Goodbye 2010 - Review and Products of the Year

Happy New Years everyone!  I know it's a little early, but I thought I'd say it whilst I can!  I'm still not sure what my plans are for this evening, but I'm planning on getting dressed up and doing a full face of slap, so even if I'm sitting at home watching telly, I'm going to feel glamourous!

Anyway, I thought I'd do a round up of my year, since it's been an interesting one, and include a few products that have rocked my world in 2010.

I started out in 2010 stuck in a beauty rut.  I had had the same hairstyle for about a decade, and used to do the same makeup everyday, occasionally bringing out a bit of eyeliner for special occasions or red nail polish when I was feeling daring.  I was beginning to get paranoid about the signs of ageing and the grey hairs that were appearing, but doing very little about it.

All this changed when I went to a fancy dress party as Audrey Hepburn.  I was a bit clueless when it came to doing my hair and makeup for this event, so I googled her style, and a load of YouTube videos popped up.  As my boyfriend was stuck in Hong Kong because of the ash cloud, I was able to watch all the videos guilt free, and became hooked!  I tried (and succeeded) in pulling off a very complicated hair-do for the fancy dress party and even did my makeup to a pretty good standard.  And then I started discovering my YouTube Gurus and fab tutorials, and my love of makeup was reborn! I think I have at least five times more makeup now than I did when I started the year!

I then found beauty blogs, started my own in July, and the rest is history.

Here are some of my favourite products from 2010 - and I have all you lovely people to thank for introducing them to me.  Without you all, I wouldn't have bought them, and I love them all, so thanks very much!

Firstly, I've been using the bareMinerals Mineral Veil from Bare Escentuals.  I had been using the cheapest Boots 17 powder before I discovered Mineral Veil, and I'm so glad I did.  This is actually my second pot of it, as I've now used up my first one.  It's really light on the skin and does keep me more or less matte all day, which is something other powders have never done for me.  It also stops my makeup from shifting, so I love it!

I've become a complete convert to Teint Miracle by Lancome.  After having a couple of samples of it, I finally splurged on a full size bottle - it's so worth it.  It offers a good coverage, whilst not feeling like you are caking yourself in foundation.  It lasts all day and gives my skin a nice finish.  At £25, this isn't a cheapo foundation, but it's also not super-expensive, so it's definitely a foundation I will purchase again.

I've included the Naked Palette by Urban Decay as one of my favourites.  There's not really much more to say about this, other than it's brilliant value, has great colours, is a lovely formula, looks good, and is just about the most useful eyeshadow palette you could ever own.

My other favourite eyeshadow of the year is Taupe Grise by Chanel.  I've already reviewed it here, but I will repeat that it's such a beautiful colour and has even displaced Shale by Mac as my favourite.

In 2010, I've been getting into blushers in a big way.  My favourite, and the first non-high street blusher I purchased was Ladyblush cream blush by Mac.  It's not too dark a colour, but adds a lovely rosey glow, and it reminded me how much I used to love cream blushes when I was younger (but had gone back to powder for some reason).  I tend to reach for it first when it comes to blush, so it's become a staple of my makeup bag.

My absolute favourite skincare product this year is Starting Over moisturiser by origins.  This was one of my favourites in November, and I'm still loving in now.  I can see that this will become a winter staple for me, I'm so glad I found it!

Another great skincare product is the Revitalising Hand Saviour from No 7 (reviewed here).  This is such an indulgent product, but it has made a massive difference to my hands this winter.  It's another beauty staple that I'll be repurchasing.

And finally, my haircare product of the year is the Moroccan Oil treatment.  I bought a travel sized bottle in November, and I've used it every time I've washed my hair since.  It's a lovely hair oil, it smells lovely and it really does tame the frizz.  I'm nearly out of this bottle, so I'll be repurchasing a larger bottle soon.

There are a few beauty products and treatments that haven't been so successful this year.  These include my disasterous spa day, the fact that my Brazilian Blow Dry did absolutely nothing to my hair, and Powderflage by Benefit - the most useless product I have ever bought.  But there have been more sucesses that failures and I feel I'm a more discerning consumer of beauty products now than when I first started blogger, when I'd buy anything because of the hype.

So that's it for 2010.  Let's hope 2011 is an interesting and happy year for everyone - I'm certainly looking forward to it!

Happy New Year everyone!  xx