2014 was such a whirlwind, but in the best way possible. Throughout that whirlwind, I tried many new products (or at least new to me). Some of them were fantastic and I talked about them a lot here on this blog. But of course, I have to talk about all the products I've loved this year. 

Revlon ColorStay Foundation I know this has been talked about on every beauty blog and YouTube channel ever, but it was a new discovery for me. It's what I wear to any event, on a really bad skin day or even just on a long day where I want everything to stay in place all day. It's natural and not cakey, but still gives full coverage. It's fantastic.

Maybelline FitMe Concealer This stuff is perfect for when you have lots of blemishes. It covers so well.

Rimmel Wake Me Up Concealer This is definitely not full coverage and more light and natural, but still covers blemishes and dark circles with ease and brightens everything up.

Rimmel Scandaleyes Eyeliner This is my new favourite eyeliner. It's creamy and just glides on. It's such a lovely drugstore buy.

Maybelline The Nudes Palette This is a fairly new favourite as I bought it just in November and I haven't talked about it on this blog yet. I know it's been a very contradictory palette- some love it, some hate it. I have loved it. Yes, it does not have great pigmentation and does crease after about five hours of wear, but overall is such a great natural palette. I think that Maybelline purposefully went for light pigmentation to make it more natural, which I love. All the colours are easy to wear for everyday, but you can build them up for a more formal event.

NYC IndividualEyes for Brown Eyes in #946 Best of Broadway While the shadows in this are lovely I loved the eye primer to use not only as a base for eyeshadows but to even out my eyelids and cancel out darkness either on my eyelids or under my eyes.

Covergirl Flamed Out Shadow Stick in Ginger Flame This is perfect to brighten up your inner corner or your waterline, but is also lovely worn all over the lid as a light pinky-champagne shimmery colour.

Maybelline Baby Lips in Cherry Me First of all, this tastes like cherry popsicles. Plus this is the most moisturizing lip balm and the perfect colour for my skintone.

EOS Lip Balms I finally realized all the hype around these. They really are fabulous and moisturizing and taste good and all that good stuff.

St. Ives Blemish Control Green Tea Cleanser This is a continuing favourite from last year. It cleans your skin without stripping it and lathers up so beautifully. It's exactly what my skin wants at the end of a long day.

Olay Fresh Effects SPF 15 Moisturizer I have been using Clean and Clear Morning Burst Moisturizer with Spf 15 for years and love it dearly but have not been able to find it recently. So I had to find another moisturizer and this was the only one I could find at the drugstore that was just a simple moisturizer with spf and I have been loving it just as much. And smells better.

Lush was a bit of a discovery this year. I had always known about it and bought some of their soaps but never got the hype about spending $10 on a bath bomb (a bit of an exaggeration). But now I totally get the hype. Their bath stuff is luxurious. Anything I've tried I've loved.

Body Shop Body Butters These have been my go to hand lotions this year. Currently I have the strawberry one, but I have also used the cranberry joy one from last year's Christmas collection.

Garnier Sleek and Shine Line I have loved this line ever since I started using hair products, but honestly they have everything my hair wants: straightening and blow dry creams and mists, hairsprays, leave-in conditioners, argan oil (pictured) and it's fantastic.

What products have you been loving in 2014? Let me know in the comments below! Happy New Year and I wish you all the best in 2015! Cheers!

 Merry Christmas Eve everyone! I do realize that this is kind of a weird time to do an update but that's okay.

I have been absolute crap at posting the last few months as I have been so ridiculously busy and when I have had time to relax I haven't wanted to write. Not that I've ever had a steady schedule, though I do my best to try and post once a week.

The reason I started this blog almost a year and a half ago was to have an online platform for my writing that people could check out, whether it be my friends, family or prospective editors. (I'm hoping to work at a campus newspaper when I go to university, I'm not trying to sound cocky). I enjoy blogging and I feel like I'm finding my niche. But I never started it to become just another blogging beauty guru or get a lot of followers. I started it because I genuinely love writing and this is a fun, different and creative way I can do it. In other words, I'm not going anywhere, I'm just really busy right now and I don't know what the future of my blog holds. There will definitely be times when I don't post for a month or two.

But lucky for you, because I have a lot of spare time over winter break and I will be writing up lots of posts. So you can expect 2 or 3 posts next week and probably at least 1 post a week for the month of January.

With that, I hope you all are having a wonderful Christmas! Cheers!

I recently read Michelle Phan's post "What It Means to be a Feminist," and it inspired me to write down my thoughts on feminism. While I agreed with Michelle's post completely, there were a few parts I found very interesting. She talks about feminism getting a bad rap a bit: "For whatever reason, feminism often gets a bad rap. The term itself is sometimes greeted with negativity even in a society that supposedly thinks of everyone as equals – have you ever noticed that? Perhaps it’s because the women before us who began the feminist movement and fought for our equality took to the streets to enact change. The reality is that in our world, people have to be bold to create change.Towards the end of the post Michelle talks about people who don't consider themselves feminists: "Hearing people say they aren’t feminist, or seeing them roll their eyes at the term can get frustrating to say the least." As terrible as it sounds, I occasionally am the person who starts rolling their eyes when people bring up feminism. That said, I  consider myself feminist.
 I absolutely support the equality of men and women. Which, as Michelle mentions many times, is the core of feminism. So why am I the person that occasionally does roll their eyes at feminism? It is because of the bad rap but also some of the stuff I see on social media on a daily basis that makes me uncomfortable and not want to call myself a feminist. It makes me really uncomfortable when people push their opinions down other peoples' throats. Yes, I have my opinions but I do my best to always present them in an intelligent, educated and calm way so that I don't piss off other people. (I'm really hoping this blog post comes off that way). This is why feminism gets a bad rap and can make me uncomfortable when brought up in conversation. I don't think there's anything wrong with protesting for your basic rights as a woman like protesting for equal pay. But saying that someone's beliefs (unless they are against the equality of men and women) and religion are not right in the name of feminism is morally wrong. For example, a few months ago a girl I follow on Tumblr posted a text post saying that her biggest goal in life was to be a stay at home mom and how she felt uncomfortable talking about this on Tumblr because she had gotten hate about it before from feminists on Tumblr. She was planning on going to college for a certain career to support herself throughout her young adult life before she got married as well. My heart went out to that girl. In fact I messaged her and told her not be fearful. This was a girl who was fighting for and following her dreams? What in the world is wrong with that? Obviously, the feminist fight in the 1970s was to get more women working and out of the house and not be financially dependent on their husbands, which there is nothing wrong with, but if you do have a career that you can fall back on and both you and your husband have agreed that you will be staying home what's wrong with that? Why were Tumblr users hating on this girl for that? That's what makes me uncomfortable about feminism. Why would I want to associate myself with something that is so confrontational and makes everything relative to their cause? I hate being told what I must and must not do. I'm a huge rule follower but if people aggressively tell me the rules or get in my face I literally cannot take it. Instead of sending anon hate to this girl why couldn't a feminist politely message her and say something along the lines of "I'm very glad that you will be able to financially support yourself and are going to college, that's an awesome thing all women should be able to do. Let's talk about feminism and your thoughts about it...". Not only would that have been a really interesting and productive conversation but also a polite and morally good thing to do that's not going to upset a person you don't even know. Feminism shouldn't scare people or make them fearful. I see feminist propaganda on Tumblr all the time that makes me uncomfortable. Rather than turning every Tumblr post into something to do with feminism let's make feminism a respectable thing in our society. Let's all be feminists as well as decent human beings. Let's respect other peoples' religious beliefs, morals and dreams while promoting this positive idea of equality in a peaceful manner.
So am I feminist? Yes. Do I occasionally get a little angry or uncomfortable at things associated with this topic? Yes. In the end, if we all act respectfully and do our best to achieve and maintain equality then at the end of the day, the world will be a better place.

This 2014BloggerChallenge is a gift guide. Personally, I think gift guides are a little odd. How is some magazine or blog writer supposed to know what you should get for someone they don't personally know? The presents that magazine gift guides always tell me I should get for my mom and dad are always presents my parents wouldn't like. Yes, my parents are hard people to buy for, but I always find them something. Besides, is it so hard to ask friends and family what you should get the people in your life? So therefore, I'm not making a gift guide, but rather just giving you simple guidelines of how to buy good presents for people, because I feel that getting good presents isn't something that people do often.

1. Put your heart into it. Give it some thought. It doesn't have to be deep, analytical, express how that person makes you feel through a gift thought. Just make it nice.

2. It should be something they'll actually use. Thank you family members who consistently give me baking accessories I never use. Yes, I like baking. But I live with my parents and have limited space where keeping multiple cookie cutters and pans is not practical. Buy me a cookbook or a sweater please and thank you. It'll actually be used. As well, often people will say they want a certain thing but they won't use it. If you know they have a habit of this, make sure whatever you buy them, you know it will be used.

3. It doesn't have to be expensive.

4. "It should be something they wouldn't get themselves" is crappy advice. The only time this should be used is when you know a person is in desperate need of something but refuses to buy it themselves. Like underwear, PJs and socks. I love it when people buy me things I'd buy myself because it keeps me from having to spend my own money on stuff.

5. Cater it to their interests. This seems obvious, but I think is often overlooked. What do they spend a lot of time doing? Studying? Chocolate or tea. Playing instruments? Guitar picks, music, accessories for their instrument.

6. Don't make gifts repetitive. That shows that you either have no idea what to get and are just trying to be nice. It's annoying and makes Christmas boring to get the same thing year after year. Unless, there's some sort of family tradition.

7. Be direct. Some people are really difficult to buy for, even people you are really close to. Ask them directly what they want. Of course it's nice for it to be a surprise, but it will make your life easier. Some people are just difficult that way.

8. It doesn't have to be super thoughtful. Yes, put thought into it. But it doesn't have to be cheesy. There is nothing wrong with a sweater or something of the sorts.

I hope this was somewhat helpful. It might have been easier to do a simple "5 Gifts To Get for So and So" post, but this was way more fun to write so I hope you enjoyed it. Happy Christmas Shopping!