Hail and Fails of 2022

Hi lovelies,

It’s that time again. Our final post of 2022 with our customary Hails and Fails of the Year post. Sorry about posting a little off schedule this week but the holidays have made it a little awkward.

But first…let’s get a little sappy. It’s been a bit of a crazy year and I want to thank you for sticking by us. You’ve made this our most successful year to date and we cannot thank you enough. Next year we’re going to be taking things to the next level with client bookings for makeup sessions as well as one-to-one lessons both in-person and online. Booking information will be going live soon and we can’t wait to see what the future holds. Don’t worry. We won’t stop posting our weekly reviews for you.

Onto the list. We’ve found so many good products products this year that it’s been hard to narrow it down this much. Please remember, these are the RachNevsBeauty Hails and Fails that we’ve discovered over the last 12 months. Not every product has been released this year and these products do not encompass the brand as a whole. These products are not necessarily bad but they just didn’t work for us. No shame or hate in that.

Hails

As usual we’re kicking things off with a couple of eyeshadow palettes. Let’s start with some new additions to the collection-the Beauty Bay Bright and Bright 2.0 palettes. Both palettes are available in 3 sizes (9, 16 and 42 pans) perfect for all budgets though I highly recommend just grabbing the bigger ones straight away if you can. Each palette has a huge range of colours and tones to create a variety of looks and can be used alone or with each other. There’s not a repeated shade in them. Although the shimmers look stunning, it’s the mattes that are the main highlight of these two. They are so pigmented yet easy to blend that they are perfect for beginners and pros alike. Unfortunately the shimmer crease really quickly but that doesn’t detract from those soft mattes.

We also added to our BPerfect collection with a couple more palettes from the Stacey Marie collaboration. As we loved the Carnival XL Pro so much last year, we decided to grab the Carnival 3 Love Tahiti and the Carnival 4 Antidote. These are a touch more expensive than the Beauty Bay palettes so be sure to really check out the shades to find the best one for you. The shadows are highly pigmented, easy to blend and can be layered up without patchiness. The shimmers last hours without creasing too. Once again, across the palettes there’s not a single repeated shade and all work together as well as individually.

The Made By Mitchell Graph-Ink Liners are another recent addition that simply had to make the hails list. As someone who struggles with liquid eyeliners, these are life-changing for me. The formula and applicator combined make these really easy to apply without moving half the skin of your eyelid. The formula applies smoothly with good, even pigment while being fast drying so it doesn’t transfer. They can also be layered up if needed despite the quick drying.

Another brand double as we also discovered the Made By Mitchell Blursh this year and boy were we surprised. Previous experiences with liquid blush left us a little dubious about trying the Blurshs however they are pretty good. It took a couple of tries before I got the best out of them and I’d definitely recommend a dense face brush for application. There’s a good selection of neutral and colourful shades that are quite pigmented, buildable and blendable. They don’t lift liquid base products used underneath and dry down to a powder finish. The best liquid blush I’ve tried so far.

The Nars Bronzing Powder is the final makeup product on our hails list. This is basically saved for special events because it’s too expensive and I only have a mini. However, it is a stunning bronzer that does last a while. It is highly pigmented so you don’t need to use much and it’s so soft that it blends onto the skin with ease. It leaves you with a natural, sun kissed glow to your skin.

Two skincare items next with the Pixi Glow Tonic and POREfessional Primer by Benefit Cosmetics. Both these items have become a bit of a staple for me though I only wear the primer on bad skin days. The Glow Tonic has definitely improved my complexion over the course of this year. My skin looks brighter with a more even tone and the deep cleanse leave your pores almost invisible. The POREfessional Primer is one that helps for non-makeup days. It is fabulous for blurring pores and fine lines as well as leaving you with a matte looking complexion. It can feel greasy to the touch but absorbs into the skin quickly without leaving it greasy.

The final item on our hails list for the year isn’t even makeup. The Isoclean Antibacterial Makeup Brush Cleaner has become a staple product in my kit. Either the dip bottle or the spray top bottle, it doesn’t matter. The brush cleaner is amazing. Simply coat the bristles in the cleaner then wipe it on a towel. Done. Oh and dry in a minute ready to use. Honestly not sure if I can live without this now.

Fail

We’ve found a couple of products this year that, unfortunately, we just didn’t gel with at all. Now that’s not to say that they’re awful and no hate to the brands whatsoever but some products just don’t work well for us. Nothing to say they won’t work for you.

The first one to make the fails list is the Too Face Cosmetics Extreme Lip Injection Plumping Gloss. One of the most underwhelming, hyped up products I’ve found. The formula has a nice consistency and a pretty shimmer to it but it did absolutely nothing to the size of my lips. It produced an intense tingle and my lips went slightly numb for about 10 minutes but that was all. Really disappointing.

Now this one was a surprise to make this list and I didn’t want to include this brand but this item really did not do it for us in the slightest. The Kimchi Chic Beauty Twenty Five 01 Send Me Sprinkles palette was a lot of a bummer if I’m completely honest. I tried to love it and make it work but it was a struggle. Too many shades looked the same, some were patchy, most were hard to blend. The shimmers were pretty though.

Another makeup item that didn’t really work for me was the Beauty Crop Brow Gel. Now I barely have any brows but those that I do are quite thick and long and require reasonably strong gel. This one wasn’t for me. It took ages to dry and didn’t hold my brows in place at all. Not one for me but might be ok if you have finer brows.

Another skin care item that we didn’t gel with was the Elemis Superfood Glow Priming Moisturiser. Now this is purely personal preference because the product itself is pretty amazing. It leaves your skin soft and looking radiant while being a decent primer. However, it has too many reflective particles in there for me personally. It’s too much glow for wearing as a moisturiser alone and it highlights skin texture. It also has a fragrance which I’m not the biggest fan of.

Well I think that’s it for this year. If you have any thoughts on our chosen products or even have your own to share, we’d love to hear about them in the comments. Don’t forget to hit those like and follow buttons or maybe join our email list if you loved it. Thank you once again for an amazing year, we literally could not have done it without your continued support. We hope you have a great New Year and we’ll see you in 2023!

Rach xx