Best Of Beauty 2015 | Beauty

Happy New Year's Eve guys!
You saw this one coming, didn't ya? Being a beauty blogger, I obviously needed to fulfill my duty and share the best beauty bits I used this year with you. It wouldn't feel like New Year's Eve otherwise, right?

If you've been here before, you will probably have seen me mention some of these products a couple of times - I actually reviewed most of them during the year, so I will link to those down below - because really, they're the best of the best. The Crème de la Crème. The products that I always reach for when in doubt.
You get the gist, so let's get into it. 

Base:

Up until this year, I did not have such a thing as a steady base and that was mainly due to the fact that I just couldn't seem to find a foundation that fits my extremly pale skin tone and didn't make me break out into a rash. As I looked to other bloggers for advice - as I do - many recommended Rimmel for drugstore bases, so I bit the bullet and purchased the Rimmel Wake Me Up Foundation (full review here), and that might've been the single best thing that I've ever done. It matches my skin tone almost perfectly, my skin accepted it without any fuss and on top of that, it gives my rather dull skin a healthy glow.

Another struggle of mine has always been nasty dark shadows under my eyes that appear even when I get ten hours of sleep each night for a week. That wouldn't have been an issue, though, if there had been a concealer that covered them up. Only that there wasn't.
But when I decided to go on a spending spree after finishing my finals this past summer, I picked up Benefit's Erase Paste (full review here) up on a whim. To be fair, the shade selection isn't ideal and I could never use this one on spots or red patches, but for concealing my dark circles, this is perfect. Even on days when I was running on 2 hours of sleep, this kept them hidden away neatly.

Eyes:

Urban Decay's Naked 2 Eyeshadow Palette has definitely been one of, if not my most used product this year. It was a gift from my lovely best friends for my birthday back in February, and ever since then, I have barely used any other eyeshadows - except the other two Naked palettes. No joke.
The quality and lasting power of these shadows really is as great as everyone claims it to be, even more so if used with a primer. At one point I've worn one of these shadows for 20 hours on end, and I experienced only very little fallout. Insane!

Another game changer I stumbled upon this year is the Lash Sensational Mascara by Maybelline (full review here). You might not know this, but I have insanely short eyelashes. They're stumps, really, so most mascaras make them clump together more than lenghten them. I was actually pretty tempted to try out Benefit's much raved about Rollerlash, but as this one was rumored to give you similar result for a third of the price, Maybelline it was. Good choice - only two coats of this mascara make my lashes appear to be three times their original lenght!
Another great thing about this mascara is that it hardly ever smudges, which is pretty handy for us clumsy girls.

Lips:

2015 has been all about the lipsticks for me. I mean, I've always loved a good old lippie, but throughout this year, I've managed to collect over 30 of these babies. It's an addiction, but I'm not going to stop, soz.
I've been especially big on the MAC lipsticks this year - all of the ones I own - except for one - were purchased this year. I completely fell for the quality and shade selection MAC offers, so it's really no suprise that my two most used lipsticks are by MAC.
They're both nude shades as well, but they couldn't be more different. 'Kinda Sexy' (full review here), one of their Mattes, is a light rosé toned nude shade, which wore none-stop throughout summer. During the colder seasons, I leaned more towards 'Viva Glam II' (full review here), which is a brown shade with rosey undertones and a Satin finish. Every time I wear this, someone compliments me on my lipstick - definitely one of those 'feel-good' shades for me!

Nails:

As much as I collect lipsticks, I'm a nail polish horder - I own an entire drawer full of those, and I bet some of them have already gone bad, but I just can't bring myself to throw them out. I know, it's bad.

Because of that, I didn't purchase heaps of polish this year, but I did have one favorite for each summer and fall/winter.

During summer, I mainly wore Essie's 'Bikini So Teeny' (full review here) after purchasing it when I was in Berlin upon hearing about it from either Anna or Lily. It's a gorgeous light blue shade that has tiny bits of glitter running through it - doesn't that just scream summer holidays? It damn right does to me. It's longevity is insane, by the way. It only starts to chip after around five days - great for when you're away and just can't be bothered to do your nails.
For fall and winter, Sally Hansen's Complete Salon Manicure in '610 Red Zin', a deep, rich wine red, which is funny because I actually received this as a freebie in a magazine and didn't pick it out for myself. Thank god I did, though, because it's absolutely amazing. It's gel-like finish doesn't budge whatsoever - I've been doing loads of swimming ever since the ongoing semester started, and not even chlorine does anything to it. I can wear this for a week and it'll still look good. I need more of these. Soon.

Perfume:

There was only one really significant perfume for me this past year, and that's Marc Jacob's Daisy Dream. It's pretty much the only perfume I have worn this year and it has definitely become my signature scent, so I'm pretty sad to see that I only have a few spritzes of it left.
It's very much my style of scent, being, as the name suggests, very floral, with notes of wisteria and jasmine, but also fruity, with notes of blackberry, pear and litchi.
The only downside of this is that isn't too long-lasting, it'll stick around for around two to three hours, and then it'll dissolve into nothing - but really, when a scent's this great, I will happily deal with this.

And there we have my favorite products of the year 2015. I feel a little weird saying this, like I haven't fully accepted that this year is almost over. This one has been an insanely good year for me, I have been more happier and I feel more like myself than I ever have.
So thank you all for making 2015 an amazing success for me, and I'm looking forward to improve as a blogger and provide even better content for you in the new year.

Happy New Year to all of you lovelies!

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What I Got For Christmas

So, it's been quite a while since I've sat down and written a blog post. Over a month, actually. I almost feel a little weird typing away at my laptop again. It's been way too long!

I know that I promised to write more, but then finals came in crashing over my head like a wave and left me struggling not to drown in them. Seriously, I was so stressed and emotionally strained that by the time I finished the last final before Christmas break, I went to the bathroom and cried. Nice.

Anyways, now that I'm on a break and have more time to look after myself, I found my fingers aching to write more - and as the Christmas holidays are now well over, I thought it'd be a fun idea to share what I got for Christmas with you guys!

Just a quick disclaimer - I in no way intend to brag about my presents, I now that I was spoilt rotten this year, and I'm eternally grateful for everything. I'm just a seriously nosey person myself, so I thought there'd be a few people like me out there who'd like to have a snoop.

I sadly couldn't take a photo of my main present, which is an iPhone 6s in gold because I was actually taking the photos with it. But look at the quality! Compared to this one, the photos my trusty old Samsung took are dust.
I totally wasn't expecting this one as I didn't even wish for it as I assumed it would be way to expensive for my parents, but thanks to a few good connections, this miraculously landed under the Christmas tree. Again, I might've shed a few tears. I weep easily, alright.

These two presents also made my heart leap in joy. I had more than once mentioned to my Mom how whenever I'd wanted to purchase MAC's 'Velvet Teddy', it had been sold out - for what felt like the entirety of 2015. Again, I don't know how she managed to do it, but she got both herself and me one of these bad boys. 

In addition to that, my parents also got me Urban Decay's Naked 2 Basics eyeshadow palette, which I have also been eyeing up for ages. I already used both this and my new lippie to create a look for when I went to visit my aunt on Boxing Day, and the quality of the shadows is definitely as great as I expected it to be.

Gifting perfume has become a tradition in my family, and so I watched in awe as my Mom unwrapped the new Dior parfume my Dad got her, but when it was my turn, I was equally as excited - Lancôme's 'La Vie Est Belle' has been on top of my 'to-try' list ever since I found a sample of it in a Cosmopolitan magazine, and my Mom even got me the largest bottle available!

I love the scent of this as it's quite unique, it's both sweet and also floral and has notes of vanilla, pears and pralines to it.

This is already sitting on my dressing table as well after I first wore it out on Boxing Day, looking absolutely stunning.

My Dad really did suprise me this year, as he got me another perfume totally out of the blue. He stumbled upon Santini's 'Miriam Modemoissele' when he was in the Czech Republic for work and picked it up for me on a whim - and it turned out to be a total success. It's totally my kind of scent - flowery with notes of roses and freesia, but also sort of wodden with notes of amber and cedar.

In fact, it smells so good that my Mom secretly sneaked a few spritzes onto herself - that didn't go unnoticed though because the scent is damn strong and persistent!

My little brother might often sometimes be a pain in the ass, but look at how sweet he can get! He got me KIKO's Romance & Desire Scented Set, which includes a roll-on perfume, a body lotion and a candle. All of the product share the same scent of vanilla, passionfruit, caramel and cedar.

The scent is subtle yet absolutely amazing, so for a candle (and perfume, for that matter) lover like me, this is an ideal gift set.

On a total different note,  with the next few presents my inner geek really comes to show.

As for this one, I've been a fan of the Sims franchise for as long as I can remember - I think I got The Sims 2 soon after it came out, which means that I must've been around five or six at that time!
And in the decade that followed that faithful day, these games have not lost the ability to get me absolutely hooked. In all seriousness, ever since I got The Sims 4 for Easter, I have played it for over 2000 hours in total. That's over 80 days. See you guys in rehab, huh?

My growing addiction has been fueld even more by the new expansion pack 'Get Together', which came out mid December - and it really lived up to my expectations and even exceeded them by a lot!

My family know me too well. Seriously, my Mom probably monitors me when I'm oooh-ing and aaah-ing at books while in the bookstore downtown because I've wanted to read all of these for soo long but never really had the money to get them or the time to acutally sit down and read them.

'The Rose Society' by Marie Lu might be the one book I was the most excited about - it is the sequel to 'The Young Elites', one of the best books I read this year (it's actually so great that I wrote an entire review on it) and as the first book ended on quite a cliffhanger, I was aching for answers to the thousands of questions inside my head.

This fantasy triology (with the final book in the making) tells the story of Adelina Amouteru, a sixteen year old girl living in Kenettra, a city that is losely based on ancient Venice, in 1361 and how her life changes when a plague sweeps across the country, leaving its children with weird marking and even weirder powers.

'The Amazing Book Is Not On Fire' by Dan Howell and Phil Lester is technically not a book in the traditional sense, but more of an autobiography mixed with comical elements and the like.

Part two of my confessions - I love these two. I've been subscribed to their YouTube channels ever since early 2012, so you could say I did kind of grow up with them, and as cheesy as it sounds, they did help me become who I am today.
And if you're thinking "They're just some silly guys who think they're famous" - they're very much the opposite, they're down-to-earth, relatable dudes who never fail to make me smile.

I honestly don't know why I didn't already own 'The Bane Chronicles' by Cassandra Clare, Sarah Rees Brennan and Maureen Johnson. Fun fact, if you need to know anything about me, it is that I love Cassandra Clare's Mortal Instruments series to death. As in, throw a quote at me and I'll tell you in which book you'll find it, the context and who said it. I'm serious about these books.

This book however is not part of the series but rather a collection of short stories about one of the serie's characters, the warlock Magnus Bane, who is an absolute babe and has a sense of humor that sometimes leaves me speechless, so this'll be a trip and a half.

Rainbow Rowell's 'Carry On' is actually a companion novel to her much hyped novel 'Fangirl', which I too loved. While Fangirl revolves around Cath, a struggling college student who is a huge fan of the 'Simon Snow' book serious and writes fanfiction about said series, this gem right here is the actual fanfiction Cath was writing throughout the novel. Rainbow Rowell actually sat down and wrote the whole damn thing. I squealed when I saw this because even though I have not read a single page yet, I know that everything she does turns out to be amazing.

Lastly, another long awaited sequel I got was 'Girl Online On Tour' by Zoe Sugg, also known as Zoella. Now, while I used to watch Zoe's YouTube channel sort of religiously last year, I don't really anymore - I still make time to read her blog from time to time, though. But I loved what she did with her debut novel 'Girl Online' so much that I read it in less than a day and then was left aching for more.

The protagonist of the story is a teenage blogger called Penny - can you see why I found this intriguing? - who meets a young rock star called Noah and eventually falls for him. As the sequel's name suggests, Penny now joins Noah for his Euorpean tour and is faced with a lot of difficulties on the way.

To close it up, my lovely aunt got me a mini cake stand along with some of my favorite chocolates from Ferrero - yum!

I think I'll use the cake stand for displaying jewelery rather than actually cakes though.

So there we have all the gifts that I got for this year's Christmas. I don't deserve them, really. I know how annoying, stubborn and skittish I can be; and that makes me appreciate all of this even more, especially as I've also experienced very different Christmasses in the past.

What did you get for Christmas?

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