2014 favourites

Happy 2015! May you learn and love to your heart's content. At the start of a new year it's time for a quick lookback to 2014, it's time for last year's favourites. I picked 4 categories: fashion, hair, beauty, paper (books+stationary). If you think you know something I need to try for next year, please let me know in the comments!



2014 was a year full of changes for me. Life and job wise, and the blog drifted to the lower end of my priority list for a good part of the year- I did get my feet wet on Instagram (@trends_and_sense) though. Even as the blog might not reflect this, it was a good beauty year and a very good hair year for me. Beauty wise I got my hands on a few real keepers that have really earned their place in my routine. My hair changed dramatically this year. The moment I thought it wouldn't grow any longer it went through a massive growth spurt. For the first time in 15 years I can now say I have long hair. And it's blond, we'll sort off. I got an ombré in the lengths and highlights in the top half of my hair, but let's not dwell on that for now... On to the favourites!

My fashion style did not change much this year. I did rediscover Bordeaux-red, but I do still love it most when it comes in the shape of a cardigan. One massive and unexpected change (well for me anyway) is that I fell in love with high waisted trousers. I remember hating them when they were hot a while back. I thought they were super uncomfortable. What was I thinking?! A few months ago I bought a few high waisted numbers from H&M to give this style another go and I almost haven't taken them off since. I love not having to wear a belt or having a cold back when cycling and now I find them sooo comfortable. Maybe it has something to do with me having accepted my body shape and buying the right size of clothes, who knows?

As I said earlier my hair got proper long this year and I bleached it a bit. Since I have real fine hair it started to fall even flatter than before as I grew it out. However, when I bleached it, it got courser and that made it way easier to style. Together with the Tony&Guy texturizing spray and the Batiste volume dry shampoo I can actually get a bit of volume in my locks. So, who knows, I might actually be able to resist cutting it all off for a little while longer.

On to make-up. Oh I found some real favourites here! I was still very into the no make-up look this year as you can see. I discovered you can get a very natural blush look and shape your face at the same time when you use blush to contour your face. My fave blush this year was Pinch of Peach by MAC. Another discovery from MAC this year was their lip pencil in Derwish. This pencil is exactly the same colour as my lips. I use is to draw the outline of my lips where the lip colour fades into my skin colour to get a my-lips-but-better look.

My next discovery and favourite was Benefit's Stay don't Stray primer that I use under my under eye concealer. On days I don't really wear make-up I just put this primer under my eyes as it also does a bit of concealing on its own and it lasts for the entire day. It is a bit cakey when worn under concealer, but I only use it on nights out and then I don't mind the cakeyness so much as I won't be going to places where the lighting is very good anyway. Another 2014 favourite is also by Benefit and it is their Gimme Brow. This product as described by many as an eyebrow gel, but it is more like a eyebrow mascara as it does not have much hold to it. It gives your eyebrows extra colour and volume. The colour has more of a grey than a reddish tint to it which gives your eyebrows a full but natural look.

I also have a real mascara favourite this year, L'Oreal Telescopic mascara. I know I'm a bit late on the bandwagon, but I usually buy volumizing mascaras. I picked up this mascara in a 2 for 1 offer. Thank heaven I did, because this is a real gem. It builds up pretty well and it separates like crazy, no spider central with this one, but long and full, fluttery lashes.

On the paper front I got heavily into reading again this year. The book I loved the most was about syphilis- yes you read that correctly. The kingdom of little wounds is set in a undescribed Scandinavian court in a late middle age time-period. The main characters are two strong women that have to keep themselves standing amidst court gossip and corruption. It's an interesting tale with loads of twists and turns, a bit Game of thrones style, though way less explicit sex.
Stationary wise I fell madly in love with my new Midori traveller's notebook. It's a leather cover in which you can put all kinds of notebooks. In mine I put a dairy and two blank page notebooks, that I use for to do lists for work and my private life. I might do a full review on this soon.

As a last random favourite I have toothpicks. Yes, I know, very random, but I'm so proud that I finally managed to make it my habit to use a toothpick after every time I brush my teeth. I think it really helped to improve my dental hygiene and the health of my gums.

That rounds up my 2014 favourites, let me know if you have any suggestions for 2015!