2012 Besties Awards

 I came up with this catchy name for this short little series I am doing on my favorite products from 2012. There may not be something from every category, but each one of these things I have used and loved all last year. A lot of times, I get swept up in brand new products and love them to death for the first couple weeks {honeymoon phase} then they seem to fall by the wayside. Everything in the Besties Awards have been long lasting romances throughout the whole year. These are things I go back to time and time again.

Best Setting Spray

Urban Decay De-Slick: 

I have tried the All Nighter Setting Spray from Urban Decay and ELF's Setting Spray and this one was my favorite. Surprisingly, I have dry and oily skin. I found that De-Slick made my makeup last longer than any of them and gave my face a nice matte finish. I used this during the summer too and it was a life saver! Here's the full review.

Best Concealer

Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Treatment:

Maybelline's concealers are a long time favorite. This concealer is perfect for underneath the eyes. It is really thin but gives full coverage and seriously brightens underneath my eyes. The only down side is that the packaging on mine is broken so I have to work at it to twist up more product. If your looking for a good concealer for both under the eyes and on dark spots/pimples, try Maybelline's 24/7 Concealer.

Best Foundation

Revlon Color Stay:

I have tried so many foundations in the past couple of years and I always end up going back to this. Nothing is as full coverage as Color Stay. When they say color stay, they mean it! It dries rather quickly so blending it right away is a must. Once it is actually set, it makes my skin look flawless and gorgeous and covers everything and will stay put all day long.

Best Highlight

ELF Radiance Enhancer in Spotlight: 

Another thing from the Holy Grail page. This is one of those highlighters that have a duo-chrome finish. I wouldn't say this is glittery, instead shimmery. When it hits the light, it really does radiate. For $3, it really doesn't get any better. The packaging is sleek, it has a brush tip applicator, and is really creamy and extremely easy to blend. Any beginner wanting to dive into the whole contour/highlight process, this would be a perfect place to start. I want to do an updated review and demo using both colors ELF has to offer on the Radiance Enhancer range. Coming Soon (: For now, grab yourself a Radiance Enhancer. You won't regret it!

Best Bronzer/Contour Powder

Laura Gellar Baked Blush n Brighten in Honey Dipped: 

I got this in my Birch Box in June of 2011 and it was the sole best thing I have ever received in any box. Even though it has shimmer in it, I find it to be the perfect contour powder for me. Any matte contour powder or bronzer I have tried just looks really tacky and muddy next to my fair skin. In the summer time, this is the perfect all over bronzer because I am a little bit darker. The powder is really nice and is easy to blend. After the 2 years I have had it, it is still my absolute favorite bronzer and I use it more than any other one I have. I have yet to even think about hitting the pan. Talk to me in 2015. Maybe I will hit pan then. Probably not. I have swatched this before here

Best Blush

YBF Golden Gleam Bronzer & Baby Pink Blush Duo: 

The bronzer side is nice, yes, but I want to pay tribute to the blush side. This is the blush I kept on going back to all year last year and will most likely continue to do so in 2013. When ever I can't make my mind up, this is my go to blush. It is such a pretty shimmery baby pink color that creates this beautiful flush on my cheeks. The phrase "lit from within" was made for this blush. I don't hear much about YBF Beauty but the company is a diamond in the rough! Check out HSN. They sell YBF (which is where I purchased it) value kits for a really good prices. Here's everything I got in my value kit when I ordered along with swatches of this duo. It's a really good blog post.

left: ybf blush/bronze duo. right: laura gellar baked blush n brighten

Best Eyeshadow

 Stila Eyeshadows

Yes, I own the Naked Palette and it's great and all, but not as great as the Stila eye shadows I own. The lighter shades in the Naked Palette aren't as pigmented as Kitten from Stila . Same thing goes for the matte shades. Stila's Kitten is my absolute favorite eye shadow in the world and thats because it doesn't take much to get pigment on my eyes. All of the Stila eye shadows I own are always so velvety, creamy and pigmented and I almost always use at least 1 of them on a daily basis. Here's a swatch I did of Kitten, Terracotta + Jezebel.  I would gladly do a blog post on my full Stila eye shadow collection. Those swatches are old. I can do a better job! Let me know if your interested.

Best Eye Liners
Any of the Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips

I picked these because they are the only drug store eye liner I used in 2012 that stayed in my water line the whole day and kept the pigment and didn't run down my face. I actually had a lot to say about these, so check out the review I did for them a couple days ago. You can also find swatches there too.

Best Mascara
Physician's Formula Organic Wear

I did a full review complete with pictures of the brush and it on my lashes. Check it out.

Top 10 Nail Polishes and Favorite Lip Products deserve their own separate blog post. Otherwise this blog post would be way too long! It might be labeled "Bestie's Award's" and it might not be. It depends on how long it takes me to get them up (: Don't worry! It will only take a couple weeks, tops.

What was your favorite product from last year?
Would you be interested in a Stila eyeshadow collection blog post?

till next time,
Erica

2012 Bestie's: My Favorite Eye Liner

Every time I type that I feel like such a dork! Ha! Besties Awards! Im crazy.

The Bestie's Awards are everything I absolutely loved last year. I may not have something from every single category but all of these products were the cream of the crop. Today I want to talk about my favorite eye liner.

Shimmer Strips Custom Eye Enhancing Eyeliner Trio $12

What I love about these and why they are the object of my eye lining affection for 2012 is that I never have to worry about them running down my face. Another problem I run into with eye liners is the fact that they just don't stay on my eyes at all, let alone run down my face. I have really watery eyes. Any other eye liner I have used will be gone within the hour when my eyes start to water. The Shimmer Strips give me the best of both worlds (no worlds?) meaning it will stay in my water line weather my eyes are watering or not and will not run down my face. 

 A few hours into my day, I will notice a little bit of the product collecting in the corners of my eyes but it is nothing I cannot fix really quick with a swipe of a little piece tissue. Sometimes I don't even bother, to be honest! I get busy throughout the day and cannot watch every move of my eye liner. With these, I never feel like I have to worry about it too much.

As for lining your lash line with these, your going to be golden all day long no matter what. That eye liner isn't going anywhere. I am not someone that really smudges out my eye liner at all but if you wanted to do that with the Shimmer Strips, you have a couple seconds before it sets. I never ever have to set the liners with any kind of powder or eyeshadow or anything. It just stays. I have put them to the test plenty of times (scratching my eyes) and it never budges. However, taking your makeup off at the end of the day with a makeup remover is easy. 

 These are twist up eye pencils. They don't need sharpened. They have a built in sharpener in the bottom of each one that I have never used before but its there is your wanting a finer point. I can't say it makes much of a difference as far as performance goes. They are just as easy to use weather that fine point is there or not.

The Physician's Formula Shimmer Strips come in a pack of 3 eye liners in different colors. They market them for different eye colors "For Blue Eyes" or "For Hazel Eyes". Even though I have brown eyes, I have tried both For Brown Eyes (comes with a black with blue glitter, a brown, + a purple) and For Blue Eyes (a black with purple glitter, a brown, + a blue).

 What you see in the pictures is the For Blue Eyes set along with the one purple eye liner from the For Brown Eyes set that I had from before.

As you can tell from the swatches, the glitter in the black one is pretty much non-existent. It is there and I can especially see it in a heavy swatch like this one, but once it is on my eyes I cannot tell that there is glitter in it. That is either a good thing or bad thing depending on preference. I personally like the fact that it is so subtle. They are nice liners for every day because it's not like bam-in-your-face glitter.

As for the pigmentation, it is really good. This isn't the blackest of black I have ever used but since it stays put all day long, I can deal with it just being black. I usually find myself going around my inner rim a couple times before I get that black-black color I am looking for. So, it is achievable! If I had to work way too hard to get any kind of black line on my inner rim, I would never consider these liners for a Besties Award. As you can see, the brown isn't so much brown as it is a bronzed shade. Just like the black, you can work it up to be a more intense brown but with the brown eye liner, it may be a little bit harder. It's funny because the brown shade is actually the lightest shade of the bunch.

Here's the bullet points:

-Twist up pencil

-Built in sharpener (I have never used)

-Stay's put in the water line

-Stay's put on the lash line, no matter how hard you rub your eyes.

-Doesn't migrate down my face

-Don't need to set with an eyeshadow

-Very little gathering of product in the outer corner

-Comes in a set of 3 for around $12

-Easy to remove with makeup remover

-Pigmentation is pretty good

-The shimmer is nonexistent on the eyes

Ok! So far, I have done:
Besties Award for Best Mascara (another Physician's Formula product too!) 

I will be back in a day or two to fill you in on the rest of everything! 
Get ready for:
 the main Besties Awards (face and the rest of the eyes) 
Besties Awards for Nail Polish 
Besties Awards for Lip Products

Before I go, I wanted to thank all of you for an awesome 2012! Things got crazy in 2012 but the one thing that is always so awesome and growing is Mind Body Beauty! I am so blown away! Thank you times a million! You guys are seriously the best people on this earth and make me so happy (:

Until Next Time
Erica

2012 Besties: My Favorite Mascara

One of those beauty products that I tend to try out throughout the year is mascara. I almost never stick to the same one. I really love to test out different one's. I usually try out maybe 5 or 6 different kinds through out the year. Of course, 2012 was no different. I tried plenty of mascara's in 2012 and the one that always stuck out to me was:

when I am looking for a mascara, I want one that's:

Going to really get in there and volumize and lengthen. Doing just one or the other isn't good enough! Of course, with the right technique's you can get any mascara to work out to some degree, but it's nice to find one that you know you don't have to work hard at to achieve a certain look.

{Physician's Formula}
 

My lashes aren't sparse. My lashes aren't thick or anything either. I would say I have pretty normal eye lashes. I find that this mascara both lengthens and volumizes my lashes and creates the illusion of them being thicker than they really are without making them look clumped together- while it is on my lashes.
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I can't really say that I saw lash growth after a couple weeks of use or anything like that but if your looking for a really great mascara that will give you all of the above for the day or night, you've found it!
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Also, if I curl my lashes before I add mascara, it will hold my curl well. This mascara doesn't weigh down my eye lashes at all.  

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When they mention 100% of people saw enhanced lahes instantly, it makes me go "hmmm." Of course you would see an enhancement instantly. That is why we all wear mascara, right? I think they are really trying to hammer in that idea of it actually growing your lashes over time. Im sorry but I just didn't see that.
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What I also really love about this mascara is the fact that it doesn't make my lashes look clumpy or spidery. If you apply several coats, it's inevitable but I never find my self needing more than 2 coats. The first coat always looks pretty. The second coat is when I start to notice those lashes I didn't even know I had being brought out and lengthened.

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I would call this a creamy consistency (not a wet formula).

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About the brush:

The brush on this is a modern plastic one. I think I can attribute the finish of my lashes to the wand as much as the formula. It really does have a way of grabbing even the shortest, thinest eye lashes and bringing them to a new height.
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*edit / disclaimer: I have had this mascara for months and months because I was planning on reviewing it but never got around to it. The pictures you see are from a couple days ago. The mascara looks a little dry on the wand, but it's not. This is just an old bottle

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Here's what it looked like on my lashes. This isn't the best picture (I took it months ago!) but you can see it really lengthens and separates my lashes. In real life, it seems like I will get even more length than that. My lashes will just touch the bottom of my brows.I wasn't even going to add this picture because it doesn't do my words any justice, in my opinion. But, a picture is worth a thousand words and I figure you may benefit more from the picture than any words I can type out.
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This is the only PF Mascara I have ever tried. I am wondering if the others are just as good {or better}.
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If your wanting to check this out for yourself, they sometimes have coupons stuck to the package of products. This mascara is somewhere around $10 and I paid less than $5 with a coupon and a BOGO deal.
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That was for sure my favorite mascara from 2012.
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Mally's Volumizing Mascara is giving Physician's Formula a run for it's money, honey!
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What was your favorite mascara in 2012?

Take Care,
Erica