2013 Favourites

For most (bloggers) a post thus entitled would understandably mean a read of substantial volume, preceded by an agonizing, intricate process of selection and deliberation by the author. I decided to take a different approach.

First of all, I don’t use enough products or even have a variety of the same kinds of products, to come up with a particularly long list with categories and subcategories for just about everything. Secondly, if I’ve found something that I like and that works, I tend to be extremely loyal to it (them, I’m the same with people), and have little or no interest in exploring other possibilities. Despite 2013 having been a year I’ve tried the most new products (for me) and learned the most about makeup and skincare, I’ve decided to mention only those few new items, which may or may not be exciting, that have graduated to Holy Grail status. Items I will or already have repurchased and will continue to go back to because it’s easy, because they’re good, they do the job and after all the work I’ve put into finding them, as well as suffering through a graveyard of duds, I deserve to have in my arsenal of go to, idiot-proof things that require slight to no additional brain function on my part to use or obtain.

Now, there were also some fails. Expensive fails. However, those wounds are still fresh and, frankly, I’m still bitter about them, so I’d rather not revisit the subject at this time. I thought about it, but my strategy is to not proclaim something a disaster until I’ve found its polar opposite, perfect version as an alternative. Likewise, there were a number of things that were really nice, that I do like using, but that aren’t anything extraordinary, and probably not products I would repurchase, so those won’t be mentioned either. I’ve divided my 2013 favourites into these general categories – makeup, skin care, tools and accessories. These were all no-brainers and I really didn’t have to put much effort into this selection at all.

Makeup

Kicking the list off is the Kanebo Sensai 38C Lengthening and Separating Mascara. I almost didn’t have this on my list but then I re-evaluated the past couple of months and realized it had been serving as sort of a lifesaver. My mother bought a duty free value set that included two mascaras, which we split between us. She’s used and loved Kanebo mascaras for years, and I was so sick and tired of having to suffer through the worst mascara I’ve yet to use (the Givenchy Noir Couture, if you were wondering), that I was pretty happy to try just about anything else.

At first, I didn’t like it at all. This is a water-proof mascara, but not really. It doesn’t crumble, smudge or transfer with humidity or water, unless it’s 38C or hotter. I was planning on fully ignoring the option of removing it with warm water (I didn’t quite understand how, it sounded so messy), which is why I hated it in the beginning – it’s almost impossible to remove with anything BUT warm water. Bioderma is useless, you can rub all you want, it’s not coming off, and you would need a much more generous amount of a good oil based makeup remover to get it fully off. Frustration finally drove me to remove it with water. It was so alien at first. Just soaking a cotton round under running water doesn’t work, the temperature cools down too quickly. Finally, quite by chance I noticed that a photographer at a shoot was using the thickening version of this mascara and I asked her for advice. She said to just keep splashing warm water onto your eye area to loosen the formula up and then gently rub the lashes between your fingers. This may seem silly, but I was terrified of pulling my lashes out using this method. However, it does work. The way I do it is I rest the lashes on my thumb, which stays in place, while my index finger gently goes back and forth over them.

What I love about the formula, is that it comes off in solid crumbs, it doesn’t melt and paint black circles under your eyes or anything, and when it’s off, it’s really off, no remaining bits of product emerge in the corners of your eyes or in fine lines in the morning. No, it completely crumbles off. For me, the negative part about having to remove my mascara this way, is that late in the evening, when I take my makeup off, they gradually turn off the hot water in my building, and I tend to only have the option of cold or lukewarm, which isn’t enough to break the formula up. It’s doable, but it requires a lot more effort and I’ll usually be a lash poorer when it’s done. Sometimes what I’ll do is I’ll brew a cup of camomile tea before bed, dip a cotton round into it, and use that instead. That temperature is probably closer to 80C so I wait a bit for it to cool down, but at 50-60C, when it’s hot but not painful on the eye, applying that round for 5 seconds will completely break up the formula. It tends to stay on the face rather than the cotton and needs a few energetic splashes of water still to rinse off, but actually, it’s a more economical way of removing the Sensai mascara than having the hot water running for a few minutes while you splash away. It’s a pity I’m not in the mood for camomile tea every night! I will say though, if the water from the tap is hot enough, just under a minute of splashing it onto your eyes is actually enough to get the mascara off, you don’t have to use your fingers at all if the temperature’s there.

The reason I almost didn’t include the Kanebo Sensai mascara in my favourites, is because I think I still prefer Chanel’s Inimitable Intense. They share a number of qualities I appreciate in mascara – small, no-nonsense tube (I HATE gigantic, bloated mascara tubes), the wand is both small and big (it’s either a small big wand, or a big small wand – you decide), all in all the right size for my eyes, which is the most important part, and the effect they give is fluttery and demure, your lashes but better. The Chanel is blacker and glossier, has a plastic wand and is a totally different formula to wash off. The Sensai has a classical, natural bristle brush, the formula is dry and the colour it gives isn’t a deep, resolute black, it’s sort of ashy.

I’ve never used a water-proof formula, but then again, the Sensai kind of is and isn’t too. I’ve always associated water-proof formulations with an even more tedious process of removal, something that for me really didn’t seem to be worth the effort. It just hasn’t been a function I’ve particularly wanted before. However, in the past couple of months due to a lot of things, a severe health issue in my family as the final straw, wreaking havoc on my heart and soul, I’ve been reduced to tears more times than I can really recall. At home, at work, in the morning, late at night… There are only so many crises a person can take, and by the last week of December, whoever is in charge of this thing we call life, pretty much broke me. Things are slowly (and, hopefully, surely) improving, but 2013 was probably the worst year in every way I’ve ever lived through. It’s only makeup, but because I’d been wearing the Kanebo 38C, at times when the walls were closing in and I couldn’t manage to put on a brave face, at least it helped me conceal the evidence of still fresh tears, and helped me to compose myself a bit faster and a little better. This makes the Kanebo Sensai 38C Mascara officially my go to for splashing around in the ocean or watching sad movies, oh, but keep in mind, its limits are reached in saunas and hot tubs ;).   

Moving on to another Kanebo Sensai product, their Translucent Loose Powder. I joked about how on Earth this could be hydrating after reading the claims on the box… Well, it is. Sort of. The point is, it’s definitely not drying, ergo it must be hydrating! This powder behaves unlike any other powder (powder foundation, mattifying powder etc.) I’ve ever used.

Basically, it was the definition of an impulse buy. I’d never noticed it in their product lineup, then suddenly I did, and I just got it. My only reason was that despite having dry skin now, I still felt like I needed to dust some powder over my face to feel comfortable (and out of habit), but all of mine were just too drying and made the foundation’s finish look significantly worse. My logic was that this would satisfy my compulsion to powder, while being light weight enough to not damage the foundation (too) much. Plus, I’d never owned a loose powder before, so why not this one?

What I now use it for primarily, I mean what makes it an extraordinary product for me, besides the usual benefits and uses of a powder, has a lot to do with how I apply foundation. I start the application at my jawline and work my way up leaving the skin past my cheeks virtually bare. There’s hardly any product at all on my t-zone and forehead. The brush is pretty much dry by the time I get to those areas, but that’s how I like it, for two reasons. First of all, that’s where my nicest and least damaged skin is, why hide it? Second, I have combination, dehydrated skin, which is a problem all over, but while my foundation works acceptably well on the dryer parts of my face, like my jawline, the skin in the centre really doesn’t like it. It will look cakey and deserty, so I just don’t touch it. It would appear that the more moisturizing the foundation (which the dryer parts of my face like), the worse it looks on the oilier parts of my skin, emphasizing the dehydration. Strangely, even as a drying product, powders still tend to look better on the less oily parts of my skin. In fact, it’s my observation that dehydrated oily skin is a noticeably worse canvas for product than dehydrated dry skin. It’s all quite confusing, but that’s how it is. My oily/dehydrated skin just doesn’t want to interact well with anything.

The only product until now that looked well on the centre of my face only, was the YSL Touché Teint Eclat, the no coverage but visible glow foundation. The “glow” was enough in my opinion for a beautiful complexion, because without anything at all in the centre, throughout the day the difference between completely bare skin and skin that has foundation on it, becomes just too stark (pores, redness, sebum, dirt from the air…). Recently though, that product had begun to struggle when pumping out, meaning it’s starting to run out. I panicked and stopped using it for a little while, to save it for a special occasion or something. This lack of YLS is how I discovered just how beautiful the Kanebo powder is.

I was experimenting on a day off, taking my time with the makeup application, and something possessed me to just apply the powder straight on to my bare skin. The result should have been terrible. Even most powder foundations on just skin look like, well, powder on skin, never mind a powder that’s meant to go over foundation. Usually, without foundation to stick to, powder will look chalky, patchy, dry… In a word - bad. The Kanebo doesn’t. I’ve decided it’s magical. On naked skin the result is shockingly similar to the YSL foundation – no coverage and I wouldn’t go as far as calling the finish a “glow”, it’s still a powder product, but it is a definite “blur”. That is the best word to describe it! It doesn’t colour correct, you can still see if some bits of skin are more red or blue or something else, but it blurs dryness, texture and pores. The finish isn’t flat or shiny or even satin – it’s blurry. I don’t know how, but it’s beautiful. Photoshop in a jar. The only thing this doesn’t do which I wish it would, but in all fairness, nothing I own, powder, cream or liquid, does this, is I wish it would not rub off of my nose where my glasses rest. Makeup doesn’t just rub off there, the weight of the glasses leave red impressions and unfortunately I’m still searching for something (if it even exists) to help with that. But other than that, live Photoshop in a jar. Don’t want to live without it! The pouf is lovely, but I don’t use it now, I will though when my skin becomes oilier and will need heavier application to deal with that. Also, I’m still trying to figure out the best way to tap the powder out without ending up with a mess on the table. I guess it’s a matter of habit, but I did make it easier for myself by placing stickers over about half the holes in the sifter.

And finally, My Foundation. There’s no other way to call it. This is my own concoction of four products that come together to create the best foundation, for me, I’ve ever had. Very little separates it from perfection and all of it now is up to figuring out a better skincare routine, that’ll address my dehydration and result in a nicer finish. Other than that, it’s the right amount of coverage, it’s the right lightness, it’s the right tone of yellow, which corrects redness, and it’s a subtle satin finish. It’s been a challenging process of figuring out the right ingredient proportions, but also figuring out a way to fuse them together. Ideally, there’d be a centrifuge involved, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t have one in my kitchen… The first couple of batches were not very successful. The various textures qualities of the products – light and oily, satiny silicone, paste-like and dry, creamy, water-proof – simply refused to blend, even though it looked like a uniform mixture in the jar. I ended up with more drying, lighter toned and fuller coverage stuff in the beginning, and darker, more translucent foundation on the bottom. I was a bit desperate for a while that this grand master plan of mine wasn’t working out, but I experimented some more and came up with what seems to be a process that works. I’ve had two successful batches so far, just made a third one, and since I’m someone who believes in the magic of “third time lucky”, I’ll wait to use up the current jar before I share my recipe. Fingers crossed!

Tools and Accessories

I have to say, overall, I’m happy with all the makeup tools I’ve acquired this past year, however, two just stand out and bring me the most joy when I use them. These are the Shiseido Perfect Foundation Brush, which is crucial to my foundation application (my above mentioned personal foundation mix is not one that applies even acceptably well with fingers), and the Kyureido Fine Kalla KK-002. I love the Shiseido because of the result I can achieve with it, while being very nice to work with, and I love the Fine Kalla because of its gorgeous design, and how unbelievably soft and relaxing it feels on the skin. Grey squirrel hair has an almost cooling sensation on the skin, because of how slippery and silky the individual hairs are. I often use this brush for nearly everything, despite it being on the smaller side even for blush. I’ve used it for blush, bronzer, powder and even some eyeshadow. Some days I really don’t mind the size and the extra workout my writs gets covering all these assignments! I’ll definitely be looking into acquiring a 100% blue or grey squirrel face brush as well as eyeshadow brush(es) in the future, I need one (a couple)! So what if it doesn’t happen this year, and so what if it’s not the most efficient kind of brush to work with, it just feels too damn good to continue through life without one! OTT? I don’t think so.  

As for accessories, I can't not mention my Chanel Miroir Double Facettes. I just cannot imagine applying makeup daily without a mirror that serves no other purpose than to reflect your image. I can’t stand the mirrors that come in product compacts. They’re usually covered in whatever product they store, even if you’re extra careful. If you keep any form of applicator in the compact (that you’ve used) and it’s in contact with the surface of the mirror, the oils you’ve left on it will make the mirror even dirtier and the product flying around will stick particularly well to those bits. I have zero desire to deal with that… Plus, the hinges on most compacts (at least of the ones I own) only open to about a 120 degree angle, which drives me nuts. It’s uncomfortable to hold in front of your face if you’re trying to use the mirror, and the part of the compact holding the product gets in the way of how close you can get to the mirror. With my eyesight, it’s never close enough.

I’d been looking for a new compact mirror for years, ever since my Body Shop one broke (for the third and final time). I really love that mirror, it’s huge! Off the top of my head, I’d say it’s 10cm in diameter and it’s slightly magnifying. It was really nice, but the metal casing became ugly and beaten up quite fast, then the cover got bent and wouldn’t close properly, then it broke off all together… But I continued to use it because I couldn’t find anything to replace it.

Finally, early last summer I came across the Chanel mirror on some random blog, and became enamoured. I thought for sure it wouldn’t be available where I live. Well, yes and no. It was available in two department stores, but not the place I usually get my luxe makeup, meaning, if I really wanted it, I’d have to pay the retail price, gulp, which I did. That’s how badly I wanted it. It’s special in that it’s the first Chanel price point item I’ve purchased completely by myself, full price, with my own money and it was my gift to myself for my birthday. I really like the mirror, it’s well made, one side is magnifying (I don’t know how much, because just like the type of hair and origin of their brushes, apparently it’s not knowledge worth disclosing to the sales persons or customers), it’s slim but solid and it opens to nearly 180 degrees (unlike their blush, which opens very little), all in all it’s everything I could want from a mirror and I love how it has sentimental value. I hope it’ll serve me well for many years =).

The other accessory that is a definite, though perhaps selfish favourite, is my brush case. I’m so happy my brushes as well as a few other daily necessities have made a home of it, I love reaching for it every day and placing everything back where it belongs when I’m done. Also, I’m happy I managed to design and produce it at all. I’d been in such an utter rut and spare time as well as motivation seemed like a distant memory, the fact I managed to complete it, all things considered, is a bit of a miracle. I’m happy I have it and I’m happy I made it.

Skin Care

I’m hoping 2014 will be the year of profound skincare revelations. Although as well as with makeup, I’ve learned and tried more new things than ever, there haven’t been too many Holy Grail moments. I’m still frustrated with finding a moisturizer that works. I’ve found one that doesn’t make my skin worse, but doesn’t really do much to make it better either (semi favourite). One thing that I have adapted probably since the summer, has changed my skincare routine forever. Water. The moisturizer I’m looking for will leave the skin supple and hydrated, completely not greasy, it’ll be light and very slippery. I’ve yet to find a great one, but what has made achieving a consistency close to that possible with the ones I currently do have in my rotation, is water. I keep a spray bottle of mineral water, the same water I drink, next to my skin care and spray generous amounts of it all over my face after I’ve used toner, before I use moisturizer. It helps to thin down the consistency so nicely and results in my pulling on the skin so much less trying to spread out the oil-free formula, which tends to have very little slip. After months of doing this, I tried to apply moisturizer the old fashioned way and hated it. I don’t know how I used to do it without the water step! It’s made such a change in how my skin feels, I love it!

Finally, Nivea lip balm and lip butter. When you are on acne medication that effectively dries out your skin to reset oil production, one of the areas of skin to get hit the hardest are the lips. I have to apply lip balm about four-five times an hour. No, it’s not a case of “the more you use it the more your lips will crave it, just use a hydrating lipstick”, no. If I don’t apply lip balm as frequently as my body tells me to, the upper, ultra-delicate, thin layer of skin on my lips will crack and bleed. I’ve tried SO many lip balms over the year, it’s insane.

I go through one in about two weeks. I finally managed to find a couple that became favourites, three from Blistex, but I find their packaging annoying. It seems to be a trend in American brands to have the balm twist up at the very top and also have the cap closure there. I really don’t like that, the cap is so tiny and I don’t have huge hands but find it uncomfortable. Plus having the balm itself right there, soft and melty, it gets everywhere on your fingers, the outside… Just, no. I prefer for the cap to be quite long, covering most of the actual bullet, somehow this mechanism is just more comfortable and hygienic, at least in my hands. Also, I’m very particular about flavours (and fragrance) in cosmetics, finding one that isn’t nauseating can be a challenge, and even if it’s a flavour I start out liking, come on, if you’re applying balm a hundred times a day for months, nearly any flavour would eventually become repulsive.

This was an issue. Which is why, all around the Nivea Hydro Care is my absolute HG lip balm. I love the bullet and its cap and mechanism, I love the actual balm – it’s a really pleasant consistency without being too creamy and thick, and it has a very faint, nonspecific flavour. My top three Blistex ones would tend to make the top layer of my lips peel, and of course I’d want to bite the loose skin off (tmi), but I get no such surface or desire with the Nivea. For a more intense treatment, I love their Vanilla and Macadamia Lip Butter. Vanilla is one of the few flavours I love, if done well, and in this product it is. I keep this for home use throughout the day, before bed at night and before makeup in the morning. I don’t mind sticking my finger in the tin at home, but I definitely wouldn’t out and about.

So that is my humble roundup of favourites for the year of 2013. Gosh it’s been a tough year… Hopefully there will be more goodness, discoveries and adventures in 2014 =).