Winning products of the year.

If you have not followed my recent product of the year posts, this post sums up my favorite products of the year. I have chosen these products from a list of products to be my all time favorites for 2011.

I have linked all the categories to the matching posts I have recently posted. Also the products have been linked to previous reviews and metions. So Here they are, enjoy.

Palettes of the year:
Wet n Wild, Color Icon, Comfort Zone
LA Colors, Eye design, Invent
NYX, 10 color palette, Chanpagne and caviar
Too Faced, Naked eye palette
Urban Decay, 15th anniversary palette

Skincare products of the year:
Lush, gorgeous
Yves Rocher, Nutri speccific, cleansing milk
Lush, buche de noel, scrub

Eye products of the year:
Eyeko, Magic mascara, black
Eyeko, Grafiti liner, black
Too Faced, Naked eye palette, satin sheets
Too Faced, Shadow Inscurance
NYX, Jumbo eye pen, Youghurt

Face products of the year:
The Body Shop, Extra Virgin Minerals, 102 natural ivory
ELF, Personal Blend Mineral Foundation,light
Hard Candy, Glamoflauge, light
Too Faced, Primed and Poreless
Too Faced, La vie en rose
ELF, Shimmering facial Whip, Lilac petal 

Lip products of the year
Hard Candy, Glossaholic, Gorgeous
ELF Conditioning lip balm spf15, Nice&Natural
ELF, Essentials lipstick, Classy


Wow this has taken quite some time to put together, but I'm very happy that I did. It will be fun to look at this in about a year and see how much my list have changed in a year. I hope you have enjoyed following my blog this year. I know I have enjoyed blogging and will continue to do so in the new year.

Happy new year. 
Loevens.

Skincare products of the year

Time for skincare products of the year. I will do my best to list 5 products for each category, but it depends on how many products I have tried this year from that particular category. The products will be listed in no particular order. I will link the products to previous reviews and posts if one has been written about that particular product.

Moisturiser: 
-  Yves Rocher, Cure solutions
-  Lush, gorgeous
-  The Body Shop, Seaweed day cream

Cleanser/Makeup remover: 
-  Yves Rocher, Nutri speccific, cleansing milk
-  Biotherm, Biosource, softening cleansing milk
-  Yves Rocer, Inositol vegetal, cleansing gel 

Treatments/mask: 
-  Lush, buche de noel, scrub
-  Montagne Jeunesse, Self heating sauna mask
-  Montagne Jeunesse, White chocolate cleansing mask
-  The Body Shop, Self heating clay mask


And the winners are...

Lush, gorgeous: Choosing a winner was difficult as I actually really love all these moisturisers, but this one in particular suits my skin very very well all year round. And it just feels super luxe.

Yves Rocher, Nutri speccific, cleansing milk: Super great for sensitive skin, removes all my makeup so fast and never dries my skin out. I keep coming back to this one year after year.

Lush, buche de noel, scrub: I have never relly liked facial scrubs all that much, but this is truly amazing. It hydrates while it gently exfoliates. I love it!

I was actually quite hard to choose the winning products for this post. I have yet to find my holy grail of skincare products and my skin constantly changes so one thing may work for me one month and then it doesn't the next month. These products have sticked with me longer than the rest or have been used more frequently compared to my other products.

Loevens.

Palette of the year

I have been using so many wonderfull palettes. It would actually be impossible for me to choose one as my all time favorite palette. So I have chosen the top 5 palettes of 2011.  Keep in mind that I do not own every single palette out there so if i don't mention it here it may not be because I don't like it, I may simply not own it.


So here they are, in no particular order:

Wet n Wild, Color Icon, Comfort Zone:
This palette got me started on Wet n Wild. I have posted several posts about this palette during 2011 and i know I will get good use out of it in 2012 as well. I love that you get such pretty shades for such a good value.

LA Colors, Eye design, Invent:
I normally don't wear colourfull eyeshadow but this purple palette got me hooked on wearing purple and pinks. I love how great the quality of this palette is and how affordable it is. I'm sure this will be a favorite in 2012 as well.

NYX, 10 color palette, Chanpagne and caviar:
I love my cool toned neutrals and I love love love this palette. The quality is amazing. The colours are super wearable and the price is fab.

Too Faced, Naked eye palette:
This is so amazing. This is by far the best quality of eyeshadows I own. I love how well they last on my eyes and how pretty the shades are. I'm hooked on these shadows.

Urban Decay, 15th anniversary palette:
These colours are so inspiring and so pretty. I do admit that I could use some matte shades but overall I really really love these eyeshadows.

This concludes my palette of the year post. What have been your favorite palettes this year?

Loevens.

Eye products of the year.

Time for Face eye products of the year. I will do my best to list 5 products for each category, but it depends on how many products I have tried this year from that particular category. The products will be listed in no particular order. I will link the products to previous reviews and posts if one has been written about that particular product.

Mascara: 
-  Yves Rocher, Lash plumping mascara, black
-  Eyeko, Magic mascara, black 
-  Too Faced, Lash injection, Black
-  Imju, fiberwig, black
-  Maybelline, Volume express, falsies, black

Liners: 
- Rimmel, Glam'eyes, liquid liner, black
- Eyeko, Grafiti liner, black
- Elf, Studio cream liner, purple

Powder eyeshadow: 
-  The Balm, Shady lady, Insane Jane
-  Urban Decay, 15th anniversary palette, Half truth
-  Too Faced, Naked eye palette, satin sheets
-  Sleek, Oh so special palette, wrapped up 
- Urban Decay, eyeshadow, Sin

Primer: 
-  Too Faced, Shadow Inscurance
-  Urban Decay, Primer potion
-  Elf, Eyelid primer, champagne

Cream eyeshadow/ cream base: 
-  Elf, Studio cream eyeshadow, Dawn
-  NYX, Jumbo eye pen, Youghurt


And the winners are...

Eyeko, Magic mascara, black: This is the best mascara I have tried ever. Unfortunately Eyeko does not carry this mascara anymore. So I found my holy grail mascara this year and lost it again.

Eyeko, Grafiti liner: The best liquid liner I have ever used. It's so easy to apply and it just stays on forever.

Too Faced, Naked eye palette, satin sheets: Not only is the golden pink shade insanely pretty, the shadow also applies like a dream and lasts soo long on the lids. 

Too Faced, Shadow Inscurance: This primer makes my eyeshadow last and last. it 's also the best primer I have tried when it comes to making my eyeshadow pop.

NYX, Jumbo eye pen, Youghurt: Such a lovely sticky base for eyeshadow. I love the texture, the colour and the way it makes eyeshadow pop.

It was not hard to choose the winning products this time. I have been using these products a lot this year and I will probably contimue to do so.

Loevens.

Merry Christmas everyone.

I've had a great year blogging. And I would like to thank all of you reading my blog for making this such a great experience for me.

I started blogging 12th of april 2011, and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my blog or how many readers I would get. I just thought it would be something fun to do, while being unemployed and living by myself.

Now about 9 months later, I've got 110 lovely followers and more than 27.000 page views. I know it's not a lot compared to other bloggers out there, but to me this is more than I ever dreamt of. So thank you everyone for supporting me, sharing your opinioins and comments with me. It means a lot to me.

I will be spending my christmas eve with my parents in my little hometown. I can't wait to give them their presents! I love spending time on finding just the right gifts and seeing how those gifts make people happy.

I will be putting up some pictures of what my little Danish christmas eve looks like. So stay tuned for some pics, maybe I will even have them ready later tonight for you all.

Merry Christmas to you all.
Loevens.

Face products of the year.

Time for Face products of the year. I will do my best to list 5 products for each category, but it depends on how many products I have tried this year from that particular category, If I only have tried 3 foundations, then I will only be able to list those 3. The products will be listed in no particular order. I will link the products to previous reviews and posts if one has been written about that particular product.

Foundation:
-  Gosh, X-ceptional wear, 11 porcelain
-  The Body Shop, Extra Virgin Minerals, 102 natural ivory
-  ELF, Flawless Finish Foundation, Porcelain
-  Etude House, Magic BB balm

Powder:
-  ELF. Personal Blend Mineral founadtion, ligh
-  Palagantong Makeup, Theatrical powder, pearl beige
-  ELF, Complexion perfection

Concealer:
-  Benefit, Erase Paste, fair
-  ELF, complete coverage concealer, light
-  Hard Candy, Glamoflauge, light
-  ELF, under eye concealer and highlight

Primer:
-  The Body Shop, Matte it skin primer
-  Too Faced, Primed and poreless
-  Hard Candy, Sheer envy face primer

Blush:
-  Too Faced, La vie en rose
-  ELF, Studio blush, Candid coral
-  The Balm, Hot Mama
-  NYX, Powder Blush, Pinched
-  Hard Candy, Fox in a box, Spicy and sweet 

Highlighter/Shimmer:
-  The Balm, Mary Loumanizer
-  ELF, Studio radiance enhancer, Spotlight
-  Hard Candy, Glow all the way, doll face
-  ELF, Studio blush, gotta glow
-  ELF, Shimmering facial whip, lilac petal


And the winners are...

The Body Shop, Extra Virgin Minerals, 102 natural ivory: This is the closest I have ever been to finding my holy grail foundation. I just love the finish of it and the coverage is just right for me.

 ELF, Personal Blend Mineral Foundation,light: This is the perfect powder for me, I tend to get dry skin and this is the only powder I can wear in the winter time. It's close to holy grail for me.

Hard Candy, Glamoflauge, light: This is wihtout a doubt my holy grail concealer, it's the best coverage I have ever experienced yet it's not cakey or dry. It's just pure magic on my skin.

Too Faced, Primed and Poreless: The best primer I have tried yet. Mostly because it makes my skin look so much smoother and it makes foundation go on better.

Too Faced, La vie en rose: This is just the perfect shade for me, it applies like a dream and lasts quite well.

ELF, Shimmering facial Whip, Lilac petal: This is what got me started on highlighting. I just love everything about, I love how shiny it is, I love the scent and I love how good it looks on the skin.

I wish there could be more than one winning product for each category, choosing was so hard. I really love all the thing listed above, but the winners just did that little extra something for me.

Loevens.

Lip products of the year.

I have tried several lip products this year so I will only be mentioning 5 different products for each category.  The products will be listed in no particular order. I will link the products to previous reviews and posts if one has been written about the particular product.

Glosses: 
-  Gosh, Intense lip colour , 301
-  ELF, Luscious Liquid Lipstick, Baby lips
-  ELF, Super Glossy lip shine, Pink kiss
-  Eyeko London lips, portobello
-  Hard Candy, Glossaholic, Gorgeous

Balms: 
-  Yves Rocher, Baume Hydratant, Grapes
-  Cherry Culture, Lip balm, Bubble gum
-  The Body Shop, Born lippy, Strawberry
-  ELF, Conditioning lip balm spf 15, Nice&Natural
-  Lush, Lip Balm, Honey Trap

Lipstick: 
-  ELF, Mineral Lipstick, Runway pink
-  NYX, Round Lipstick, Thalia
-  Eyeko, Liptastik glossy lip pen, Loudmouth
-  Wet n Wild, Lipstick, Dark pink frost
-  ELF, Essentials lipstick, Classy

And the winners are...

Hard Candy, Glossaholic, Gorgeous: I love everything about this gloss, the glitter, the shade, the scent, the feel on the lips and the packaging. The only reason I have not written a review about this is because it's always in my pocket or my purse.

ELF Conditioning lip balm spf15, Nice&Natural: This stuff is amazing, it makes my lips so incredibly soft, it gives them that nude look I like and it smells and tastes divine.

ELF, Essentials lipstick, Classy: I believe this was one of the lipsticks that actually got me started on wearing lipstick. The colour is so unique, it lasts quite well and it's so affordable.

It wasn't easy picking the winning products as I have been going through so many different lip products this year. I still have not found my holy grail lip products, but these are "up there" for me.

Loevens.

Products of the year.

2011 is almost gone and soon it will be 2012. So I thought I would sum up the year by making a series of posts about my favorite products for 2011. I will divide this into following categories:

*Lip products of the year.

*Face products of the year.

*Eye products of the year.

*Palettes of the year.

*Skin care products of the year.


each category will further be divided into sub categories and I will announce one winning product for each sub category. For those of you who just want to know my favorite products of the year without all the extra fuss, I will accumulate my favorites into one post at the end of this series of posts. There you will be able to see pictures and links to reviews of the winning products. I will try my best to post links of previous reviews and posts on the products listed in the posts to come.

Loevens.

ELF Makeup Clutch palette review

I got this free with purchase last time I did a bit of ELF shopping, and I have finally gotten around to write about it now. I have to admit that I was curious about this palette the first time I saw it on the US site. But I would probably never have bought it myself unless there was 50% off as I normally don't really care too much about ELF eyeshadow palettes.

Price: 10$ here or 15£ here.

Packaging: I actually quite like this little clutch-like palette, it looks really cute and actually seems quite sturdy. It's probably the nicest palette packaging from ELF I have come across. It's made of matte black plastic and has a decent sized mirror in the lid.

 You get 32 eyeshadows, 2 blushes, 1 bronzing powder, 1 highlighting cream, 6 lip glosses, 1 brow powder and one brow wax. You also get 3 dual ended sponge tip applicators. 

As I have written before, I think ELF has changed the formula of their eyeshadows a bit, they seem less powdery than the ones I tried in their 32 palette. These shadows do feel a little more powdery than the shadows in their "on the go" palettes.

I actually really love the blushes, I think they are really nicely pigmented, but slightly on the powdery side. The higlighting cream is also nice, it's not as greasy as the highlighting cream from some of their old encyclopedia books.

I can't use the bronzing powder as it's way too dark for me and it's too orange for me. It's not glittery but it does have a shine to it. 

I think the quality of the eyeshadows has improved, ELF has gotten better at making pearly/shiny shadows without the glitter and mattes that are not too chalky. However this is a little hit or miss for me. The neutral shades seem a little on the sheer side, and I mostly use neutral shades. The Blues and greens are stunning! however... I never wear blue.

 

As for staying power, these are not going to last you the whole day. Not even with a good primer. But i have found them to last way better if I apply them over ELF studio cream eyeshadow.

 

 I get so inspired when I look at this pretty palette, I think the colours are gorgeous... But I don't think it's worth 15£. ELF is a very affordable brand but I do tend to think that their palettes are a little  pricey compared to what you actually get. Don't get me wrong, this is not a bad palette and I will be using it, I would just not purchase pay full price for it.

I think it's a great little palette if you want to play around with green, blue and purple looks. But if you are more into natural shades this may not be the palette for you. I would love to hear your opinions of this palette.

Loevens.

Palette of the week

This week I have been using my smokey brown quad from The Body Shop. I thought it was about time I got araound to trying it out and I thought the lovely golden highlighter cream would be just right for december.

On the go: These shadows apply effortlessly like a dream! They blend very well without fading into one blurry shade. I found it super easy and super quick to do a very beautyfull smokey look with these.

Evening out: It's perfect! just deepen the look with the matte dark brown and add a bit more of the golden cream highlighter and you are ready to rock.

Variation: Ofcourse there is not a whole lot of variation to be found in a quad. But I actually do think this managed to impress me when it comes to the different looks one can make. I managed to do a very neutral look with the lightest shade and a bit of the medium brown. I changed it up a bit my using the dark matte brown as a liner, I also used the golden shimmer in various ways. it actually worked well on top of the eyeshadows as well, as long as you only dab a tiny bit gently on to the lid.

 

Staying power: Without a good primer this is just average. But with Too Faced Shadow Inscurance this lasted me all day and evening without creasing and only with minimal fading. I'm quite imoressed by the cream highlight. It stayed on all day and did not fade one bit! I did not expect that of a cream product. So very impressed!

Work appropriate: Certainly. As with many of the palettes I have show here, it's all about how you use it. This can be very neutral and it can be super smokey as well, it's all about how and what you apply.

I'm actually planning on using this for christmas. I'm totally in love with this little quad.

Loevens.

My new Z-palette pro!

Yay I got my Z-palette pro in the mail this morning. I've been depotting and rearranging eyeshadow pans all day.

I decided to make my own neutral palette using Urban Decay, Too Faced, Wet n Wild, Pixi, The balm and HOT makeup shadows. (I threw in a few purple toned shades as well as a green just to play it up a bit)

This is my first Z-palette ever so unfortunately I can't compare this to the other Z-palettes. However I do know that this is deeper so there is now room for small makeup bushes in the palette. I have been told that the pro palette is a little larger than the Large Z-palette but it's not really that much.

I bought mine for around 19,99£ at Genie Cosmetics .

Excuse the poor picture quality, I wanted to share this with you right away and the lighting is pretty badin my living room at night.

I definately want more of these palettes. I would love to depot all my single blushes and such and put them into one palette. I could also use 1-2 more palettes for eyeshadows. I'm depotting some old palettes and putting them into Z-palettes to save room. I have a lot of beautiful eyeshadows that I never use because they are hidden somewhere in a makeup bag or an old palette full of shades I no longer like. This type of palette certainly makes is easier for me not to forget about an eyeshadow.

Loevens.

MUA ships internationally now!

Finally! MUA is now open for international orders! Wich means that I will soon be placing an order with them... I have been curious about this brand for a very long time, and now I finally get to try it out! yay...

Are you guys planning on trying out some products from the brand? Visit their new online store here.
Recommendations are more than welcome.

Loevens.

Blog plans for this month

Hey Guys, don't worry. I have not forgotten about you. Actually I am working really really hard to get some posts ready just in time for christmas and new years eve. Here's a bit of what you can look forward to this month.

*Product recommendations for christmas and new years eve parties.

* Blog/beauty related new years resolutions

* Large Products of the year series.

* Reviews of the Balm balmbinies palette, elf makeup clutch palette and more

So even though I may not be getting a lot of posts out there everyday I am working really hard every single evening to give you some nice posts to sum up this year the best I can.

Loevens.

A littlesomething I made this weekend

Just thought I wanted to share this with you. I made some nice sushi for me and my boyfriends date night last friday. We love sushi and I love making it. I made soo much sushi we couldn't eat it all.

We bought the tofu pockets and filled them with rice. I made the sushi rolls and the spicy dip myself.

Loevens.

ELF Studio beauty on the go palette otw

Time for a new palette of the week post. I have 6 of the small palettes from the beauty on the go colletction by ELF, I will be reviewing them soon. This one is called "Pretty picnic". I think ELF must have changed the formula in their eyeshadows, I found the old ELF shadws to be quite powdery but these palettes all contain smooth almost creamy eyeshadows with beautyful metallic shimmer. So that's a big improvement in the quality in my opinion.

On the go: The shadows apply like a dream and they are very easy to blend. You get a nice range of neutrals and bronze shades but I feel like there could have been a better dark matte shade in the palette to really work for me.

Evening out: Some of these shades are super shiny, almost glossy so they would make for some pretty party eye looks, however I would prefer to use something of a little higher quality that would last me all night instead of this palette.

Variation: I found myself going for the same look every day. I did try and change it up a bit but some of the colours were just too similar to really notice a difference in the eye looks I did. I used different cream shadow bases to change it up a bit.

 

Staying power: To be completely honest, the staying power was awful! I tried without primer and it lasted me about 3-4 hours then the shadow was completely gone and only some residue was left in my crease. I tried with Too faced shadow inscurance, it lasted me a few hours longer but still creased up and dissapeared way too fast. Then I tried using ELF studio cream eye shadow and that actually did the trick. The shadows did fade quite a bit during the day but the creasing stopped and at the end of the work day my shadow was still visible and not smudged out.

Work appropriate: Both yeas and no. The shades are very office friendly, but if you want your makeup to last all day at the office then this is not the way to go. I actually never touch up on my makeup when I'm at work, but I really felt the need to do so with this palette. 


Overall this palette still has a lot of room for improvement, I do like the texture and finish of these shadows quite a lot, I love the colours but I dread the lack of staying power. As for the glosses I think they are quite nice but nothing out of the ordinary, I did not use the bronzer as I do not wear bronzer on a regular basis, especially not in the winter where my skin is so pale, I tend to just use a face powder that is a few shades darker than my skin tone instead.


Loevens.

ELF Essentials lipstick review update.

I did a review of 2 of the colours from the essential collection a while back. Now I've gotten my hands on all the new shades that have been added to the ELF UK site recently. They are called: Nostalgic, Charming, Captivating, Flirtatious, Socialble and Fearless, also shown and reviewed below is Classy and Seductive, the two shades I have reviewed earlier.

Price: 12,68DKK here 1,50£ here

Packaging: It's a round silver coloured tube. It's very easy to see the colour without opening the tube because it has clear plastic in the middle of the tube. It's not that nicely packaged but for the price I really don't care. It seems sturdy and I can't complain.

The lipstick has a slight scent to it, reminds me of some chewy vitamins I had as a kid. But the scent goes away quite fast so it's not a problem for me. They are not as creamy as the mineral line and can be a bit on the drying side. But with a bit of lip balm and a good scrub now and then, it shouldn't be a problem.

Classy: Is a pale rosy pink. It may look a bit like "runway pink" from the mineral line at first, but they are two completely different shades. "classy is more on the cool toned pink/purple side. It's actually a really hard shade to describe, but it's sooo pretty! I am really pleased with this colour, it suits me very vell and is super good for everyday use.

 

Seductive: Is a very wearable medium reddish colour. It's not a dramatic colour but not subtle either. I like to use it on the days I want a red lip but feel like I have to tone it down a bit. I can easily pull this off at the office with a neutral eye look.



 

Nostalgic: The colour is very very nice, not too pale and not too dark for my skintone, just the way a nude lip should look if you ask me. This lipstick is a little drying and not as creamy as the others so it does not apply as well as the others. But it's still one of my favorites.

 

 

Charming: Is such a nice colour, it reminds me a bit of "classy" but is completely different, this lipstick is one of the creamiest and softest on the lips. I just love this shade it's like my own lip colour just a couple of shades darker.

 

 

Captivating: is my least favorite colour, it is way too orange for me. I'm afraid my picture does not show just how orange this lipstick is. It's creamy and soft on the lips so if you like orange lipstick then go for it!

 

 

Flirtatious: I love this shade of pink. It's somewhere inbetween barbie doll pink and a more muted nude pink. It's a little more on the loud side than the nudes I'm used to, but it's just so darn wearable. I love it. This is one of the less creamy lipsticks unfortunately.

 

 

Sociable: Is just too "out there" for me. I feel as if my lips are screaming "ook at me" when I wear it. It's a bright red with some glitter in it. I think the shade is probably just wrong for my skintone. Super drying on my lips.

 

 

Fearless: Is a true red with blue undertones. I find it super wearable even though it's so intensely red. It's creamy and soft and it lasts very very well. I have been eating and drinking with it on and it was still perfect.

All in all I'm very very pleased with these lipsticks. They last quite long, most of them are nice and creamy and the colours are really lovely. So these are certainly good value for money. I'm considering trying the rest of the shades soon. 

Loevens.