The 2nd Day After Christmas: Top 13 Beauty Moments of 2013

On the 2nd day of Christmas... I looked back on my top 13 beauty moments of the year!

This year was actually a huge deal for me as far as beauty and makeup and all of that goes. I slowly got into wearing foundation more regularly towards the end of 2012 last year and started catering to my eyebrows and applying all I knew from watching Youtube videos this year.

With that being said, let's go!:

1. I am a BeautyInsider with Sephora and while walking around San Francisco earlier this year, I decided to redeem some of my points to get myself some new goodies! I got this BareMinerals pack for 500 points and a Clinique mascara for 100. The BareMinerals mineral veil (setting powder) was amazing and I was so sad when I ran out a couple months ago.

The pack came with:

• bareMinerals mineral veil (valued at $20)
• bareMinerals PrimeTime Foundation Primer (sample valued at $1 and full-sized valued at $23)
• bareMinerals blush (valued at $19)
• bareMinerals Well-Rested Highlighter (valued at $22)
• Clinique High Volume Mascara (full-sized valued at $16)

2. Another one of my favorite beauty moments: my "debut!" Back in October, my roommate and my friends threw me a 19th birthday party for me since I didn't get to have one for my 18th, and my lovely friend, May, did my makeup and I did my hair. I curled my own hair and by the end of the night this picture is how it turned out [:

3. For Halloween this year, I was Pocahontas and I did a makeup tutorial for it! I had so much fun with it and I loved how the look turned out. Every part turned out perfectly, especially my skin and my brows! I definitely want to do more tutorials on my Youtube channel next year! 

4. I went through a huge Elf haul early last month and I scored so many great things for about $35! I got a new palette, a new package of brushes and so much more. I was so proud of myself for it all. I make great use out of everything, that's for sure. [:

I got: 

• Elf Makeup Cleansing Cloths
• Elf High Definition Powder
• Elf Foundation Primer
• Elf Kohl Eyeliner
• Elf Eyebrow Lifter and Filler
• Elf Concealer Pencil and Brush
• Elf Brush 12 pack 
• Elf Everyday Eyeshadow 100-piece set

5. I found my favorite mascara as of right now in my Birchbox last month! It is a more expensive mascara (to me, at least), but I love what it does for my eyelashes' length! It is Eyeko London's Black Magic Mascara; I am still debating whether or not to do a full-length review of this next year because I love it so much! 

6. For my school's Gatsby-themed Woo Fest (where all the girls dress up and freshmen/sophomore boys try to "woo" them), I decided to mix a silvery smokey eye look paired with a berry red lipstick. It is usually not appropriate to have both a strong eye and lip, but for the sake of the vintage 20's look, it worked. For my hair I just curled it and pinned some of it off to one side. I was very proud of myself for doing this, even my brows looked good!

7. Also as part of my Elf haul last month, I bought myself a new brow filler, and this time I bought myself a pencil, rather than the cream and powder like I had before. Although I don't like how the cap falls off a lot, I like using the pencil because it allows for better control of shaping my eyebrows. 

Image taken from eyeslipsface.com

8. Another nice thing I've found this year was a long-lasting nail polish with a beautiful peach-ish, orange-ish color from Floss Gloss. I probably had the polish on for about a month, I believe. I love how it looked on me! (See #5 above for the nail color on my nails).

9. One of the many advantages of being part of Sephora's BeautyInsider Program is a free birthday gift every year! This year's gift included Benefit's They're Real! Mascara and Benefit's Watt's Up! Highlighter. Benefit's Watt's Up! Highlighter works great in highlighting (duh) and it comes in a cute little tube too! It adds just enough shimmer but isn't too crazy or obvious. 

(Highlighter is smaller sample in picture on box)

10. When I went to the New Girl Expo a couple weeks ago, I ran into BonBliss Beauty. They specialize in creating scrubs and exfoliants for your hands and body that smell and look so good, you would almost think it was candy! I have a full-on review of them lined up in the next year, but they're scrubs are great for your hands (I haven't tried it completely on my body yet)! It really does its job. 

11. This year I got a henna tattoo for the first time! Why does this get to be one of my top beauty moments? I love the Indian culture and think it is so colorful and beautiful. One of the traditions before a woman gets married is to get hennas all over her hands and feet. Because some friends of mine were doing this for fun, I just got a cute little design on my hand. I'm obsessed with hennas, and I hope to do this again soon [:

12. This year, I have fallen in love with headwraps! I don't normally do stuff with my hair, so most days I'll either put it in a beanie or a headwrap. In the pictures below I'm wearing a different one for a different situation. The first one was taken in Peru on our first night, the second at the beginning of summer, and the third about a month or so ago on a chilly fall day. I never thought that I would get into the trend of it, but hey, I did and I love incorporating them into my outfits! Plus they always make my hair look good. 

13. Last but not least, I would have to say that my favorite beauty moment this year was... 

Christmas Fantasia makeup! The way I did my brown smokey eye really played up my eyes, which I was obsessed with that whole night! On top of that, I braided my damp hair for an hour or so and it unbraided into subtle, but lovely waves. I would love to do my hair like that more often!

So there you have it. My top 13 beauty moments of 2013. Honestly, I didn't realize how difficult it would be to pick 13 moments! Although I love makeup and this year brought a lot of change and regularity in my applying of makeup and buying it, I still don't wear it everyday and unfortunately don't always capture some of my better beauty moments. However, I am still working on it and will definitely improve next year as I continue to apply my beauty knowledge to myself. Maybe I can work on clearing my acne, too!

Keep up with me as I continue on for the next few days until New Year's Day on counting down to 2014! Missed yesterday's post? Don't worry, it's right here--my top 13 outfits of 2013! Tomorrow, I will be talking food: top 13 meals/dishes of this year! You definitely won't want to miss out [;