2011 Year in Review and Favorite Products

Wow, 2011 is nearly over! Hard to believe it went so quickly and yet also seemed to drag so much during certain other times (ahem, at work, ahem).

I wasn’t even going to do a 2011 review post but then I thought, it does make a nice kind of yearly ‘wrap up and move on’ post. It’s always nice to look back on successes throughout the year and products you might have forgotten about that came out months before. Half this stuff I forgot I even owned because it’s buried under so much other newer stuff. Kidding. No I’m not.

Before we get to my favorite things, I thought I would recap some things that stood out for me this year and some blog stats.

Blog Accomplishments

• MAC Bloggers’ Obsessions Collection. I wasn’t chosen in the end, but the fact that I was asked to be a part of the submission process was a huge thing for me. I’ve been wearing MAC for 20 years now, and they are my favorite brand.
• I became a Wet n Wild Beauty Ambassador in June and that was a great thing! Long before MAC was even on the horizon Wet n Wild was the first makeup I ever bought as a thirteen year old, so they have a special place in my heart.
• Too Faced named me their Level 1 Beauty Blogger for December. I love Too Faced products and packaging, so this was really fabulous!
• Stila interviewed me for a guest post on their blog, and that was great fun! Stila has been a brand I’ve been wearing for what seems like forever, love them.
• I joined the Lucky Style Collective which is a group of bloggers associated with Lucky Magazine and I have been featured on their blog. Hopefully that will lead to a magazine mention or two in the future!
• I attended the Beautylish Social this past October in Santa Monica, and I consider that an accomplishment because it was the first time I ever went to one of these things! I met some of the bloggers/YouTube people I really admire, and it was a lot of fun.
• I attended BlogHer ’11 which had its ups and downs, but I don’t regret having gone to learn more of what it was about.

Blog Statistics

• In the last year I have had:
• 2,536,973 visits
• 6,081,057 pageviews
• 948,694 unique visits
• Have been read in 203 countries/territories (Top 10 are: US, Canada, UK, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Singapore, France, Netherlands, Sweden)
• My top 10 most viewed posts are:
• Revlon Colorburst Lip Butters
• Zoya Intimate Collection
• LCN Magnetic Polish
• MAC Semi Precious Collection
• NYX Soft Matte Lip Cremes
• MAC Wonder Woman Collection
• Zoya Mirrors Collection
• Zoya Sunshine Collection
• China Glaze Crackles
• NYX Round Lipsticks
• I posted about 700 posts this year
• I posted about 5,245 photos this year

Favorite Products of 2011

This was NOT easy to narrow down so grab a cuppa joe, tea, water or gin & tonic and settle in for a long read. This is in no particular order. Click photos to see the full original posts.

MAC Quite Cute Collection

Colors that spoke to me and such cute packaging. Candy Yum Yum turned out to be one of my favorite lipsticks EVER.

Milani Smoothe Base Coat and Glosse Top Coat

These products are a great alternative to my beloved Nubar Foundation base coat and Diamont top coat. Almost as good and less expensive.

Wet n Wild Coloricon Dream Weavers Collection

Some really great color combos in this collection and I wear them all the time!

Illamasqua Toxic Nature

There were some oddball colors in this collection for sure, but that is why I liked it. Radium especially is a must have!

Finger Paints Special Effects

Five amazing flakies. What’s not to like?

Wet n Wild Coloricon 8 Pan Eye Shadow Palettes

These much sought after eye shadows were worth the search, especially Comfort Zone.

Physicians Formula Happy Booster Glow & Mood Boosting Blush

Not only is this blush a really flattering rose color, the blush itself is beyond cute! All makeup should be this pretty.

Zoya Intimate

This collection is so pretty and soft but the must have colors are Gemma, Dannii,Jules and Caitlin. SO spring-esque!

Stila Waterproof Sparkle Liquid Eye Liner

I reviewed these twice, they were so good.

 

Milani Haute Flash Full Coverage Shimmer Lipgloss

These shimmery saturated lipglosses are amazing and less expensive than the similar MAC ones. They were sadly LE though.

NYX Round Lipsticks

I really love the color of some of these lipsticks, as well as the price!

BB Couture Sinfully Polished

This collection, which was twelve in total because of the women’s and men’s sides, had some real stunners. Jealousy, Lazy Bum, Anger, Envy, Sloth, Indulgent and Selfish are all must haves. That’s a lot!

Butter London Wallis

I mean come on. This was definitely one of THE stand out nail polish colors of 2011 for me. Probably in my top 5 of the year.

Kat Von D True Romance Angeles Palette

I love this one so much because it’s got the warmer tones and cooler tones. The colors were all gorgeous and saturated, and it’s a beauty.

Estee Lauder Metallic Sage

Another stunning green nail polish was Metallic Sage. This also falls into one of my top favorite nail polishes of 2011. Gorgeous!

Urban Decay Super Saturated Lip Color

These are some seriously juicy looking lip colors and I adore them. Crush is one of my favorite pinks of the year.

CND 24k Sparkle

A beautiful gold flake polish, I love this over practically any color!

China Glaze Metro

If you’ve been reading my site for awhile now you know I like weird colors that a lot of people don’t. My fav from this 12-piece collection was Trendsetter. Utterly gorgeous in my book.

SpaRitual Wilde

There were some amazing colors in this collection but my favs were Sacred Ground and Howl.

Chanel Illusions d’Ombre de Chanel

Oh yeah, people went crazy for Peridot, which is an amazing color. But I was just as smitten with Graphite!

Benefit Bella Bamba

One of my most used blushes is Bella Bamba. It’s the perfect pinkish coral shade with just enough shimmer.

Zoya Mirrors

The Mirrors collection included Neeka and Yara, which are some of my fav colors for 2011. So saturated and smooth!

Tarte Amazonian Clay Blushes

These blushes are incredible because the colors are SO vivid and pigmented and they last an eternity.

Jack Black Intense Therapy Lip Balm

Ok so these may not be new products but they are new to me and definitely my favorite lip balm of all time. Great stuff.

Too Faced Full Bloom Blushes

These blushes are more than just pretty packaging (they do have some of the best packaging out there though!). Pigmented and pretty colors!

a-england The Mythicals

If you haven’t yet tried a-england nail polish, get thyself to her site now! Amazing quality, gorgeous colors and Adina is so nice!

Dr. Jart Beauty Balm

This beauty balm is one of my fav products ever. Sunscreen, moisturizer, anti-aging serum, primer and foundation all in one. I wear it allllll the time now.

Jesse’s Girl Pure Pigment Eye Dust

Inexpensive, fun, cool colors and easy to use. Love these.

Revlon Colorburst Lip Butter

There is definitely a reason these were my top viewed post. Everyone loves these easy to wear, moisturizing butters that come in a wide range of shades!

NYX Matte Lipsticks

I adore these matte lipsticks from NYX SO much! Super pigmented, not drying, and amazing vivid colors.

Ozotic 507

Another amazing nail color! This time a multi-chrome that changes from olive green to emerald green to an old gold.

Fortune Cookie Soap

I love nearly every single thing from this company, I don’t even know where to begin! My fav products from them are the Whipped Cream Body Butters and Sugar Scrubs though. Yum!

Wet n Wild Megalast Lipcolor

I tried 19 of the 20 colors these come in and really loved them. Really good formula (mostly) and colors, especially for the $3.00 price!

MAC Cham Pale

I totally loved nearly every single thing in this collection. Soft, pretty, shimmery colors.

And that wraps it up!

What were some of your favs from 2011?

-Kelly