Happy New Year! I hope you spent the holidays being toasty and warm with family and friends! I did fairly well with the socializing but not so much with the warmth because it's been a RECORD BREAKING COLD SNAP here in Toronto. I can't remember what it's like to not wear full long-johns all day long. SERIOUSLY.

But the one thing I HAVE done during this time is prep some blog posts for the new year! I was going to do a suuuuuuper long post with my favourite skincare products, podcasts and books, my favourite EVERYTHANG, but I decided to spare you and break it up a bit.

Now, my makeup top five was actually EXTREMELY EASY this year because there were some STRONG contenders from early on who made it easy for me to love them all year long. And unlike previous years, they're not all budget beauty picks! I considered doing a second post with things under $20 but I felt like I wasn't REALLY writing about my faves anymore, so I just made it all about my true loves instead.

Here goes!

5: Stila Perfect Me, Perfect Hue in Medium/Tan

I know, I know, I've mentioned this eye and cheek palette a LOT, but I was EXTREMELY impressed with the colours, the longevity, the pigment, and the wearability of this Stila staple! I took ONLY this eye palette to Portugal for 10 days and it did NOT disappoint me. In the future, this is going to be my go-to travel palette for work trips because it's so easy and wearable with a touch of shimmer!

4: IT Cosmetics Your Skin But Better CC+ Full Coverage Cream in Fair

2017 was the year I did a targeted ATTACK on my foundation pile and churned through some 'meh' products along the way, but it was also the year I found a NEW STAPLE in my makeup collection. I used to be DEVOTED TO Smashbox's BB Cream but this stuff has completely replaced it in my heart. You can see the magic it made back in the fall when my skin was SUPER BAD, it's probably the best coverage CC/BB Cream I've ever used.
Item was provided for review

3: Maybelline Super Stay Matte Ink in Romantic (or Heroine, or your favourite colour!)

Yeah, I'm still on THIS SHIT. But you don't understand, I had so many FITS this year with allegedly 'long-lasting' liquid lipsticks failing on me, and thrown out SO MANY products, including ALL my NYX Liquid Suedes so this product came JUST IN TIME. You can see my swatches and review here, but with a new nude line (including a smoky purple GREY!) coming out in 2018, this product isn't going away anytime soon.

2: Anastasia Beverly Hills Modern Renaissance Palette

Now, before you start telling me 'But Danielle, this palette came out in 2016?" WELL MARGARET, I couldn't get my hands on it until FEBRUARY 2017 so it hardly matters now does it? But actually, this was one of my favourite purchases of 2017 for similar reasons as the Stila Perfect Me, Perfect Hue palette. The colours can be used together for very delicate, simple looks, accessible work looks, FAST looks, and detailed or deeply intense and trickier looks. It's a palette with a LOT to give, and I feel like I've barely scratched the surface with it.

1: Lancome Grandiose Eyeliner in Brun

If you told me in January of last year that my top makeup product of 2017 would be an eyeliner, I would've rolled my eyes. Me and eyeliner are NOT BEST FRIENDS. But this eyeliner was so amazing that after I received it from Lancome earlier in the year, I BOUGHT A REPLACEMENT WHEN IT RAN OUT. You heard me. Also it lasted NINE MONTHS of 3-4 uses a week. That's RIDIC. I heard other people complaining theirs dried up in that time, but mine was going strong until October when I knew the baby was finally almost done and I replaced it IMMEDIATELY. I also received this eyeliner in green and blue, but the brown is the most opaque of the trio (the only reason I don't have black yet is because I have a lot of black eyeliner I'm working through.) AND? This worked with SO MANY OF MY LOOKS from the Modern Renaissance palette. Truly, it's a charmed product.
Item was provided for review

So that's it! The most budget friendly of my faves is definitely the Maybelline Super Stay Matte Ink which can be found for about $10 in Wal-Mart and the most expensive was Modern Renaissance at $55. If you wanted to buy EVERYTHING here, it would cost about $200 but I promise you, you (probably) won't be disappointed ;)

What were your favourite products of 2017?