My Top 11 Makeup Products of 2011

Now, this post is pretty much old by now. It's where you take your top 11 favorite makeup products of 2011 and name them. I should probably have done this about two weeks ago. But instead of that, being the procrastinator I am, I'm doing it now. Since I love my eyeshadows extraordinarily much, I don't feel I can put them into one post along with other makeup products. I am warning you, by reading this post you are beginning the journey through what has turned out to be quite a long post, although I didn't intend for it to end up this way. I did kind of a mini-review on each of the products. So here's my top 11 favorites of 2011 excluding eyeshadow, with pictures, in no particular order.

1. Pur Minerals 4-in-1 Pressed Mineral Foundation

This foundation is the third foundation I've tried. Admittedly, I haven't tried many. I actually received a mini size of this in my Birchbox, and decided to give it a go (although at the time I didn't wear foundation on a regular basis). However, it surpassed all my expectations. It gives me absolutely gorgeous skin with a completely natural finish - you pretty much can't tell I'm wearing it once I set it with my powder. I think it actually helps keep my skin clear - I've never broken out due to using this. It's lasted me a pretty long time - I got this in October, and I'm only about halfway through! It's my HG foundation, and the only time I use another one is for photos where I need a bit more coverage. It's meant to be used as a concealer as well, but  personally I find it doesn't work as that at all, since it doesn't hide red blemishes. However, as a foundation it's absolutely lovely. It matches my skintone perfectly (I think I'm NC25) and I use the shade Blush Medium - oddly enough, it has yellow undertones,  not pink ones. I have yellow undertones myself, and it's a color match made in heaven (at least during the fall/winter). I have 2 backups of this just in case they ever discontinue it - I love it that much. 

2. theBalm Sexy Mama Pressed Powder

This is the powder that keeps my skin matte and my foundation finish flawless. It gives me an absolutely natural looking face, and I love it very much. For more detail, see my review.

3. Make Up For Ever Full Cover Concealer in 7

This is my HG concealer (and the second one I've purchased). Sorry for the reflection on the tube, I'm still a learning photographer. I use the shade 7, and it is absolutely wonderful. It covers redness, dark spots, blemishes - everything that a concealer should cover. You only need a tiny bit, and the tube has plenty of product in it. I think the one tube will last me at least a year or two, if not longer. I don't use a lot of it every day, I usually only have one or two blemishes that I need to conceal. My only complaint is that when I use it on my cheeks, the area I use it on sometimes is a sort of darker patch because my skintone lightened during the winter. However, it's rarely an issue, and in the summer I'm sure my skin will be tan once again, and it won't bother me anymore.

4. MAC 224 brush

This is the ultimate blending brush, in my opinion. I've tried EcoTools and Sephora blending brushes - neither of them cut it. I tried some obscure brand from 20 years ago's blending brush - it didn't cut it. And then, for my birthday, I received the one and only MAC 224. Any harsh lines on my eyeshadow? No problem for this brush. It whisks them all away and replaces them with smooth transitions. If I could only say one thing about this brush, it would be that it would get taken very good care of.

5. ELF Flat Top Powder Brush

This brush is just so soft. And so skilled. And so dear to my hear that I bought two backups of it (yes, of a brush!) before the first one broke for good. The ferrule had come detached from the handle for the 2nd time, and once again I had to superglue it back together. So when ELF had a $5 off, I jumped on it and ordered two more of these fluffy, soft, beautiful brushes. This brush applies my powder and powder foundation flawlessly. I haven't used it for anything else, because my powder and foundation are much too selfish to share this amazing brush with any other products. For only $3, this brush is absolutely incredible. It's my HG powder brush - twice I've bought a high end powder brush, only to return it before even using it, because I knew that they could not possibly surpass this brush, and they would only be a waste of money.

6. Sephora Collection Classic Double Ended Every Day Brush

Whoo, that's a mouthful of a name. Anyway, I use the flat shader end of this brush to shade. It does its job, it's very soft, and I do, true to the name, use it pretty much every day. The other end of the brush, the smudger, I use to apply darker powder eyeshadow colors on the lashline sometimes. It's kind of poky, and anyway I don't do dark eyeshadow every day. So I guess you could say I use it every half day, since I use half the brush every day? Anyway, it's a competent shader brush that makes me feel no compulsion to buy a newer, more expensive one. This, along with two Stila eyeshadows, was the only makeup related item(s) my mom ever gave to me (she thinks I'm absolutely crazy with my makeup obsession/makeup purchasing habits).

7. Inglot Sleeks Lip Gloss in 40

Sorry for my dry/veiny hands in this picture - I was just snowboarding a week ago, and my hands still haven't recovered from the cold/dry weather trauma (it's all about skiing on the fake snow, guys). Anyway, this is pretty much my HG lip gloss. The formula, not the color (although I do love the color). And unlike my experience with foundation, the sheer (pun not intended...okay maybe a little intended) amount of lip glosses that I have tried boggles minds of scholars everywhere. From high end to low end, I've tried them. And for their own reasons, each of my new lip glosses has slowly earned less and less use until it gets buried in the pile of lipglosses that I own. It is not the case with this one. This has earned its place on the top of my stack of lipglosses. The color I have is a pink with mauve undertones and silver/multicolored tiny glitter flecks. It smells kind of like, well, lipgloss. Which I actually really like the smell of. It's like plasticy grapefruit? It sounds unappealing, but I personally like it. Not as much as the fragrance of MAC's lipsticks (those smell like heaven in a stick), but it's pretty decent. It stays glossy for about an hour or so. It's completely non sticky, but still packs a pretty nice pigmented punch. If I need to go somewhere and lipgloss is on my packing list, this is the lipgloss that I will bring without thinking twice about it.

8. L'oreal Voluminous False Lashes

So this mascara has the most enticing ads. They show models with long, defined, gorgeous lashes. And I should know by now that when real people wear this mascara, ones who don't have lash extensions, it doesn't look quite as good. So after taking this mascara home, I wasn't expecting much, although I still had a sliver of hope that it would deliver decent results. As a matter of fact, it did. When I use this mascara and put on multiple coats, it doesn't lengthen a ridiculous amount. It volumizes (it is in the name, after all!). Without giving me clumpy lashes, it gets me fairly close to a false lash look. I absolutely love this mascara - if only I didn't need waterproof, which is an absolute pain to take off.

9. MAC Bombshell Lipstick

Sorry again about the dry nasty hands. Anyway, this lipstick is the only one I own by MAC. It smells like the rest of MAC's lipsticks. Like a fountain of vanilla, happiness, and smiles in a beautifully colored creamy stick. I could come up with all sorts of creative ways to describe this, but I should probably get to talking about the actual product now. This is the ultimate pink for me - it goes with pretty much any look, winter or summer. It has some gold shimmer, and pulls a tiny bit purple. It's a frost finish, and it's really quite lovely. Not drying on the lips, and it lasts a good 3-4 hours if I don't eat or drink.

10. theBalm Mary Lou-manizer

For the last time in this post, apologies for the veiny and dry hands. I've been using a Jurlique hand cream that I quite like, which is helping to repair the damage. This highlighter is like, the 3rd highlighter I've bought. The other two I returned, because neither could measure up to the mindblowing amazingness of this highlighter. It gives this amazing candlelit glow to your cheeks without the disco-ball glitter festival-ness of many other highlighters. I'm not opposed to glitter altogether, just not for every day. It's a golden toned highlighter - it doesn't lean white. It's super pigmented, so you only need to touch the brush to the pan to get enough. And since they give you a ridiculous amount of product in the pan, I will probably actually never use all of this up. Sad, I know. I got this on sale from Hautelook for $12 instead of $24, and the value of this is just mindblowingly good.

11. Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion

Okay, there really isn't much else to say about this last item that hasn't been said a million times already. It keeps my eyeshadow from creasing, doesn't irritate my eyes, makes eyeshadow apply evenly, yada yada yada. In the end, all you really need to know is that I love it very much.

That wraps up my (extremely long post on) my top 11 makeup products of 2011. I hope you enjoyed, feel free to leave me a comment below!