The holidays are such a wonderful time of year and they definitely put makeup purchasing into an uptick! A few of my latest favorites include Cover Girl’s Clump Crusher mascara and Tarte’s new Smoldereyes liner set. For more, check out my latest video for a few of my latest recommendations and shopping ideas!

Overall, I think this is a great foundation for a majority of skin types (normal/dry to normal/oily). I probably wouldn’t recommend this to ‘extreme’ skin types (very dry or very oily) because it really works to balance out your skin tone while concealing flaws and imperfections.

I did feel this foundation lived up to its new 12-Hour claim, however I personally thought it wore best for the first 8-10 hours. I did see a little bit of oiliness in my t-zone, but think the airbrushed finish it gives is worth blotting over a couple times thoroughout the day.

At $38 for 1.7 ounces, this is a great value. Check out Sephora.com or TarteCosmetics.com for more details. To view my original review, which was more of a comparison between this foundation and Tarte’s Smooth Operator tinted moisturizer, click here.

Boot Straps – $11.99

Have you ever had issues with your socks slinking off your foot or your jeans bunching around your knees while wearing tall boots? With Fashion Secrets’ Boot Straps these problems are eliminated!  The little elastic cuffs with velvco help keep your socks and jeans in place.

Sweater Saver – $5.99

Remove unsightly pilling from your favorite sweater with the Sweater Saver! This little pumice-like stone gently scrapes away pilling to keep your winter sweaters, scarfs and hats looking brand new!

To see what other items Hollywood Fashion Secrets shared with me check out the video below.

For full details on all my 2011 favorites, check out the video below.

My 2011 favorites include:

LIPS

• Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Stains – These are super nourishing, have a nice shine and are easy to apply. The perfect no frills product that combines the benefits of a chap stick, lip gloss and stain all into one!
• Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters – Again, a nourishing, pigmented lip color with a beautiful shine. Very affordable, come in a variety of shades from sheer to extremely bright/pigmented.
• Revlon Colorburst Lip Gloss – By far the best drugstore lip gloss of the year! These glosses have a unique doe foot applicator that makes application precise. As with most Revlon lip products, these come in a variety of pigmented shades and many of which have a beautiful micro sparkle to them.
• Benefit Ladies Choice Lipstick – The perfect neutral pink nude for any time of day! I was especially impressed by the creamy, pigmented formula of Benefit’s lipsticks this year. Definitely a step above Mac’s Cremesheen lipsticks, but along the same lines.
• Benefit ‘Nude e tude’ Lip Gloss – Couple this nude sparkly gloss over any lipstick to add a nice shine! I discovered Benefit lip glosses and was SO impressed with the smoothness, smell and non-sticky texture of the glosses. Since I picked up this once I’ve also gotten a few new shades!

BLUSH

• Milani Baked Blush – Finally a pigmented baked mineral blush at the drugstore! Milani’s baked blushes made their debut in 2011, and I’ve picked up quite a few since. At $6 each, you really can’t go wrong with these colorful, longwearing and beautiful blushes!
• Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush – My daily go-to blush (I don’t even reach for my NARS ones anymore); amazing packaging, great pigmentation and long wearing!

BRONZER

• Neutrogena Healthy Glow Bronzer – An affordable drugstore bronzer that doesn’t look muddy or orange. Has a nice subtle shimmer to it and can be used for contouring the cheekbones or with a large fluffy brush all over the face.
• Chanel Bronze Universal – A pricey high -end bronzer but well worth the money! If you have a fair to medium skin tone and enjoy cream bonzers and blushes, I would highly recommend this product.  While this may have been on the expensive side it has lasted me all year and gives my face a natural looking radiance!
• Too Faced Chocolate Soleil Bronzer – Smells like chocolate! A highly pigmented matte bronzer. Great for contouring.

CONCEALER

• Tarte Dark Circle Defense – a pink toned concealer and corrector in one. Brightens the under eye area and conceals with ease. Very potent, pigmented product – a little does a long way! This was expensive at $32, but has lasted me the entire year and I’ll be sure to use every last drop!
• Bobbi Brown Corrector in Bisque – While I love the Tarte Dark Circle defense, I wanted to know what everyone was raving about with Bobbi Brown’s famous corrector. I gave this one a try toward 2011 and really like it! I find it to be very similar to Tarte’s Dark Circle defense, but has more of a salmon tone.

FOUNDATION

• Estee Lauder Double Wear – Provides medium to full coverage, but can easily sheared out by altering the application method. Provides a natural matte finish, controls oil and lasts 15 hours! Great for days you have professional meetings, presentations or know you will be out of the house all day!
• Revlon Colorstay mixed with Revlon Photo Ready – Combined, this is the perfect long wearing, luminous foundation.
• Mac MatchMaster – Great for neutral skinned ladies who have had problems getting color matched at Mac in the past. This is my go-to every day foundation. Provides a semi matte finish, long wearing and seamlessly matches various skin tones.
• Maybelline Dream Smooth Mousse – Super affordable at $6-$7. Great coverage, easy to apply/blend.

POWDER

• Benefit Hello Flawless Pressed Powder – Good coverage, oil control, nice packaging.
• Mary Kay Loose Powder – Mattifying, long wearing, provides extra coverage when topped over foundation.
• Almay Nearly Naked Loose Powder – Lightweight, natural finish powder. Helps foundation last all day.

HIGHLIGHTERS

• Benefit Watt’s Up – The perfect cream highlighter in stick form! Incredibly blendable and gives a natural sparkle-free glow. Doesn’t make foundation streaky or splotchy.
• Physicians Formula Mineral Glow Pearls – Drugstore alternative to MAC’s mineralize skin finish.

EYE SHADOW

• Urban Decay Naked Palette – Need I say more?
• Too Faced Natural Eye Palette – Love the recently improved packaging. Great for travel and every day use.
• Smashbox Softbox Eye Palette – Great neutral colors with less sparkle/shimmer.
• Urban Decay 15th Anniversary Palette – A variety of fun colors partnered with neutral browns, greys and silvers.

TOOLS

• Real Techniques Stippling Brush- Best stippling brush I’ve ever used. Perfect width, length, density and height.
• Sigma Sigmax Brushes – F80 is my go to flat top foundation brush! Also love the angled F-84 for contouring with cream bronzer.
• Mrs. Bunny Brushes – A great synthetic brush set.
• Sephora Platinum Concealer Brush #57 – Perfect for blending under eye concealer.
• Tarte Blush Blush – Perfect size, small enough to precisely deposit color on to the cheeks.
• Beauty Blender – Great for blending out foundations and concealers, especially heavy or ‘mask-like’ foundations that require extra blending.

My favorite thing about these brushes is that they are 100% shed-free! My ultimate pet peeve about makeup brushes is when they shed – there’s nothing worse than picking hairs off your face after doing your makeup! Shedding is something I’ve experienced with most every natural fiber brush I’ve ever used (including Sigma brushes), however I’m happy to report I haven’t experienced any shedding with the Mrs. Bunny brushes!

When I first purchased the kit I worried the synthetic brushes wouldn’t perform as well as the natural fibered brushes however I’ve found they deposit and blend color as well or better than any natural fibered brushes I’ve ever used. I also love these brushes because they are so versatile – many of the synthetic eye brushes in this kit can also be used to deposit and blend cream, liquid or powder products on the face such as liquid highlighter, under eye concealer, creme blush, creme eye shadows and more!

At $109 each brush is costing you about $9 – plus I love the convenient travel case that can also be used to hold brushes on your cosmetic table. This kit includes all the eye and face brushes needed to create  various makeup looks and I would highly recommend checking it out! The Mrs. Bunny brushes kit also come in black and can be purchased at SigmaBeauty.com.

To see the individual brushes, check out my video below:

My December favorites include:

Mary Kay Timewise Matte Wear Foundation in Beige 3
Revlon Colorstay in 240 mixed with Revlon Photo Ready in 004
Real Techniques Stippling Brush
Mary Kay Loose Powder in the color Ivory 2
Chanel Bronze Universal
Sigma Mrs. Bunny Synthetic Brush Set
Tarte Lipsurgence Lip Luster in Dazzled
EOS hand lotion
Too Faced Natural Eye palette
Benefit Watt’s Up
Revlon Colorburst Lip Gloss in Ignite

I thought I’d share my Christmas Eve outfit/face of the day:

Tonight I chose to rock a matte red lip (Estee Lauder’s Pure Color Velvet Lipstick in Red Velvet) with an emerald green cheetah print scarf to celebrate Christmas Eve with my family. I curled my hair using a 1 inch clipless curling iron (or ‘curling wand’ ) to create loose natural looking waves. As you can see, the bright lip is quite bold so I chose to partner it with a neutral eye and defined liner. I used the shades Virgin, Buck and Naked from my Urban Decay Naked palette and lined my eyes using Mac’s Black Track Fluid Line.

This is a picture of me with my little sister Jacqueline. Jacqueline doesn’t usually wear bright lip color, but I convinced her to give it a try tonight and I think she really pulled it off! Rather than a bold lipstick, Jacqueline opted for Revlon Colorburst lip gloss in Ignite (a bright red, orange with gold sparkles). This color was part of Revlon’s limited edition Spice It Up holiday collection and is beautiful!

Here you can get a little better glimpse at my outfit. I partnered the emerald scarf with a billowy short sleeve black t-shirt, skinny jeans and my Tiffany & Co. key necklace.

I hope you all have an amazing Christmas! Thanks for stopping by and I’ll try to post some more face/outfit of the day photos soon!

XOXOX,

Ashley

(L-R) Red Velvet, Raspberry Pie, Cotton Candy, Pink Truffle, Tutti Fruiti, Peach Parfait

(L-R) Red Velvet, Raspberry Pie, Cotton Candy, Pink Truffle, Tutti Fruiti, Peach Parfait

(L-R) Red Velvet, Raspberry Pie, Cotton Candy, Pink Truffle, Tutti Fruiti, Peach Parfait

I’m happy to see drugstore brands are catching wind of high-end beauty trends and offering these new products. We’ve seen brands such as Chanel, Dior and Clinique offer lip butter lipsticks in the last few years with high success and I’m very excited by this new, cost-effective option.

I would highly recommend these lipsticks but would suggest checking out swatches before purchasing. I’ve found many of the colors (especially the more sheer ones) are similar and you won’t want to buy two that are alike. The Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters will be available permanently as of January 2012 (yay!!).

Have you tried Revlon’s Colorburst Lip Butters? What do you think of them?

I’ve accumulated four of these babies since they came out last year – Delish (a warm, peachy nude), Heavenly (a warm, peachy pink), Darling (a cool, mid tone pink) and Spell Bound (a bright, bold magenta). See below for swatches of these shades, and be sure to check out my full length video review!

(L-R) Delish, Heavenly, Darling, Spell Bound

(L-R) Delish, Heavenly, Darling, Spell Bound

(L-R) Delish, Heavenly, Darling, Spell Bound

Check out my video review:

My October favorites include:
- Lancome Teint Miracle Foundation in Buff 5C
- Mac Cleanse Oil
- Bath and Body Works Sweet Cinnamon Pumpkin moisturizer
- Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters in Tuti Fruiti, Rasberry Pie and Cotton Candy
- Clinique Chubby Sticks in Mega Melon
- Cover Girl Lip Perfection lipstick in Delish
- Bare Essentuals Pressed ‘Ready’ Eyeshadow Quad in ‘The Dream Sequence’

Have you tried any of these products?