2011's Favourite Products: Part 3 - Lip and Nails

2011 was definitely the year of the lipstick for me. I purchased over 100 new lipsticks, spent a whole month wearing a different lipstick every day and really got into wearing bold, bright shades that I used to shy away from. So let's have a quick rundown of this year's favourite lipstick - in no particular order.

Guerlain Rouge G lipsticks have become one of my favourite lipsticks and this year out of them all Garconne and Girly, the two bright autumn shades were my absolutely favourites. Garconne is the most perfect red lipstick for me, and Girly is a fun bright pink shade.

Guerlain Rouge G in Girly (left) and Garconne (right)

Keep reading to see which other lipsticks made it into my favourites!

2011's Favorite Products: Part 2 - Face

To continue from yesterday's favourites post I have the face products I loved the most this year to show you. Like I said in yesterday's post, it's hard to compose these lists because current favourites can easily make it in there even if you were using something  else for 11 months. Despite me not wanting to include products that have only recently made it into my most used and well loved products, I have gone against it and included a couple of products that are very new to me but have become firm favourites. Read on to find out what they are.

First up is my favourite face primer, Guerlain Meteorites Perles Light-Diffusing Perfecting Primer. It smells amazing and gives a smooth base, it's not slimy and slippery like some silicone based one, love it. I have reviewed it, so click on the link above.

Keep reading to find out which other face products I loved this year!

2011's Favourite Products: Part 1 - Eyes

As 2011 is drawing to a close, I decided to do a series of posts about my favourite beauty products of the year. To be honest though, I do find it quite difficult to do posts like this, because a year is a pretty long period and I often find if I think of my favourites of a certain period, the latest favourites will most likely be included rather than the ones I was crazy about 6 months ago. But I will try to be as objective as possible. I'm not doing detailed reviews on everything since I have actually reviewed a lot of these products, so I will just link them back to the posts if they've already been reviewed.

First up are base products. My favourites are in no particular order: Barbara Daly (for Tesco) Even Smoother Eye Base, Mac Paint Pots and Rimmel Colour Mousse 8hr eyeshadows. Click on the links for the reviews. The only one of these three that I haven't reviewed yet are the Mac Paint Pots. I don't know why, I've just never got around to doing it. I actually own a lot of them, having bought 10 with the last 2 Mac collections and also the permanent ones, or older limited edition ones that I'd already owned. They can be used as primers as they don't crease at all or just on their own for a subtle (or in some cases not so subtle) colour. My only problem with them is that my older ones are beginning to dry out, even though I keep them upside down and sealed properly. They are the most expensive of the bunch at £13.50 for 5 g.

Keep reading to find out what other eye products made it into my favourites this year!

Festive Nails: China Glaze Luna

Okay, so I know, Christmas is over, but there's still New Year's Eve, and in any case, you don't even need an excuse to wear a gorgeous glittery nail polish. China Glaze Luna is a beautiful icy blue nail polish with lots of shimmer and holographic glitter that shimmers in every colour of the rainbow depending on how the light hits it. Absolutely stunning.

With flash

My only problem with glitter nail polishes like this is that they chip and peel off very quickly. I like painting my nails the night before a party or meal out, and often with glitter polishes I have chips within a matter of hours. I actually had to stick back one nail back as it completely peeled off (just the nail polish, not the nail obviously). Of course there's always the pain of removal of course, but I'm starting to get used to it now. I also found this to be a bit thick, so drying time was a bit long, but just look at it, still very much worth it!

I got mine from the US on eBay, but in the UK you can get them from Sally Express for £6.49 each. You get 14 ml which will certainly last you a good while.

See more pictures after the jump!

Laura Geller Smoke & Ice Collection Review and Swatches

I bought this Laura Geller set on QVC because I really like her eyeshadows and highlighters, but I have to say this one is a really funny one. The set contains Eye Elements Baked Eyeshadows and Highlighter in Smoke & Ice and lipstick in Nice-n-Nude.

You get 3 silver/grey/black eyeshadows and a highlighter which is a sort of ashy pink colour. Although the eyeshadows didn't swatch very well, once I applied them on my eyes over a primer, they were actually very nice with good colour payoff and lasted very well without creasing. The highlighter is a funny one, it's a ashy light pink colour. You will see in the pictures below, it doesn't really show up on me, which is probably for the best because it's not a very flattering colour at all. You also get a very brown nude lipstick which I haven't actually swatched because I know I will never wear it, so will probably sell it eventually. The set cost £25.20 plus £2.95 delivery cost from QVC.

All in all I don't think it was worth it, although the eyeshadows are good, the rest are just not suitable for me. I can see the highlighter work on my browbone as it has a grey hue to it, so it would go well with the eyeshadow trio, but on the cheeks it's too ashy.

See more pictures after the jump!

Festive Nails: China Glaze Ring In The Red - The Ultimate Christmas Red

Sorry about the slightly fuzzy picture, I took it on my mobile. But you can still see what a gorgeous sparkly red nail polish this is, just perfect for Christmas. This was part of China Glaze's holiday collection, Let It Snow (same as Champagne Bubbles).

It is a really fabulous red nail polish with red glitter in it which is quite fine, so it doesn't feel gritty at all. It took 2 coats to look even, but I did 3 for an even nicer finish, plus Seche Vite top coat. Unfortunately a couple of nails chipped after just one day, but sadly that is not unusual for me at all. It did at least dry pretty quickly, so if I have to reapply, it won't be a big deal.

I got mine from the US on eBay, but in the UK you can get them from Sally Express for £6.49 each. You get 14 ml which will certainly last you a good while.

What is your favourite Christmassy nail polish? Let me know in the comments!

See more pictures after the jump!

Mac Metal-X Cream Eyeshadows Review and Swatches

Despite hearing bad reviews about these and saying I won't buy them, once I swatched these eyeshadows at the Mac counter I decided to pick up a few anyway. I can't explain why, just that the colours looked pretty and that was enough to suck me in.

Palladium, Fusion Gold, Cyber

I got Palladium, Fusion Gold and Cyber, and I have to say, that despite the bad reviews I'm actually quite happy with these. They seem quite dry for cream shadows, they are certainly not as creamy as I thought they'd be. As a result actually, they are very hard to apply with a brush, so I just use my fingers to apply and blend them. I used them over two different bases (Urban Decay Primer Potion in Sin and Too Faced Eye Shadows Insurance Policy) and I have to admit, they still creased. But I didn't think they were that bad, I mean yes, it's not great that they crease, but there was really only a faint line, not a massive big area on my lid. And since my eyes are quite hooded and I don't walk around with my eyes closed, I think the creasing is not at all noticable. I suspect it would be worse with the darker colours, but these light ones are fine.

My favourite ones of the bunch are Fusion Gold and Cyber, I love the pinky gold shade of Fusion Gold and the silver glitter in Cyber. Thankfully there wasn't any glitter fallout from it, and it is so pretty. Palladium is a nice highlighting shade. I have not tried these with powder shadows layered over them, not sure if that would help with the creasing, but I didn't buy them as bases, so it doesn't greatly matter.

Mac Metal-X Cream Eyeshadows cost £15.50 each and they are 2.4 g, so the larger pan size. They seem to have sold surprisingly well considering their bad reputation because Debenhams only has a few shades available, although on the Mac webiste only Vintage Coin is showing as sold out. Debenhams did have a long running 10% off beauty sale, so maybe that's why they've sold more of them. Anyway, while I don't think these are that great, I don't hate them and I don't see why some bloggers say they're so awful.

Have you tried these eyeshadows yet? What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

See more pictures after the jump!