Favorite Makeup Products of 2018

So, it's the end of the year, and everyone is making their lists of the best and worst makeup of 2018. The older I get and the less involved with the "influencer" side of the beauty industry I become, these lists matter less and less to me. That also might be because we are so inundated with new releases that it's hard to hold onto a few select products as "the best." And even if they do make that cut, where will they be six months or a year from now?

I didn't try a ton of new makeup this year. I did buy some things and I was gifted a few things, but I was generally less concerned with buying.

Because of this, it didn't make much sense to me to create my own "best of 2018" list, since I didn't buy many new releases and mainly just used and loved what I already had. And then it struck me—that's the entire point of this blog. To encourage mindful shopping and using what you already own.

So I decided to write a post on my favorite makeup items of 2018—most of which I acquired before 2018.

FACE

Foundation: Fenty Pro Filt'r 

I talked in depth about this foundation in a recent post, but this is a really fantastic foundation. It gives my skin a light, skin-like finish and provides a lot of coverage while also not looking like a mask. I love the shade range, and it is a brand that I feel good supporting. 

Primer: Australian Gold Tinted Sunscreen

I've used this sunscreen as a primer for a while, and despite trying several different primers this year, it still came out on top for me. My previous favorite foundation (It Cosmetics CC+) had SPF 50 within it, so it is even more important to me now to have SPF in my primer. I've raved about this sunscreen before, and I will continue to do so. It's non-greasy and yet really holds onto foundation well. I love it. 

Multi-purpose spray: MAC Fix+

I have used MAC Fix+ for many years, but I used it more this year than any other. And that's because I finally started wetting eyeshadows. This was never something I was all that interested in, mainly because I didn't feel I should have to wet an eyeshadow in order for it to work. And I still agree with that (I'm looking at you, Makeup Revolution The Emily Edit). However, some shadows still perform dry but pack a little more punch when wet, and those are the ones for which I don't mind putting in the additional effort. To wet shadows, I'll only use Fix+. This product was also heavily used when I was finishing my Soap & Glory One Heck of a Blot powder and my face looked like it was caked in product. Fix+ took down the powder look and made my skin appear a bit more natural. 

Bronzer: Hourglass Luminous Bronze Light

It's not surprising that my favorite bronzer is from Hourglass, since all of my favorite powder face products are from Hourglass. I didn't use bronzer for years (I didn't understand the point of it, to be honest), and I still only use a small amount, but I have come to really love the warmth it gives my face. With that said, I'm unsure how anyone ever finishes a bronzer. I have had this product for a long time, and I use it almost daily, and I have only made a small dent in it. 

Setting powder: Hourglass Veil Translucent Setting Powder

This is a relatively new product to me, so it might be a little unfair to call it a favorite already, but I don't care. It is. I purchased this powder to replace my One Heck of a Blot powder when it was finished, and I absolutely love it. It makes my skin look airbrushed. That shouldn't be surprising—so many Hourglass products do that. I feel like you might not notice a huge difference with this powder (and other Hourglass products) until you stop using it. That happened to me with the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder, and I just couldn't understand why my face looked so dull when I didn't use it. I feel the same about this. 

Finishing powder: Hourglass Ambient Lighting Powder in Dim Light

I've talked about this product so much at this point, so all I will say here is that I can't really see anything ever topping this powder for me. I plan on using it as long as Hourglass makes it. 

BLUSH

I have a sizable blush collection (though it probably appears small when compared to a large number of beauty content creators), and these four are the ones that stood out to me this year as the best. 

Marc Jacobs Lines and Last Night

Lines and Last Night is a perfect peach/orange blush for my skin tone, and it lasts all day without fading. I have two other Marc Jacobs blushes in this formula, but neither are quite as special (on me) as this one.

NARS Exhibit A

I've talked about this blush several times before, but this is my all-time favorite and the blush I wear the most.

MAC Gingerly 

This blush is such a great color, but unfortunately, the staying power isn't the greatest on me. I really like to pair Gingerly with a yellow-gold highlighter and warm nude (on me) lipstick. It also looks great with green or mustard eyeshadow!

Hourglass Mood Exposure

Next to Exhibit A, this is my favorite blush. Whenever I can't quite figure out what blush to wear, I go for this one. When I'm traveling, this is usually the only blush I take. I think what everyone else loves about Tarte Exposed is what I love about Mood Exposure.

HIGHLIGHTER

I firmly believe that a highlighter is a highlighter is a highlighter. I picked my three favorites from the year and the three I've worn the most, but honestly, while there are differences between them, I think they all look pretty similar on the skin—like almost every highlighter. 

Becca Vanilla Quartz

For years, Becca Moonstone was my top favorite, and it probably still is, but I wore Vanilla Quartz the most in 2018. I like that it has a yellow/peach base instead of a champagne base, which sets it slightly apart from Moonstone. Becca highlighters will likely always be my favorite, and Vanilla Quartz is a stunner. 

Physician's Formula Butter Highlighter in Pearl

I've recently talked about Pearl, but I have to say that I'll never understand why people seemed to have skipped over this highlighter. This is the only highlighter from the Butter line that I personally felt was unique, but performs at a level that is far above its price range. I would think people would rave about the Butter line, but unless I'm missing something, I haven't heard anything. 

Anastasia Beverly Hills X Amrezy Highlighter

This highlighter was given to me as a gift at a time when I really wasn't wearing much makeup or focused on anything other than recovering from 5 years of unhappiness and environmental depression as a result of living in New York City. So, it took me quite a while to use it. But since then, I have worn it a lot, and it has become a favorite.

Honestly, I wouldn't have purchased this highlighter myself, and I debated even including it in this list. And the reason for that is because Amrezy is not a person who I personally feel comfortable supporting. I understand that she and Norvina of ABH are friends, but I don't think she's a good candidate as a brand ambassador.

The highlighter is really pretty, and I was surprised by how much I liked the strong yellow-gold color. I pair this highlighter with MAC Gingerly, and I think the two make a really nice combination.

EYESHADOW PALETTES (NEW)

The irony here, of course, is that my two favorite eyeshadow palettes that released in 2018 (or at least were new to me) are pretty far apart in terms of price. I purchased NYX Grind for $12 (when it was on sale), and the Pat McGrath Decadence palette was a hefty $125. 

NYX Grind

I've heard next to no one talk about this palette, and I really don't understand why. I think it's really fantastic and one of the best color stories to come out in a while. It performs at a level that is much higher than its price range, and I don't have to work to make the shadows perform. They are just high quality. It's always a treat to use this palette. 

Pat McGrath Mothership IV — Decadence 

I bought this palette as a "Congrats, you survived New York" gift to myself. Decadence is the nicest makeup item I have ever owned. (I was then gifted another Pat McGrath palette—one of the smaller ones—and I was not impressed with that.) I have no concept why Decadence was the only limited edition Mothership palette. That makes no sense to me because I feel like it's the best one. And I think it's really disappointing that people can't buy it anymore. 

I had a slightly hard time tracking it down (it was sold out online and I had to put this one on hold at a Sephora near me and then race to buy it), but I never made the connection that it was limited edition (and not a false scarcity tactic). I remember the Sephora employee gasping when I gave my name and said what I was picking up. And I remember thinking that was weird. 

This is a beautiful palette, and these are the highest quality eyeshadows I have ever used. That's especially why I was disappointed in the smaller PM palette as it doesn't seem that the quality is consistent across the board. Decadence is the perfect name for this palette. I only wish it was still available for people to purchase. 

EYESHADOW PALETTE (NOT NEW)

BH Cosmetics Zodiac 

Up front, I need to give a disclaimer. As I detailed in my last post, I'm not sure that I will ever buy from BH Cosmetics again because I have recently had the worst customer service experience to date after purchasing from them. Long story short: They took 28 days to ship a product to me, lied to me, ignored me, and then blamed the USPS for their errors. I was incredibly disappointed by how I was treated, and when I went onto their social media, the comments were littered with people like me who were being ignored and were frustrated. Customer service is a big deal to me (and most consumers), so, at present, this is not a company that I can or do recommend purchasing from. 

With that said, the Zodiac palette is my favorite palette in my collection. And I'm including it in this post because if you already own this palette, I wanted to maybe remind you of how great it is and encourage you to get more use out of it. Zodiac is a fantastic palette, and it performs better than a lot of high-end palettes that I've tried. It is beyond disappointing that BH Cosmetics handled their customer service so unprofessionally because I really do love a lot of their products. 

SINGLE EYESHADOWS

If you've read my blog for any period of time, you'll know that I love single eyeshadows. Reflecting upon which are my favorite of the year, I found that there was a nice mix of new and old shadows. They are:

Marc Jacobs Copperazzi

Fyrinnae Rapunzel Had Extensions

Fyrinnae Serendipity 

Urban Decay Space Cowboy

Marc Jacobs The Big O!

Hourglass Foil

Fyrinnae It Beautifies! 

I have talked about all of these shadows in previous posts, so I will just say that these are the singles in my collection that really stand out, either because of color, texture, or finish. 

SINGLE EYESHADOWS (HONORABLE MENTION)

This might be cheating, but I wanted to give a mention to my giant palette (from Coloured Raine) of single shadows that I either purchased individually or depotted from palettes. This giant collection of singles helps me dupe so many new releases, and my desire to own new things gets immediately curbed. Largely, I don't think singles get enough love, but they are the best tool I have to resist buying something unnecessary. Singles will forever be one of my favorite products. 

LIPS

If I'm honest, I haven't always been a huge lip product person. That's largely because:

• I drink coffee all day and hate getting lipstick all over my nice mugs
• I typically only apply lipstick in the morning 
• I very rarely reapply my lipstick throughout the day

But, even though I might not wear it as much as I would like, I still apply some kind of lip product most days, and these are my favorites.

NARS Barbara

The NARS Audacious lipstick formula is one of my all-time favorites, and Barbara is my go-to warm nude (on me) that I pair with bold eyes, MAC Gingerly, and the ABH highlighter. 

NARS Anna

I think this is a perfect lip color for me and my skin tone, and it feels like the lipstick version of Hourglass Mood Exposure. 

Estée Lauder Shock & Awe

This has been in a monthly favorites post before, and I continue to love it. On me, it's not as bright as it looks in the tube, and I find it to be a really wearable and pretty pink. 

Pat McGrath Antidote

I bought this lipstick at the same time that I bought the Decadence palette, and I absolutely love it. I don't have anything even similar in color, and I love wearing it with a matte mustard eye look. 

Tom Ford Fetishist 

I wrote about this lipstick in a recent post, and I will say that despite the staggering price tag, it's a great lipstick. Its staying powder is like none other in my collection (including liquid lipsticks!). The color is deep and romantic, and it feels every bit as luxurious as you would expect from Tom Ford (and its price!).

What I'm Not Buying: Urban Decay Born to Run Palette

Urban Decay's latest palette, Born to Run, is a travel-themed palette that looks like the brand's typical Vice palettes, but slightly repackaged. 

And I won't be buying. 

Born to Run costs $49 and has 21 eyeshadows. Urban Decay offers free shipping on orders over $50 before tax, which means that, at $49, Born to Run conveniently does not qualify for free shipping. At the time that I am writing this post, Urban Decay is offering a special promotion of free shipping and a sticker pack with this palette, but it is unclear how long this promotion will last. Domestic shipping starts at $8, and Urban Decay has no direct international shipping. They have partnered with MyUS for international shipping, and while the website claims that the shipping fees are "deeply discounted," I can only imagine that shipping rates are still incredibly high. Therefore, outside of the special promotion with free shipping, this palette will cost upwards of $60 with tax and shipping if ordered from Urban Decay. This will be lower when ordering from Sephora or buying in-store. 

I've heard a lot of buzz about this palette and heard several people say that they have not purchased makeup in a long time because nothing has been interesting to them, but they don't think they can resist Born to Run. And I have to admit that I don't particularly understand that. Yes, I think that it is a pretty array of shadows, but it looks like so many palettes that have been released lately, and, more importantly, like so many Urban Decay products that have been released in the past couple of years. 

Before I get into the actual product, I would like to talk about the name, theme, and packaging:

If you have ever dated online or had to fill out any questionnaire about yourself, you will know just just how not unique it is to say, "I love to travel." When people are asked what they wished they could do with their lives or what they would do if they had endless funds, the first answer is usually "travel." And yet there is this interesting concept we tell ourselves that only a few in the world people have "wanderlust" or are "born to run," and we are one of them. The reality is that most people feel that way. But we like thinking we are one of the few. Urban Decay is smart for tapping into this impulse, and the packaging of this palette certainly gives me feelings of longing for vacation and travel. 

But that is the entire idea. 

Looking at the packaging, I am nostalgic of the summers I spent in by the beach in Southern California, the road trips I have taken across the US, the afternoon I spent at a seaside restaurant in Sausalito (outside of San Francisco), the summer nights I had in Paris, and the lazy evenings in Tuscany I spent drinking wine with friends. These are all memories of mine that are evoked by the images on this palette's packaging, and these aren't even my photographs! 

This is some of the most well-done, manipulative packaging that I have seen in a while. Buying this palette would give me good feelings, and not just because it fulfills my desire to buy more makeup and get new things. The "born to run" concept makes me feel special and unique, and the packaging makes me feel worldly and adventurous. 

The irony here is that if we spent less money on makeup that we already own, we could put that money toward traveling more. This is something I try to think about when a new palette or makeup item comes out that I really want but know I don't need it because I have something either identical or comparable already in my collection. It seems like just $20 here, $50 there, but if I were to actually start a savings fund and move the money that I would have spent on makeup into it, how much would I have at the end of the year? 

At the end of 2017, I actually tallied how much I spent on makeup and skincare, and the number absolutely shocked and disgusted me. And this was last year, when I was writing this blog and buying considerably less than I used to. I definitely could have taken a nice vacation with the money that I spent on makeup. I'm curious to see what the number will look like at the end of 2018, because I have found a way to cut down on the cost of skincare, and I have no plans to buy significant makeup for the rest of the year. 

It is certainly worth thinking about what else you could buy with money spent on makeup that you don't need, and I think it's interesting that Urban Decay is almost baiting us with those possibilities but hoping that we will instead buy the eyeshadow palette because it will give us the illusion of traveling. 

Let's look at the palette:

When I first saw this, I immediately thought of the recent Urban Decay Heavy Metals palette:

As well as Vice 4:

And After Dark:

This is what I just don't understand about Urban Decay. They are trying to sell me a palette that they have already tried to sell to me three other times, including six months ago with the Heavy Metals palette. This is also why I don't understand people saying that they haven't been tempted by anything until they saw Born to Run. If you weren't tempted by Heavy Metals, why are you tempted by Born to Run? All of the shimmer shadows can be found in Heavy Metals, and all of the matte shades are found in Naked Heat:

and Naked Petite Heat:

It's almost as if Urban Decay only has 20 or so shadows and they keep recycling them in every single palette they release. Born to Run even includes Smog, which is in the Naked palette and has been in countless other Urban Decay palettes. It's a gorgeous shadow and one of my favorites from the brand, but no one needs seven pans of it across different palettes. 

Let's look at swatches:

I'll say this: Brands are slowly getting better about thinking about inclusivity and diversity in their marketing images, but it serves little purpose to show how swatches look on three different skin tones if they look nearly identical across the skin tones. This is obviously not how these shadows are going to look on various skin tones once applied to the eye. No one packs on pigment that much on an eyelid. 

It's also worth mentioning how different the swatches look in the promotional images from the images Urban Decay released on their Instagram:

Granted, the lighting is not great in the above image, but you can still see that the swatches were applied very heavily (more than someone would put on their eye), and the colors are significantly less vibrant than in the promotional images. 

Born to Run not only looks like so many Urban Decay palettes, but it also looks like so many existing palettes in general. If you take out the four blue, green, and black shades, you have Huda Beauty Desert Dusk:

As well as Morphe x Jaclyn Hill:

It also looks like Tarte Be a Mermaid:

NYX Earth:

And Morphe 39A:

to name just a few. 

Honestly, it seems like the aspect of this palette that Urban Decay cared the most about and put care into was the packaging. Not just making it travel-themed, but in creating a different style of palette. I've heard so many people express excitement over the mirror in the palette, but that's just the mirror. It's not the actual product. The Heavy Metals palette was heavily criticized for the poor packaging, and it seems like Urban Decay decided to just redo that palette. They made some packaging upgrades and then added some of the traditional matte shades they throw into every palette to give the illusion that it is somehow different. It's not. It's the same thing that Urban Decay has been doing for years. 

And for the record, I like the packaging changes. I think the palette looks sleek, and it actually looks like the Sephora Pro palette packaging that I love. But new packaging is never a good enough reason to spend $50 to $60 on products that you already have. 

I think Born to Run falls short in a lot of ways, and two of the biggest are color selection and finishes. Something I think a lot of brands do poorly is the selection of matte shadows. Inevitably there will always be a color that a light-skinned person can use as a brow bone highlight and transition shade. These colors will always be neutral shades of beige. Typically there won't be equivalent shades for people with darker skin, which is exactly the case in Born to Run. Additionally, I am a person who likes colorful matte shadows. So if I'm going to be doing a green look, I'm not going to want to always blend it out with beiges and browns. One of my favorite palettes is Viseart Dark Matte:

because it gives me these rich and colorful tones within a matte finish. It would have been nice and refreshing to see Urban Decay include some matte blues, greens, olives, mustards, and other complementary shades for the more "colorful" shadows in this palette. Instead, they've given us the Naked palette and the Naked Heat plus some "colorful" shimmers from all of their other palettes. It's the same color scheme again and again, and it's boring. It's boring as a consumer, it's boring as a makeup lover, and it's even boring as an anti-haul blogger because I feel like I keep writing the same posts about "different" releases that are essentially the same. 

In my opinion, the best thing this palette has going for it is that the packaging makes me feel nostalgic for special times in my life. But that has zero to do with the product inside. I don't feel excited or inspired looking at this color scheme, and it almost makes me a little irritated because Urban Decay can't seem to do anything new. And when you look at the new palettes Jaclyn Hill curated for Morphe, it really shows how uninspired Urban Decay has been with all of their repeat releases. 

I have all of these shades already, and I don't need to have them in special, nostalgic-filled packaging. This is the kind of palette I feel most people would get tired of using after a couple weeks and would be ready to move on to the next thing because, while it is technically a new palette, the looks you'll be able to create aren't new. And at upwards of $50 or $60, that is way too much to spend on something that will be dull in such a short amount of time. This release is quite literally nothing new, and there is nothing about it that I feel excited by. So I won't be buying. 

What I'm Not Buying: Urban Decay Naked Petite Heat

Urban Decay has announced their latest Naked Basics palette, which is a mini mostly matte version of their Naked Heat palette: Naked Petite Heat. 

And I won't be buying. 

I'm excited to write this post and I feel like things could get a little feisty because this is, without doubt, the most jaw-dropping "we don't need this" eyeshadow palette release I have seen in some time. 

First, I would like to thank one of my readers for alerting me to this palette on Instagram. I would share their name, but their Instagram account is private, so I want to respect their privacy. I really love it when people tag me in posts about new product releases because sometimes I miss the unveiling of new releases. So, thank you.

Onto Naked Petite Heat. So, I'm confused here. This is obviously a Naked Basics palette:

But for some reason Urban Decay is not calling it that and not branding it in their Basics line. It's in the exact same packaging and has the same layout of five matte shades and one shimmer. Clearly Urban Decay is trying some rebranding and riding the coattails of their Naked Heat palette (my anti-haul post on that can be found here), but let's call this palette what it is: the warm-toned version of Naked Basics:

And if there is one thing that the makeup industry desperately needs, it's a warm-toned mostly matte palette. 

Sarcasm aside, what I don't understand is that Urban Decay has already given us this palette. And not just in Naked Heat:

(Which, by the way, despite the fact that the two palettes have different shade names, it seems pretty clear that the shades in Naked Petite Heat are the same as the mattes in Naked Heat, but we'll get to that in a bit.)

Urban Decay also already gave us that with the Naked Ultimate Basics palette:

Specifically, the first four shadows on the bottom row:

I suppose the reasoning behind not calling Petite Heat a "Basics" palette is that they already gave consumers the "Ultimate Basics" palette, so if they released another Basics palette it would somehow invalidate the claim that it was the "ultimate" palette?

I don't know; that's the best I can come up with. 

Let's look at swatches:

Do you know what I see when I look at these swatches? Literally every other warm-toned palette that has been released in the past two years. 

I literally laughed when I saw this palette because I just could not believe that after Urban Decay was already so late to the game with releasing Naked Heat that they would release yet another warm-toned palette when there's no one hurting for warm-toned neutrals. 

Let's look at the colors as pigments:

When you strip the shadows away from their packaging, I see three boring neutrals and three slightly less boring neutrals. The last three shadows would have been interesting a few years ago, but because of all the palettes that have been released since then, this is just more of the same now. 

So, let's look at all these other palettes, shall we?

There's the Kat Von D Shade and Light Eye palette, of course:

Specifically the warm quad:

And speaking of Kat Von D quads, there's also the Shade and Light Eye Quad in Rust:

There's Viseart Neutral Matte:

Specifically this section:

Viseart Dark Matte:

Which offers a similar, but more interesting quad:

And Viseart Warm Matte:

There's also the Melt Rust Stack:

Coloured Raine Beauty Rust:

Dose of Colors Baked Browns:

And Sassy Siennas:

Huda Beauty Obsessions Warm Brown:

Morphe x Jaclyn Hill:

Specifically, this section:

At the drugstore, theres's one of my all-time favorite palettes, Milani Earthly Elements:

And, of course, there's Colourpop Yes, Please!:

Off the bat I'm going to say that I think Naked Petite Heat is overpriced and that you can get more and better for cheaper. Naked Petite Heat is $29 before tax and shipping. If you buy through Urban Decay, there is only free shipping on orders over $50, so Petite Heat alone wouldn't be enough to qualify. Shipping is also $8, which is steep, epically for something this small. If you include shipping, this palette now costs $37, and that's not including tax. For upwards of $40, I do not think Naked Petite Heat is worth it. I would instead recommend Colourpop Yes, Please! for $16 and $6 shipping. Yes, Please! offers all of the colors in Petite Heat plus several more interesting shades and textures. 

In my opinion, this release from Urban Decay is redundant and unnecessary. If you have any of the above palettes, you have Naked Petite Heat already. The only people who I can really see wanting this are those who want to complete their Naked Basics collections or who want to have both Naked Heat palettes. That's it. Because there are so many other options available at this point that you either have these colors if you want them or you don't want them. 

Typically, in a post about a product like this, I would talk about how this is bringing absolutely nothing new or innovative to the makeup community. I would also mention that it's a product that perpetuates the idea of continually buying what you already own because a different brand releases it, it is part of a serial line, or because the layout is slightly different from what you already own. 

And all of that remains true about Naked Petite Heat. In fact, it looks like Urban Decay went out of their way to rename all the shadows in this palette so that people who already own Naked Heat will buy these exact shadows again. Urban Decay is not the only brand to do that, but this is one of the more blatant examples of it that I've seen. 

But also, I'm personally at a point in my consumer journey where I am not yearning for a brand to come out with something that I haven't seen before. Because I just don't want any more. And frankly, I don't know if it's even possible for a brand to do that at this point since there are only so many colors and I own almost all of them. 

This is something I would like to talk about. For a while now I've had fatigue from all of the makeup products that are being released at rapid fire. And it's something that I'm starting to see other people talk about as well. People have mentioned that a new product is launching weekly, but it really seems like it's happening multiple times a week and maybe even daily. It's too much and no one can keep up with that, mentally or financially, unless they are a beauty influencer who needs daily content. The market is so oversaturated that I feel exhausted by all of it. It's no longer exciting for me, and I guess you could say that I have burnt myself out. 

And this palette is an excellent example of unnecessary consumerism. It's a color scheme that is so overdone that it's laughable and is literally a part of two existing Urban Decay palettes (both of which are permanent). This is so obviously just a lazy release from Urban Decay and one that they know will sell. It makes me appreciate brands like Kat Von D and Anastasia Beverly Hills more because they don't have a new eyeshadow palette released every month. When they do release a palette (I'm talking more Kat Von D here), it feels like it was done so with purpose rather than trying to capitalize on a current trend. 

I do believe that there are people who would love to have Naked Petite Heat. I'm sure they love to do really warm looks and they like the idea of how compact this palette is. Thing is, it really doesn't matter how compact something is unless you are the type of person to literally carry your makeup in your purse or if you travel a considerable amount. Otherwise, we both know that you already have all of these shades and you are just bored and wanting to try something new. 

For me, I'm tired of all of these releases, especially ones like Naked Petite Heat, which is recycling old colors and releasing a product simply for the sake of it. I don't need or want this palette, so I won't be buying.