The A.B. Awards of Beauty 2013

Hello, everybody!

With all the awards shows going on and the New Year just settling in, I thought I would do my own awards show featuring my own Best of Beauty 2013! I've put a lot of thought into these awards and hope you all find at least a few of my recommendations helpful. Good luck, and I hope you enjoy!

Without further ado, here is my pick for Best Foundation of 2013:

I've talked about this foundation before, but I absolutely love it! It's the Revlon Photoready Foundation. It really does make your skin look absolutely flawless in photographs, and while it does feel quite heavy, if you have a tendency to some bad redness around your T-zone area, this foundation completely covers it up. I rarely need to use concealer to hide blemishes except for under eye circles and the occasional stubborn pimple. If you're looking for a cheaper altenative to a MAC foundation, this would be it.

Next, in keeping with the face products theme, my award for Best Primer of 2013 would have to go to the Bareminerals Prime Time Primer. It's a silicone-esque primer that creates the perfect smooth base for any foundation. I don't find it to be overly moisturizing, but I can guarantee you, you're face ain't goin' nowhere with this primer! Bonus: it's not too pricey at Sephora either! Another nominee I have for a primer because I recently purchased, and fell in love, with the Too Faced Primed and Poreless Primer. I recently purchased this over the holidays, but so far I love it. If silicone type primers aren't your thing, I highly recommend this one by Too Faced which is more like a thick cream as opposed to a clear gel type formula.

No matter how good a foundation is, I would be lost without this next product. It's concealer. My award for the Best Concealer of 2013 goes to the...Maybelline Dream Lumi Touch Concealer. I've repurchased this product twice now, and haven't seen the need to look elsewhere for concealer. It highlights and conceals which is a major plus in my books. It doesn't crease for me, and the formula is quite thick and creamy so with a few dabs of your ring finger to blend, it hides anything you want it to/ I do hope to try a wider range of product brands in 2014, but until then, Maybelline walks away with that award.

With all the stuff we pack onto our faces, we always need a decent powder to make sure none of our face rubs off. My choice for Best Setting Powder of 2013 goes to the...Revlon Photoready Translucent Finisher Powder. Like the name suggests, it's a translucent powder and doesn't make my face look cakey at all. My face is fairly dry and tends to flake around the forehead, but this powder definitely finishes off my face makeup beautifully. With a little bit of moisturizer, nothing flakes and everything looks flawless.

This next award goes to all the times when we have looked deathly pale and ill. For all the times when we looked like something out of The Walking Dead. Yep. It's blush. I used to think blush was so dumb. Why take away the redness with foundation and concealer, only to put redness back in? But there have been times where I question how I could have gone so long hating on the blush. My award for the Best Blush of 2013 goes to the...Tarte Amazonian Clay 12 Hour Blush in Glisten. I'm slowly expanding my use of Tarte products because they are cruelty free and the colour pigmentation and lasting power in their blush is stunning! My next trial for a blush is NARS, but until then, I'll rave about Tarte and how good it makes me feel knowing I'm using a product that didn't hurt any bunnies.

And, because you all know I'm a drugstore beauty lover diehard, I also would like to give the Best Blush of 2013 Nomination to the...Covergirl TruBlend Mineral Sands Blush in the shade 430 Shimmering Sands. This is a blush I've had, and loved, for almost five or six years now, and I have only just noticed a dent in the product. It's a gorgeous highlighting, shimmering blush. It looks amazing in the summertime.

Of course, with a drugstore nominee, I also have a high end nominee. The Benefit Blush in Rockateur. It was hard to choose only one Benefit blush to nominate since I love the shades Coralista and Dandelion, but having never tried either, I thought it wouldn't be a fair nomination. Rockateur is the perfect natural blush and reminds be a lot of a rosier Shimmering Sands Mineral Blush by Covergirl which is more of a peachy pink with gold flecks.

Alright, I don't know what I would do without this next product. I went my entire high school career without it, and most of my first year without it. It's bronzer. Present day me cries without this product. I have two, but since most drugstore bronzer have shimmer and thus suck to contour wiht my award for Best Bronzer of 2013 goes to Tarte's Amazonian Clay Bronzer in the shade Park Avenue Princess. I adore this product! I recently purchased it over the holidays, but it's fast becoming my go-to bronzer for contouring. Because most drugstore bronzer tend to be shimmery and sparkly, they aren't that great to contour with. This one is definitely worth every penny (listed for 29$ at Sephora, but in Canada, I believe it's around 32$). It's matte and highly pigmented. A couple dabs with my contour brush into the powder and it's all I need to contour my cheek.

Now that we're done with the face products, let's move on to the eyes...

First off, no eye look is complete without brows. Eye brows frame the face and have the ability to completely change your look, so don't forget them! Tweeze them, dye them, fill them! This award goes to the Best Brow Tool of 2013 goes to...Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo in Deep Neutral Brown. This brand has been raved up one side of the beauty world and down the other for it's amazing brow products and with good reason. The Anastasia Brow Powder Duo gives the brows a defined and natural look. Build up the powder a little bit, and you can easily get the bold brows of Lily Collins or Cara Delevigne. 

Before we dress up our eyes with the Best Eyeshadow of 2013, we need to prime those lids, girl! With so many brands, it's always hard to choose the best option. Don't worry, the Chronicler is here to announce the Best Eye Primer of  2013 and the award goes to a product which has been tried and true by many...Urban Decay's Primer Potion Tube in Original. By far the most popular eye shadow primer on the market, this product is definitely worth the high end price tag at Sephora. The packaging is pretty magical looking too, and we all know packaging is what definitely gets the beauty junkies out there. This primer makes sure to keep those eyes looking fierce and fresh all night with no creasing or smudging. Another bonus? A little goes a long way! 

This next category has the power to dress up the windows to our souls so to speak. What's a door without a threshold after all? I have two picks for Best Eyeshadow of 2013. One is a drugstore product, the next is a high end product. The award for Best Drugstore Eyeshadow of 2013 goes to...the Maybelline Eye Studio Color Tattoo 24HR Cream Gel Shadow in Bad to the Bronze. The product name is a mouthful, but this is honestly the best drugstore cream shadow I've ever purchased. For all of 2013 up until I purchased my first palette, this cream shadow was all I used on my lids. It creates an effortless and quick smokey eye effect when it's blended into the lids. If you guys are stumped by all the different colours this cream shadow comes in, I recommend Bad to the Bronze. When you're in a hurry, or doing a 5 minute makeup challenge, a swipe of this product on your lids followed by some eye liner and mascara, and you're set!

Moving onto the high end eye shadow, this is a shadow that I love, clearly since it's in my awards! The award for Best High End Eye Shadow of 2013 goes to...the Stila Eye Shadow in the shade Kitten. This shadow is highly pigmented and so versatile. It compliments any eye colour beautiful and is very easy to blend to create the perfect look.

Moving onto the Best Palette of 2013, it's clear which one earns this award. The Urban Decay Naked Basics Palette. It's a perfect little compact palette that has the perfect neutral shades to create the best natural looking eye. For half the price of one of their full Naked palettes, this little guy is the greatest travel companion I've ever had.

Taylor Momsen, aka Jenny Humphrey from CW's
Gossip Gir, also lead singer of the rock band, The Pretty
Reckless

Another eye product I absolutely cannot live without is my eye liner! I wasn't sure if it ought to be a pencil or liquid liner, and honestly, I'm torn between the two, so for this category, there will be both a pencil and liquid liner winner. Without further ado, the award for Best Eye Liner of 2013 goes to the....Maybelline Masterprecise by Eyestudio Liquid Eyeliner and Urban Decay's 24/7 Glide-On Pencil. With a pencil liner, it's difficult to find one that stays put in your waterline - the last thing any girl wants is to have her eyeliner smudge. Urban Decay has clearly got their act together when it comes to eye products. This pencil eyeliner doesn't tug, so it's super smooth and easy to apply. I hate tight-lining my eyes and this pencil doesn't make it any less uncomfortable, but it gets it all over with fast. I've used the Maybelline Materprecise eyeliner for about two years now and have never had a problem with it. The felt tip makes winging out your eyes super easy and is perfect for anyone with a shaky hand and not comfortable with using the more paint brush-esque type of liquid liners. Just a word of caution though, do not cry with this on your eyes. The racoon eyes look only works for Taylor Momsen, ladies, trust me.

Lastly for the eye category, my all-time holy grail makeup product, mascara. This product is my favorite type of product to try out from the drugstore. I feel like I can just as much amazing results from my lashes with a drugstore product as with any high end product. Plus, it's easier on the wallet. Drugstore beauty girl at heart, all the way. That all being said it was super hard to choose just one favorite from the drugstore, so I have two! One I've used for the entirety of 2013 and one I purchased later in the year, but it definitely deserves an award for being so amazing! The award for Best Mascara of 2013 goes to the...Maybelline Mega Plush Mascara (my old love) and... the L'Oreal Million Lashes Excess Mascara (my new love). The Maybelline mascaras are hailed in the beauty world as some of the best line of drugstore mascaras for a reason. Having heard great things about their Rocket mascara, I decided against buying it because I was so in love with the Mega Plush one. I've used this one all year in 2013 and it never let me down. The formula is lightweight and doesn't clump too much on the lashes while giving them mad volume. It really does  make them look...plushier. On the packaging, it says it's the first gel mascara, and maybe it's because of that that this mascara is so amazing, but I will definitely be repurchasing this one. When I bought the L'Oreal mascara, which is a brand I consider more on the "high end drugstore" spectrum in terms of prices, I was excited to try it. Since I bought this mascara on sale for 6.99$CDN (originally 13.99$ I believe) it only made me more anxious to try it. I wasn't disappointed. The mascara lengthens, thickens, and accentuates the lashes so beautifully. With a couple swipes of this on my lashes, I'm completely comfortable with skipping eyeliner. That's a huge thing for me since I love me some eyeliner! If you guys decide to try this one out, try any of their Million Lashes mascara that's got a special sale on it, otherwise it gets quite pricey if you're buying 14$ mascara all the time. 

And finally, we move onto the Lips Category where we have three subcategories. Best Lip Balm, Best Lip Gloss, and Best Lip Stick. I don't use lip liners enough to give you guys an accurate award/review, so we'll be excluding them from the program. 

(Sorry, don't beat me with purses!)

First off, we can't have a flawless lip look without a good lip balm, and this product has been mentioned very frequently in all the beauty videos I've watched. Some think this product is highly overrated, others adore. Let me tell you why I've chose to award the Best Lip Balm of 2013 to the Maybelline Baby Lips Dr. Rescue in Too Cool. Unlike the original line of Baby Lips, the Dr. Rescue line really does what it's supposed to without leaving the waxy feeling I often feel after I've used my Baby Lips lip balm in Peppermint. The Dr. Rescue formula is hydrating, gets rid of those cracks in your lips so long as the product is on there (long term cracklessness is unknown), and it also has some mad staying power. For me, I can go up to four hours without feeling the need to reapply. Obviously reapply after eating though. I usually end up absently swiping this over my lips when I'm bored in class, but I've gone four-ish hours without it before and once I'm done trekking through the snow back to my apartment, I'll reapply then. All in all? Invest in this bad boy. It really does save your lips. Especially in these harsh Canadian winters.

The next category, the Best Lip Gloss of 2013 is a product I have been using since 2012 and have gotten endless compliments on it from both guys and girls. This product is perfect for a natural look and helps accentuate your lip's natural colour. I find the problem with most glosses is they are either too sticky or don't last very long at all. This one is smooth, glossy but not tacky, and lasts FOR-EVER. The award for Best Lip Gloss of 2013 goes to the MAC Lip Glass Lip Gloss in the shade Nymphette. It's a pretty pink colour with gold flecks. I pair this with my Revlon Nude Attitude Lipstick for the perfect nude lip. On it's own, this colour makes your lips look amazing and goes with any look you choose. Sidenote- apparently it tastes good, so next time you and your man go for a smooch, have this bad boy on. You're welcome for the tip, ladies.

And lastly in the Lip category is, of course, Lip Stick. This category was deficit for me to choose a winner, but at the end, it was pretty clear which product was my favorite and I have Meghan Rosette on YouTube to thank for the discovery. The award for Best Lipstick of 2013 goes to the Hourglass Liquid Lipstick in Icon. Deep reds were especially popular this fall/winter season and no colour embraced that more for me than this lipstick. MAC's Diva was also especially popular, but I failed to dish out the cash for that particular product (Random Beauty Goal #1 for 2014: own a MAC Lipstick. Any suggestions?). The Hourglass Liquid Lipstick in Icon is a deep red shade with blue undertones that compliments anyone, particularly those with paler skin, since Meghan Rosette is quite pale herself...(sorry girl, no hate,just love!). For me, I find it hard to find a red that doesn't look like a cherry red on my lips, it's not flattering on me, trust me. So, I found myself layering this product over my Revlon Lipstick in Black Cherry (the dupe for MAC's Diva) to create the perfect dark red lip. 

Onto Miscellaneous products, which will be the final category for the A.B. Awards this year. This category is dedicated to all the bits and pieces and odd ends that make beauty so fun and so time consuming! Picking out the perfect blush/bronzer/highlighter combo is one thing, application and the surface area are quite another. 

The first product in my Miscellaneous category is dedicated to the Best Face Cleanser of 2013. This product I've repurchased ever since I was an oil skinned, clueless preteen. Thank god my mother cared about beauty more than me at the time, but it's because of her that I am proud to present my award for Best Face Cleanser of 2013 to the...Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser. Nothing high end or fancy, just a basic make up removing face cleanser. This product has a mild scent and very gentle on the skin once applied. It's suitable for anyone from dry skin to oily skin to sensitive skin to normal skin. It's soap-free, alcohol-free, non-comedogenic and hypoallergenic. Seriously, what's not to love? For those of you who are looking for a good drugstore face cleanser, Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser all the way.

Next up is my award for the Best Moisturizer of 2013. This moisturizer made such a big difference for my skin when it was all dry and flaky from the crisp winter air over Christmas Break. I applied this every night for a week and my face felt as smooth and soft as a baby bum. The award for Best Moisturizer of 2013 goes to...Sephora Collection Instant Moisture Cream. My spiel before said it all, but guys, if you're experience any kind of dry, flakiness on your face, invest in this stuff. It's a miracle in a jar I promise! 

Finally, the last of the skin are stuff, I has an award for the Best Makeup Remover Wipes of 2013. Now this category may seem silly for a lot of you. Why spend upwards of 7$ on a package of makeup remover wipes when baby wipes do just the same thing and are a lot cheaper? Well, I'll tell you why. I went the baby wipe route, and it took off my makeup fine, but after a long day or night or whichever, the last thing I feel like doing is using my Neutrogena Fresh Foaming Cleanser (see what I did there?) and going through all the steps necessary to make sure I have a fresh face the next morning. Makeup remover wipes, especially the ones I'm about to award, are completely worth the investment. They take off all your make up and cleanse your skin of any nasty dirt that might be clogging your pores. If you have a pimple or sudden break out, within a matter of days of using these wipes, they'll be gone. At least in my experience. Where you have to use a good amount of baby wipes to clean off all that stubborn eye makeup, you only need one wipe to clear off all your makeup. So, without further ado, the award for Best Makeup Remover Wipes of 2013 goes to...Clean & Clear Makeup Remover Wipes. I've unfailingly repurchased these over the past couple years and each time they haven't failed. 

Moving right along to applicators, I have one category because I could only think of one outstanding product I own and use daily that would fit. Ladies and Gentleman, the award for Best All Around  Face Makeup Applicator of 2013 goes to...the Beautyblender. This cute little sponge packs a lot of umph and makes any foundation absolutely flawless and gives a nice airbrushed finished. This versatile tool can also be use to blend in concealers, liquid highlighters, and blushes. It's the perfect tool for anyone who uses makeup. 

The final subcategory for my Miscellaneous Beauty Products is Bath Products. 

If my recent obsession with LUSH is any indication of how this category will proceed, I'm sure you can all guess it's basically a home run for this natural, handmade cosmetics company. 

My first category is an All Around Favorites category. This category is dedicated to the LUSH Bath Bombs which I absolutely adore. Since I binged hardcore on their Christmas selection as well as their year round selection, I have to say the award goes to, without a doubt in my mind, the LUSH So White Bath Bomb. Unfortunately, and much to my dismay, this product is only available for the holiday season. Nonetheless, I will love it until next Christmas and many Christmases after (if only I had a man to say that about...). It's a white (as the name suggests) bath bomb that smells like apples and once it's dropped into the bath, explodes in a burst of gorgeous pink that makes you feel like you really are looking at the world through rose coloured glasses. Hands down, I probably bought about six of these babies over the holidays, and I have no shame in admitting it! They are delightful gems. 

LUSH So White Bath Bomb (Limited Edition)

Next, in the same All Around Favorites category, my favorite LUSH Bubble Bar would have to be the Christmas Eve Bubble Bar. It has a deep cobalt blue colour with a slice of yellow on the edge to represent the moon and the scent is beyond amazing. It's both calming and festive with hints of Jasmine and magic all crafted into one circular mild of perfection. Again, though I think it's pretty obvious from the name, this bubble bar is only available during the holidays.

LUSH Christmas Eve Bubble Bar (Limited Edition)

One last favorite for this category and then we conclude the A.B. Awards for this year! The last favorite is one that LUSH has sadly said goodbye to (though maybe with some post popularity and persuasive pleading LUSH will bring this treasure back in their Retro collection?). It is the Coco Lotion. I discovered this product too little too late and was only able to swipe one jar of it before they were all sold out. This product is unlike any lotion I've ever slathered on. Because most lotions tend to be sticky, I hate putting on pants of any kind on until after the lotion has dried, which isn't really convenient if I happen to be rushing. My skin, especially on my legs, is crazy dry because I hate the sticky feeling that accompanies all lotions. Not the Coco Lotion. It not only lacks the sticky feeling, it also has no scent and has such a light, almost whipped cream like feel to it. Due to the coconut, it's also super moisturizing which is a godsend for sandpaper/cactus-like legs like mine! (TMI? Maybe...) Why they discontinued this amazing product, I have no idea, but once I run out, I am looking into their Charity Pot Lotion to see if it would be an acceptable dupe for my beloved Coco Lotion. More info on that to follow!

LUSH Coco Lotion (Discontinued *cries*)

And there you have it, people! A year of beauty products thought through, researched, and reviewed! I hope you all enjoyed my recommendations and favourites for 2013, and I look forward to another amazing year in not only beauty, but in life as well!

Let me know what your favorites were for 2013 and I'll be sure to check out your suggestions for 2014.

See you next year for the A. B. Awards!
Xoxo,

A. Bean



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