Best of 2012 Beauty Favorites

Some of these are not necessarily holy grail products, but they were my favorites from the year.  I am determined to find my ultimate skin care routine in the year of 2013- it's looking like it could be a lot of natural oils. The *notes products that I will ABSOLUTELY repurchase!

Makeup Remover- Caudalie Cleansing Water*
Cleanser- Ren Clear Calm Clay Cleanser
Toner- Mario Badescu glycolic toner*
Serum- Ole Henriksen truth serum
Moisturizer- didn't care for anything that I used
Eye Cream- Ole Henriksen Fresh Start Eye cream
Mask- Ren glycol lactic renewal mask

Shampoo-Ouidad meditteranean bay shampoo
Conditioner- Bumble and Bumble creme de coco
Hair Mask- Orofluido hair mask*
Hair Oil- Ojon dry recovery oil
Hairspray- Bumble and Bumble thickening hairspray

Primer- Benefit porefessional
Foundation- Chanel vitalumiere aqua
Under-eye concealer- Clinique airflash
Spot concealer- Make up Forever full cover concealer
Blush- Illamasqua (zygomatic, naked rose, hussy) and Nars (sin, gaeity, deep throat)
Highlighter- Dior amber diamond
Eye Primer- Mac painterly paintpot
Eyeshadow- Burberry eyeshadows (rosewood, midnight brown)
Crayon Eyeliner- Stila smudgesticks
Liquid Eyeliner- Stila stay all day pen
Mascara- Benefit They're Real
Lash Primer- Diorshow Maximizer
Lipstick- Too Faced la creme (spice spice baby), Dior addict extreme (st. tropez), Chanel rouge coco shine (boy), Tarte glamazon (wild), Nars (schiap), Mac plumful
Lipgloss- Buxom lip creams (white russian, creamcicle)

What's on my nightstand?

I have become extremely obsessed with the night-time skin/body care and make sure that I lube myself up, and have noticed such a difference in my skin. I started getting slight wrinkles at 25 and began to panic. Hopefully, this will subdue my anxiety. Neuroses are running rampant!!!!

raw shea butter- I use this for my feet mostly and sometimes for my hands. This isn't too greasy and sinks into the skin pretty quickly. Really great for the dry winter weather.

Lush lovely jubblies- this is a breast firming cream... um yeah- another one of those irrational anxieties I suppose. I can't really tell if it actually works, but I do know that it has a beautiful rose smell. So I enjoy putting this on before bed, mostly for the smell.

Elizabeth 8 Hour Cream- This stuff works really well to nourish dry skin or chapped lips. I use this when I have a very dry patch of skin or extremely dry lips.

A combination of jewelry and accessories that I am too lazy to put away and what I use before bed.

Caudalie lip balm- I always make sure to use a lip balm, and this one is really great. A nice clean scent typical to all Caudalie products (grape extracts). It's also super nourishing and I wake up with nice amount of moisture on my lips.

L'occitane hand cream- I have since used this lotion up, now I am using the Caudalie hand cream, and love it. The L'occitane is great too though.

December Empties 2012

Another month, and more hoarded garbage. My only "resolution" will be to go through products- and if I find it doesn't work for me, not to feel like I NEED to use it. Try to give it to someone who can use it, or get rid of it. I am determined to find my absolute holy grail skin routine.

Marc Jacobs Lola body butter- I always get gift sets with my perfume purchases, and have really NEVER used any of the other products. Usually, they sit in my drawer until I feel it's old enough to throw away. Not no more! It was decently moisturizing, and obviously I liked the smell, since I have the perfume. I don't like overly perfumed body lotions, since it interferes with any other scent that I use. But, it's gone- Woo!
Organic Indulgence french lavender & plumeria creamy body wash- another really good scent from this brand. I enjoy the texture, smell, lather, and it doesn't dry my skin out. It's relatively cheap from TJ Maxx, and I would definitely buy more of these.
Secret fresh effects deodorant in Cucumber Aloe- NOT an invisible solid. Leaves a thick residue left on me. Works decently well, and for the most part didn't irritate my underarms. Wouldn't purchase again. Right now I am using up some Dove deodorants that I had gotten on sale, and after that I am moving on to aluminum free deodorant.
Dove ultimate fresh deodorant- I kept this in my purse at all times for those times that I forgot to put it on, or just kind of stink. Works OK, but again, going for aluminum free.
Sensodyne Pronamel- dedicated to using this now, and I recently purchased the extra whitening one, as I am paranoid about my wedding pictures.
Giovanni facial cleansing wipes- loved these and already repurchased. Great for those lazy nights that I don't feel like doing a full cleansing routine. These stay moist the ENTIRE bag, not irritating, and remove makeup relatively well and certified organic.

Glymed Plus Acne Management system Exfoliant Wash- OK, so after I got a facial, apparently I had some breakouts and they recommended  that I get this. I am not prone to acne, but I was prone to getting stress/hormonal breakouts on my chin area. Don't know why they felt that this was necessary, it dried out my already dry skin, making it worst. This is pretty much full, but I am just throwing it away. Now that I am taking better care of my skin, I have noticed a HUGE difference in the amount of breakouts I am getting.
Jack Black Lip Balm in Natural Mint- one of the best lip balms ever. Super moisturizing. I already repurchased for my boyfriend- this is his favorite. But, I always sneak it and use it too.
Ren ClearCalm 3 Total Clarity Day Fluid- I love the REN brand, but I really didn't like the texture of this lotion, nor did I really understand what it was supposed to do. It was a bit too runny for me, and felt more like a serum. I didn't notice anything different.
Ren Radiance Perfection Serum- This was OK, again didn't notice anything different. Liked the citrus smell, very similar to the Glycol Lactic Radiance Renewal Mask. Probably wouldn't repurchase this product either.
Skin & Co Truffle Serum- got this in my glossybox, and holy shit ANOTHER serum. I have no idea how I  got through so many serums this month. This serum smelled like coconut, which I hate, and was even runnier than the Day fluid. The package was only about half way filled or less, so that was disappointing. Hated the texture, hated the smell, and didn't notice anything different.
 Nivea kiss of Milk and Honey lip balm- I know that these get raved about, but I felt like it was drying out my lips, and unprovoked my boyfriend said the same thing. Not sure why people think these are so great, I think it sucks and isn't even worth the 3 dollars that I paid for it. Sits on your lips and doesn't moisturize at all. Its about 75% done, and I'm just tossing it- it's winter time and I need something that actually works.
Biofreeze pain relieving gel- I have absolutely NO idea where I got this sample from, but thank God. I have bad back pain, so at night I would put this on before bed. It leaves a cooling sensation and relieves the pain. When I tried to repurchase it, I couldn't find it anywhere. I asked a friend of mine that works in a pharmacy, and found out that apparently you need a dr percription to get it??? So how I got a sample of it baffles me. However, they do sell it on Amazon, and possibly in Sallys beauty supply. I will definitely be purchasing this after I finish up my other samples.

Freeman Peel-Off Mask in Cucumber- I got this for free with an online Ulta purchase. I only used it once, but I HATE this packaging. Its a mask that clearly you can get more than one use out of, and yet the sachet it is packaged in has no way of preserving what is inside. It is all dried out at the top- gross. The peel sucked- it was super sticky and a bitch to peel off. Kind of hurt when peeling and and some areas never even fully dried. No thanks.
Rite Aid exfoliating Cotton Rounds- more shitty cotton rounds. they suck. rip apart when using them. The back of them is rougher- still haven't really figured out how I am supposed to use that side, but whatever.
YSL le teint touche eclat foundation in BR30- this was a really beautiful foundation. I think I got 2 or 3 uses out of this sachet. I have dry skin, so it left my skin looking really fresh and dewy without looking greasy.
Nars smudge proof eyeshadow base- this was kind of amazing, I don't know how I hadn't treid this before. It had a slightly tacky texture and left no color on the eyelid. I definitely noticed that it helped my eyeshadow last longer and not crease. Even though I have dry skin, my eyelids stay oily and are prone to making shadows crease. I will probably purchase this at some point in the future.
Lancome Maquicomplet concealer in Ivory- this was pretty light. It worked OK under my eyes, but definitely not on spots. It was a pretty good concealer, but I feel like the color was a little too light, even for under my eyes. Since the coloring was off, I never really used this, and now I feel like it kind of smells funny- so it's getting tossed.
Giorgio Armani luminous silk foundation in 5.5- I didn't notice the color shade until I put it on my skin. WAYYYYY too dark for my skin. Couldn't use it as a liquid contour either because of the luminosity of the foundation. So this is another product just getting tossed.
Matrix Exquisite Oil- Pretty sure I got this in my glossybox too. It was ok, I didn't notice a huge difference in the texture of my hair. Wouldn't purchase this.
Bvlgari omnia crystalline- I'm attempting to work through all of my perfume samples that seem to be multiplying!!! this was ok. not going to run out and get it.
Angel by Thierry Mugler- this gets SO much attention and people rave about it. I have never liked the scent at all. I put it on and immediately felt nauseated by the smell. whatever, I left it on. I got into the car, and my boyfriend said I smelt disgusting, and what the hell I was wearing. Glad, I wasn't alone on this opinion. Horrible stuff.
Diptyque Paris Volutes- this was a really beautiful, subtle perfume. I am glad that I have 2 other samples of this, but not sure if I would drop almost 100 dollars on this perfume. It was really nice though.