I can’t believe it’s already December, and 2023 is nearly out the door. I say this every year, but literally where has all the time gone? I feel like I had big plans for 2023, but as per usual, they kind of never got fulfilled LOL. Not a huge deal because they were more like guidelines than hard things I wanted to do this year, but still, it feels surreal to think we’re already headed into 2024. I feel like this year passed by especially fast.
Anyways onto the post! I wanted to collect all my favorite products and do a recap from 2023 and put them into one post. I’m not great about being consistent at posting, and there’s a lot of great products I tried this year, and a lot of fun things I did and enjoyed this year, so I figured I’d condense it down into a single post to make it easier on myself. I’ll probably mostly focus on skincare and makeup, but there’ll be a few other miscellaneous categories here and there as well.
Here’s a quick glossary of the post:
- Skincare
- Favorite Toners
- Favorite Skincare Line
- Favorite Sunscreens
- Makeup
- Eyeshadow Palettes
- Mascara
- Blushes
- Lip Products
- Foundation
- Eyeliners
- Highlighter
- Haircare
- Hair Oil
- Video Games
- Favorite MMORPG
- Favorite Handheld Video Game
- Lifestyle
- Favorite Bath Products
- Miscellaneous
- Music
- Heading Into 2024
Skincare
Favorite Toner(s) – Laneige Cream Skin Refiner and Hada Labo Gokujyun Hyaluronic Acid Premium Lotion
I suppose the hada labo is more like a serum than it is a toner, but since it’s labeled as a toner, it’s going under this category. The Laneige Cream Skin Refiner has been a holy grail in my skincare routine for ages – I have a couple of toners because they provide nice hydration without being overly hydrating and causing my skin to get really oily, but the Laneige Cream Skin Refiner is one of my favorites, as well as the Hada Labo being my new holy grail. I’ve reviewed the hada labo in the past here, and it continues to be a product I’ll probably never remove from my routine if I can help it.
The Laneige Cream Skin Refiner really just makes my skin so soft, gives a nice boost of hydration, and I feel like it helps prep my skin for the other products in my routine, which is why it’s placed first in my skincare routine. I’ve used it consistently now for like four or five years, and it’s never failed me. I love it so much I had to put it in this post even though I’ve been using it for ages haha.
Favorite Skincare Line – Laneige’s Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Series
Okay I was going to break this out into parts but I decided to just smoosh this into one part. I’ve pretty much liked every product from this product line, and I’ve tried almost all of them I think – except for maybe the cleansing oil, the dry to combination skin product types, and the actual cleanser. But I’ve tried the toner, emulsion toner, serum, gel cream, etc. and every product has been great. It also smells really good in my opinion. The oily to combination products are really lightweight, which is perfect for my skin, and you can really feel the hydration going into your skin. I’ve removed some of the products I’ve used from my skincare routine, but the serum and the emulsion toner continue to stay as holy grails in my skincare routine because they provide great hydration without making my skin feel like a grease pit. Overall, I was shocked by how much I liked all the products in this line up!! It’s like every product did great with my skin, and I never had a single issue with each product I tried. Overall, I think it’s a fantastic lineup. That being said, it is on the pricier side. You can definitely get it cheaper online, but you’ll have to factor in wait time to that, so it’s not super convenient.
Favorite Sunscreens – Missha Soft Finish, Tocobo Bio Watery Sun Cream, and Tocobo Cotton Soft Sun Stick
The Missha Soft Finish Sun Milk being one of my favorite sunscreens this year surprises nobody I’m sure. It’s literally my holy grail sunscreen now, although I will admit it was a very humid summer for us this year so I used my old holy grail, the Etude House mild and airy sunrprise quite a bit this summer as well. Otherwise though, I used this sunscreen pretty much every single day of this year. It’s one of my favorites as it mixes really well with my skincare routine and keeps my skin soft and semi-matte all day long.
The Tocobo sunscreens though may come as a surprise, considering how watery and moisturizing the Tocobo Bio Watery Sun Cream is. I don’t particularly like the smell of the liquid Tocobo sunscreen, but it has been fantastic for those days when I’m really lazy in the morning and don’t want to do a full routine, but still need my skin moisturized. I’ll slap a few toners and serums on, but not finish my routine, and instead just layer this sunscreen on top. Not the best, but when I was dog-sitting a few times this year, the skin on my face was crazy irritated by the dogs (I’m allergic to dogs but love them so I dog-sit anyways because it’s worth it LOL) so there were a lot of days I didn’t want to mess with a lot of products. Instead, I’d do half my routine, a sheet mask, and then slap this sun cream on, and be fine. I did get pretty oily though during the day but that’s because I… didn’t do my whole routine. LOL. However, I did find this crazy moisturizing, and in this really dry Winter weather, it works perfectly. The sun stick is also fantastic. It’s super soft, glides on with ease, and just smells amazing. Overall, I have to say, sun sticks are becoming some of my favorite products that are easy to carry around and use on the go to freshen up your sunscreen. I imagine I’ll continue to purchase and use more in the future! On the other hand, I tried a few sun cushions and found that they were not my favorite… but who knows, maybe 2024 will change my mind?
Honorable mention to the Mary & May sun stick that I’ve used as well – I haven’t used it enough to give it a review yet, but it’s been pretty good too! Like the Tocobo sun stick, this smells amazing, and definitely has a “cotton/silk” finish to it when you layer it on your skin. It absolutely 100% lives up to the tagline “silky and fresh finish” I would say.
Makeup
Eyeshadow Palettes
Tarte Tartelette Juicy Eyeshadow Palette – this palette has literally been around for ages and I’ve always wanted it but never bought it because I felt like I couldn’t really justify the price for it since it has a lot of shades I already have. But ultimately I’d been thinking about buying this palette for like, literally years LOL so I just felt like if I’d been thinking about it that long, then I might as well buy it, right? Well I’m glad I did, because it’s ended up becoming one of my favorite palettes! It’s a nice size, with a huge, clear mirror and comes in beautiful pink packaging. It’s a really great palette that I could take with me and just have it be my only palette, as I tend to do similar makeup looks throughout the week. I could easily subsist off just this palette. The shimmers in this palette are literally to die for, and I’ve already hit pan on one of the shades despite only having this for a few months. The eyeshadows aren’t chalky at all, and blend out without any issue. They don’t muddy after a long day, in fact, they seem to look better and better as the day goes on. They also don’t crease. While some of the matte shades can have a little bit of fall out, it’s nothing too terrible in my opinion. I consistently reach for this palette for my regular day to day makeup. Also, the eyeshadows smell super good!? I honestly forgot that tarte eyeshadows have a bit of fragrance – but I don’t mind, because I really like the smell of it. Overall, it’s basically the perfect palette for me.
Unleashia Glitterpedia Eye Palette in N*5 All of Dusty Rose – This was my first Unleashia palette and I went into it without many expectations, mostly because it was so hyped on social media. However, I was pleasantly surprised by how nice this palette is – it has gorgeous shades, the chunky glitter shades are literally so beautiful and reflective on the eyes, and I reached for it quite often throughout the year. I did a review of it here.
Meiking x Modern Sky 4 Colors Eyeshadow Palette – a small, very simple palette, but it has all the shades I love. It’s pigmented, goes on smooth like butter, and overall, a great palette. I reached for this palette quite a bit this year. You can read a full review of it here.
Mascara
peripera Ink Color Cara Mascara – Ok so I was actually super into this mascara wayyyy back when I first started getting into kbeauty, as they had a really gorgeous maroon brown colored mascara that was like all the rage back then lol but I got rid of it after discovering a few other mascaras I liked more. Well, I recently bought a tube on sale (the Maltese dog collab they did) and wow. I forgot how good this mascara was. It lengthens, darkens my lashes, and keeps a curl. It’s become my favorite recently, and I totally ditched my Etude mascara for this one. I used to really like the heroine make mascara and the majolica majorca but recently have shifted back to Korean mascaras as the mascara I reach for everyday. But now that I’ve mentioned them, I lowkey want to repurchase them to see if I’d like them again now… LOL.
Etude House Curl Fix – A classic mascara that I used a TON this year. I like how it gives me a really nice curl, but didn’t like how it didn’t particularly “darken” my lashes enough for my liking. I still enjoy using it, and do use it occasionally, however the peripera Ink Color Cara has really taken over for me.
Blushes
NARS Afterglow Liquid Blush in shade Behave – I’d actually never even heard of this blush until I went into Sephora one day and one of the reps suggested it to me to match my tartelette juicy palette, and WOW am I SO glad she recommended this to me. I tend to be pretty heavy handed when I put on make up, which is why I prefer more sheer colored eyeshadows so I can build up the color. Similar to that, I prefer blushes that are a bit more sheer but can be easily built up. This is why I will probably never purchase a Rare Beauty blush ever in my life lmao. This blush is seriously GORGEOUS. It’s so natural looking, and it compliments my skin tone beautifully. I’ll put this on bare skin after I’ve put sunscreen on and it gives me the most beautiful, natural flush ever.
I have to say, this year in 2023 I’ve REALLY disliked any kind of blushes that aren’t cream or liquid blush products. I just find cream/liquid blush products blend beautifully, really settle and sit on my skin nicely, and overall are just more natural looking and just blend way better in general than a lot of products. I’ve done a lot of bare faced looks recently with blush on top, so cream/liquid has worked a lot better for me. I haven’t purchased any powder blushes recently, and probably won’t going into the 2024 year.
Lip Products
rom&nd Glasting Melting Balm – I love literally every color of this balm. It’s moisturizing, pigmented, gorgeous, doesn’t feel sticky, just overall a fantastic lip product. It really gives me that juicy, bouncy lip look that I really love. Honestly, every lip product from rom&nd is good in my opinion lol I’ve literally never had a product I didn’t like from them. Plus all the combinations you can do with their liquid lippies, plus their matte lippies… UGH. Truly perfection.
rom&nd Dewyful Water Tint – As usual, another perfect lip product from rom&nd. Their glossy tints are literally so good and layer really beautifully under other lip products. They also leave a beautiful tint behind, which I love. Once again, I’ve literally never disliked a rom&nd lip product LOL.
Etude House Fixing Tints, both matte and glossy versions – I normally dislike matte lip products, but I really enjoyed these Etude lip tints. They’re viral and really popular for a good reason. I especially love the glossy version, but was also surprised to find I like the matte ones as well. That being said, I pretty much almost always pair it with a wetter product over it. I’m really liking the ombre lip look again that was (still is?) popular in the douyin/kbeauty makeup trends and pairing a matte with a glossy over it has been really appealing to me and I’ve been doing it basically every day recently.
Colorgram Fruity Glass Tints – Not only is the packaging cute, but the colors are also quite lovely. It’s moisturizing, leaves a nice tint behind, and pair really nicely with other lip products in my collection. I honestly wasn’t expecting to like these as much as I did. But also, the packaging is so adorable. It’s very eclectic almost, and reminds me of I don’t know… colorful, cute artwork? I really like the vibe, overall!
Flortte Nice to Meet Chu/Super Beauty Heart Lippies – Literally some of my favorite lip products ever. It has that gorgeous glossy look, never feels sticky, and the packaging is so stinking cute! I feel like I own it in almost every single color they have available lol. It just really makes your lips look juicy and even if it fades, it leaves a nice tint behind. I reviewed this product here.
Summer Fridays Lip Butter Balm – I lowkey hate how much I like this lip balm since it’s so over priced LOL but GOD is it moisturizing. Especially now that it’s Winter, it’s been doing wonders for my lips, especially overnight, which is when my lips really suffer. I wrote a review of it here.
Foundation
Yves Saint Laurent Touche Eclat Glow-Pact Cushion High Cover Mesh Foundation in B30 – I purchased this product this year mostly because I saw it all over xiao hong shu. I’ve enjoyed YSL foundations in the past, but I was really impressed with this foundation. Not only does it have a gorgeous, dewy and glowy finish, it was also the perfect match for my skin, which made me super happy. The dewy and glowy doesn’t look oily, but instead just gives this really beautiful shine from inside kind of look to your skin. I believe this cushion is only available in Asia (or maybe just SK) but I’m not entirely sure. I didn’t use a lot of foundation this year in particular, but the few that I did I really loved.
Laneige Neo Cushion Glow in #25 – I actually can’t remember if I purchased this in 2022 or 2023, but regardless, this still remains one of my favorite foundations. It’s also a very close match to my skin, and is dewy but not overly dewy. It sits on my skin really nicely, lasts all day, and barely breaks down at all. I wrote a first impressions here.
Unleashia Satin Wear Healthy Glow Cushion in Bisque – Another cushion I didn’t have a lot of expectations for due to the hype around it, but absolutely loved. The shade is slightly off for me in Summer, but in Winter, when my skin is paler, it matches a bit better. Overall though, it has a really nice finish, and on top of that, is super affordable. I also love the pump on the side, because it feels super hygienic. I did a quick review of it here. I absolutely want to try the pink cushion version they have in 2024, because who can resist a cute pink cushion!?
Eyeliner
Flortte Eyeliners – Literally my new favorite eyeliners. Like, every single one of their eyeliners that I own. That’s the de fruits eyeliner line, the Mikko collaboration, and the Wow So Light eyeliners as well. C-beauty has been a big thing for me this year, and I’ve discovered a lot of wonderful products this year for really reasonable prices. The Flortte eyeliners though have to be my absolute favorite. Perfect for aegyosal, or colorful liner, or just regular liner for that perfect cat eye or winged tip, I mean, Flortte has come out on top against all my other liners. I just really love how easy it is to get a really sharp wing with this product. It’s become my favorite and I purchased backups of each eyeliner because I use it so much lmfao. I reviewed this product here.
Shoutout though to the Clio Kill Black/Kill Brown Superproof Pen Liners though. I used to love them a lot before, and recently got back into using them at the end of this year, although I still hate the felt tip because it’s so hard to get a good sharp line with that.
Highlighter
Judydoll Starlight Highlighting Powder in Shade #04- the most gorgeous, subtle, glow from within highlighting powder I own currently. And it was only a few dollars! It’s smooth, not chalky, and just overall a really gorgeous, subtle highlighting powder. I also adore the packaging. I completely understand the hype around this product and why it’s so beloved on xiao hong shu. I absolutely will repurchase this when I run out! I did a quick review of it here.
Haircare
Hair Oil
Moroccanoil Hair Treatment Original – I’ve used the hair mask from this brand before but wasn’t a huge fan of it – it felt super stripping, and would leave my hair feeling super dried out and frizzy afterwards. I liked the smell but that was about it – it wasn’t really nourishing or anything, and really just made my hair feel… horrible. However, I gave the hair oil a try after hearing a lot of raving reviews of it, and the rest is history. It’s a fantastic hair oil – way better than my cheap hair oil, and leagues better than the gisou hair oil. There’s like no way to use too much of this – it never makes your hair feel oily, instead, it really nourishes your hair and makes it gleam. I have yet to experience a day with my hair feeling staticky and frizzy and dry because of this product. You know that popular Japanese glass hair trend? I don’t need any other products than this hair oil to get the same, gleaming, gorgeous, healthy looking hair. I have really thick hair, and the regular hair treatment works amazingly on my hair. Like, I used to think my cheap hair oil was doing something for me? Hell nah, this hair oil showed me how healthy, glistening, good hair should REALLY look and feel like. The bottle is huge too, and it legitimately lasts forever. I had the mini bottle for a while and it lasted me months. The bigger bottle is like only 10 bucks more than the small one and is like 4x the size, so I’d say skip the mini and just buy the big one. I also love the bottle – it has a pump that you can switch out with a cap if I recall correctly. It doesn’t leak everywhere and get oily like the gisou bottle or my other cheap drugstore bottle. Seriously, this is worth every penny and I’ll literally never buy another product again because this is truly my holy grail. I want to kick myself for not trying it sooner!
Video Games
Favorite MMORPG – Final Fantasy XIV. This category is kind of cheating because I only play one MMORPG… which is FFXIV LOL. But it’s fine. There’s a reason why I ditched all the other MMORPGs out there to just exclusively play FFXIV. I’m so excited for Dawntrail that I can’t even contain myself. I haven’t actually played anything post EW MSQ in 6.0, but plan on sitting down to do it all in one big chunk soon – maybe after the New Year. Regardless, the MMO holds a lot of really dear memories to me, and I look forward to every new release. I’m not a particularly hardcore raider anymore, so just farming Bozja for stuff to make me money is enough to keep me entertained I’m not going to lie LOL.
Favorite Video Game – this was much harder for me. I honestly didn’t play a huge number of games this year, considering my super intense work schedule left me exhausted by the end of the day to the point where I mostly relaxed playing FFXIV and Genshin Impact (which I got back into recently lmfao). However, I’d say it’d probably be a tie between Harvestella and Pokemon Violet (ironically enough) on my Nintendo Switch. While Pokemon Violet was plagued with plenty of issues, I did find it pretty enjoyable to play – at least, I’ve put more time into it than Arceus and about as much time into it as I did Pokemon Sword. It’s surpassed Sword by now, and I have been enjoying TERA raids a bit more than I expected? I’ve really liked being able to have Pokemon walking out and around again (although you can’t run too fast or else they can’t catch up and eventually go back to their Pokeball lol) but overall the game was pretty enjoyable. At the very least, I’ve gotten a lot of entertainment out of it, and I haven’t even started on any of the DLC yet. That being said, I’d probably say Harvestella beats it by at least a little bit, because Harvestella was really everything I’ve wanted in a game like that – the RPG elements, the gorgeous artwork, the farming, etc. really scratched every itch and was executed wonderfully. I gave a first impressions of Harvestella here.
Lifestyle
Favorite Bath Products – I’ve really gotten back into taking long soaks in the tub recently thanks to the cold weather, and as such, have begun using more bath products. While I enjoy bath bombs, I hate how much glitter is in them because I always feel like I have some kind of residue on my skin no matter what, especially because I take baths but usually don’t wash my hair if I’m taking a bath, so I don’t want to turn on the shower after I’m done in the bath as a result. I recently started using the Charley Imagination Bathroom bath salts, and I’ve completely fallen in love with them. They smell fantastic, make my skin soft after using them, and on top of that, the bath tub smells great for like literal days afterwards. I also like that instead of being “salts” per se, they’re more like herbs and other products that have been dried and put into a mesh bag. Honestly sometimes I feel like I’m stewing in a tub of tea because the packaging of the herbs looks a lot like an oversized tea bag LOL but overall, they’ve been fantastic to use and I’ve purchased a ton for regular use. Plus, I can buy them at a local store, and they’re only like $1 to $2 dollars per pack.
Miscellaneous
Music – Gotta say, I listened to a lot of K-Pop this year. It feels like I went through a renewal of my love of K-Pop – there were a lot of great bands that either debuted this year, or that I discovered this year. (G)I-DLE was at the top of my Spotify most played, as was SUNMI, IVE and NewJeans. Park Bom released another song finally after a gazillion years, and I absolutely loved it. I also really, really got into C-Pop this year, and listened to an absolutely inordinate amount of Lexie Liu, who is just so seriously talented. I mean really, producing (lyrics and everything) music in three different languages? She’s literally SO good. And ironically I have to thank League of Legends for introducing me to her, because I listen to some of the K/DA music despite not playing League LOL.
Heading Into 2024
Firstly, I want to say that just from writing this post, it’s kind of crazy how much I’ve changed in the last few years. I never expected that I would shift so much in my tastes over the years. For example, I used to be an exclusively warm toned girl – but nowadays I’m pretty much exclusively a cool toned gal. All my eyeshadow palette choices recently feature cool toned palettes, rather than warm toned ones. I also accepted that I just hate almost all matte and blurring lip tints, and prefer glossy ones, period (with the exception of Etude House haha!), and that I should stop bothering with just plain matte lip products. I also used to exclusively shop at Sephora, now I barely ever step foot in that store or Ulta. I’ve really lost interest in a lot of Western products in general – from makeup and skincare, to even the kind of entertainment I choose to indulge in, whether it’s manhwa/manhua/manga, to even the novels these days. I used to be an obsessive YA/Romance/NA/Fiction reader for a really long time, and nowadays the only things I read are Korean and Chinese novels HAHA. I’ve also gotten back into K/C/J-dramas!!??? Who even am I.
I also cut my hair short this year (short for me, at least) which I haven’t done since I was in… elementary or middle school I think. I hate short hair due to an unexpected pixie cut I got at a hair salon (with a barber who did NOT listen to what I wanted and I was too upset to say anything to get her to stop) and as a result, I always want to have long hair, but this year my hair stylist (who I’ve been going to for the last 10+ years, crazy enough!) convinced me to go like JUST below my shoulders and I’m… actually loving it! I love how fast my hair dries, how cute it looks when styled in a ponytail, and how easily manageable it is. I also got curtain bangs, and holy crap, this is my favorite trend of the year and I must thank social media for finally showing me that I can look good with bangs, just not side bangs LOL!
Overall, I feel like 2023 was a year that I really discovered a lot of new things about me. I shifted my style a lot this year fashion wise, hair style wise, makeup wise, and I feel like I really grew more comfortable in general in my own skin. I’ve never been a person who lacked confidence, but this year I feel like I gained even more confidence than before? I don’t really know, but overall, I’m very happy with the me that I’m ending 2023 with.
As for heading into 2024…
I’ve never been the type to write New Year’s Resolutions, because I know I’m the type who can never stick through with them, no matter how simple they may be. However, I do have some “goals,” or I suppose tasks to guide me on, every year that I hope to meet or at least partly meet through the year. Going into 2024, I’d like to blog more. I blog extremely sparsely, but I also make the mistake of starting blogs, not finishing them because I need to take photographs, then next thing I know 6 months have passed and the blog I wrote is basically irrelevant as the season has completely changed compared to what I wrote before or something. I hope to do better about just immediately posting those blog posts in the future, and just getting over myself when it comes to taking photos for my blogs and not needing the perfect lighting for every goddamn photo that I can only take on the weekends because I work a normal job during the week. I’d also like to branch out into more than just skincare and makeup. While those are two of my biggest hobbies, I also love to game, and I read a ton of novels too – although most of them these days are Korean and Chinese novels. But still, I’d like to write more blogs about that rather than just continuing to focus on skincare and makeup – after all, this blog is about all things that catch my fancy, not just specifically a skincare and makeup blog.
Other than that, I think I might be putting myself on a shopping ban going into 2024. I’ll be spending all my Christmas money that I received probably, but otherwise, I’m going to try to limit how much I spend next year. 2023 was a year that I really realized my consumption was getting out of hand, and as such, I want to try to head into 2024 by lowering my overall consumption in all the random shit I really don’t need lmfao. I’ve honestly already been doing that the last month or two of the year, and it’s been nice not having as much clutter in general in my life. I’d also like to finally get more into sewing as I’ve been putting that off for a few months now, only making a few small things here and there as test runs, and I REALLY want to get to the point where I can begin making my own clothes! I’d also like to try getting into knitting or crochet, as several of my friends are planning on trying for kids heading into 2024, and I’d love to be able to make something handmade for their children, and for my nibblings.
Overall, I have a lot of goals and hopes for 2024, and I’m going to do my best to hold myself accountable so that I don’t feel like another year has passed without me having done anything.
Anyways, thanks again for reading my blog, and thanks for continuing to read despite my horrible post schedule. I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, and I wish you all peace, prosperity, and joy into the coming 2024 new year!
{ Honey + Bunny } 