What Were Your Best Makeup and Cosmetic Buys of 2018? Worst?

    Year 2018 was one of the years I got back into buying makeup and I bought heaps. I discovered blush and fell in love with highlighter, the crazy spell I had for palettes came back and wanted more lippies...well you get the picture. So what makeup products did you discover last year that were winners? What did you wish you could get your money back on because it didn't work for you?


      Some of my top picks are actually brushes I discovered ones I actually wasn't too sure I would like so much but then discovered how they made certain aspects of my makeup routine and I use them now everytime I do my makeup. I have a large brush collection but these brushes always find their way into my brush cup week after week and I've bought backups. 

       Sigma Angled Precision Brush P84 - Best brush for nose contouring. I got into contouring this year and even though I don't need to, I like to contour in a bridge for my nose and this brush does the job effortlessly.

 

    Sigma Shader - Inner Corner E46. My eye look is not complete without an inner corner highlight, since I have really tiny eyes I'm not one of those people that can use their pinky. This is a really small flat shader brush I also find it ideal for adding some shimmer to the inner third of my eyes or the middle as it's precise and isn't so wide it goes into my crease.

   Sigma Detail Concealer F71 - I actually originally thought, What a useless brush. I only got it because it came in a set. But this is actually not for blending out concealer it's for controlling how much concealer you apply on your face to then blend out with another brush or sponge. I actually really, really like this brush because you can apply less concealer and get less caking, also perfect for painting on a liquid eye primer or puting dots of foundation, primer or any liquid you are then going to blend out. I don't like foundation getting under my nails and then on my stuff so I like having a brush for this plus I use less product and it's more hygienic. I bought a week's worth of these so I can have a clean one to use every time I do my makeup.

  Sigma Airbrush Blender F63 - If you like to buff out your concealer into your skin in a specific spot this is your brush. I like how it's more precise at doing the smaller areas than my beauty blender, especially when it comes to areas around my eyes or that pimple. Also can be used as an eyeshadow brush. I have multiples and will often have a few that need washing when it comes time to wash my brushes.

    Simga Soft Blend Concealer F64 - If you like using a brush to blend out the concealer around your undereyes or your concealer to prime your lids or a liquid eye primer. This is the best brush I have come across. It's softer and more efficient than the RT Deluxe Crease Brush. I often use a beautyblender under my eyes but I like to use this with my eye primer. I have multiples of these since I use them everytime I do my makeup.

   Zoeva Winged Liner Brush - This is really helpful for sort of maping out where you want to do your winged liner. I have really tiny monolids so I don't get super precise tiny, sharp wing as if I were to just go in with a felt tip liner but I can use this with a bit of eyeshadow and map a bit then go over with a felt tip liner and clean up the edges and then correct with a bit of micellar water and pointed cotton bud. I end up with a larger wing when I use this but it's helpful for mapping. If you have larger eyes you're going to get a more precise wing because you have larger eyes by comparison. I don't use this brush everytime but of my Zoeva brushes this is my most used brush and it gets more use than a lot of my other brushes.

Best buy was the Kat Von D pallette . Amerezy Highlighter, Anastasia Prisim Pallette, Micellar Water in oil . Worst Rimmel Foundation , W7 Concealer . 

Best: UD kaleidoscope dream palette. KVD liquid lipstick in ‘k-dub’. Too Faced peach foundation. NARS Laguna Liquid Bronzer. Mecca Max lifeproof powder and highlighter pen. 

I think those  are the only absolute 100% loves from this year. There will probably be more though lol

Best buy was the urban decay naked heat petite, I love all the colours and can get a daytime or a nighttime look out of it, all the colours suit me so well, I wish I would’ve picked this up earlier, because:

Worst buy was the urban decay naked heat palette, the shiny colours made me look like I was terminally ill, dying from a mysterious virus or something and there wasn’t much difference between the darker colours when applied to the eyelid.



 

Kat Von D glimmer veil and Tarte Pro Glow palette. I brought them on New Years Day in 2018 and they were still stand outs at the end of 2018.

I also really liked the Mellow brow pencil and I carried on my tradition of working my way through L'Oreals foundations.

2018 The best products I used for my facial routine is Clinique *good for acne * and banish *good for acne scars*. I tried others but they made my face worse. 

Best: Tom Ford Eyeshadow Quads (RIP my wallet), Hourglass Caution mascara & Scattered light pots, UD All Nighter Setting Spray, Fenty gloss bomb in Fu$$y, Too Faced Peach foundation, Primer & Powder. Honourable mentions to Benefit Roller Lash, Tarte Shape Tape and Kevyn Aucoin Nude Pop palette.

Bad: UD Backtalk palette (I think one blush in this has already gone bad too), hourglass highlighter stick, Fenty Stunna lip paint in uncensored - hoping it would be that bright red in the bottle but pulls so dark on me. Dishonourable mention to Hourglass vanish foundation (looks great for a few hours and then migrates/vanishes).

New stuff for me was a salmon/peach Burts Bees lipstick I found for half price at my local chemist, and it replaced and updated an older lipstick beyond my expectations.
Also splurged on Milani Bold Obsessions eyeshadow palette and it's really beautiful, classic and wearable colours. I say splurge, full price was about $40 and I got for $31 in Boxing Day sale.

Biggest disappointment was my first time buying from iHerb. I'd seen complaints about delivery times and expected it to take a few weeks, but my package worth about $20 took 2 months to arrive. Never again! 
 

My best find and buy of 2018 is a product called Beekawa. Absolutely amazing stuff and good for virtually everything! Comes in a balm and massage oil. I use it on dry lips, eczema, itchy bites,  cold sores, sore muscles, scratches and finding new uses every day. My new must have all round product, NZ made, small family business and totally natural too.

I tried Makeup Revolution for the first time in 2018 after it was introduced at Farmers. I am seriously impressed with their eyeshadows and highlighter! Looking forward to trying more from their range. 

I also found a deep red lipstick by NYX (I think it's called 'Hollywood) that works perfectly on my skin tone. 

Basically, 2018 was a year for finding affordable makeup for me!

     I really love my MUG eyeshadows. I have a palette that's probably the most boring palette I own because it's just a gradient of matte warm beiges and browns and tan colors except for one orange shade in the palette. But honestly it's my most reached for palette because these are fantastic crease colors and it goes with any other palette I own or can be used alone. The MUG are so soft and blendable. I really like a blended gradient in my crease when I do my eye makeup and these shadows that are only slightly different from each other help me accomplish that with ease. 

    My Sigma Express Brush Cleaning Glove. I was wanting one for ages and I found an exact dupe for that on Aliexpress and when my good friend asked me what I wanted that she could order for me on Aliexpress I sent her the link. Now I had the Bon Bon one and it made cleaning my brushes so much easier but this one has a much bigger space to work with and more detailing plus a side for your face brushes and a side for your eye brushes which is awesome for all my dense brushes and Sigma brushes. 

       Wonderful since I started washing about 30 brushes a week and cleaning concealer and foundation out of brushes is no easy feat.

    I also really like the cheap brush tree I bought off Aliexpress. When you're washing 30 brushes a week it takes most of your dresser unless you have a brush tree. My brushes take up less space now. I finally bought the Sigma Dry and Shape Spa for my Sigma brushes (which wasn't cheap btw) and that works for my tapered brushes but the middle part which is supposed to hold the eye brushes is a complete miss. I honestly prefer my cheap brush tree that cost me less than 20 bucks on Aliexpress.

    Another brush care item I really am glad a bought was some brush books. Now I bought the spensy brush case off Sigma (honestly I spent so much on Sigma this past year) and it was good for storing and organizing my brushes and then I bought a cheap brush book off Aliexpress for storing some more of my brushes, it cost under 20 USD and it was just as good and made with the same material as the spensy Sigma one the only difference is that it doesn't have the Sigma logo and branding on the outside.
   
    Honestly those two brush books help me store and find like almost sixty of my brushes in an organized fashion in my drawer (probably have over 100 brushes) and take up less space. You can also stand it on a book shelf or table. I would highly recommend if you are a makeup artist or have a large brush collection to get some off Aliexpress. It doesn't fit the bell bottom shaped Reatechniques brushes but if you have any that are straight from limited edition sets and the eye brush set those fit in fine. They are a bit stiff when you get them but they're easy to break in. For comparison purposes I can fit the buffing brush from the RT core collection in the section for face brushes.

   Another brush care item, well more of a skin care item but it works super well for brushes. My manicure micro fiber makeup remover cloth. Because while I am faithful to clean my brushes weekly, I don't always have the time to wash around 30 every week. So I wash my sponges, powder puffs, concealer, foundation brushes, brow brushes and spoolies, anything that used with liquid products and is single use. And then I save a bit of time just thoroughly wiping my eyeshadow, blush, bronzer, highlighter and powder brushes with a wet micro fiber cloth. I find that when I just use this with the powder product brushes it's very easy to get the makeup out with a bit of laundry soap and not much scrubbing and toss in with the rest of my laundry. Also it's great for my Wayne Goss brushes which actually aren't meant to be cleaned weekly due to the delicate blue squirrel hair. 

    Another item which was a fantastic find is the Dr Bronners liquid soap for cleaning my brushes. I actually ran out of brush cleaner and found this in a box and decided to use it because this is pretty concentrated and it works really well. You just need to rinse out your brushes very thoroughly because it really foams up. It's cheap and I probably won't have to spend big bucks on brush cleaner for awhile, although I will use the beauty blender cleanser for my beauty blenders because that works the best for them.

    On the topic of  Beauty Blenders the limited edition Beauty Blender sets especially the Sweet Indulgence set was a fantastic buy since I had my old BB for a few years and it was due to get replaced since I started using it most of the days I wore foundation and BB cream. It was cheaper than buying four individually and I got four of the soaps as well.

Wow Tannygirl you're on fire with your brush collection! Good tip to look at Aliexpress (I also use Wish) before splashing out on expensive items when you can find good dupes. 

    I wouldn't buy brushes or makeup or skincare of Aliexpress but if it's plastic or silicone with a basic design then save your hard earned bucks and buy a cheap dupe because dupe is probably about the same quality at a lower price point. 

   Not really makeup but I think it's made a big difference in finding things and keeping stuff organized was some drawer organizers for my makeup drawer. I can store so much more in my drawers since I bought them from the dollar store. Mind you given that it's one of the smaller drawers in my dresser it is like playing tetris when it comes to putting things away but that's a good reminder that I probably don't need to buy more.

    I also like the little makeup holder my friend bought me, actually she bought me a brush holder which was acrylic and had a cover at the top to keep dust off my brushes but when it arrived it was a completely different model. She did her best to sort it out and opened a dispute and it kept getting shut down so I told her not to worry. 

    However the other model that arrived was a cosmetic stand with two small drawers underneath. Even though I was initially dispointed it has proved useful for storing my day to day skincare items particularly minis I'm trying to use up and it's where I put the lippies and items I'm trying to pan off since it's right there I'm more likely to use them and it keeps my samples all organized. So it's worked out quite well. As for my brushes they're sitting an nice wide necked glass jar with potpourri in the bottom which gives it that luxurious look. 

      I really like my ABH Modern Renaisance Palette the shadows are so soft, pigmented and blendable and importantly long lasting. Still hate the velvet cover so I don't reach for it as much but I really do like the formula. I do think that the MUG eyeshadows are similar in terms of pigment and blendability and there's so many colors to choose from but I think atm MUG and ABH are my fave formulas for matte eyeshadows. 

     I also really love the Nars highlighters. They are gorgeous on the skin! Give that beautiful glow that can be subtle or really built up and most importantly they don't emphasize texture. When I saw the High Voltage Palette from Nars, it went straight to the must have because it doesn't have dust magnet packaging that Nars products are usually housed in and for the price it had a good ammount of product in three beautiful shades one of which was Forte De France which I love.

    Speaking of Nars, I bought myself a Nars Laguna and Hot Sand duo and it's used alot. I love using the bronzer for contour and Hot Sand is a beautiful highlighting blush but it transulates to more of peachy gold on my skin tone which gives me a gorgeous glow. I do use the bronzer more than the blush but it was a great buy.

     I really like my Becca Apres palette which I found on sale early last year. I did relatively short amount of research before purchasing it but Wayne Goss recommended it and I didn't have many Becca highlighters or any of the blushes or bronzers and so decided to get it. And I'm not disappointed, I thought I'd only like four of the six complexion products and I like five of them and they look great on my skin tone. I was really surprised I liked the Blushed Copper blush. The only shade I'm not too fond of is the Icicle highlighter because it's a silvery white highlighter with a short blue tint sheen and it doesn't suit my warm skintone, I prefer golden or warm undertoned highlighters. I used that face palette a lot and it's gotten me into Becca complexion products. 

     Speaking of palettes I'm lucky I was able to snap up the Hourglass Ambient Edit Unlocked. I love how beautiful my skin looks whenever I wear that palette, just airbrushed and everything blends seamless into each other. 

    Another palette I use at least once week probably more is the Balm Girl's Getaway trio. I've gotten so much use out of this blush palette. The shades are the Balm's Longwearing Blush formula  and there's the Balm - Springs, Beach and Desert. Springs is medium pink, Beach is a biege nude with a pink undertone on my skin and Desert is a bronzer/blush because it has a pink undertone. I've actually worn this palette full face on my eyes and cheeks and just supplement with a highlighter. It's gotten me into somewhat monochromatic looks but I like the natural, easy daytime no fuss look.

    Now I actually though blush naturally lasted a long time on me and fading wasn't an issue for me, till recently when I went into town a few times tried out a few different brands on several occasions went fairly heavy handed because I skipped bronzer, since I was trying out blush and wanted to see how it wears and how the color looks on me. I put it on around midday and then when I came home that evening it had mostly faded. And then I realized that the reason why my blush stays put on my face on days that I wear this palette is because this blush and a few other brands I have are actually long wearing. Beach btw is perfect for that look where I got a bit too much sun, I like use it as background blush and then top it with a brighter color if I'm going for a blushed cheeks sort of focus in my makeup look. And for using this palette a fair amount hardly a dent.

     Speaking of blushes I've used alot are my little deluxe mini blushes from Tarte. Tarte has some really nice nude shades and I've been into nude blushes this year just to warm up my cheeks and sometimes add to my eyeshadow to harmonize my makeup. I've actually found time pigmented and fairly long wearing and even they're some of the blushes I use the most along with the Balm and Becca there's hardly a dent. 

      Now I actually don't have very many fullsized blushes atm just 4 but some are fantastic quality that I acquired this year is the Balm Hot Mama - seriously it's better than Nars Orgasm. And another one that isn't talked much about keeps that gorgeous natural flushed cheek look is the Sigma Aura Powder Blush in Corderosa. It's a beautiful earthy mauve with brown undertone. The powder is so fine, silky and blendable and natural, it really would suit all skintones, never looks powdery on my skin and suits just about any makeup look and you get so much product for price. I watched so many tutorials and photos where people used it and I have yet to find someone who it looks bad on. I had a similar shade also by Sigma that is now discontinued and while I owned it was my go to blush for awhile because I loved it, after I got Corderosa I figured I didn't need two and ended up gifting it. 

    Speaking of Sigma I should give a shout out to the lippie that has gotten me the most compliments this year and that is the Sigma Lip Eclipse in Sigma Pink. It's a pretty, hot pink shade and it's supposed to be like a gloss but it's so pigmented but still glossy. Gives me that nice full looking smoothed out pout, especially outdoors in the sunlight. I've hardly had an issue with it bleeding despite it being a comfortable glossy, liquid lipstick and it's not sticky either. One of my favourite makeup up looks last year has been to wear the Girl's Getaway Trio on my face and eyes, a bit of highlighter in my inner corner and lids, top of the cheeks and cupid's bow and Sigma Pink lippy. I've gotten back into wearing a pop of lip gloss over lipstick because of this lippy.