Beauty favourites of 2012

Hello my chocolate frosted cupcakes!!
How is everything going? I hope you are all doing amazing. So today I will be talking about my favourite beauty and skincare products of 2012. These are products that I have been obsessed with throughout 2012, and honestly I'm still obsessed with them now.
I'll put them in 3 main categories: Skin care, Makeup and Hair care to make things easier. So let's get started!!

Skincare:
My first skincare favourite of 2012 ( and all time actually ) is the one and only ROSE WATER!!!

This is my all-purpose go to skincare product. It's a cleanser, toner, moisturizer, skin tonic and brightener all in one. You may think that I'm exaggerating but seriously I am not!! I have been using it for literally years now and it always delivers. I first started using it at 14 and I never looked back since, and no toner could ever touch it. To be honest I have nothing bad to say about it and if I let myself go I'm gonna end up doing a whole post raving about how awesome rose water is ( I think I already did that actually ) so moving on to my next favourite..
My second beauty favourite of 2012 is Ponds cold cream

Yet another product I have raved about before, but what can I say? I fell in love.
Now before I get run away with my obsession I'll tell you about my skin type. I have combination/oily skin and this product has been very good to me. At first I was skeptic and felt like I might get breakouts from it but I was proved wrong. If anything it actually helped control my oiliness to some extent ( not completely, I repeat NOT completely ) .It also leaves a nice moisturizing film after I use it but I usually wash my face with a cleanser afterwards due to having oily skin.
And although I absolutely adore this product and will definitely continue using and recommending it I do have a few words of caution for you about it. First of all, it contains mineral oil, so if you allergic to it or have sensitive skin this is not the product for you. Second of all, to my fellow oily skinned girls, I have combination skin which tends to go on the oilier side but I do have dry patches on my skin. So I don't know if this would work for someone with full-blown oily skin, so if you are considering trying  it out do your research first and be careful with it. And as for my dry-skinned girls I think this would be an awesome makeup remover for you guys and I highly recommend you check it out, it's highly effective and as a bonus it's very cheap ( last time I checked it was 5 $ )

My next skincare favourite is well.. 2 products from the same line: The body shop vitamin E line
I only tried the vitamin E face mist and the SPF 15 lip balm and I have to say. This is one satisfied customer over here. They both work great and they deliver what they promise.

First up, the face mist. I bought it just to try it out early last year and I was very happy with the results. It's very light textured ( watery ) and it absorbs quickly into my skin and gives it a quick boost of moisture, just like it says it would. When setting makeup with it, it gives you a very pretty dewy look but I usually skip that because I get shiny on my own.
I have nothing bad to say about it, maybe if you have dry skin you would need something a bit more heavy duty than this, but other than that, it's awesome. Seal of approval granted.

Next we have the lip balm. I absolutely love this lip balm and I always carry it around in my handbag. It is the ONLY lip balm that managed to fix my super stubborn dry flaky chapped lips. It beat Chapstick, Burt's bees lip balm and various others. It also managed to beat Vaseline! So obviously I highly approve this product and highly recommend it if you are like me and you have super dry, super stubborn lips which don't seem to respond to anything. Try it out and maybe it will help you like it helped me. And as a bonus it has SPF in it so you can wear it under your favourite lipstick when going out. Seal of approval granted.


Makeup:

Ok so my first makeup favourite is sort of rediscovering an old favourite. It's the Bourjois waterproof eye pencil. Mine is no. 41 black party. Black eyeliner is a staple in my day to day makeup, as it is for many girls, and a big struggle for me is to find an eye pencil that doesn't smudge, will stay on all day and at the same time is easily removed with makeup remover. Well, I have finally found it! I used to use this eyeliner all the time when I was around 16-17 then it started to become less available so I had to switch to other brands, but a couple of months ago I was makeup shopping with a friend and I saw it so I bought it and I fell in love with it all over again. My amazing smudge-less, stay put all day eyeliner.

My next makeup favourtie is the YSL Rouge Volupte lipstick. I have heard so many good reviews about this lipstick for the longest time and I was quite late to jump on the band wagon ( budget reasons ) but I have to say everything you hear about it is true!! It's a very richly pigmented, creamy lipstick that stays on for ages and doesn't dry your lips at all. They have a beautiful color selection as well. The color I got was no. 12 Forbidden Burgundy.
As the name suggests, it's a beautiful burgundy colour that can be lightened or darkened when wearing it depending on how light or heavy your hand is when applying it. I actually got a lot of compliments from strangers when I was trying it out in Sephora.

If you are on a budget like myself and would like to invest in one of these lipsticks ( I bought mine for 32$ ). I recommend a darker or richer colour because it can be used in so many different ways, it can be used as a stain or a lighter coloured lipstick , or a richer dark lipstick if you use a heavier hand in application. It can also be doubled up as a cream blush. I will be posting about how to make the most of your lipstick soon.



So these are my absolute favourite makeup products of 2012 but I have another product that I should give an honourable mention to which is Maybelline's Colossal mascara. This is another product that I heard raving reviews about from several people and after trying it I was in love. It gives so much volume and length I actually looked like I was wearing false lashes. But unfortunately I stopped using it because I noticed that after a couple of applications it started making my lashes fall off :( :(  So here's to a good product gone sour....

Hair care:
I don't really have absolute favourite products in this department but these are 2 products that have been good to my hair ( but not amazing ) and I believe they deserve honourable mentions. The first one is Organix coconut milk split ends mender. A good product that helps delay but not eliminate split ends.

The other product is CHI silk infusion, which always gives my hair a glossy finish after straightening, and makes my hair feel softer and reduces frizz. The only downside of this is that it can get a bit greasy if you put on too much.






So these are my beauty favourites of 2012. I hope you enjoyed this post and that it was helpful to you. I'll talk to you next Wednesday!!

Lots of love
xoxoxo
Rue