Another year has passed, and it's time for a yearly favorites post! Both in my general life and my beauty consumption, 2022 brought some old, some new. Read on to see what stood out for me in the worlds of makeup, skincare, and nail polish this past year.
Just like in years past, I won't be listing out a single product for each subcategory like some people do for their annual beauty favorites roundup. It just doesn't make sense for me when there are certain types of products I rarely use (e.g. foundation), I have multiple favorites for others, or there just wasn't anything that particularly stood out in a category.
Out of my 27 beauty favorites from 2022, 51.9% were new favorites, 18.5% were repeat 2021 favorites, 11.1% were repeat 2020 favorites, and 18.5% were 3-year-in-a-row favorites from both 2020 and 2021
I'll also be including what year I first purchased each makeup/skin/nail product and if it's a repeat favorite. The beauty community is all too often reliant on consumerism and "shiny-new-magpie" mentality -- hence why I enjoy the project pan niche so much -- which is something I want to combat in my personal online space. As such, I think it's important to indicate which products continue to stand the test of time.
Click here for my 2021 favorites. Click here for my 2020 favorites. All prices listed are in USD at the time of writing. They are not affiliate links, only here for your own convenience, because I am but a common man. MakeupMy Makeup Use in 2022
Just a little context on my makeup habits in 2022: just like in 2021 (and as I discussed in the 2021 favorites post), 2022 was not an ideal year for my makeup collection. I went from my P1 year in pharmacy school in the spring -- an already very busy school year -- to my P2 year in the fall, arguably the most difficult/busiest year in my schooling. During the fall semester, I was lucky to wear makeup even just once a week.
Fortunately, though, when I did have the opportunity to wear makeup, I felt like I had more creative freedom to do whatever makeup I wanted: in comparison to 2021, where a bulk of my makeup use involved less creative expression since it was done in a rush right before (being late to) class. I still wish I had more time to do makeup, but I do appreciate all the more those instances where I can indulge in my collection without abandon. Eyeshadow
My 2022 eyeshadow favorites: Pur Cosmetics x RawBeauty Kristi collaboration palette, Colourpop Give It to Me Straight, Sydney Grace x Temptalia Quintessence (Deep), Adept Cosmetics Ninhydrin, Terra Moons Phoenix, and Terra Moons Selene
The June 2022 Colourpop Give It to me Straight makeup look that set off my love for the palette. On my lid is the shimmer shadow ACI18 from the Adept Cosmetics Ninhydrin palette (another favorite mentioned further down in this section), which brings out the pink in the Colourpop palette
Colourpop Give It to Me Straight Palette (purchased 2018)
MVPs: brown mattes (BS, Frank, Truth Hurts) While the RBK collab palette was expected to show up in this favorites roundup, this palette was a real surprise of a favorite. Back in the olden days of 2018 -- when I was oh so young and full of hope and had just recently delved into makeup as a hobby -- I got my first 3 "real" eyeshadow palettes. Just as any young person on the internet back then, I was enamored by Colourpop, and, per my request, my then-boyfriend gifted me Give It to Me Straight, Yes, Please!, and Double Entendre for my birthday. Ironically enough, through the first several years of building my makeup collection, Give It to Me Straight was actually my least favorite and least used of the 3 OG Colourpop palettes. However, in 2022, I reached for it the most as I gravitated toward mauve-toned neutral looks. Especially for the latter half of 2022, it might not be too far off to say that Give It to Me Straight was my most reached-for eyeshadow palette out of my entire makeup collection. Just as I appreciate the mustards in the Pur x RBK palette for those "neutral with a twist" looks, Give It to Me Straight is similarly useful for neutral looks with a pinky, romantic twist. It feels classic and timeless yet injected with a tad bit of personality and individual taste. The 3 matte shadows BS, Frank, and Truth Hurts were especially great for those types of looks. The undertones of mauve are especially brought out when combined with the copper shimmers Candid or Forthright or a pinkier shadow from elsewhere. In typical Colourpop fashion, all 3 of those palettes have since been discontinued. Regardless, Colourpop did an officially licensed Harry Potter collection in 2022, and it completely boggles my mind that a company -- especially one with as much prominence and influence as Colourpop -- would actively choose to collaborate with famously transphobic (not to mention antisemitic and racist) JK R*wling, in particular considering the societal backdrop of 2022 that saw SO much anti-trans legislation in the US. Despite their caliber of products considering the accessibility of the brand, that makes Colourpop quite iffy in my mind.
Adept Cosmetics Ninhydrin Palette (purchased 2021, repeat 2021 favorite)
MVPs: ACI18, ACI22, ACI19 2022 continued to be a year of ~sporkly~, shifty shimmers from indie makeup lines. As was the case in 2021, the Ninhydrin eyeshadow palette from (Asian-owned) indie beauty brand Adept Cosmetics continued to be an easy go-to for those types of shades. Adept also has a focus on using upcycled packaging and secondhand mirrors which is cool. This palette has 10 dimensional (duochrome/multichrome) shimmers; I usually just did 1 shade all over the lid, sometimes an additional deeper shimmer in the outer corner of the lid to add depth to the look. ACI18 (a medium rose pink with a gold shift), ACI22 (a bronze with a gold-green shift), and ACI19 (a warm purple with a green shift) were my 3 most used shimmers from the palette. ACI22 got a shoutout in my 2021 favorites as well as I often paired it with neutral looks with a mustard, orange, or generally warm undertone. ACI18 and ACI19 are newer loves as I got more use in 2022 due to coupling them frequently with Colourpop Give It to Me Straight in my pink-toned neutral looks. AdeptCosmetics.com: $57
A look using many of my favorites from 2022: Terra Moons single in Phoenix in the inner corner, mattes BS and Truth Hurts from Colourpop Give It to Me Straight, Moo Point (also a matte) from the Pur x RBK palette, the 2 fave pink/purple shimmers from the Adept Cosmetics Ninhydrin palette (ACI18/ACI19), Tower 28 BeachPlease in Magic Hour (mentioned in the blush section), and the Lime Crime Plushie in Cola (mentioned in the lips section)
Terra Moons Cosmetics Duochrome in Selene (purchased 2020)
The Chameleons from Terra Moons are their most expensive, but their duochrome line is still ~sporkly~ and shifty but less $$$. Selene is the cool-toned counterpart to Phoenix. Just like Phoenix, it appears white in the pan but with shifts to it. Terra Moons describes it as a "golden, indigo shimmer," though I'd characterize it as a blue-green-yellow shift rather than indigo. While I used Phoenix as the inner corner shimmer for warm neutral looks, I liked to use Selene as the inner corner shade for blue and purple-toned looks. TerraMoonsCosmetics.com: $8.50 (for the 26mm pan; Selene also comes in a 36mm pan) Brows
The Nyx Cosmetics Micro Brow Pencil in Black
Cheeks
Cheek (blush and highlight) makeup favorites from 2022: Flower Beauty Shimmer & Strobe, Colourpop Super Shock Highlighter, Juvia's Place Bella, Tower 28 Magic Hour
Flower Beauty Shimmer & Strobe Highlighting Palette in Champagne Shimmer (purchased 2019, repeat 2020 favorite)
Something none of us could've guessed how the COVID-19 pandemic would impact our lives: masking killed the chokehold that highlighter had on moi, the absolute highlighter fanatic that I once was. However, as early 2022 lifted the mask mandate at my university, I slowly got back into wearing highlighter more often. I used to absolutely PACK that shit on, but now it's not nearly as much of a staple for me. I didn't even include a single highlighter in my 2021 favorites. When I did wear highlighter in 2022, I reached for the Flower Beauty Shimmer & Strobe Highlighting Palette the most, which has 3 powder highlighters and a brush. The Colourpop Super Shock Highlighters (of which I own 7) used to be the lifeblood of my highlighter use, and while those highlighters are still a favorite, I'm sometimes just too lazy to use my fingers with the Colourpop cream formula and want to use a brush instead. Still, my favorite way to highlight for a beaming highlight is to use a Colourpop Super Shock first then layer the Flower Beauty on top. The Champagne Shimmer variation of the palette comes with a champagne shade, a pink shade, and a gold shade and is best for lighter skin tones. I use the gold and champagne shades the most often (I very rarely use the pink shade). The Sunkissed Shimmer version of the palette has deeper shades that'll work better for deeper skin tones; it used to not be carried on the Ulta website, but now it is. â Ulta.com: $15.99
The thing I am not a fan of with Tower 28 is they are VERY big on ~cLeAn BeAuTy~. Some of their ethos and claims have scientific merit (e.g. omitting fragrances and essential oils, as those are clinically relatively common allergens among those with sensitive skin). But the way they throw around the buzzwords "toxic" when demonizing certain ingredients like parabens -- which, in the scientific literature, are not nearly as horrific as the clean beauty (marketing) industry makes them out to be -- is quite frankly unscientific fearmongering.
On Tower 28's about page, they even say, "At Tower 28, we know that what goes on your skin also goes in your bloodstream." As someone in pharmacy school, this is BARELY true when it comes to cosmetics. And, in our society's current climate of anti-science where people are literally dying due to distrust in evidence-based science, this sort of rhetoric is incredibly misleading and honestly dangerous -- but I digress. Tower 28 is 100% not the biggest culprit out there in the cosmetics industry, but they are just one little hair on the mammoth. This could really be its own entire post, so I recommend watching this video by Lab Muffin Beauty Science who is a chemistry PhD and cosmetic chemist. Here's another video by dermatologist Dr. Dray. If you look at resources by dermatologists, toxicologists, cosmetic chemists, etc. (and not everyday laypeople with no legitimate scientific/medical background who just happen to like makeup), you'll easily find that ~cLeAn BeAuTy~ marketing holds little to no merit. Sephora.com: $2 Lips
2022 lip color favorites, L-R: Lime Crime Plushie in Pumpkin Latte and Cola, Colourpop Ultra Glossy Lip in Champagne Mami and My Petâ
Lime Crime Plushies Soft Liquid Lipstick formula (purchased 2021)
When Lime Crime finally fully kicked their (famously) racist founder Doe Deere to the curb in 2020, I rejoiced. In 2021, I loved the Colourpop Ultra Blotted Lip formula for its sheer mate formula. In 2022, my 2 Lime Crime Plushies became my sheer matte liquid lipstcik of choice. Kudos to my mutual @watermelonflesh for being the one to introduce them to me! I have 2 shades: Pumpkin Latte, a warm orange, and Cola, a pinky brown nude. In real life, Pumpkin Latte is more of an orange and less of the "brick red" as described and pictured on the Lime Crime website. Cola is a dead-on "my lips but better" shade on me.
Lime Crime Plushie in Cola combined with a brown nude lip liner
The Plushies formula is super lightweight and comfortable, a must for my Sahara-dry lips. It really does have a soft, "plush" texture. However, I would not say that it dries down 100%, and I have noticed it transferring some.
My favorite way to use them is to blot them on with my fingers for a hazy, almost airbrushed look. LimeCrime.com: $15 (Lime Crime is also sold at Ulta, but only a select number of Plushie shades are available) Brushes
My favorite makeup brushes from 2022, L-R: Colourpop Tapered Blending Brush, e.l.f. Cosmetics Crease Brush, Real Techniques RT 301 Base Shadow Brush, random flat liner brush, Colourpop Stippling Brush. You can see what sort of shades I use for each
Colourpop Tapered Blending Brush/E2 (purchased 2018, repeat 2020 and 2021 favorite)
4 years in and this is still my favorite eyeshadow brush in my collection. It's soft and fluffy and makes it super easy to blend transition shades into my crease. I use this for warm, mid-toned matte shadows. e.l.f Cosmetics Crease Brush (purchased 2019, repeat 2020 and 2021 favorite) Basically like the Colourpop Tapered Blending Brush but smaller, this e.l.f. brush is also soft and fluffy. I use this for dark warm mattes for the outer corner. Ulta.com: $5 Real Techniques RT 301 Base Shadow Brush (purchased 2020) I got this brush in a pack right before the COVID-19 pandemic really hit the US (what fun memories), but I didn't really, really start to appreciate it until 2022, coinciding with my newfound love of the Colourpop Give It to Me Straight eyeshadow palette. While it's marketed as a base shadow brush, I find that it's a great size and fluffiness/density to blend transition shades. I usually use this with reds, pinks, and mauve-toned mattes (e.g. those mattes in the Give It to Me Straight palette). Ulta.com: $8.99 (in the Eye Shade & Blend Eye Makeup Brush Trio Set) Random flat liner brush (from early-to-mid 2010s, repeat 2021 favorite) This continued to be my favorite brush for winged eyeliner using eyeshadow. It's not very stiff and dense, so it gives a slightly softer look that is ideal for doing a super quick and low-effort wing. Colourpop Stippling Brush/F4 (purchased 2019) While I have loved this brush for years for applying cream blush (it's the only brush I use for cream blush), it was in 2022 when I started getting back into cream blush, post-the peak of face masking here in the US. It leaves a smooth texture with cream blush, and I find that it's easier and requires less brainpower than using your fingers. It also feels soft and not spiky on the skin. Skincare
Skincare favorites of 2022, L-R: CosRx Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence, Cocokind Facial Cleansing Oil, Fourth Ray Beauty Avocado + Aloe Double Shot Serum, the Ordinary Rose Hip Seed Oil (not pictured: CosRx Hyaluronic Acid Intensive Cream)
Skincare Struggles in 2022
I wrote about this in more detail in my October blog post (my step-by-step skincare regimen to save my dry, flaky skin) but I struggled a lot this year with the driest, flakiest skin of my life. After that post, I had another bout of flaky skin, which I'm still in the process of recovering from, starting in late November.
I'm still not entirely sure what's causing these episodes -- lack of sleep? antibiotics? -- but whatever the trigger, my skin overall did not have a pleasant time in 2022. The best thing to come out of this is that the love for my 2022 skincare favorites resulted from my dry skin struggles. A win for the content machine, I suppose.
Nails
My nail favorites from 2022: NBM Cuticle Buddy, Ethereal Lacquer Soleil Sinistre, and KBShimmer Clearly on Top
NBM Cuticle Buddy in Strengthening (purchased 2020, repeat 2020 and 2021 favorite)
I will continue to be an NBM Cuticle Buddy stan. These cuticle oils are 8 mL -- much bigger than the 2 mL twist-up pens that are typical among indie nail polish brands -- but still reasonably priced, resulting in an excellent unit price ($/mL). However, even more importantly, they are refillable!!! We love to see the sustainability. I finally refilled mine this past winter after having been using this since May 2021, and following the video on the NBM website, it wasn't too, too complicated to do. Meech, the woman behind NBM, reformulated the Strengthening variation so the refill has a different scent from my originally purchased formula. I personally prefer the old scent, and Meech did respond on my Instagram saying they'd maybe do a limited bring-back of the old scent in the future. The rollerball applicator is easy to use. It is pretty juicy though (especially after refilling it), so while that's good for my dry cuticles, it does mean I can't get right back to using my hands after application. You have to wait maybe a minute or so, which is long enough to interrupt your workflow. Therefore, I tend to use this only at night right before bed, which is quite naughty of me as (particularly with skin as dry as mine) you really should be oiling up after every hand wash. Also, I have found that, again especially after refilling it and having just traveled to a humid country, the outer packaging of my Cuticle Buddy has gotten quite gnarly and greasy. I wonder if I didn't close the rollerball all the way in after I refilled it? Regardless, I think cleaning it with soap + water should hopefully do the trick to reinstate it back to its original glory. shopNBM.com: $12 Refill: $25 (30 mL)
Ethereal Lacquer Soleil Sinistre is the lighter pink on my index, middle, and pinky fingers
Ethereal Lacquer Soleil Sinistre (purchased 2021)
Unfortunately, indie nail polish Ethereal Lacquer's Soleil Sinistre was a limited edition polish (from the Sunwashed Grave Duo with Baroness X back in September 2019), so it'd be near impossible for you to find it at this point, but I'd be absolutely remiss if I didn't include it in this 2022 favorites roundup. I bought it from an indie polish reselling group on Facebook, which is my favorite way to buy indie polishes. Remember how I said I love Colourpop's Give It to Me Straight for âneutral with a mauve twistâ eyeshadow looks? That's exactly how I feel about Soleil Sinistre. Ethereal described the shade as a "medium earthy mauve base with a glowing red to gold shifting shimmer full of iridescent color shifting flakes." The mauve of the polish's base is like a deeper, more saturated, and more colorful version of that pinky nude/French manicure/Essie Ballet Slippers sort of shade. I find the medium depth of Soleil Sinistre to be more harmonious on my skin tone than paler shades like Ballet Slippers, yet it's still gorgeous in that same ultra-feminine way. The shimmer and flakes also lend visual interest to the polish. First off, I (famously) adore flakies just in general; a flakie is by far my favorite finish of nail polish, and I could stare at them all day. In the context of Soleil Sinistre specifically, the shimmer and flakes add a dimensionality to the jelly base of the polish. Sometimes, at certain angles, it almost looks like my nails are bare, and I tilt my hand slightly, and then BAM! Iridescent gloriousness on *my* fingers!!! Mine!!! Overall, Soleil Sinistre can be summed up as *chef's kiss*, 10/10, I love. KBShimmer Clearly on Top QDTC (purchased 2021) I started using the Clearly on Top Quick Dry Top Coat from indie brand KBShimmer in 2022, and my goodness, it has improved my quality of life. Previously for 2 years, I was using KBShimmer's 5-free Free & Clear QDTC, which omitted -- by nature of being 5-free -- toluene, a really quite essential ingredient for a top coat to be truly quick drying. As such, it was not quick drying, it left bubbles if I didn't give a ~30-minute buffer period between the polish and the top coat, and it cracked after a few days due to the curvature of my nails (the latter of which is something the brand even discloses). I started using the Clearly on Top after finishing up the Free & Clear in October, and while I have only used it a handful of times, I still greatly appreciate it each time that I do. Ther'es no waiting period and no bubbles, it's genuinely quick drying, and there's no cracking. We love to see it! KBShimmer also sells a 2 oz and 4 oz refill, which is always nice to see from a sustainability standpoint. KBShimmer.com $6.50
If you've made it this far, I would like to commend you. This is a CHONKY post, and it's for sure the longest post I've ever written.
I really don't hink I have anything else I could possibly say. Yay for 2023!!! Woooo!!!! Here's to another year of (hopefully) buying thoughtfully and enjoying the things we have. What were your beauty favorites in 2022?
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about @glowyminoI have dry skin and very dry and textured lips. I also have a medium-light skintone (somewhere in the realm of NC25-30) with strong warm yellow/olive undertones. I have a tendency to prefer a glowy, lightweight base and color cosmetics in shades of a warm undertone. Read more about me in the about page! Archives
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