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. 

MUA Heaven and Earth Palette

MUA Heaven and Earth Palette £4.00, Superdrug

I have been meaning to write this post for a while, I promised it ages ago during my what's in my holiday make up kit post but never got round to it, so without further ado here is my take on the much loved MUA Heaven and Earth palette. Costing £4 the palette contains 12 natural shades and is the same size as the Sleek palettes. The colour selection is really beautiful, consisting of a variety of neutral colours, ranging from taupe, coffee to gold and plum shades.

The colours are highly pigmented, soft and blendable which makes them easy to use, best of all I find there is minimal fallout and the last all day with next to no creasing. There are no matte shades in this palette and all 12 shades have a shimmer running through them. I personally prefer shimmery shades as I find them a lot prettier and more wearable and I like the way they catch the light. I wish the shades had names but unfortunately they don't, so I have numbered them for the purpose of swatches.

(click pictures to enlarge)

I think 6, 8, 9 and 10 have to be my favourite shades. As you can see there is a decent range of colours here, ranging from highlighter shades to darker colours. I recently took this palette on holiday and it was all the eyeshadow I needed, the selection is fantastic and you can easily create tonnes of different looks from one palette. 

This is a beautiful neutral palette made up of good quality eyeshadows, for the price it really is a must have!