I’m sure you’re so over everyone’s 2014 yearly favourites by this point. WELL TOO BAD. Cuz now you’re getting mine. 🙂
2014 was the year I discovered Too Faced‘s Melted liquid lipstick. And it was love at first sight. I first started off with just Candy and Berry (pictured above), but when I realized how much I loved them, I just started to amass them ad nauseam. I had friends giving them to me, my husband, and of course, I picked some up myself. Out of all of them though, Melted Candy and Melted Berry are my absolute favourites. Candy looks like absolute neon insanity on my lips (which makes it AMAZING in my book) and Berry has been my winter alternative to a red lip this year. In fact, I actually lost my original Melted Candy(GYAHHHHHH) and went out and repurchased it immediately. If that doesn’t say “must have”, then I don’t know what does.
I mean, they’re long lasting, insane colour payoff and it dries down matte. What’s NOT to love? By the end of 2014 I ended up with eight of them in my collection. And I still. want. more.
So it seems like 2014 is actually just the year of Too Faced lip products. While I loved their entire La Creme line (it smells like sweet lemon, isn’t that unique?), my favourite shade was Coral Fire. I was told a few times that it could be an “every day shade” for me which surprised me since there’s a lot of colour packed into that tube. I love, love, LOVE this shade. I think Too Faced qualifies it as a red, but it really is a pink coral that looks fantastic on me during the warmer months.
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I realize this palette was limited edition from the holiday 2013 season, but too dang bad. I *loved* this thing. Laura Mercier‘s 2013 Artist Palette came out of left field and smacked me upside the head like a load of bricks. I’d never, ever used anything by Laura Mercier before and I was just astounded at how soft and blendable these shades are. There isn’t a single dud in this palette. I even took it on a true test of faith and travelled with it for over a week. The number of amazing looks I came up with this palette was amazing. And thatBamboo shade? It is EVERYTHING.
Once I got pissed off with my Physicians Formula Bronze Booster, I switched to this one by NYC. Fire Island Tan was used almost religiously for nine months straight… and that’s how little pan I’ve hit. It’s impressive for a drugstore item to have such ridiculous longevity, but as a makeup lover I’m kind of like “oh my god WHEN DOES IT END?!” The swatch photo is obviously quite a heavy application, and no one (I hope) would ever wear it that heavily on their face. While there is some orange to that shade, I never felt like I looked like a fake and bake kind of person.
My love for Makeup Geek shadows knows no bounds, but there are two shades that I went to repeatedly over the last year. Creme Brulee is a shade that finally taught me how to blend out other shades. It’s incredible how much adding a little bit of an orangey-brown in my crease works to soften up darker eyeshadow looks. I always thought it was a ridiculous step when I saw other people doing it, but when I finally tried it out myself I couldn’t believe how well it helped make eyeshadow looks look more professional.
The other shade that stole my heart was Bitten. Bitten is an incredibly reddened-purple shade. Of all of the shades in my Makeup Geek collection, this is my absolute favourite. I used this often in my crease and it worked well with lighter shades on the lid, or, my favourite, using a glitter on the lid and blending it out with Bitten. I also found that this paired beautifully with my Too Faced Melted Berry lipstick.
Alright, getting down to the wire here. A boring product, maybe, but Anastasia‘s Dipbrow Pomade in Blonde was a game changer for me. I’m quite fair and I have very little in the way of eyebrows. It’s not that I overpluck, it’s just that they’re NOT THERE. What little hairs that do grow where the tail of my eyebrow is supposed to be, well.. they’re really just pale blonde baby hairs.
So when I say I need help with my eyebrows, I mean it. If I don’t fill in and FINISH my eyebrows, I basically look ridiculous.
Here’s an example:
Like seriously… WHERE ARE MY EYEBROWS?
As you can see, if I don’t fill them in, I look like I’ve practically shaved them all off!
ANYWAY. What was my point? My point is that eyebrow pencils and eyeshadow never added enough texture. Because I don’t have much in the way of eyebrows too begin with, I needed something like the Dipbrow Pomade in order to actually create the illusion of texture to my brows. It was tricky figuring out how to use it at first, but when I did it was like a lightbulb went off. Now I too can have brows and not look like a fool!
I’ll never understand how the blush on the left, in all its coral deliciousness, ends up looking straight up pink on my skin (see the swatch), but whatever, it works. Hourglass’ Diffused Heat is my “I have no idea what matches my eye look” blush. I can reach for this one and know that it’ll look good on me no matter what. I realize the swatch makes it look like nothing special, but this powder looks rather radiant on my cheeks. While I was never sold on the Ambient Lighting Powders, the blushes are a completely different story and I’d encourage you to check them out. Even if the price point is a verging on insanity.
My best loved products of 2014 are products I’m still using today and I expect to continue loving through 2015. Now I just need to pick up all the news shades that Too Faced have added to their Melted line up…