Best Beauty Discoveries 2020 | Makeup and Haircare

 

After last week’s look at my favourite skin and body care discoveries of 2020, this week is all about makeup and haircare! Again, a lot of this stuff wasn’t actually released specifically in 2020 but it was the year I finally got around to trying it! 

 

Starting with makeup, I lusted after the Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Bronzer in Medium 2 (full review) for ages before finally picking it up when Space NK did their £15 off a £60 spend and let me tell you – it was worth the wait! Aside from the fact it is absolutely massive, this is a beautiful, finely milled powder that is easy to build up without ever becoming cakey! It adds a lovely warmth to my face, it very smooth to apply (no harsh lines here!) and blends super easily! It is a matte bronzer but the finish is just gorgeous, it never looks flat! Expensive but worth it but I would always recommend waiting for a sale!

 

Next up, my only real lipstick purchase this year was the Fenty Beauty Slip Shine Sheer Shiny Lipstick in 06 Retro Rose (full review) which is a lipstick/balm hybrid! Retro Rose is a dusty pink shade which is very my lips but better on me. It’s creamy to apply, very comfortable on the lips as it’s so moisturising and though it’s sheer it’s buildable to a deeper shade. It also lasts a good amount of time on my lips despite being a sheer/nourishing lipstick and made a recent post on my favourite mask proof lip balms!

 

Something a bit more budget now and the Collection Primed and Ready Invisible Setting Powder blew me away earlier in the year and I have finally got round to repurchasing! I originally bought it as I hate wasting my Laura Mercier loose powder if I’m not going anywhere or if I have a mask on and you can’t see my makeup but I still wanted a powder I could trust to mattify my skin and not make me look cakey and I found it with this! It’s a very finely milled mattifying powder that doesn’t cling to dry patches and does a very good job of keeping my oils at bay! And it’s under £4! I’ve only used it a couple of times since I started Roaccutane but again I haven’t noticed any caking with my drier than normal skin! 

 

I wasn’t sure whether to put this with skincare or makeup but here we are! The Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Kiss Lip Butter was my favourite lip balm discovery of last year! It’s jumbo sized, leaves a gorgeous hydrating sheen behind and it lasts so long between top ups! It contains cupuaçu, acai and coconut oil and makes my lips feel so soft. I know the bum bum cream from the same brand is love or hate but the scent of the lip butter is not overpowering at all and once it’s on you can barely smell it! I recently finished this and couldn’t believe how much was left in the casing! Thank God I was at home and able to dig it out with a cotton bud lol. 

 

The NARS Soft Matte Complete Concealer in Light 2 Vanilla is the most recent addition to my collection from the ones I am mentioning today but I couldn’t leave it out! I resisted this for the longest time because the packaging reminded me of an old NYX pot concealer I had and hated – it was cakey, felt sticky and was not enjoyable to use! I can safely say this is the complete opposite! It’s matte but not drying and it has great coverage! I don’t experience any flaking with this and the colour match is great! 

 

I am a huge fan of Anastasia Beverly Hills brow products and the Brow Powder Duo in Dark Brown has been my go to since I got it for myself for Christmas 2019! It has the perfect shades for my, you guessed it, dark brown hair and it’s got great pigmentation too – not too much or too little! It doesn’t fade or move throughout the day and it’s so dinky and sturdy it will be great for travel when its allowed again! 

 

 

Moving onto hair, around May last year I was going through Olaplex way too quickly for my bank balance so I decided to pick up the Phyto Joba Moisturising Mask to use in between my weekly Olaplex sessions and it’s love! This is so hydrating so perfect for my damaged, dry ends and it gives such a beautiful shine to my hair while making it more manageable! I found it a bit harder to find a link so I’m paranoid it’s discontinued but I would be so disappointed if it was! 

I got a Cult Beauty GWP in the middle of the year after buying some hair products and found some absolute gems in there! One of the hair products I bought to get the GWP was the NatureLab Tokyo Perfect Shine Clarifying Scalp Scrub (US affiliate link here, 10% off with Danielle10), which I had previously tried a mini of and knew after one use I would need the full size. It’s sulphate free yet gives a good lather, the scrub actually reaches my scalp leaving it refreshed and it really does clarify it while making my so shiny after use! I think if you had a flaky scalp this would work wonders too! 

In the actual Cult Beauty GWP was the Color Wow Dream Cocktail - Kale Infused for Breakage and I am in love with this! Like I said, I have very damaged ends due to straightening and I get breakage too. This is a leave in conditioning treatment that doesn’t weigh my hair down at all, it strengthens brittle hair and leaves it feeling soft and healthy! I feel like my hair is in really great condition at the minute though I did get a haircut early December too but this and Olaplex No.3 in particular are amazing! 

 

Finally, another item I was introduced to through the GWP and one I repurchased after using as I knew I needed more, the Slip Skinny Scrunchie! I am a huge fan of my silk pillowcase so love the benefits for my hair and this scrunchie is the perfect thickness and so soft while minimising breakage to my hair when using! They are expensive but I know I will get so much use out of them! 

You will find a full review of the lip butter, hair mask, powder and scalp scrub here if you want to read some more about them! 

 

And that concludes my best makeup and haircare discoveries of 2020! Did you see any of your favourites? Let me know what yours were! 

 

*denotes a PR sample that was sent to me. All opinions are my own. See my full disclosure here. 

Danielle xx

 

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Project Pan

I see a lot of pan posting challenges on Instagram and in general, even though its only makeup, its impressive to see someone finishing up or hitting pan on a piece of makeup. Now I regularly hit pan on powder and finish up bottles of foundation but I currently only have one pan showing on all of the eyeshadows I own which got me pulling a few of my favourite pieces of makeup out to see how close they were to being finished. So here is a selection of products I would love to either finish or hit pan on by the end of the year!

My Custom Anastasia Beverly Hills Eyeshadow Palette

Anastasia Beverly Hills single eyeshadows have been on my radar for the longest time but although most ABH products are available to buy from Cult Beauty and Beauty Bay, unless you wanted a customs charge, the eyeshadows were out of reach for those of us on this side of the Atlantic! That was until shortly before Christmas when the ABH website expanded to include a UK site with eyeshadows ripe for the picking! EDIT: also available (and usualy on offer!) now at Look Fantastic!

The Anastasia pre-made eyeshadow palettes don’t appeal to me (part from the Mario Dedivanovic one which wasn’t sold here!) as they have too many shades I wouldn’t use/are too warm toned (Modern Renaissance I’m looking at you) so I was in my element picking the shades I knew I would get use out of for my custom palette!

After much Google swatch stalking, I started adding to my basket even though I thought £10 was a bit much for a pan. That was until I got to 4 pans and saw the price drop to £30 and the bundle offer pop up - £30 for 4 pans plus an empty palette or £50 for 8 pans and a palette and you can clearly see which offer I went for – it was Christmas after all! 

Anyway, here is my run down of the shades I got and swatches! As far as I am aware, the entire single eyeshadow range comes in a variety of finishes – satin, velvet, shimmer, metallic ultra-matte, titanium and duo chrome and being a creature of habit I went for mostly matte shades! I also think this was my last big makeup purchase before my try not to buy started up but more on that next week!

Lace

The lightest and I’m sorry to say it - most disappointing shade from the ones I picked – Lace is a light beige with a satin finish (I think!) that just does not show up on my lid at all! I’m pale and this is extremely sheer on me no matter how much I pack on!

Sateen

A gorgeous shimmer champagne frost that is so soft and pigmented and doesn’t give any fall out.

Birkin

A warm beige mauve ultra-matte that definitely stands out as the warmest in this palette and is a gorgeous transition shade.

Chiffon

A warm brown with a metallic finish and almost khaki undertones, like Sateen it’s really smooth to apply and beautifully pigmented. 

l-r: Lace, Sateen, Birkin, Chiffon

Stone

An ultra-matte light ash grey neutral taupe that I like to put all over the lid.

Warm Taupe

An ultra-matte soft brown that is also in the Modern Renaissance palette and was one of the only shades I was drawn to! Another one that I either put all over the lid or position more towards my crease.

Ash Brown

An ultra-matte dark cool brown that I use in my outer V and can double up as an eyebrow shade for me.

Smoke

An ultra-matte charcoal brown I use as an eyeliner. 

l-r: Stone, Warm Taupe, Ash Brown, Smoke

All the shadows are high quality, pigmented and last well throughout the day (I use a primer). The palette that came in the bundle is such high quality too! It feels sturdy, has a clear lid and the magnets feel strong. I definitely think if you are interested in getting some ABH shadows, wait until you have 4 or 8 you want because it’s a much better deal than buying 1 or 2 at £10 each. I like the shadows and they have a huge range of shades but I definitely don’t think they are worth spending £10 each on! The bundle deal I got puts the shadows at £6.25 each not including the palette which is on a par with Makeup Geek now they have increased their prices and I think that’s where they sit for me although overall I do prefer the Kat Von D matte formula! 

 

In hindsight, I do wish I had picked up a few more shades that weren’t matte but saying that I use mattes daily so I probably wouldn’t be getting as much use out of the palette if I had!

So, that’s my 8 pan palette! Let me know if you ordered anything off the site or what your favourite shades are! The singles are also available on Look Fantastic here!

Danielle xx

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