Favourites of 2011

Well another years has whizzed by and here we are nearing the start of 2012!

I have been blogging on and off for the whole of 2011 (in fact 01/01/12 marks the first anniversary of my blog) and I wanted to do a favourites post detailing my top 10 favourite products of 2011.

1) Urban Decay Naked Palette

Urban Decay Naked Palette £35.00

I have never written a post on the Naked palette - mainly because there's already a million floating around out there in the blogosphere and mine is so well loved it looks pretty disgusting (can we all be in agreement that velvet is a horrendous choice of casing for a make up palette?!) - but as far as I'm concerned this is ultimate make up palette, I love the selection of eyeshadows and use it near enough everyday. The Naked Palette 2 looks gorgeous although given that I already own the original I'm not totally sure whether I will purchase it, in a way I wish I could pick and choose colours from the two and combine them to make my own ultimate Naked palette! 

2) Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder

Bourjois Delice de Poudre Bronzing Powder, £6.99

I'm a huge fan of this bronzer which I blogged about here. I am not blessed with beautiful olive skin so any help with bronzing is much appreciated, Bourjois have come up with an inexpensive matte bronzer that is well loved by beauty bloggers far and wide and has become my go to bronzer.

3) Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb

Viktor&Rolf Flowerbomb Eau de Parfum, £46.50

A gorgeous sweet smelling perfume packaged as a pink grenade, see my review here. This lovely, if not slightly expensive perfume can be worn day or night and leaves you smelling sugary sweet.

4) Naked Bare Faced Cheek Softening Face Wash with Rose Oil

Naked Softening Face Wash with Rose Oil, £4.49

After years of using heavy creams and cleansers to remove my make up this face wash by Naked has become my staple make up remover. I use Bare Faced Cheek every night to cleanse my face and I still can't get over how super soft it leaves my skin feeling, I love the rose scent of this product and am now on my third bottle. This face wash is great at removing all traces of make up including eye make up and given that it is 97% natural is also very gentle on skin.

5) Batiste Dry Shampoo in Brit

Batiste Brit, £2.99

Batiste was always going to feature on this list as I rely on it so heavily in between washes. Brit is my favourite Batiste scent and is exclusive to Superdrug. As with all Batiste products Brit is great at mopping up excess grease and freshening up hair, the scent is gorgeous and I find it smells similar to a Chloe perfume. 

6) Clean & Clear Morning Energy Moisturiser

Clean and Clear Morning Energy Skin Brightening
Moisturiser, £3.99

I'm really surprised this product made it onto the list as I'm really not a fan of Clean and Clear products. This moisturiser surprised me as not only does it smell lovely and fresh but also leaves my skin feeling moisturised and hydrated and makes a perfect base for make up application. I must really like this product as I've repurchased it a couple of times.

7) Deborah Lippmann Nail Polish in Happy Birthday

Deborah Lippmann Happy Birthday, £16.00

The first of two nail polishes that feature on this list. This is probably my favourite nail polish ever, it's so colourful and sparkly, I absolutely love it even if it is a complete nightmare to remove! Stay tuned for a Happy Birthday nail look coming up.

8) Chanel Nail Colour in Black Pearl

Chanel Black Pearl, £17.50

I lusted after this polish for a long time before I finally took the plunge and bought it. This polish is beautiful, the milky, grey colour with a petrol shimmer looks gorgeous on the nails and feels classic and sophisticated.

9) Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer

Collection 2000 Lasting Perfection Concealer, £4.19

Well done Collection 2000 for bringing out such an amazing quality concealer at a very low price, a definite contender for product of the year. This concealer is fab and gives excellent coverage, I've heard many people compare it to Estee Lauders Double Wear Concealer and for such a low price it really is fantastic, I'm already on my second tube!

10) Tangle Teezer

Tangle Teezer, £10.20

Finally, whilst not particularly exciting I had to include a Tangle Teezer into this list. I use mine everyday without fail as it's the only thing that can un-knot my long hair without pulling half of it out. 

Pantene Pro V Aqua Light Shampoo and Conditioner

As strange as this sounds, I have always considered Pantene a dirty word. My mum has been warned off it by numerous hairdressers, one friend can't use it because it makes her hair greasy, another used it for years with no problems until it started making her hair dull and lifeless. I have shyed away from Pantene favouring other hair products, there are so many great brands out there - Aussie, Herbal Essences and Tresemme, to name but a few. Pantene always seemed a bit blah.

I have long, fine hair with oily roots. I am on a constant pursuit for volume, so when Pantene launched it's Aqua Light no weight shampoo and conditioner it sounded perfect for me. I hastily purchased two huge bottles when I saw them on a buy one get one free offer in Boots. 

Pantene say: The new Aqua Light shampoo cleanses from root to tip rinsing off in seconds. Free of silicone and other heavy ingredients, it nourishes hair leaving a fresh, clean and light feeling.

I was really hoping for something special with these products, sadly I didn't get it. The scent is faintly apple-ly, but mainly smells like chemicals. On first impression, they made my hair lovely and soft and seemed to clean well enough. However a couple of hours after drying I noticed my roots became oily very quickly - it's never attractive when your fringe becomes limp and separates! Far from voluminous, my hair was left feeling weighed down and greasy.

Nothing about these products feels luxurious, they leave my hair feeling coated and weighed down, and the smell is far from anything special. I will be returning to the lovely scents of Herbal Essences and Aussie asap!

Products I'm Loving

A little collection of products I love at the moment...

Batiste Brit...buy it for the scent!

I don't think I could live without dry shampoo, it's such a cheap and effective way to refresh your hair between washes...a godsend when you have long locks like moi. I have tried various other brands of dry shampoo, but with Batiste doing such a fine job and costing a mere £2, why bother with high end products?

When I first started using Batiste, there was only the original version available, but with the rising popularity of dry shampoo came more fragrances. The latest offering is Brit, which is exclusive to Superdrug and costs £2.13 a bottle. Firstly, I love the fragrance!! Definitely the nicest smelling Batiste product out there, the scent reminds me of Chloe by Chloe. It refreshed my roots just as well as any other Batiste product does, but as usual you have to watch you blend it in well or you run the risk of having grey-looking hair.
The thing I love most about Brit is that the scent was long lasting and my hair smelt great all day! This replaces Diva as my favourite Batiste product, I will definitely be repurchasing!

Glycerin and Rosewater Toner - lovely stuff!

A classic rosewater toner from the traditional skin care range at Boots. I use this all over my face, including on my eyes to remove eye make-up, as you can see I have already made my way through a quarter of the bottle since Christmas. The product is described as toning and moisturising and as a result does leave my skin feeling tacky, this doesn't bother me as I only use the product at night. The old-school bottle is very cute looking and has a handy top which means you can control the amount of product you use. The toner smells like roses....mmm turkish delight! I would definitely buy again, it's a lovely gentle toner and leaves my skin feeling clean, refreshed and soothed rather than tight, dry or oily.

Merged Baked Blusher in Pretty Pink

Shimmery pinky, lilacy marble-ness

Lightly swatched - top, heavily swatched - bottom (please excuse my veiny wrist!)

This product is so pretty! My first purchase from the Accessorize make up range, I think it cost around £5. Pretty pink is a light pink colour with peach and lilac shimmer marbled through it, the product looks more shimmery on the skin than pink. I personally cannot get enough of glowy, shimmery looking blushers so this is right up my street, but the colour pay off might not be adequate for those die hard blusher fans. This product would be perfect to use as a highlight, but I have worn it alone everyday since purchasing and it gives me a light pinky-peachy glow. I will definitely be checking out more of the Accessorize range next time I'm in Superdrug, very pretty packaging and decent sized products.

Magic golden tube of wonder

My absolute favourite mascara ever! No clumping, no flaking, just gorgeous dark lashes. I haven't used it for a while as my mum kept buying me mascaras (lovely mum!)....Maybelline falsies (hate - caused dry itchy eyes - gave it to my sister in the end), and Revlon Grow Longer (nice mascara with huuuage wand, but bad flaking), so I was overjoyed to find my faithful Masterpiece mascara in my Christmas stocking. I don't have to worry about having panda eyes anymore, yay!

I popped into Superdrug today in the hopes of snagging a Sleek molten metal cream duo, but they were all sold out. I'll just have to make do with the ridiculous amounts of make up I already own 'til I can get my grubby paws on it.