#BLOGMAS: 2014 Beauty Favourites

Seeing as it's nearing the end of the year & there are all sorts of countdowns for the best of 2014 and whatnot, I thought I'd do my own 2014 Beauty Favourites. Although, I will admit I took these photos a while ago (before my Sephora haul) and so there are some things I would have loved to include since then. However, I would have only been using them for 1 of 12 months in the year so it didn't seem fair to include them in the 2014 Favourites.

MAKE-UP

Maybelline Fit Me Concealer, L'Oreal Nude Magique BB Powder, Rimmel Stay Matte Powder, The Body Shop Honey Bronzer Shade 1, Stila Stay All Day Waterproof Liquid Liner, Benefit They're Real! Mascara, Hourglass Arch Brow Sculpting Pencil, Maybelline Experwear Quad, Maybelline Color Tattoo in Bad To The Bronze & See By Chloé Perfume.

Oops! I forgot to include my favourite thing - Blush! I've been using the Physician's Formula Happy Booster Blush throughout the year but I'm loving the Clinique Cheek Pop & of course Tarte's Amazonian Clay Blush in Tipsy.

LIPS

EOS Lipbalms, The Body Shop Colour Crush in Shade 14 Magenta Be, Maybelline Colour Elixir in Fuchsia Flourish, Rimmel Apocalips in Stellar & the Dior Lip Glow.

NAILS

Revitanail Nail Strengthener in Pink, Essie Polish in Lilacism, Rimmel Salon Pro in Jazz Funk & Sally Hansen's Insta-Dri Top Coat.

SKIN CARE

The Body Shop Raspberry Body Scrub & Butter, The Body Shop Mango Hand Cream & my Clarisonic Mia 2.

HAIR CARE 

Schwarzkopf Heat Protection Spray, Garnier Fructis Miraculous Oil & Salon Elite Tangle Teezer.

A pretty short, sweet & self-explanatory post from me today. What products have you been loving throughout the year? I'd love some suggestions & recommendations since I'm doing some major spending these days and would probably go out and buy things straightaway. I've been really loving the REN face masks & have been researching a lot of their skin care products as well so I'd love any & all advice about them.

Love Always,
Anna Banana ♡

☃ Introducing... #BLOGMAS 2014! + Priceline Haul

I watch a lot of YouTube - mainly beauty videos & vlogs and I love Vlogmas videos (as well as hauls :P) so I thought maybe... I'd do #Blogmas? I tried to plan out 24-25 blog post ideas to post everyday but I was lacking creativity (and still am) so I thought I'd blog every other day. In other words, every even-numbered day there will be a blog post. They may not all be Christmas related and since Sephora's opening in AHHH 5 days, there will be hauls as well...like today's post. I hope you look forward to it because I definitely am & have put quite some effort into it :-)

And for a quick haul. Priceline is having a lot of sales. There's a 3 for 2 sale going on in the Essie range and so I got Lovie Dovie (darker pink), Spaghetti Strap (pale pink) & Splash of Grenadine (purplish shade). Lovie Dovie was a little more neon-y than I expected but the other 2 colours are ah-mazing! I love them so much. Spaghetti Strap in particular is a pale pink I've been wanting for a while now & have finally found it. I was also out of eye make-up remover & concealer so I just went out for a repurchase, but the Real Techniques Sponge is unbelievable. I run it under the tap & it gets bigger & softer. When I apply my Bourjois CC Cream with it, it leaves such a natural finish. I'm in love with it. I even got my mom one because she wanted a sponge as well so I'm hoping she likes it.

My skin hasn't been the greatest lately. I'm afraid, I might be a little allergic to Teddy. But I have been taking some medicine & it's getting a little better, but I'll keep you posted. My cousin recommended the brand La Roche-Posay and I went to check it out, splurged a little, and came back with no regrets to miracle products. It's only been one day & there's already a noticeable difference in my skin. It's a lot smoother & softer & it's never felt better. I will definitely keep you posted on that.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed my somewhat short post & are excited for #Blogmas as well! See you in 2 days :-)

Love Always,

Anna Banana ♡

Nail Polish Collection & Review

As promised, here is my nail polish collection & a tiny review of them. Whilst I was photographing these, I noticed that it wasn't terribly large but I mean, them nail polishes ain't cheap. In case you haven't noticed, I have quite the Essie collection going. From left to right: Sand Tropez, Mademoiselle, Cute As A Button, Mint Candy Apple, Turquoise & Caicos, Lilacism & Chincilly.

Essie would most definitely have to be one of my favourite nail polish brands. They apply really smoothly but since I usually do 2 coats, the drying time takes a while. But as I mentioned in my Nail Care Routine, the Sally Hansen Insta-Dri Top Coat works miracles. Apparently it takes up to 12 hours for nail polish to dry completely. According to the person at the nail salon, if you 'click' your nails together and there's no sticky feeling, that's when you know they're completely dry. My favourites out of the Essie colours I have are Sand Tropez, Mademoiselle & Lilacism.

Sand Tropez is your typical light nude/beige colour that looks nice no matter what the occasion. With Mademoiselle, you can probably see quite a lot has been used. That's because I have to apply about 3 coats for it to give the nice, pale pink colour. This sort of gives a 'con' to this colour as applying so many coats makes my nails vulnerable to chipping quite easily & takes forever to dry. However, the colour makes it almost worth it. Although I can only keep it on for a few days so I'd recommend it before some special event, like a wedding. And finally, Lilacism is a cute, light purple colour that I noticed looked great with shorter nails. Since it's Spring here in Australia, I have a feeling I'll be using this one quite a bit.

Here are my other nail polishes. I have a range of brands including: Maybelline (Enduring Pink), Revlon (African Tea Rose), Rimmel (Salon Pro: Jazz Funk, Reggae Splash & 60 Seconds: Ring A Ring O' Roses), Estée Lauder (Fuschia Flame) & Nails Inc. (Porchester Square).

I bought the two lighter pinks (Rimmel & Maybelline) in search of a very light, muted (:D) pink but was quite disappointed by how neon-y they turned out. Don't be fooled by the colour in the bottle or even on the picture above. The good thing was they were super cheap. The cost of both of them would still not be enough to get an Essie nail polish... Hehe.

The Estée Lauder one is a gorgeous hot, hot pink that borders on red. Proof that I loved it so much is that there's barely any left that I can't apply it properly anymore. It may be sad but I just can't bring myself to throw it away. Looking at the packaging, I think you'd understand. I should also mention that this was gifted to me a long time ago & is now discontinued. However, there are a lot of similar colours that are just as gorgeous albeit pricey.

My favourites here would definitely have to be the Revlon, Rimmel Salon Pro & Nails Inc. The Revlon Parfumerie one, African Tea Rose, wait for it - smells like roses! It's crazy but amazing! Everything I tie my hair back or something, I get a waft of roses. It's a little strong but quite good nonetheless, especially with a top coat over it.

My favourite application-wise would definitely have to be the Rimmel Salon Pro. They have a wide, flat brush and such a smooth consistency that you can just do one swipe and it's basically perfect. And the colour. Oh the colour. They're both stunning. And really suitable for any occasion. Jazz Funk is a muted hot pink ('muted' word count anyone?) and Reggae Splash is such a cute, light peachy orange that would also be great in the Spring & also the Summer, probably even Autumn as well!

And finally, the Nails Inc. Gel Effects polish in Porchester Square. As the name suggests, gives a gel effect. The colour I think would also look great on various skin tones & is quite long-lasting.

***

I honestly tried to make this a short post but as always, I failed again. I apologise. But thanks for reading & I hope this was useful. Since I'm a crazy nail polish addict, I'd love to hear what your favourite brands & colours are. I can't wait until Sephora opens to finally get my hands on the Formula X ones so I'm definitely open to recommendations (for you know, after my spending ban :D)

Love Always,
Anna Banana ♡