Hoping everyone had a great New Years Eve/Day! It feels strange to think we're in a new year. Time flies...

Tonight, it's late. Let me present you with pictures of 2011's collective, last minute haulin'. We're talking days before Christmas here.

 I bought these products close to the end of the year (November). You may have noticed I didn't do a November New Things/Empties/Products I'm Enjoying-post. That was because I was planning to do this huge year end long series. So these are some products that I purchased in November that I'm hoping to obtain good results from for the New Year!
 Moon Care Lip Balm

This is a repurchase. I love it, it really seals the moisture in without really feeling like there's anything on your lips. I hate feeling like there is product on my lips, which is why I'm not a huge lip gloss fan - in fact, it's taken me ages to even start wearing a balm - but yeah, this really moisturises well. I like it. Let's hope it continues performing well in 2011!

 Rescue Oil.

The cheap Bio Oil rip off from the pound shop, I'm really hoping that this will make the scar on my knee less visible. Hopefully in time for summer. I want to wear shorts! *pouts*
I'm wondering if there's a specific way to apply this product? I've heard talk of people buffing it in with like a body brush. Have any of you guys used this?

Oh, and Merry Christmas, ya'll. I would have made a seperate post, but I guess everyone's been doing that lately :P

In this post, three polishes basically represent their entire line as from those I've tried, the quality has been quite consistent. Here we go...

MUA Polishes

For a pound, these are seriously decent! I've finished the clear one (used it as a topcoat) and not only was there not very much chipping, but it stayed nice and runny until the end. I find so many topcoats go all thick and nasty near the bottom, making them impossible to apply. If Superdrug can do this for a pound, Sally Hansen, why can't you?
Nice range of colours and good drying time. Thumbs up for MUA.

Sally Hansen Strengthening Base Coat

Thankfully, this is nothing like that disastarous topcoat. It seems to help prevent chipping and I love the green glass bottle it comes in. Makes me feel like I'm a pharmacist or something.

Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours "Metal Shine"

Unlike the yellow from this line, this is great! I've had it for about seven months and it remains nice and thin, doesn't chip easily at all and dries really nice and hard so you don't have to worry about dents if you hit your nails against something. I really like this!

ASOS Paints

Crazily opaque, really cute bottle designs and they dry quickly. What more do you really need from a polish? The cost is a bit prohibitive but if you get them on sale like I did, that's not an issue.

Barry M Nail Paint in "Raspberry"

Still one of my favourite reds, this is opaque in one coat and goes darker with the second. You get a good amount in each bottle and it has an awesome brush. It's just a lovely classic shade that everyone should consider owning, in my opinion.

EDIT: Forgot the Nails Inc! The one pictured is "Lowndes Square" but I've found the whole line to go on well, with no application problems, they have great staying power and come off easily with nail polish remover.
As they bloody well should for £10. Just sayin'.

Honoury mention - Tesco's Nail Polish Remover. While not a polish (quite obviously, lol) it really makes light work of removing nail polish and a little goes a long way. Plus it's dead cheap. I'm actually quite impressed by it!

The "Year End" series is almost over! Just a couple more posts to round it out.

 This is part two because linked to this is part one.
Anyway. This first picture is a load of belated birthday/christmas presents from my friends (I had my party two weeks after my actual birthday, lol...) and apparantly they ordered the rest off the interwebs so they'll be coming soon. O_o

 I just thought this was really cool! If any of you remember my blue/orange leopard print manicure, when I went to take it off this happened with the remover...it amused me enough to take a picture of it.
 This product is a nice little bunch of nasty.
 I accidentally left this out of the "Products I've Disliked Using" callout. It's a very oily lipbalm. Too much and it makes you look as if your lips have been lacquered...I put this on without a mirror in an orchestra rehearsal and my music teacher full on stared at my lips for like a minute. Most uncomfortable rehearsal ever. *shudders*
This dries my lips out more than it moisturises and took forever to finish. But I've finished it now, so yey!
 But the rollerball thing is all kinds of cool. Perhaps another brand can put this innovation to good use? This was from Blistex, by the way.
 So futuristic. Pity the product doesn't actually deliver.
 Finished. 'Twas satisfactory. I still prefer spray deodorants, though.
 They see me Fauxnadin', they hatin'.
 This design is from the Bundle Monster Plates. This is ASOS Megan as the base colour, with Boots "Berrylicious" as the design colour.
 Same design, different colours. Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours in I don't know what, the silver one that I've reviewed here once before (Chrome? Liquid Metal? Plain old Silver? Did this even come with a name?) and the design is in ASOS Alexa.

And the rest was me pic whoring.

OK, vault cleared satisfactorily.

There are only two offenders on this list for this year. But by God have they offended me.

Barry M Nail Paint in "Mint Green"

During the past two summers, Mint Green as a colour (not the polish) has been insanely popular, with every cosmetics company and it's dog rushing to produce a shade that would be as influential as Chanel's...whatever it was called. The overpriced green one with the sparkles they did. Anyway, one would have expected that Barry M's would be better than most, seeing as it was a brand well known for it's decent nail polish quality and it cost slightly more than the other offerings one could find in say, Superdrugs or Boots.
Pah. This streaky, nasty geseki* is just awful to work with. It needs a minimum of three coats to look anywhere near passable and each coat takes an insane amount of time to dry. It bubbles like a dodgy looking volcanic lake filled with noxious gases and once you've gone through the nightmare of that application, you go to bed and in the morning you find that the nail polish is all over your blanket because apparantly sixteen hours isn't a long enough drying time. I want my £3 back.

Consider if: You like the bottle shape? That's it, really. Even MUA have a mint green out now. I haven't tried that one, but if it's rubbish at least you've only wasted £1 and not £3.

Miss Sporty Clubbing Colours in "Yellow"

This polish is so much do not want. Right after I took this photo, I tossed it into the bin from the other side of the room, like a boss. I'm pretty sure there are a couple of laws of physics that this nail polish breaks? Perhaps I should take it to my science teacher and ask him. Ha, that'd go well.
"Lena. You're asking me about...what is this?"
"It's nail polish, sir."
"So what do you do with it?"
"You put it on your nails, sir. It makes them different colours..."
"Ah, so that's why your nails are always a weird colour compared to everyone else's."
"...."
Or maybe I should mail it to the New Scientist. The bottle claims that it dries in a minute. In exactly what nation does one minute = never? Seriously, do tell, I want to visit that country. For real. You paint this polish on (and here's the law defying bit) and as you're applying it, it's drying. The moment the brush (did I mention that the brush is horrible? Well the brush is horrible) leaves the bottle it's a race against time to keep it from drying completely in the 0.3 seconds it takes to apply it onto your fingers. Naturally this leaves the polish wonderfully streaky, uneven and disgusting on your nails. Now, you think to yourself, if it dries straight from the bottle, I shouldn't have to wait long for it to dry on my hands!
Lies. Dirty rotten lies. You can sit completely still for like twenty minutes and not have this polish dry. For some reason, once on the nail it draws on moisture from like the air or something to remain wet. Urgh.
And it sucks at stamping too. And marbling. Just to add insult to injury. Oh, and if you get a ball of this polish anywhere near the bottom of the plastic cup that you are using to marble, it will eat through the bottom in record time and then spill warm water all over your bathroom floor, which is something I'm sure you all want.

Consider if: you have a burning urge to burn your money, piss on the ashes and then douse them in petrol and then dump them into the sea.

EDIT: I forgot to put the meaning of "geseki" which you may have noticed I'd starred and italicised. It's Korean for "son of a bitch". Sums up that polish pretty well in my opinion.

Sadly, not everything that I bought this year was up to standard...

Urban Decay Loose Pigments in Asphyxia and Graffiti

I'm not as butthurt over these as I would be if I'd bought them at full price, but the applicator that the packaging forces you to use is just so irritating I don't feel like using these that often - which is a shame as the actual eyeshadows are gorgeous and buttery soft! I think Urban Decay is discontinuing these anyway now.

Consider if: You'd use these more to highlight the inner corners than all over the lid.

Chit Chat (Poundland) Concealer Stick in "Dark"

Dark my ass. Please. It's barely a shade darker than their medium and light concealers. It doesn't cover up spots or scars at all, creases like a mofo and is just all around disgusting. It looks beige/brown in the tube but turns an atrocious shade of yellow on the skin.

Consider if: Don't. Unless you want a very, very cheap concealer to do a mediocre job on your under eye circles. It creases as well.

Elizabeth Arden Lengthening Mascara

I don't know the exact name of this mascara as the packaging has worn off...not something that I expect from a high end mascara. It's the formula of the mascara that I hate. It's insanely wet and gets everywhere, including your freshly applied eyeshadow which you then have to reapply or take a cotton bud too. It sucks for the lower lashes as well, and the wand isn't really to my taste but that's quite a personal thing. After a month or so, the formula manages the impossible and stays wet but clumpy? So you have mascara that's wet and gets everywhere and the amount that has managed to stay on your lashes is clumpy. Gross.

Consider if: you're buying it as a present for someone that you don't like very much.

Elizabeth Arden Eye-Fix Primer

I find this product only holds shadow for about eight hours or so, which, while not horrible, isn't anywhere near say Urban Decay Primer Potion's performance and they're around the same price...also, eyeshadow begins fading around the four hour mark.

Consider if: you don't have access to anything better.

This post had a picture before I decided it was unnecessary.

Anyway, shall we start? In no particular order...

Boots Natural Collection Body Spray - Vanilla

This was two pounds for 250ml of product, if I recall correctly. I originally bought it for the spray bottle (I was planning to empty the perfume out and refill it with one of my concoctions, lol) but liked the smell and am still using it as a perfume. While it doesn't stay on for a long time, it's pretty cheap so you don't have to be conservative over how often you spray it. It does the job that I want it to, so I've put it in this post.

Sleek iDivine MakeUp Palettes - Acid & Circus

While we all know about their fail customer service, their product quality is generally very good. The matte black included with the Acid palette is to date the only eyeshadow I have hit pan on (and have nearly finished using) without it shattering into a thousand tiny pieces. It's not the most pigmented of Sleek blacks (I've found that the black in the Circus palette is insanely pigmented) but that fact is almost a plus as it gives a softer look to my eyebrows. Sleek have some of the best drugstore shimmer eyeshadows that I've ever bought. I find their mattes are lacking (except the black ones) though.

Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula Moisturizing Lip Balm

This is dead cheap (I know for a fact it is way less than £2 at Superdrugs) and really does keep my lips soft and makes them look slightly matte as opposed to very greasy/glossy as many cheap lip balms can do. I wear this either by itself, or a thin layer underneath a lip pencil/lipstick. I've recently started wearing those, lol. Another plus for this product is that it contains sunscreen. No idea what rating, but I'm happy to have it in there. My only complaint would be that it can sting a little if the lips are badly chapped. Still, I bought a second to use on parts of my body with dry skin as it contains a lot of Vitamin E, and it works really well in my opinion. I can't see this one running out any time soon, but when it does I will repurchase (already have, see above :P)

Urban Decay The Black Palette

I credit the beauty blogosphere for a) allowing me to even know of this product's existence and b) enabling me to know exactly where I stood when I purchased it. Thanks to some extremely detailed and honest reviews (including one from the Pink Sith over how to dupe it using Fyrinnae which I found really interesting and did consider attempting) I was pretty aware that I'd need the Pixie Epoxy to make it pop, which I've now ordered and am waiting for, and any other shortcomings (not a lot with this product). I love all the shades in this and am pleased to own the Zero liner and the Eden primer. It's my special occasion palette!


The MUA Make Up Line at Superdrugs

This will most likely turn up again when I do the nail polish specific year end round up, but I really love the feel of the shadows, lip glosses and the pigments from this line - it's all good quality for a pound and you get quite a lot of product for the price. The eyeshadow pans break if you so much as look at them the wrong way, but repressing them is quite a simple job (though annoying) and I enjoy pressing things so I'm not that bothered over a one pound product. I'm really excited to try out their clear mascara for my eyebrows. This was my favourite makeup launch of the year.

Bella Sugar Four Colour Eyeshadow Palette

I won a giveaway on Bella Sugar's blog a while ago, and I was really pleased to recieve the palette, being my first giveaway prize! The design on the outside is simple but so cute, and I've taken it out many a time in my bag and nothing has been broken. It's incredibly pigmented and they just look so vibrant on the lid. I remember being in science and wearing Ariel (a dark, forest/mossy green) and my science teacher saying, "Your eyeshadow is highly illegal*, but gorgeous."
Anyway I was pretty pleased by that. Hopefully in the New Year I'll be able to order. Assuming I get Christmas money. *hint hint, relatives*

* against our school rules, not necessarily against the law of the land, lol.

Have you tried any of the products from these brands? Jan, if you're reading, how did you find the MUA polishes?