Year in Review | 2017 Beauty Favourites

If you’ve seen my favourites blog posts over the pas year then the majority if not all of these products will be quite familiar. The newest addition to the family the Tarte Clay Play Face Shaping Palette quickly became a favourite and it’s a palette that I use daily in my makeup routine. I’ve written a review post about it, cataloging my love for it.

Honestly I love this palette so much that when it went on sale I was thinking of picking up another palette as a backup or as part of my office makeup arsenal. I didn’t end up buying the palette and I’m still a little sad about it.

If I’m remembering correctly there’s only one favourite that rolled over from last year, my beloved Stila Huge Mascara. Thanks to an awesome Instagram friend who sent me a full size just as my mini was laid to rest. 

This mascara just make my lashes look lush. Normally my lashes are thin but they look thick and full when I apply this bad boy. I usually pair it with my Givenchy mascara. If there was a runaway favourite this year, this mascara would be it.

I received it as a PR sample when it was first launched, I thought it was okay nothing too special just a basic run of the mill mascara. However as the months went by I found myself reaching for it again and again. The Stila Huge gives me volume and thickness while the Givenchy Noir Interdit gives me separation and definition.

Stepping back to face products, the ABH cream contour kit in dark was another product that caught me by surprise. I’m generally not a fan of cream products since they don’t tend to work that well with my oily skin. The texture of cream in this palette is on the drier side, and doesn’t appear too creamy when I apply it to my skin, so I don’t look greasy when I use it.

The drier texture lends itself to the product looking more natural on the skin. Because the texture is drier it can feel a little stiff, I do find though that this prevents you from applying the product too heavily, this allows for easier blending. 

Keeping with face products, the Juvia’s Place The Saharan Blush Palette Volume 1 was a standout product for me. Knowing that the colours are designed and formulated with my deep skin tone in mind, left me with no worries about being able to use each shade, or whether or not they would appear ashy on my skin. The shades are richly pigmented and blend out beautifully. The beauty of this palette is that I can use it to apply my contour, blush and highlight. This makes it great for daily use as a one stop palette, it’s also great for travelling.

Bronzer is something that I added to my routine this year. I wanted something that would warm face back up after my concealer and powder routine. I picked up the Estee Edit Bronzer when in was on clearance at Sephora, which may not have been the best thing. Since it isn’t available anymore to repurchase.

I like this bronzer because it allows me to build up the colour to my desired intensity. It’s not lacking in pigmentation but because it’s so densely packed it gives me more control of how I want the bronzer to look. I also like to use it as a transitional colour in my crease. It blends out smoothly and isn’t patchy at all. Just like on my cheeks it adds a nice reddish brown warmth to my shadow looks when I use it in that way.

Moving on to concealer, I’ve been a big fan of the Tarte Shape Tape this year. It’s worked with with the fine lines under my eyes and doesn’t break apart and separate on me. It plays nicely with other concealers and layers well.

I don’t find it be as high coverage as many claim, it doesn’t completely cover the darkness underneath my eyes. I’m also not fond of the fact that it oxidizes, and the colour range could definitely be better.

Oh look another Tarte product, guess they get favourite brand of the year. I got the Stunner Highlighter as a gift with purchase way back at the beginning of the year, in January I think. In the pan this does;t look like it will be much, in fact my first though was that it would be too light and probably ashy looking on my skin tone. I couldn’t have been more wrong. 

On my skin tone this highlighter produces a sheer delicate glow that looks natural and effortless. It honestly looks like I’m glowing from within. My skin looks healthy and radiant.

I’ve used this through all the seasons and it’s still appropriate. It has never looked ashy or streaky on me and it lasts a long time on my oily skin, I like to used it across my cheekbones, on the bridge of my nose right between my eyes and very lightly on the tip of my nose.

Rounding out my favourite beauty products for 2017 is the the Coloured Raine Queen of Hearts palette and the Lorac MegaPro 3 palette. I adore the shadow formula of the Queen of Hearts palette, they are smooth and blendable with little to no fall out at all. They wear well and last long. The shadows are firmly packed so they provide great pigmentation but aren’t too intense, allowing you to build up the colour.

The MegaPro 3 is essentially one big warm neutral palette but I’ve found it amazing as an everyday work palette. The shadows are softer in the pan, so you will experience more kick back and fall out, however they are quite pigmented and I have no issues with them showing on my lids, though some of them are in that uncomfortably light category. 

What beauty products made it your 2017 favourites list?