Tuesday, January 4, 2022

Top 10 Favourites - Best Makeup Discoveries of 2021

I always love rounding up my Favourite products I've discovered every year - sometimes I've included hair and nails, but this year I'm just going to focus on the best makeup and the best skincare products I've tried this year! Personally, I include products that I've discovered within the year (not necessarily products that were released in the year, or I don't include every category as I just want to pick the best products I've tried!)

Top 10 Favourites - Best Makeup Discoveries of 2021
I purchased everything in this post - this post contains affiliate links

With that being said, everything I talked about on my Monthly Favourites, I still love; but, when I think of the best products of the year, I think of the ones that have been total standouts or game-changers in my routine! So, that is what I'm going to focus on for this year's Top 10 Favourites! 

Here's a closer look at my Top 10 Favourite makeup products:

Top 10 Favourites - Best Makeup Discoveries of 2021

Natasha Denona Zendo Eyeshadow Palette ~ $87.00 CAN. A warm-toned palette inspired by the Mini Zendo with hues of pink, brown, coral, and peach with pops of turquoise.

This palette is so gorgeous and I absolutely love this size of palette from Natasha Denona - it is perfect, a little smaller than there huge palettes, with good sized pans and 15 shadows is a good amount! I love this colour story, it's warm with a hint of cool tones in it, and it's lovely. I love the browns, pinks and peaches. I've done a whole post with swatches and 3 looks - you can check it out here! The formulas of the eyeshadows are lovely; the mattes are smooth and the metallics are pigmented and beautiful!

Wet N Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Single in Brulee ~ $2.29 CAN. Our improved eyeshadow formula ups the ante on pigmentation with a mix of shimmery go-tos and matte transition shades to blend into the creases of your eyelids.

Okay, this may be a totally basic product in a collection, but honestly I use it every time I do my eyeshadow unless the palette I'm using has a shade just like this - it basically sets my eye primer and preps my lid as a base shadow. Wet n Wild has a good matte formula, so this applies nicely and always wears well! A perfect must-have in my collection now! 

Auric Cosmetics Smoke Reflect Cream + Powder Eye Shadow Duo in Temper ~ $39.00 US. A smokeshow in a jar. Heads will turn with these eye catching shadow duos. Create creamy-matte, or metallic-glitter looks with two luxe formulas (in a single gorgeous package). Under the top lid is a light-reflecting, micro-glitter eyeshadow infused with high-shine pearls. Inside the glass is a smooth, longwear, creaseless cream shadow.

This is easily my most used eyeshadow of the whole year - this is a cream and metallic glitter duo and it's absolutely lovely! It is effortlessly easy to get a quick pretty look with just the cream and shimmer, or can be built up and added to other shadows for a different look. The cream applies easily with brushes or fingers, blends nicely and best of all, doesn't crease at all. The topper shadow can also be applied with a brush, but looks the most impactful applied with a finger - for a full review, swatches and a look, you can check out my full review here!

ColourPop Once Upon A Dream Super Shock Shadow ~ $7.00 US. Our revolutionary creme-powder eyeshadow, famous for its unique bouncy texture, delivers bold metallic foiled colour in one swipe without creasing, fading or fallout.

You should know by now that I'm a total sucker for any Disney collab, especially if it involves Aurora, especially the ColourPop once. Their latest release was some Super Shock shadows, which I love using as a lid shadow formula, so I was reasonable and I only picked up the Once Upon A Dream shadow - it is described as "rose with a duochrome coral flip and gold pin points" and it's lovely. It's a shifty pink and it's gorgeous, you can check out my post where it is swatched and on my eye

Top 10 Favourites - Best Makeup Discoveries of 2021

Benefit Cosmetics Fouroscope Air Goddess Palette ~ $48.00 CAN. Show off your soft side, Air Goddess, with this limited-edition, delicate & glowy cheek palette! Features full sizes of our iconic Dandelion baby-pink brightening powder and fan-fave Georgia golden peach blush, and minis of exclusive, never-before-seen Soulstice berry blush and Blaze peach-pink highlighter.

I love this face palette - honestly, Benefit makes good face products, but I never buy them because the individual packaging is just so bulky and huge that I'm not a fan. So, I missed out a couple of years ago on a face trio for the holidays, so I told myself that I would not miss another palette release! This came out in 3 different types - Air, Earth and Fire, and I picked up Air Goddess and looove it. It comes with an all over brightening powder, two blushes and a highlighter. The formulas are all amazing and wears so well - you can see a full post with swatches and try-ons here, but it's fantastic! Also, this will be a great palette to take travelling as it's got a setting powder, blushes and highlighter in a compact kit! 

Pixi On-the-Glow Blush in Juicy ~ $24.00 CAN. Formulated with Ginseng, Aloe Vera and a unique mix of Fruit Extracts, this tinted balm provides a hint of natural colour while hydrating and conditioning skin.

This was the year that I started to get more in to cream makeup products, and honestly, this blush was the catalyst for that! I had hear such good things about the formula and liked the stick applicator, that I had to try this out and it's fantastic! Personally, I don't apply this with the stick right to my face (although you could) - I just apply this with a duo-fiber brush from the stick to the cheeks and it's great! The colour Juicy is fabulous, it blends nicely and wears so well! It dries down and doesn't stay tacky or anything and it just looks lovely! I've used this every time I've done my makeup - you can see it on me here on My Whole Face of Drugstore Makeup post from a while back! 

E.L.F. Putty Blush in Turks and Caicos ~ $8.00 CAN. Say hello to that island glow! This lightweight but buildable, putty to powder blush, blends seamlessly into skin. Infused with argan oil and vitamin E, this silky smooth, buildable formula will give you a flushed-from-within glow.

Okay, I know a second cream blush is a little excessive, but I had to include it! While I like the Pixi formula the tiniest bit more than this, it is a great close second choice - honestly, it's only $8 and it has way more choices than the three Pixi shades. I picked up the shade Turks and Caicos it is a coral peach shade and it's lovely - what I really like about this formula is that it applies lightly and can be built up, so it will never apply too heavy. I use a duo-fibre blush and just dab it on my cheeks and it dries does quickly and wears really well! (If you want to see it on me, you can see my recent e.l.f. review here). It's lovely! 

Top 10 Favourites - Best Makeup Discoveries of 2021

Essence Lash Princess False Lash Effect Mascara ~ $4.99 CAN. Royal sister! The original Lash Princess has a big and bold sister with voluminous false lash effects! The conic shape fiber brush provides lashes with dramatic volume and sculpted length.

Sometimes I'm the last person to hope on a makeup bandwagon - I have heard so many great things about Essence mascaras, but honestly for the longest time I that that there was no way a $5 mascara could hold up to my more expensive choices! Wrong - this is fantastic! I picked up the false lash effect because that's what I like on my lashes and it's lovely - it makes them dark and full and builds up nicely! (My only tiny complaint was about after a month or two it transferred a tiny bit right under my brows where my lashes touch, but it didn't do that brand new!) I did a whole post and also compared this to the waterproof formula - you can check it out here if you are interested in try-on comparisons

Laneige Lip Glowy Balm - Berry ~ $20.00 CAN. A lightweight, moisture-coating lip balm for hydrated, tinted, and kissable lips throughout the day.

Okay, I know mascara and lip balms are not the most exciting products, but damn - I can't not talk about this! I raved about this as an amazing Summer lip balm; it goes on super smooth and leaves a lovely shine on the lip and lasts for a long time and actually keeps the lip hydrated. But this has also held up in the Winter - the masks, the cold dry air, this is the absolutely best lip balm I have. I've already repurchased so I'm never without! 

Cheekbone Beauty Sustain Lipstick in Aki ~ $32.00 CAN. An ultra-pigmented and buildable satin vegan lipstick that covers your lips with rich, creamy, velvet colour that is longer lasting.

If you've been around this blog, then you've heard me rave already the Cheekbone Beauty Sustain lipstick formula; but, this shade Aki, which is described as a blue red and it is easily the most perfect red lipstick I've ever worn! (I did pair this with their lipliner, which was lovely as well!) The formula doesn't fully dry down once on the lips (the applicator is a tad drier than when I got it in the Summer, but still applies lovely and wears well), but still wears really well and doesn't feel smudgy or like it will go everywhere. 

Top 10 Favourites - Best Makeup Discoveries of 2021

And for fun, I did a little makeup look with some of the best products I've tried all year! For the eye look, I used the Wet n Wild Brulee shadow as the base, the Natasha Denona shadows in Balance and Calm for the transition shade, and Mindful to deepen the outer corner. Then, I applied the Auric Temper shadow cream shadow all over the lid and through the crease, and the metallic shadow on the lid. Then, I used the ColourPop Once Upon A Dream super shock shadow to the inner corner. For the face, I used the Benefit Palette Dandelion powder as a finishing powder and the Blaze highlighter on the cheekbones. I used the Pixi Blush in Juicy on the cheeks and then I finished the look with the Essence Mascara and Cheekbone lipstick! 

What were your favourite products in 2021?! 

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