little white truths

I've just posted on my 2015 favourites for both makeup and haircare, and while I'm yet to draft my 2015 skincare favourites, I wanted to sneak in this little post first because there are some clear winners this month in terms of what I'm reaching for most often and I didn't want them to get lost in all the favourite-ing ; )

The most exciting find for me this month is that rubbish Adorn eyeshadow - I say rubbish because I bought it since it's called 'matte' and I liked the look of the colour as displayed on Adorn's website, but when it showed up in the post I saw that it definitely wasn't matte and the colour was so different from the colour I was expecting (it's much brighter in real life and not something for everyday wear).

BUT when I was having a declutter and almost passed the Adorn product on to someone else, I realised that as a yellowed orange it's not so different from Nars Esoteric, which appears in the limited edition Nars Steven Klein Despair blush palette. More on that below.

Here are my favourites for December, in no particular order:

Full review here. This is a new discovery because I only opened it this month but I already love it and it's found a permanent place in my collection. I'll be rationing this travel-size container and when it's finished, I'll definitely buy the full size.

It's a powder exfoliant that you mix with water and then rub over your face, and it does an insane job of resurfacing the skin without the use of harsh grains. My skin always looks brighter and more even after using this - it's been hard not to use it every day!

Nuxe Huile Prodigieuse

I've been through countless sachets of this stuff, a full-sized bottle and another travel-size like the one pictured, and this little bottle is my last one - argh! Full review here.

I absolutely love this stuff: it's a dry oil that you can use on your face, body and hair so it's multipurpose. It smells divine and does a great job of hydrating my dry skin. It's a little on the pricey side but it's often on special in pharmacies so it's worth waiting to buy it on sale. Can't recommend this one enough.

As mentioned above, I was so disappointed in this product when I received it and I still hate it as an eyeshadow because it looks crap and it's nothing like I was expecting: due to the picture on Adorn's website and the name of this product, I was expecting a subdued, burnt orange MATTE eyeshadow and instead I got this glittery bright yellowed orange thing that doesn't even wear well.

But I've recently been on the look-out for a yellowed orange blush after testing Esoteric from the Nars Steven Klein Despair Cheek Palette - a colour that suited me well, but I wasn't going to buy the whole palette for one colour.

When I was going through my collection earlier this month and weeding out the things I never use and didn't want to keep, I swatched this and noticed that it's a similar colour to Esoteric. Score! They're not exact dupes but they're definitely in the same colour family, so I've been wearing this as a blush and it's a good colour on my cheeks. Huzzah!

I've been using this heaps throughout December and have been choosing it over my other, more hydrating primers - purely because I don't need to powder my face if I use an overly dewy tinted moisturiser since this primer does the work for me.

I'm not sure if I would repurchase this product because I've discovered this year that cream primers work best for my skin, but if I wanted a gel primer again I would definitely pick one from Bodyography.

This was a Memebox inclusion and the quality isn't amazing - it's not bad, it's just that the formula doesn't stand out - but I love these four shades and the palette is so versatile. I've reviewed it here.

As you may know, I prefer orange and purple lip products over eg pink and red ones, and out of this palette I can get an orange, a coral, a plum, a lavender lipstick and a lavender gloss.

It's a great product to cart around in my handbag for touch-ups on the go, not only because it's small and contains a few shades, but also because I can get the colours to work for just about any look, depending on how I mix them.

This isn't a product I would buy but I'll use it until it's completely gone and I know that I'll miss it once I've finished it - so much so that I've already started keeping an eye out for a similar replacement from another brand.

In sum

It was easy to pick out my favourites this month although I did have a few too many and had to narrow the list down, so the products I skipped this month will likely show up in my January favourites.

Let me know what you've been loving this month : )