FAVORITES: January 2016

by - February 03, 2016


Honestly, I feel like January was a month of new discoveries in my makeup collection. Between gifts from Christmas, shopping trips using gift cards, and all of the new releases happening in the makeup world, I was a little overcome with new things in the first weeks of 2016. Surprisingly, I also rediscovered a few long time favorites that had been passed up - and one that I had completely forgotten existed until I saw it in the drugstore and picked it up on a whim. I feel like this was a good month for me when it came to beauty. My skin is looking better than it has in all my adult life and, in turn, my makeup is applying a hell of a lot more smoothly. I'm not bragging, I swear, but it's been a good month! Surprisingly, thought, choosing my favorites this month has been a breeze. 

Keep reading for a closer look at the products that rose above the rest in January!



Colourpop Super Shock Eyeshadow in Koosh
When the Forever Freshman set came out last fall, I feel like this was the shade that got all the raves - and for good reason. I only just got my hands on this set this month (Thank you, Ipsy Points!) and I instantly fell in love with this shadow to the point that I'm reaching for it more often than not. It's a really unique taupe champagne that definitely leans cool, but also adapts beautifully with warmer eye looks. It's ridiculously pigmented and the Super Metallic finish looks absolutely amazing on the eyes. Obsessed!


NYX Hot Singles Eyeshadow in Stiletto
I picked up this shadow on a bit of a whim during an impromptu stop at London Drugs to see if they had the Micro Brow Pencil in stock. It had been a long time since I'd used a NYX single shadow, but I remembered really liking them and this one swatched really nicely. I would describe this as a kind of greige toned peach shade, if that makes sense, which makes it absolutely perfect for two very specific purposes on my face. Obviously you won't be surprised that this makes a beautiful, soft transition shade, but you might be surprised at just how well it works on fair skin as a contour. I'm not a huge fan of really in your face contour on the day to day, so I like to reach for this just to put a little definition back into my face after I apply foundation. Beautiful!


Annabelle Expandable Mascara
Admittedly, I didn't have the highest hopes for this mascara - but it absolutely blew me away. I tend to prefer my lashes look really fluttery, and this is one of the best mascaras I've ever used for giving me a really fringey, wispy look to my lashes.. It's super black, not too dry or too wet, and applies without clumping at all. The only downside for me is that it does have a tendency to flake a little bit later in the day, but I love the effect it gives my lashes so much that I really don't care about that.


Stila Stay All Day Liquid Lipstick in Baci
I managed to get my hands on the limited edition trio from Holiday 2015 in a series of unlikely circumstances, and this has been the standout by a mile. In the tube, this looks like a very cool toned nude (Sorry, the picture isn't quite true to life) but on the lips this is a true mauve that is more midtoned and carries a lot less rose than a lot of mauve liquid lipsticks. I was a little unsure of how I was going to feel about the formula, since I'd heard mixed reviews, but I absolutely love it. I find it surprisingly comfortable, if a little bit drying by the end of the day, and amazingly long wearing. I definitely think I need to try more of this formula. Also, they need to make this shade permanent.


Too Faced Love Flush Blush Wardrobe (Review)
You guys had to know that this was going to pop up in here. Like the Colourpop shadow, I reached for this palette more often than not in January and my love for it is still going strong. There is a shade for every look in this palette, the quality and wear time is absolutely on point, and pulling it out of my blush drawer just makes me happy every time! If you want to go more in depth with my thoughts on this, check out the full review.


Sephora Collection Solid Brush Cleaner (Review)
A couple of weeks ago I did a major deep clean on my brushes and this cleanser just made it so damn easy. I think that this holds up, and perhaps even surpasses, the blendercleanser solid from beautyblender and a lower price tag. I highly recommend this for literally anyone who owns makeup brushes. For more about this product, check out the full review!


LUSH Dark Angels Scrub
This is a product that I used to use a long time ago and have only recently gone back to. It's a charcoal scrub that, at first, I was worried would be a little too harsh on my skin. However, it has soothing ingredients that really calm down my skin and the grit is nice and fine so it really does a good job of sloughing off my skin. Since I started using this about once every 5 days, I've seen a big improvement in the overall texture of my skin and have definitely seen the error of my previous tendency to skip out on manual exfoliation in favor of using AHAs and BHAs to chemically exfoliate my skin. This is definitely my current favorite product from LUSH.


Les Soins De Jacynthe - Le Serum De Jacynthe (Review)
I've been using this almost every night and I feel like it's really doing amazing things for the overall health of my skin. I wasn't sure what consistent use of this would do to my pores, but I can honestly say that I haven't really had a problem with clogged pores or breakouts since I started using this at all. This is just really, really effective at helping my skin stay hydrated and helps to also give a very even appearance to my face. SO GOOD.


Vidal Sassoon Cherry Almond Classic Clean Conditioner
REMEMBER THIS, GUYS??? I had completely forgotten that it existed until I saw it in the drugstore sort of randomly and gave the classic scent a whiff. Honestly, I picked this up only because I wanted my hair to smell like that cherry almond scent. It's a decent conditioner and I do think it leaves my hair feeling soft and light, but the real win here is the scent. It's so good that I shamelessly kept sniffing my hair through an entire movie the first time I used it again. Everything in life should smell like this.


NIVEA Smooth Replenishing Hand Cream
If there's one product that is a winter staple for me, it's the NIVEA hand creams. Honestly, I've used a lot of fancier hand creams that claim to have really high quality, nourishing ingredients, but none of them can stand up to the NIVEA hand creams for me. My specific favorites are this one, the Smooth Replenishing formula, as well as the Q10 Anti-Age formula. Both of these hand creams soak in quickly without leaving behind a greasy residue and leave my hands feeling silky, smooth, and hydrated. This is pretty much a ride or die product for me.


And there you have it - another month and yet another round of favorites. Honestly, choosing all of these was a bit of a no brainer for me because they really rose to the top this month even as I tried a LOT of new products.

I have one non-beauty favorite for you guys this month, and if you follow me on Twitter you might already know what it is...


iZombie!!!!
I decided over Christmas to do the two month free trial of Shomi, because I was curious about what kind of content they had on there and the first show that I was curious about watching was iZombie. When I first heard about it, before the first season aired, I was literally interested not at all, but then I started hearing really, really good things about, so I finally decided to give it a go and see if I liked it. Instant obsession. Funny story, I was bingewatching it the first night and thinking to myself, "This is like Veronica Mars with zombies..." And then I found out the next day that the reason for that is because this show was also created by Rob Thomas. AMAZING. I am a huge fan of Veronica Mars and now a huge fan of iZombie. If you liked Veronica Mars, I can pretty much guarantee that this is going to be right up your alley. I'm all caught up now - which is kind of a bummer since I'm a bingewatcher at heart - and eagerly awaiting more episodes.


Thanks for checking out my favorites for the month of January! Come back soon now, y'hear?

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