Lift Multi-Action ($92)

Let me know if the coupon works (NO4T-OYLL-BYEY-YYHD) and happy shopping! Don’t forget to use Ebates for 5% cash back :)

Also stay turned for my Beauty.com purchase from my last post. I’m pretty in love with that purchase too :D

20% OFF at Beauty.com, 14% back at Nordstroms!

May 14, 2013 | regina

Happy Tuesday fellow makeup-haulics! Just wanted to jump on here real quick to let you know that Beauty.com is having their Friends and Family event right now until Friday! It’s not advertised on their site to you have to click the links in this blog. You don’t need a promo code – once you click the link, it will automatically be entered into your shopping cart.

I JUST made my purchase of two items: Lorac’s Pro Palette and an eyeliner pencil from Kevyn Aucoin. I have had my eye on the Lorac palette ever since I first used my friend Angela’s in OCTOBER. I didn’t purchase it right away because, let’s be honest, I have tons of neutral palettes, and I was very happy with my Naked 2 palette. But sales can make ALL the different, can’t they? At 20% off (for a total of $33.60), could I really [still] say no?

I usually don’t buy makeup products blindly – without trying them or hearing a recommendation from a friend or YouTuber… but I decided to purchase the Kevyn Aucoin Eye Pencil Primatif in Defining Brown without any prior knowledge of it. I have Kevyn Aucoin’s eye primer and I LOVE it – one of my favorite items in my entire makeup collection – so all I can do is hope I’ll love this one too.

If not, Beauty.com does have a 100% satisfaction guarantee. I can always return it if I don’t like it!

I love shopping at Beauty.com and VisionDirect.com (I ALWAYS buy my contacts here because they always have good sales – like 25% off your first purchase) because when you do (and sign up as a member – which is free) you automatically earn 5% back to spend at drugstore.com. Here’s my purchase from today:

First, note the 20% coupon, score! Second, free 2-day shipping? Thanks Beauty.com! And Lastly, towards the bottom it tells me I earned $2.64 to be used at drugstore.com during the month of July. That’s nearly three free dollars :)

ALSO, if you are a Discover card member, use their link and get 10% cash back! If you don’t have Discover, you can try Ebates that would give you 6% cash back, but no guarantees that would work since you need to click above links to activate the coupon.

Speaking of Ebates! It is apparently their birthday and in celebration there is 14% cash back on TONS of retailers including Nordstroms, Macys, Last Call, Gap and Old Navy. Obviously I would encourage you to shop at Nordstrom or Macys for beauty items ;) Makes the most sense though because makeup products NEVER go on sale and with this cash back you are basically saving 14% off! There are tons of other retailers though so be sure to check the whole list.

I love saving money. Happy shopping! Let me know what you get in the comments section :D

Spring Cleaning means Spring Hauling!

May 1, 2013 | regina

Hi haul-ers! Today I want to share with you a couple different mini hauls I’ve done this spring season. I love this time of the year because first, spring lines are launching so we can once again play with fun colors. Second, there are TONS of sales and Friends and Family sales! I’m very pleased to report that all of the items I’m showing in this post are from FF sales :)

My favorite purchase this season has got to be my new Kate Spade bag:I have to admit I actually fell in love with the color of the bag first rather than the shape or style. This Mercer Isle Small Sloan is the prettiest mint color, which is totally in this spring. I do like the shape and even actually the texture/design. It’s not usually my style but Kate Spade is pretty popular these days, and I didn’t want to walk through the mall and see my bag over and over. Since purchasing it I’ve used it every day and haven’t seen it on anyone else! :) The best part is this bag retailed for $398 but I purchased it during Kate Spade’s Friends and Family sale and got it for $208 *pats myself on the back*.

I also picked up a Kate Spade watch that I’ve literally had my eye on since last October. My siblings actually purchased this watch for me for my birthday last year in November, but I had returned it because I thought it was too expensive (retails at $250). But that certainly didn’t mean that I didn’t want it. Since November I have been sporadically checking the Kate Spade website to see if these watches would go on sale and they never did, until the 25% off FF sale. So I saved 50 bucks, and now have a watch I wear everyday!

I almost purchased the turquoise since that color is so in right now, but I figured it wouldn’t be something I could easily match with outfits in say, the winter? I opted for white instead.

Something else I’ve had my eyes on – do you get the sense now of how cheap of a shopper I am? :P – are these J Crew pumps! The Martina Wedges are a pair I have literally been longing for. Every time I go to the mall I stop by J Crew to look at them and pray that they are on sale right before I’m sorely disappointed when I flip the shoe to the bottom. And whenever I have a minute at work, I go straight to this page on J Crew’s website to see if they have dropped the price. I love, love, love everything about this shoe. I don’t normally like wedges but the shape is perfect. Perfectly round at the front and a perfect slim wedge at the perfect height. Made in Italy too, which is a plus! The only thing not perfect was the price (retails at $225) but that problem went away with J Crew’s Friends and Family sale too. I ended up snatching these for $111 (it was reduced price + 30% off for FF)! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Wearing all three of the above items :P

By the way, I will continue to constantly peruse J Crew’s site because I want the sister shoe: Martina Patent Wedge! If you ever see them go on sale, please contact me!

Lastly, if you know me at all, you know I went through a huge Henri Bendel phase – that was CRAZY. I literally spent hundreds of dollars back-to-back — money I didn’t even have! Luckily, sanity has claimed me once again and I haven’t been too bad recently. But not good enough to pass up their Friends & Family sale, which was 20% off $100+ purchase. I’ve had my eye on this set of bow rings since they were released a few months ago.

They originally sold the bow ring with the rhinestones individually for $60. I actually bought it but then returned it when I realized it just wasn’t worth that price. Now they have it packaged into three rings for $98, which is not a bad deal at all. Twenty percent off that AND free shipping I got myself a sweet deal!

Obviously I have spent way too much money this past month but how can I resist savings? If I’m not saving, I’m losing right! (Not really, I know, but that’s what I tell myself to make me feel better) And undoubtedly I did make a couple makeup purchases but I will share those in the next post.

Until then, happy bargain shopping! :)

Giorgio Armani Eye Liner for FREE?!

May 1, 2013 | regina

Hello fellow makeup-HAULics! You may have noticed that my site has been experiencing some problems, AGAIN. Sorry for any inconvenience but hopefully replacing my server will do the trick.

Today I want to share with you how I got my new Giorgio Armani Eye Liner Pencil for FREE! There is NOTHING that makes me happier than free stuff, seriously. So first let me show you what I got :D

This pencil retails for $29 and there was no way I was ever going to pay full price for it. I’ve seen it DOZENS of times in Rae from theRaeviewer‘s YouTube videos but because it was so expensive, I never seriously thought about trying it out. If you follow my blog you know that I use Milani’s Liquif’eye liners, which are pretty good for being drugstore. While passable for me, it still smudges in the outer corners of my eyes and is more or less gone by the end of the working day. I was told that Armani’s Silk Eye pencil would stay put all day long.

To be fair, this is the first waterproof eyeliner I’ve tried and when you swatch it on your hand and let it set (which it does almost immediately), it doesn’t budge. It’s pretty freakin’ cool!

I’ve only tried it a couple times now on my lower lash line and have noticed that it stays put longer. I can’t say it stays put ALL DAY because it’s allergy season and I have hayfever up the wazoo. The fact that it still smudges a bit could either be the formular or the allergies, not quite sure yet.

I WILL say that I put it on my waterline this morning and hell broke loose in my left eye. I don’t know if it’s just my contacts (I wear FreshLook) but both the Milani Liquif’eye and this one literally attaches to my contacts and it’s super, super irritable to my eye. It takes several cleanings until my contact can come out liner-free. I think it may be how creamy these liners are because I’ve never had a problem before with Bobbi Brown or Lancome. It’s really a shame because I was hoping I could use this on my waterline. If you have any recommendations for a liner that doesn’t irritate my contacts, please leave it for me in the comments section! Because of this mini-fiasco, I am currently typing out this blog with only one eye opened (not attractive).

BUT, on to the FREE part! If you are a Discover cardmember hopefully you received an email earlier this week with the subject: “Save up to $30 at Neiman Marcus with Discover”. If you did, all you have to do is make a purchase at Neiman Marcus before June 30th, and you will receive a $30 statement credit on your account. AWESOME, RIGHT?! The fine print doesn’t say anything about a minimum purchase, but it is $30 back for a single purchase either online or in stores – meaning the maximum you’ll get back is $30 no matter how many purchases you make. But still, that means my purchase of the Armani eye liner ($29+tax) was, essentially, FREE!

If you’re not interested in this pencil, I would suggest going with one of the Spring 2013 Lancome pencils (I just purchased this online the other night, can’t wait to get it!), Lancome shadows or maybe some Clinique products if you use them. Neiman Marcus doesn’t carry all the brands but they do have Tom Ford (online only), Chanel and Estee Lauder to name a few.

Of course you aren’t limited to just beauty products at Neiman but, hey, I’m a makeup-HAULic remember?

Happy shopping! ;)

Makeup Organization: Muji Cases

April 19, 2013 | regina

A quick post on how I currently store my lipsticks. I’m not sure how familiar you may be with Muji, but it’s a Japanese store that I immediately fell in love with when I was still living in New York. Last year, when I saw these awesome acrylic cases for the first time, I knew I had to pick some up on my next NY visit. If you do a quick search of acrylic cases on Amazon, most of the search results come up with cases that are in the HUNDREDS. What’s up with that? Muji sells them for just $20-$30!

Prior to purchasing these cases I literally threw my lipsticks all in a drawer, which was inefficient to say the least. Now I can line them all up and see each product :)

In the first drawer I put all the lipsticks I love the most plus any pretty or expensive ones. This includes my YSL Lip Stains, an empty slot for my Nars Cruella, my Tom Ford in True Coral, Burberry’s Copper, Bobbi Brown’s Nectar (which is whatevers), Mac’s Viva Glam III (which I love!), a Rock & Republic lip gloss and several other lip glosses.

My second drawer is designated for my drugstore lipsticks, which includes Revlon lip butters, Wet N Wild lipsticks and my go-to drugstore lipstick: Maybelline’s Warm Me Up.

The third and fourth drawer are filled with miscellanous lip glosses and eye shadows, respectively. The fifth drawer is pretty empty still, I’m storing a few palettes that I don’t really care for in there for a the time being.

My favorite feature about some of the drawers they make is the top lid comes up. My 5-drawer case unfortunately doesn’t have a liftable lid, but my 2-drawer case for my jewelry does, which I can show in another post. You’ll just have to read the product descriptions carefully to see which have lids.

They do have a Muji store in SF now, but I haven’t been able to visit myself. You can order them online but the site charges you extra to pack them specially and ship them to you. If you have any storage needs, I highly recommend them! Or pretty much anything else at the Muji store, really. Check its online store here.

March 2013 Hits N Misses: BH Cosmetics

April 13, 2013 | regina

Sadly I didn’t get the chance to purchase much makeup in March either. To be honest I can’t even remember what I was doing in March; sadly, it wasn’t shopping. Hopefully it’ll pick up next month!

I did manage to make one makeup related purchase and that was with BH Cosmetics as a Hit. I’ve purchased one of their eye shadow palettes before – a 88 Shimmer palette – which I seldom use but still like (see previous post here). Right after I bought that shimmer palette I realized that what I really wanted was a matte set (grass is always greener on the other side, Regina!). After the much disappointing Meet Matt(e) palette from TheBalm (see previous post here), I decided to just go ahead and order the 88 Matte palette with BH. To be be completely transparent I was pushed over the fence because it was on sale for $11 and you know how I do with them sales.

I looooooove the mid section of the palette, filled with blues and greens. I bought it at the beginning of March when I was brainstorming what eye look to do for St. Patrick’s Day. I’m still playing around with the colors but am really in love with a handful of the colors in this palette. Unfortunately some of the pale colors aren’t very pigmented yet produce a lot of fallout. Fallout is also a problem with the shimmers palette but what can you expect for $11? For 88 shades?

But I will also say that not all 88 shades are matte! A good number of them are a satin finish – not shimmery but definitely not 100% matte. Not that huge of a deal but a little disappointing.

Lastly, I got suckered into purchasing a sample of Sephora’s liquid eyeliner for 100-points. So not worth it. The color was beautiful (pictured left) but it was hard to apply with the brush tip and it flakes. There’s really nothing I hate more than an eyeliner that flakes!

I really enjoy Sephora eye shadows (actually, I just purchased another large eye shadow palette from them – will be in next month’s Hits N Misses) but stay away from their liquid liners. Come to think of it, I have tried their glittery liquid liners and it burned like crazy! I should’ve known better.

Sephora does have a coupon for 15% off right now through April 22 (just don’t get that liner!). They say it’s for VIBs only but it may work even if you’re not one? Promo code: VIBCHIC. Happy shopping and let me know what you guys get!

March 2013 Empties and Repurchases: Clinique + Primer Potion

April 11, 2013 | regina

If you use chapstick, you know exactly how satisfying it is to completely finish it and repurchase one. That feeling is what this post is about. It’s very rare for me to completely finish any one beauty product but last month I managed to finish four! And I loved each product enough to repurchase all of them.

The first was my makeup remover, which was actually a repurchase of a repurchase. Clinique’s Take The Day Off remover is my favorite, favorite remover. Hands down the best I have tried – better than Lancome’s Bi Facil. I’ve actually previously blogged about all the removers I’ve tried here. It’s very gentle on the eyes and does a great job without me having to scrub, scrub, scrub. When you have as little of eyelashes as I do, you really can’t afford to scrub.

The second is my favorite moisturizer: Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Gel. If you have dry skin, you want to use the lotion but since I have combination skin I use the gel. I use this every single day, and one pump is all it takes. This 4.2oz bottle lasted me about 1.5 years – pretty good! But this time I went ahead and purchased the 6.7oz bottle from Sephora.

I also finished Step 2 of Clinique’s 3-Step program, the Clarifying Lotion 3. The number signifies what kind of skin type you have. Since dryness isn’t really an issue for me, Clinique considers me as Skin Type 3: Combination Oily. I’m actually not oily at all but because I’m not dry, I’m categorized as 3 of 3. If you’re interested at Clinique products at all though, I highly suggest going to your local Macy’s or Nordstrom’s Clinique counter. They’ll ask you a series of questions and test products on you, and it doesn’t take more than five minutes.

Lastly, and the only non-Clinique product of the month, I finally finished Urban Decay’s Primer Potion. I’ve had this primer for more than a year and have used it everyday. I’m finally done! I’ve mentioned before that Too Faced Shadow Insurance is actually my favorite primer but it never goes on sale. Of course the Asian side of me hates that so I opted to repurchase Primer Potion at Nordstrom’s Rack for $8. They only had Eden though, which I’ve never tried before. We’ll see!

[Uh, just kidding - Shadow Insurance is cheaper on Amazon at $13.49 + free shipping vs. retail of $20! Must try if you are a Primer Potion user!]

What beauty product do you use that you keep repurchasing? Let me know in the comment section!

February 2013 Hits N Misses: Lancome and Red Lips

April 11, 2013 | regina

Welcome to my updated blog! My site was down for a few ~~weeks~~ months but what better way to get it back up than with a new look? I have so many things to share with you, beginning with my February Favorites. Hopefully I’ll have a couple other posts, including March Favorites, up in a few days too. Stay tuned!

I think I only bought one new item in February and it is first on my Hit list! I’ve been eyeing this blue palette from Lancome ever since I saw Michelle Phan’s holiday look on her YouTube channel. I’ve been waiting and waiting for a Gift with Purchase or something since, as a bargain shopper, I hate buying things at a straight retail price (in fact I hardly EVER do it). During a trip to LA last weekend, I stopped by Sak’s to get rid of a $25 gift card I had and Lancome, yay!, was having a GWP. But actually, this isn’t a good story at all. Long story short I had to buy things that I didn’t need to get a gift with purchase that I actually didn’t even want. But the Asian in me could not resist!! In the end I had buyer’s remorse and returned the second item and GWP.

ANYWAY, I do LOVE the item that I did keep and that is their 5-pan eye shadow palette in Sapphire Fling. To my disappointment, this isn’t actually the palette that Michelle used in her video but I think that palette was a holiday/limited edition. I was initially pretty bummed about it but after playing around with this palette yesterday, I don’t care. I love it! I love the blue glittery shadow as well as the matte one. I think Lancome does such a great job with these palettes. The only complaint I would have is the “highlight” color is always a super frosty gold or silver, which I hardly touch. And that they are $49.50 a piece :( But they are highly, highly recommended.

I was also really feeling red and corals again this month. Red, I think, because of Chinese New Year. I got tons of use out of my YSL Glossy Stain in #20 and Nar’s Cruella (which I am currently missing!! I hope I find it soon!). I’ve also been trying a pink smokey eye! I normally hate wearing pinkish eye shadows. I think it looks tacky and does nothing for my skin tone. But I was playing around with my large palette from Sephora and came across a combination that I really like.

So this is a 6-pan custom traveling palette that was included in my Sephora palette – I love this thing. More details on my previous post here. The bottom three shades are what I have been using to create the smokey eye, in the order that I use them. Starting from the inner most 1/3 of the eye lid, I apply a soft peach color that I also use as a highlight. Then the first pink shade in the middle third, the middle shade in the last third and the darkest shade in my outer-V. Wing that liquid eyeliner and you are ready to go.

Hope this was helpful. Will post March’s Hits N Misses as soon as I can! :)

January 2013 Hits N Misses: Clinique, Tom Ford, YSL

February 7, 2013 | regina

Can’t believe that Janary has come and gone! Here are my January Favorites as well as some new products that I tried.

I’d have to say that I couldn’t have made it through this last month without Clinique’s Moisture Surge. I was in New York for a week, and this stuff was a life saver. I’ve mentioned this product a couple posts ago, and I do highly recommend it. I don’t use it on a daily basis (though I don’t see why you can’t) but I do reach for it whenever I had a dry patch or my skin feels extra dry. I just lent some to my grandma, too, and she loves it! If you live in a colder climate (I mean, c’mon, I live in California!), definitely give this product a try.

I also finally decided on a new under-eye cream. I was using Clinque’s All About Eyes but it wasn’t doing anything for me other than moisturizing. My concern isn’t really dryness but that I have very heavy under-eye circles. After trying a few things, I’ve decided that I like Clinique’s Even Better Eyes Dark Circle Corrector. It’s extremely pricey at $39.50 for 0.34 oz but I did a side-by-side comparison with this and Origin’s GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream ($30) and Clinique’s did outperform the other. I do notice that my eye circles are lighter but you do need to use it consistently. If I forget to use it a day or two, my eye circles just come back like they never left.

My last “hit” is a product I bought during the summer but began using it daily when I was in New York. Traveling is hard for my skin so I brought my L’Oreal Magic BB Cream ($10.95) to help with any blemishes. I didn’t get any acne while I was away but there was a lot of redness. I didn’t really care for this BB Cream before but this really did the trick when I was in NY, just enough coverage to even out my skintone and nothing more, which is what I like. If you’re looking for a heavier BB cream of use medium coverage foundation, this is not the product for you. But if you need something very light weight to even out your skintone, pick this up next time you’re at the drugstore.

MISSES:

Sadly, I returned my Tom Ford Cognac Sable palette. It just wasn’t working for me and for $75… I much rather spend that kind of money of products that I just couldn’t live without. Honestly I didn’t think there was anything special about the Tom Ford quad outside of it’s packaging. Simply designed but solid and pretty hefty. It was quite large, and I’m sure it would have been a long while until I hit pan on any of the shadows but they just didn’t do it for me. I tried with and without primer and with a couple different primers but the shadows never lasted, and didn’t show up that great on my skintone to begin with. The only color that I really did like was the copper glitter. It wasn’t so much a shadow as it was straight glitter, yet it was powdery enough that I could apply it without it getting everywhere. There was fall out but it was definitely one of the easier to deal with glitters I’ve tried.

I also consider my YSL Pure Chromatics Palette in 03 a miss too, though not as severely. I haven’t returned it, and I probably won’t but that’s largely due to the fact that I’m lazy about it. This was my first YSL palette and it just didn’t live up to expectation. I actually really wanted the holiday palette but it was sold out by Thanksgiving. I chose the palette that was the closest in colors but I really don’t like the dark blue (denim blue), which I feel is supposed to be the focal of the palette. I prefer deep blues that are on the cooler side but this blue, on my skin, looks muddy and has a tint of green. When it’s on my eyes you can barely tell that it’s a dark blue. If I were to keep this palette it’s simply for the taupe color (cashmere brown) on the bottom left. It is gorgeous. Supposedly these palettes are good because you can use the shadows both wet and dry but I don’t really see a dramatic difference or what’s so cool about it. Thankfully I had a 20% coupon and only paid $45 instead of $55.

Lastly, I tried a Mirabella primer that came with my December Ipsy bag. If you aren’t familiar with it, Ipsy is a monthly-based subscription service that sends you deluxe-sized or sometimes full-sized beauty samples. I’ve been with Ipsy since it was formerly known as myglam and while the first couple of months were terrible, December and January’s were pretty good. It’s the only makeup subscription service I currently have.

Anyway, Mirabella looked promising because it can be used as an eye or face primer. I haven’t tried it all over my face because I don’t normally wear foundation but it’s only an average primer, not better than Urban Decay’s. What I do like is how soft and easy to apply it is. I feel like the Urban Decay Primer Potion can be quite patchy. But overall I don’t feel shadows last longer or even as long as with Urban Decay’s so it’s moot. It’s also $29, so pretty pricey. I will also say that I like Too Faced’s Shadow Insurance better than both UD’s and Mirabella’s.

I think that’s about it.. not too much for January since I was traveling and such. Hopefully I will have more products for February. I already have my eye on a couple Lancome products ;) Hope everyone had a great start of the year, and Happy Valentine’s Day if I don’t update before then!

2012 Makeup Favorites

January 12, 2013 | regina

I can’t believe 2012 is over! Obviously I meant to write this post last year (whoops) but time flew by so quickly, just like the rest of the year. As the year closes (and while I think about what cosmetics I can buy for the new year…) I reflect on the past year and what beauty products I have enjoyed using the most. What makes my Top Favorites for the year? Read on to find out.

This post is dedicated to Andrea and Sarah. Thanks for your support and interest in my Instragram photos, ladies!

Let’s start off with something easy and not surprising: Urban Decay’s Naked 2 palette. The Naked 1 and 2 palettes put Urban Decay on the map, and if you don’t have either of them, what are you waiting for?

But I have to say how happy (and seriously, like, happy – JOYFUL) I am to have stumbled across both Guerlain’s eyeshadows and Chanel’s. If it were not for Sephora’s Friends and Family discount I never would have bought Guerlain’s palette and fell in love with the colors, formula and packaging. At $85 each it’s going to cost you several pretty pennies but totally worth it if you love makeup as much as I do.

Similarly, Chanel’s single shadows are $28.50 each but I have zero complaints about Taupe Grise.

Another product I have zero complaints about? Physician’s Formula Eye Booster 2-in-1 Lash Boosting Eye Liner. I am seriously on my third tube, about to purchase my fourth. For the price and quality, I really can’t complain, and I’m never going back to Bobbi Brown’s gel liner again (note: I only use this as a eye liner and did not experience dramatic lash enhancing effects).

I also use Milani’s Liquif’Eye in 05 brown for my lower lash line almost everyday. I can’t say that this is absolutely flawless because 1) I cannot put it on my waterline as it irritates my contacts and 2) it does smudge a little bit at the corners as the day goes on, but I haven’t found a better option and I’m not sure that I ever will. Plus for $7, can I really ask for more?

And the last eye products for my 2012 Favorites is Model 21 eyelashes and Duo lash glue. I like Model 21′s because they are inexpensive for a pack of 10 and light-weight, unlike those that Japanese stores will carry. And once you try Duo lash glue, you’ll never use anything else.

2012 was definitely a year of trying new things for me. Trying new brands, reaching out to other products than just makeup for the eyes. Although my wallet seriously took multiple hits, I’m so glad I found YSL’s glossy stains. There honestly couldn’t be a better lip product for me. No peeling, no smudging, no feathering, no hassle. They are also quite pricey at $32 each but totally worth it if you hate reapplying lipstick every hour (who LIKES to do that?).

I also became obsessed with bronzer in 2012. I went from zero face products to about 10 bronzers in just a couple of weeks. My favorite has to beSmashbox’s Bronze Lights in Suntan Matte ($29). A little goes a long way. I’ve had mine for a few months now and it looks barely touched! But if you’re looking for a cheaper alternative, NYC’s bronzer is Sunny is also amazing and an incredible deal ($2!).

Along with bronzer, in the last year I also became obsessed with my under eye circles. I’ve had them my whole life and no amount of sleep will make them go away. I was really against putting makeup on my skin (like foundation) but I couldn’t stand how “tired” I looked all the time. If you read this blog you’ll know that I did pick up Burberry’s Sheer Concealer, which I love, but I like Urban Decay’s 24/7 Concealer even more. At $18, it’s so creamy and so easy to use. Definitely a repurchase when I run out of this stick (I use color ATB).

And now we’re down to my very last beauty product that I couldn’t have lived without in 2012 and that is my skin routine. I love Clinique’s 3-Step program and I urge everyone to go to a Clinique counter to try it out. Now obviously it’s not going to work for everyone because everyone’s skin is different but it’s very mild yet does the job for me. I will go into a more in-depth post about it because skincare is so important but did want to throw this item in here!

And that’s it! Those are my favorite products from last year and all products that I encourage you to try if you haven’t already. Did you have any 2012 beauty favorites? Is there something that’s on your list that isn’t on mine? Let me know if the comments section!

Hope everyone had a magically New Year’s and best wishes for a BEautiful year ahead of us.