My Big, Fat 2015 Favourites Post!

It's New Year's Eve and so I have decided to tell you all about my favourite things this year. It's beauty/makeup heavy but I'm also including food, tv shows and films too. So strap in... it's a long one!

I'll start with the makeup stuff.

Favourite Eyeshadow Palette

It was a toss-up between 2 this year. Firstly I went with the Revolution Neutrals Vs New-trals palette, because I LOVE the colours in it. A mixture of warm and cool shades, mattes and shimmers. I have used this palette a LOT in the short time I've had it and it quickly became a favourite, that I'd definitely recommend. Also, you get 16 eyeshadows for £6.99! Bargainous.

My second pick was the Tanya Burr Fairytale palette. This one I picked because all of the colours are just so damn useful. You can create a whole eye look with it, or just use the brown as a crease shade, the cream on the brow bone and the black to deepen or as eyeliner. Although I have bought prettier palettes this year, this one is the one that I've got the most use out of!

Favourite Blushers
 
Revolution have done it again for me. I adore their blush palettes for excellent value, really pigmented blushes. I also love their singles, which are £1 each. (Also pictured is their single eyeshadow, which I also love.)

Favourite Highlighter

Another very close call between theBalm's Mary-Lou Manizer and Becca's Shimmering Skin Perfector, Pressed in Moonstone. Close because they are so similar!

Here's a side by side swatch, you can see that the Mary Lou (left) is very slightly darker. But there's really not much in it. The Becca one has more shades available, but not all shades are vegan. I don't think you really need both, unless you're a crazy makeup hoarder like me, but they are both stunning. If you wanted to pick one, I'd say go with the Mary Lou, just because it's quite a lot cheaper!

Favourite Cream Blush

Well technically it's a gel, but I love this watercolor gelee by Josie Maran. Now if only they sold it in the UK! Currently they don't, so you'd have to order if from Sephora, who do ship worldwide. They are worth it if you do those. I love this one and will definitely be picking up more, next time I put in a Sephora order. 

Favourite Perfume

Toss up again, between Lush's Honey I Washed the Kids solid perfume (which was limited edish, sorry!) and Eden Perfume's No 15, which is a dupe of Dior's J'adore! The Eden one pips it because it's amazing, lasts all day and is still available. :o)

Favourite Lipbalm

No change, still Crazy Rumours, which you can buy in Holland & Barrett in a metric craptonne of different flavours!  

Favourite Lip Products

Liquid lipsticks were huge this year, with another brand seemingly releasing one every other week! My favourite that I discovered were the Kat Von D ones. Again, unfortunately you cannot buy over here, but you can order from Sephora. I love the formula of these; so comfortable and long lasting. Plus tonnes of beautiful colours (one day, Lolita will be mine. Oh yes, it will be mine!) 

Here are just a selection of my liquid lipsticks that I've loved this year....

Speaking of Kat Von D, I'm giving them the title of brand I'm most excited to have discovered this year. I  bought a few bits when I was in the US in October, including the lipsticks and an eyeliner and one of the metal crush shadows and they are all awesome. I will be picking up more from the range in the new year.

I love that Kat is vegan herself and truly cares about the products being cruelty free. She is apparently reformulating some of the older stuff to make the whole line vegan, which would be amazing!

Favourite new skincare discovery

I haven't changed much in my routine this year, except ditching the old, heavy moisturiser I used to use and using only my serum in the morning and a facial oil at night. I really like this one from B. It smells nice, makes my skin feel really soft (my skin is really dry) and you only use a teeny bit so it will last ages! 

Favourite Lip Tar

I love lip tars, I use them often as they are great alone, or mixed. My fave this year was probably Grandma. It's soooo pretty! 

And because of all the liquid lipstick wearing, my lips were quite dry so a good lip scrub has helped, as well as a balm. I like this one from Lush (I wouldn't even like to tell you how old this is, years out of date I'm sure but it still smells ok!)

OK, let's move onto....

Favourite Place

This one is hard, because I went to Berlin AND New York this year and both offered amazing vegan eateries.

I think that Lucky Leek in Berlin is probably the best restaurant I've ever been too, the food was just incredible. In fact, I ate a lot of amazing food there and we were there over Valentine's day.

However, New York won my heart, because as well as the food, I got engaged there.

The meal that stands out for me there was at Vinnie's Pizza in Brooklyn (Williamsburg location).

This vid hopefully conveys my excitement about pizza....

And then my failure 15 minutes later!

Favourite UK Non Vegan / Chain Restaurant

Weirdly I'm giving this to the Toby Carvery. You wouldn't think of a carvery as being vegan friendly but it is. If you are surrounded by omnis in your daily life, it's worth a visit!

Favourite TV Shows

Ooh there's been a bunch of awesomeness that I've started and/or finished this year. We've especially loved Sons of Anarchy, Jessica Jones (not finished yet, no spoilers please), Daredevil, Orange is the New Black and Banshee. There's more, but those were the standouts for me.  Oh and Don't Tell the Bride for some guilty pleasure viewing heheh.

Favourite Films

Star Wars the Force Awakens wins hands down. In fact we will be seeing it again on Sunday, because we loved it so much. 

Honourable mention also goes to Straight Outta Compton, which I thought was insanely brilliant. Acted superbly and took me right back to the early 90s with the music. Loved it. 

We also loved Kingsmen, wait was that this year? I think so. It was bloody great anyway.

So that pretty much covers my highlights of the year. I'd love to know yours, tell me in the comments or come talk to me on the social mediazz, links above ya! 

Midnight tonight/tomorrow morning marks my 8 year veganniversary which means almost 8 years since I started this blog. I want to say a HUGE thank you to everyone reading, whether you've been reading since 2008, or since last Friday. I love you all. 

Happy New Year!!

Sal xXx