Welcome to part 3 of my 2014 favorites: eye products!

In case you missed them, part 1 was skin and hair favorites and part 2 was face product favorites.

This last year has been a big year for lipstick for me BUT, at heart, I’m really an eyeshadow fanatic. I tend to have mostly palettes so it was really difficult for me to narrow this down. In fact, I didn’t completely succeed since I have more than one favorite. But having one single favorite is a stupid thing anyway!

Favorite Eyeshadow Base

I have dry eyelids and most eyeshadow primers just exacerbate the problem. BUT, I use a lot of skin care products on my eyelids so sometimes I deal with simultaneously dry lids AND eyeshadow creasing. Enter Jordana 12 Hour Made to Last Eyeshadow Pencil in Continuous Almond. This provides a sticky base for eyeshadow, and it also dries down enough to keep everything from creasing as the day goes on. Plus, it’s super cheap ($3.99) and can be purchased at Walgreens. If you have a deeper skin tone, Milani has a similar product in a range of skin tones.

Favorite Cream Eyeshadow

Make Up For Ever Aqua Cream was a new discovery for me this past year. It’s waterproof, creamy, easy to blend, sets completely, doesn’t dry out my eyelids, doesn’t crease, doesn’t fade and comes in a wide range of gorgeous colors. What’s not to love?

Aqua Cream costs around $23.00 and can be purchased at Sephora or from the MUFE website.

Favorite Single Eyeshadow

Wet n’ Wild Color Icon Eyeshadow Single in Brulee doesn’t look very interesting. It’s a matte cream eyeshadow which is fairly easy to come by but I use this eyeshadow almost every single time I do my makeup. It’s also the only eyeshadow that I have ever hit pan on. The powder itself is finely milled and buttery smooth. It borders on too powdery and kicks up a little dust, but in this case, that really doesn’t bother me at all. The packaging is small and easy to carry in a makeup bag, it costs $.99, and can be purchased anywhere that Wet n’ Wild is sold from grocery stores to drugstores.

Favorite Brow Product

I’ve tried a lot of different brow products from powders to pencils to pens to creams. I’ve found many many brow products that work just fine but often there is some small drawback to each of them whether it’s a pencil that tugs my brow hairs or a powder that fades throughout the day. The Milani Brow Tint Pen in Taupe has a fine felt tip that makes it easy to fill in individual bare patches and despite the shade name, this has a distinct reddish tint which I prefer (I know most people don’t, but I currently have red hair so I think it’s a huge bonus). This retails for around $7.00 and I purchased it at CVS.

Favorite Mascara

I have a bit of a mascara problem in that I am constantly suckered into buying all the new releases. The promise of perfect lashes is just too much for me to resist. At the moment, I am working through no less than four different tubes, all of which are ok and give different looks but none of which do I see myself repurchasing. The Jordana Best Lash Extreme mascara is a really surprising product because it is incredibly cheap but performs incredibly well.  It gives full lashes, is completely black, adds a bit of length and doesn’t flake off. It’s THREE DOLLARS YA’LL. Crazy right?

Favorite Overall Eyeshadow Palette

The Lorac Pro Palette has been talked about so often that you’re probably sick of hearing about it, but all the hype is completely warranted. The palette consists of eight matte shades and eight shimmer/satin shades. Every single eyeshadow in this palette is incredibly pigmented, very soft, smooth and easy to blend and there isn’t a shade in the whole thing that I don’t love. You can get anything from barely there neutral looks to vampy smokey looks. It’s just gorgeous. Some of the matte shades do kick up some powder and have a little bit of fallout but nothing insane. I do experience a little fading with these if I don’t use a base but I rarely experience creasing under any circumstances. This palette retails for $42.00 and can be purchased from Ulta, Kohls or from the Lorac website.

Runners Up in the Eyeshadow Palette Category

I told you I couldn’t choose just one. While the Pro Palette was a definite winner for me I felt that two more palettes deserved honorable mentions.

Kat Von D Monarch Palette – A warm toned, mostly neutral palette with incredible overall eyeshadow quality. Every time I break this out, it takes a lot to pull me away from it again. I’ll use this for weeks and weeks in a row and not get bored. It’s just lovely. There are 12 shades in this palette and it retails for $46.00 at Sephora.

Urban Decay Electric Palette – I spent a significant amount of time (and money) over the years trying to essentially collect shades similar to the ones contained in this palette. I have a handy little collection of single colorful shades and bright quads in my stash but when I finally broke down and bought this I felt like I had all the bright colors I’d been searching for. Each shade in this palette is beautifully pigmented, there are a variety of finishes and these wear like a dream. If you’re craving some color in your eyeshadow collection, I highly recommend this palette. It retails for $49.00 and can be purchased from the Urban Decay website, Ulta, Sephora, Nordstrom’s, Macy’s…you get the idea.

That wraps up the eye products favorites! I have to admit that I’m pretty impressed with myself for not including ALL THE EYESHADOWS!! I kind of wanted to.

What were your favorite eyeshadows and eye products over the last year? Do you also hate eye primers or am I just a weirdo?

2014 Favorite Lip Products