2015 is officially over in 12 hours so what else would I do other than compile a post of my favourite products from the last year?! Some of these I've mentioned previously in my monthly favourites posts, some new products too. But these are my absolute faves of the year.

Urban Decay Urban Spectrum

Highlighters

MAC Stone

Ardell Demi Wispies

Seventeen Stay Time Foundation

Thought I'd throw a little pictorial tutorial (ay) together on a look inspired by Jamie Genevive's Gwen palette look on her Instagram. My absolute favourite shade in this palette is Punk and I get to cover my eyes in it for this (heart eye emoji). 

Remember me? The gal who used to write here regularly? Been super busy with work and college but I'm here now and with a review of the palette everyone's been talking about, for the wrong reasons! When I saw the palette I was like 'meh I don't need this' and to be fair, I didn't need it but I was like whatever I'll get it. It's a 15 colour palette collaboration between Gwen Stefani and Urban Decay which sounds like an unreal combination but I was left feeling a lil 'meh'. I feel as though the best reviews of this palette are from bloggers who received the palette to review and the worst reviews are from those who didn't actually bother getting the palette to begin with. I'm somewhere in between there and to be honest, no it's not the worst! I'll get into the details now. 

I'm back with a lil review for y'all. So, my ABH Dipbrow was running out and I held off buying a new one for so long that I needed to just get something immediately and I picked up the NYX Brow Pomade (€7.75 - pharmacies, boots.ie) in the shade Espresso and I absolutely looooove it. I usually wear Dark Brown in ABH and this is a little lighter, despite being the darkest brown shade available in the range (they do a black, though!) I've compared it next to ABH Dipbrow in Dark Brown below.

Left: NYX, Right: ABH

Compared to ABH, the consistency of the NYX product is not as heavy or thick and I find it makes the NYX product a lot easier to manage, I think I actually like the colour of the NYX one more too. Since I have my eyebrows tinted and shaped how I like them, I don't need to add to my brow or draw any of it on with the pomade, I just use it to sharpen the shape of my brow and darken the overall colour, I did test the NYX product for drawing on my brows and it doesn't give quite the effect ABH does, so if your brows are light or not naturally the shape you want them to be - ABH all the way, but in my case, NYX does it for a fraction of the cost which is why I love this product.

About 5 hours wear and the NYX product still holds strong.

I've been wearing this product every day for almost a week now and it does last me all day long, however, I haven't subjected myself to any extreme conditions where my brows could melt away (like the heat in work, which I know ABH can deal with), but I can say for now that it is definitely a long lasting product. I still love my ABH but it's always good to try new products and alternatives. 

I spent a sinful amount of money on make up the last week so I feel as if it was worth sharing and doing a lil review of all the stuff I got! There's a mixture of stuff that I bought at home, in duty free and while I was in Manchester but there's so much good in here (heart eye emojis all round). Treat yo' self is always a valid excuse for buying all this anyway!

Highlights

Lips

Palettes

I've seen sooooo many posts/reviews of these lipsticks and I've seen a mixture of both good and bad reviews so I decided to give them a go. I haven't tried all that many liquid lipsticks, mainly because they tend to be drying and I don't need that in my life. I picked up three colours - 10, 18 and 30 to give them a go. They took about a month to arrive from Hong Kong and cost €1.31 each. I got these almost two weeks ago but I didn't want to review them until I really gave them a go, but I can definitely say for starters, these are so worth the price you pay.

Since it's now November and pretty much winter, I thought it'd be fitting to do a little post on lip care. Since I started my job I've had all the problems in the world when it comes to dry lips so I'm here today to share all my favourite tips and products to stop your lips turning into prunes cause that's not cute.

Protection
So if the winter hasn't already attacked, you're going to want to protect your lips from the environment and the best way to do this is to create a barrier between your lips and the outside, This can be done with next to anything, between lip balms (a personal favourite of mine is the eos line, up above I have pictured the Summer Fruits one, you can get that from Topshop and Urban Outfitters), Vaseline or lipstick. If you're like me and generally opt for lipstick as a barrier, you're going to want to avoid lipsticks that are drying on the lips, generally this rules out matte formulas, but I wear MAC and Wet 'n' Wild matte lipsticks all the time and they're really nice on the lips and don't dry them out, when it comes to lipsticks like MAC's retro matte formula or matte drying liquid lipsticks, you're going to want to avoid those if you think your lips would be easily damaged as they're drying enough in themselves. As well as this, you're going to want to moisturise your lips before bed, again, with either a lip balm or Vaseline so you don't wake up with dry lips! I've found that this generally works really well for me and my lips have gotten into some pretty bad states over the years!

Solution
If your lips have already gone to shit and you need to solve that, you neeeeed Lush's Lip Scrub. I have the Bubblegum flavoured one, but it also comes in Popcorn, Mint Julips and the seasonal Santa's Lip Scrub, which is Cola flavoured. This just gets rid of any dryness on the lip and I'd generally use it in the morning if my lips are looking a little dry before I apply any lipstick to them. I don't use this until I need to because your lips are a pretty sensitive spot so you don't want to exfoliate them all the time, but you do get to lick this off once you're done and I can say for the bubblegum one anyway that it tastes unreal. Before bed my best tip to try restore moisture to the lips before morning comes is to absolutely plaster them in Vaseline, it'll do its job overnight. During the day I find the best thing to use, especially if your lips are at the point where they hurt, Nivea's lip care range is really good to carry around and top up during the day, plus I find it lasts longer on the lips rather than eos balms, so I'd usually use Nivea ones while I'm in work and can't reapply it all the time.

Hope this was helpful for some of you! Not as exciting as my usual makeup filled posts but I'll be back next week with loadsss of makeupy goodness when I'm home from Manchester!