Today we are discussing the higher-end makeup discoveries of 2018 that I truly fell in love with this year. Now, keep in mind, I didn’t wear or care about makeup before 2018 so some of these items may have been around for quite a while, I don’t know, but I just discovered and loved them this year. I’ll also add that I did not pick out any eyeshadow despite the fact that I have definitely loved eyeshadow this year. I chose not to because I think I am going to do a palette ranking post in the upcoming days.

I am starting off with skincare/haircare type things. First of all, skincare was a big deal for me this year. Beginning a skin care routine after years of fun in the sun and wind with exactly zero care for my face was absolutely important. Getting a skincare routine in place completely changed how I believed my skin was (dry) and also completely changed how makeup performed on my skin. After a couple of months of good skincare, I realized that my skin wasn’t dry, it’s pretty normal to oily in the t-zone. It was just massively dehydrated.

All that being said, I tried some higher-end skin care and ended up really settling on the Belif moisturizing eye bomb and the aqua bomb. The aqua bomb is a moisturizer with a gel texture that keeps me from feeling too oily and the eye bomb was the one thing this year that I feel consistently made my eye area look significantly improved. I tried many other items, so I am going to mention my runner-ups too. First Aid Beauty was a great runner-up and I am still working my way through some of that. The other one I liked a lot was Farmacy Honey Drop lightweight moisturizer. But, since I have the Belif, I don’t need to purchase.

For my hair, the real amazing stand out product is the Moroccan Oil dry texture spray. I love this! Now that my hair is long I don’t bother to wash it daily. So after a bit, it tends to fall flat. A little bit of this texture spray lifts the roots right back up and makes it look quite good. I’ve experimented with lots of texturizing or beach spray products and nothing has performed as well as this one.

The Laneige lip sleeping mask and the Bite Beauty lip sleeping masks have been amazing. In fact, the other night I was thinking “I don’t think these work as well as they used to.” and then realized that the reason I felt that way was that I wasn’t having any trouble at all with dry or chapped lips. Like, it doesn’t ever happen anymore. It’s the middle of the winter! But I have zero chapped lips troubles and these products are the reason that’s the case.

And finally, I am really digging the Becca primers. The back light priming filter and the first light priming filter. I think what I am loving the most is that they seem like they sink into the skin so nicely. I’ve got a lot of primers I’ve tried and want to get through but these are ones I’ve tried and will purchase full sizes of when I have gotten through everything else.

Now for some makeup. First up, the Hourglass Illusion skin tint. Now, you can see that container is rather used. I am almost finished with this. And, technically I am not going to repurchase it. But that’s only because I don’t need it right now. When I purchased this, my dehydrated skin wasn’t looking good with any foundation I tried. This changed everything. Now that I have a good routine down, I need it less. But I do still love it completely.

3 lip items I have enjoyed. These are all small sample sizes, I haven’t purchased full sizes of any of these. All these have something in common. They are highly pigmented lip products that are also extremely highly moisturizing cream products. I am learning that this is my favorite type of lip product and I am going to try to stay away from liquid lipsticks in the future. The first is Hourglass Girl Lip Stylo, the second is Bite Beauty amuse bouche lipstick, and the third is Bobbi Brown Crushed lip color.

I have tried many samples of higher end mascara this year and the one that is standing out to me is Lancome Monsieur Big mascara. I really like how this looks on my eyes and I am thrilled that I just received another sample size as a birthday gift from ulta. That’s another few months of not purchasing mascara!

I received the Chella eyebrow cream in a subscription box. I looked it up and found out that it’s quite pricey! So, I am including it in this high-end loves list. I hate the delivery system and gave up completely on the attached brush. I just go in with my own little eyebrow brush and grab product. This’ll likely last me for a good long time yet. And I might consider purchasing it in the future. But probably there are other good products to try first that are lower end.

The Milk makeup gel eyeliner in nude. I am so glad I got this! I use it in my waterline and it goes on so creamy and smooth! I can’t get over this product, and it’s likely to be a mainstay in my collection. I may explore some of the colored ones as well, but not right now.

The Pretty Vulgar powder was a big surprise to me this season. I got this in a subscription box. It is NOT a mattifying powder and in fact, when I use it to set my makeup I do get a bit oily by the end of the day, even in the winter. But it’s just really finely milled and pretty and looks so natural on the face! I can’t get over it. I will use it this winter and probably put it away for a while when the weather warms again and I really need something more mattifying in my life.

Then there’s the Laura Geller baked blush. Another product I received in a subscription box, this blush has such a nice sheen when used on the skin. I adore it! I have plenty of blushes in my collection but was eyeing all of the other colors when I was in the store the other day. I decided not to go for it because I want to get use out of what I already own but I am sooooo happy to have this blush in my collection to use.

Below that is the mac shiny pretty things highlighter I got this season. We use this as an eyeshadow more than a highlighter as it’s quite sparkly. This item is an indulgence. It feels like an indulgence. But I do also use it as a highlighter sometimes just because it’s fun to do and I am so glad I jumped on this and purchased it as we really use it a ton.

And finally the mac paint pot. I really love using this as an eyeshadow primer. I think it works beautifully and I love how it lasts forever. I also love how it cancels out any discoloration on the eyelids so easily.

I’ve got one more stand out product to discuss. It’s the Too Faced natural face palette. Now, at the beginning of the summer, Ulta was having a sale on too faced palettes. They were basically half price. I picked up chocolate gold for Miss Butterfly’s birthday, picked up sweet peach for me, and then the natural face palette was a total impulse buy. I mean, never mind that I’d swatched it and drooled over it in the store every time I went in, I still hadn’t been intending to purchase it. But I did. And I love it.

The packaging is soooooo beautiful. I can wear every single item in this collection. All of it looks good on my face. Except for this, it looks good in the summer. Hah! Or should I say, it looks more natural when I have a bit more color? So, I used this over the summer but was busy panning other things and didn’t use it as much as I’d like. This summer? I am going to use this exclusively. I am going to wear the heck out of this. I mean, if I have such a lovely thing, I should use such a lovely thing.

Yes, I realize that the number of higher-end items I tried this year is much larger than the number of low-end items. I have probably tried more high-end items this year. In the upcoming year I’ll still be trying more items because I have some subscriptions still, but I also intend to cancel them once they are up. I canceled one awhile back, I’ll cancel another this spring, and the final two in the summer. (Probably. There’s one that might stick around, we’ll see once I get to that point.) My intention with the upcoming year is to get more use out of the lovely collection I currently have and to do more project panning.

Anyhow, that’s about it from me. What products have you discovered this year, high or low end, that you’d recommend I give a chance?