 Good morning, I'm Mary Ellen and I'm here today to do my 10 favorites from the year 2023 And this is a collaboration that I have done with Natalie the beauty diva and Carol from the old Carol show. I did two of them This is the 10th one I've done and I did my first two were solo The next seven were with Carol and Natalie Carol didn't get to last year something came up and Something has come up that's out of Natalie's control and she can't do it this year And this has been always been my favorite video to film and it just I'll talk about why Natalie isn't doing this with us later in the video because I need to get through this I want to tell you a little bit about Carol Carol is I gave her the name queen of cool She is the queen of cool. I Enjoy her so much. I love her channel I found Carol before I even started my YouTube channel and to me She was like magical and what's so funny any time she sees something that's like Wonder something or magic this or magic that she is right in there give getting it I just love her and I hope you go and watch her video and go back What you can do is if you go to YouTube just type in the name like Old Carol show in the YouTube search bar and that will bring you to her channel page And if you go down you can just click on video and then there's several options You can either do the most popular the most current or the oldest and it'll show you a list of the videos Or that's what it used to do things change all the time But like I like to go back and watch people's older videos It's fun for me to except for myself, but I do keep them up there. I do have only removed two videos Since I started just go watch Carol and enjoy her like I do and Yeah, she's she's wonderful. I have three winners of a hundred dollar e-gift card that I will announce later in the video And I've got to talk about my very first one This was truly my favorite and the rest of them aren't in any particular order. I Start getting this List together in January and I've made rules for myself throughout all these videos that I've done throughout the years It has to be something I purchased myself And I can't repeat from year to year because believe me there's some things I would repeat every single year Well, a lot of companies collaborate with these young beautiful youtubers to make specific products palettes, I mean it's something that is done quite often But the only company that I've ever known that has done the collaboration with somebody from the mature beauty community someone over 60 is Sydney Grace and they did it with my friend Mary glitzy fritzy What I know most about Sydney Grace is what I've learned from Mary and some other beauty youtubers She did like 26 videos on Sydney Grace Sunday and Sydney Grace is a company that if I put a link down to her company Creators do not make a sense if they have a 15% discount Code for you. They don't make a cent from that. I've heard so many wonderful things about Sydney Grace I knew I was gonna buy a pallet Mary told me she they had asked her to collaborate And I thought well, I'll wait and I will buy Mary's pallet Well, I can consider these purchased because I purchased quite a few and gave them away So now they get to fit in my criteria. It's called the blessed pallet. She designed the cover She has a light. I'm gonna put in photos because I won't do it justice and the dark It's beautiful. She named the shade. She made the shades. She would mix and match and come up with shades They're all Wonderful and I want to put a link to her video where she announces and talks about the shade names and the shades But the first one is my savior and be a blessing and so on and so forth and right here is me after 60 that's for me and Today I have a little bit of me after 60 here in the corner. I have pizza Up there. I have some Irish heat on my lid some sugar tiger and I know what all these names represent and Be a blessing. So I did a whole look today for me. This is big Using Mary's shadows. So it's definitely my favorite of the year and What else can I say? My and the next favorite is from BK Beauty and it is a specific brush. I really do like all of her brushes Lisa Jay makeup started to company quite a few years ago called BK Beauty and To me I've used my own brushes that are a lot more expensive than these and these are pricey But they're so different and worth it I have two of them and I bought these this I use when I want to use powder But just like powder concealer or get into certain areas It's the only brush that I have ever really really liked to go in that this area Because my finger, you know, it's not working as good as it used to be as far as you know Getting in there. I Love the shape of these This one I use when I put on concealer which the last month I've used concealer at two or three times and I haven't used it for five years But this brush made it easy if these were designed by Angie from hot and flashy She had a brush set that she made that were made specifically for older women and it's just wonderful and I love it I'm gonna try to get through this next one pretty quickly, but it's earrings I have not had a new pair of earrings for a long long time Because I only wear 14 got care gold or 12 karat gold I can wear sterling silver for a little bit and I have tried many hypoallergenic earrings and Also stainless steel surgical saying the stainless steel, but anyway Jim said I really want to get you something for your birthday He said pick out some things and I'll you know decide what he wants to get me Anyway, I have been wanting some new white gold earrings and I wanted some huggies Well, most of my jewelry that I purchased was in the 80s and in the 90s and I think like in around 92 or something like that. I think gold was Maybe $34 a Troy ounce and a Troy ounce is what they used to weigh gold. That's just the raw gold It's not the finished product a Troy ounce is like 31.1 grams and a regular ounce is 28.3 just just for reference Well gold is now five or six times higher than it was in 92 and the price fluctuates so what you could buy back in the day you could get a substantial earring for a Hundred two hundred dollars and all the earrings that I have I've had for years and I'm not a trendy person I pretty well like the classics and if I bought it, I will still like it in the future Well, I got to show you the earrings that I got and I'm gonna put a picture of me wearing them right here Because they're gonna be hard to show When Jim saw these he was so disappointed They are very small, but they are exactly what I wanted. They have a hinge and Then you just pinch it shut and it just hugs your ear and They are actually Substantial, they're not like they used to be back in the day But I have seen some that felt like it was just ten But there is a little bit of weight to these but in the past when you'd buy gold You would always know exactly how much gold was in the product that you're purchasing I can't find that anywhere that I used to know how much something would weigh But I love them. They're five millimeters wide and 13 Millimeters across and they're very comfortable and for me. They're just perfect. I have never liked body lotion or Body better. I will use it for the scent. I have some really nice Soldage narrow products Daughter-in-law got me some lovely body better last year and I do like to put it on But I usually put it on the inside of my arm I don't like the way it feels so therefore I have to have something in the bath that Doesn't dry my skin out so I found something this year that I like and it is It's not cheap, but it's a lot less expensive than a lot of the products I've purchased in the past Jim will laugh He'll say you'll spend this and this for that but don't waste paper towels I am probably the least wasteful person that I know other my mom's gone. She was very not wasteful But this is I think it's pronounced neaterium the glow getter multi oil body wash and One of my viewers and I think it was Nancy told me about this and it is lovely. It has a nice scent But it is an oil to gel formula that is intensely nourishing So I have this in my rotation and you can buy them anywhere But I will any product that I have I will put in a link below and if you buy from that link I will make a commission that's in most cases some some things you don't but in most case I want you to know that but it has really made an impression on me and it's a good impression The next item are sheets and these are the hotel direct I believe is what it is and several of you told me that you bought them and you really really like him and They're the bamboo sheets and I hope you can feel how luxurious they are in my bed There's always three pillows and I have two with this fabric and I still use a silk pillow case And I probably wouldn't have to but it's just have it I've done it for years and years and years, but it just feels so good on your body And I have not put on different sheets. I will wash these and put them back on I haven't ordered a second set But tell you the price really varies I when I looked to make sure they still had them and that day The price was fifty seven dollars for a queen size and they're wonderful And I am giving away some of my other sheets and once I've given those away I will order another pair, but that's how much I like them because of these it kind of made me open my eyes Two different fabrics in sleepwear and I love the bamboo the viscous or viscose I'm not sure which one it is and I have three nightgowns that I bought and I will put pictures of them up here the one that's kind of a magenta color is in the wash, but This is one I've got a black one and For my birthday. I got two pairs of pajamas One of them is blue and the other is gray and the grays in the laundry And I'll put a picture in to show you what they look like, but I love the fabric It feels oh It just feels so good. It doesn't make you hot doesn't make you cold. It's just really perfect for me So feel when you go someplace, which I don't like to go shopping I do not like to go shopping never have but if you ever get someplace and you see some bamboo or viscous or viscose Check it out and see what you think, but I love it. The next item is my nightstand I never thought that I would like it as much as I do. I needed a nightstand I took the measurements of this nightstand that I needed because I'm gonna have a CPAP and I needed Storage next to my bed and so on and so forth I wanted something that was up on feet on legs and I thought I don't want to go shopping I do not want to go in and out look so I put the dimensions I wanted in just the search engine and I how taught the height wasn't as important and Wayfair came up and I had never ordered anything from Wayfair and I'm so impressed with it Of course, it isn't real wood. It's black. That's what my tree's sitting on right there. It impresses me I don't I mean it really did impress me and I don't impress easily. I couldn't believe how well it came packaged I had it, you know, it was all put together and I may order something the next time and it may not be good But I could not be more impressed with something and I think the price for me to get it home at the time Was two hundred and eleven dollars. It's something that I found this year and they are rechargeable lamps I have one at my bedside because sometimes you just need a little bit of a light I have one on the other side of the bed. I have one in the living room and they're like this This is not my style But it's very but it's functional and I like the function of it But you recharge it and you just tap it once twice three times and it's out and it has really come in handy and has a USB port that you just plug in I don't know how long it says it's but I don't leave mine for a long time But they're so easy to charge Well, I had got two of these and I found one a little bit later that was prettier and I know I paid less than twenty dollars for these I think the the first ones I showed you they were Probably they were a pair and they were maybe fifty some dollars at the time But I know I paid less than twenty dollars and it's this little lamp and this isn't real glass But it does it looks like it is and you just touch it once Twice goes down three times high and in there. I couldn't be happier with them I know flashlights work, but this makes me happy In fact anything that makes me happy is a beauty item for sure The next thing is something that's pretty functional. It is very functional and it's not pretty but it works and it is a Towel holder for two hand towels when I moved in here in 1991 in this house that was built in 1891 it was an office and I wanted a bathroom. I'll put a link to a video I'll put it above and I'll put it below if you watch it just kind of fast forward Just go through and it is a video because I hate watching it myself, but I love my bathroom so I have a shifter open there that has the Four drawers and then it's high and then I have shelves in it and I wanted something for my towels So I got this I ordered this and the reason I got this color is I just didn't want it to be Pretty I just wanted it to be functional So what's nice about it when you have guests when people come over You just tell them when they go in the bathroom the towel in the back is for a guest because you know I'm not gonna buy paper I'm not gonna do that But anyway every other day I switch out the towels and take them out and I bought four of these towels And they're a hundred percent cotton, and I really like them. They've been washed and dried to death It just serves such a purpose. It's so much better than having two towels on the vanity. I just like it So when I build had that bathroom built. I didn't have to buy much for it I had the bathtub it came from my home growing up and it's six or seven Generations and my family that are bathed in that cloth at bathtub I had an desk that used to be in the emergency room that Was wooden with the black glass top it has pull-out shelves that the doctors would sit and write the prescription It's a storage cabinet, but I really like it And then I had a feigning couch and then I had a shiferobe at the time I had room for a separate bidet and a toilet But I decided I wanted the other things first, you know You never know if you get sick. I have a feigning couch Well, do you know that nobody's ever been on that feigning couch other than my grandbabies when I'd sit and put a towel down and change their Diaper so I kind of mixed that idea probably five or six years ago I started thinking about a bidet for my toilet. Well, I've heard from I mean Mary glitzy frizzy Absolutely loves her bidet. In fact her boy her men and her family She she didn't have the bathroom to herself anymore because they like it too when Jim Jim had his hip replacement We have we have three bathrooms in this house one upstairs and two downstairs and the back bathroom had a tall toilet And I knew after he had that hip that he would need one in the front bathroom And at that time I started to buy a toilet and a bidet, but I was it it was quick I had to do it quickly because I didn't think of it soon enough Well, I bought a skirted toilet and they're different and I'll put a picture of my bidet in here But I absolutely love it. Don't know what I would do without it I had a pacemaker put in and this was November 7th And I'll talk more about that in a video that I do in January, but I'm good I'm doing fine for several weeks before I had the surgery. I requested the post-op instructions I wanted to know what limitations I would have post-operatively Well, when he said absolutely no showers for four weeks I'm gonna get a bidet because I could not stand the thought of not being able to wash myself And it's wonderful to use but like when you are giving yourself a body wash You know without being in the bathtub or in the shower You can just sit there, get your bottom wet, soap it up, rinse it off And I tell you why it sure makes you feel clean Or the other thing I thought about is like if you if you'd ever have something wrong with your arm If you couldn't reach I I love it. I love it. I didn't I mean it's late into the year But it definitely I mean I couldn't wait to next year to tell you about it because it's wonderful I believe I paid and when I went back and looked of course it's a lot cheaper I think mine was $356 it has quite a few different features on it And I had $150 in e-gift cards and I used that and it doesn't take a plumber to put it in Anybody that's handy can do it because you don't have to replumb anything It's a little different if you have a skirted toilet And also you don't want to make sure that if you have an elongated seat But one of the nice benefits is the seat is always warm One of the reasons I picked the one I did is because it has a remote control right here And I didn't want it on the wall and I want I keep it in a drawer In the cabinet right in front of the toilet But it has rear it has front it has vortex where mine is made by biobaday There are tons of makers out there I have no idea how long this will last The only thing I don't like about it I don't know I don't know why they have the black knob on the side There's three different buttons on that black side you don't have to have the remote But it's it's nice and there's a dryer it it makes me wonder why I waited so long to do it And it definitely saves you money on toilet paper And my last thing is the soundcore earbuds they are what they're wonderful I think they're around thirty dollars I have the apple that are a hundred and some dollars I have another pair that I ordered from qbc I can't remember the brand but they're good I mean my apple ones are good the other ones that I ordered that I think they were around 75 dollars but these are wonderful they fit great I mean I'm not listening to the New York Symphony with these on so I you know I'm not like super knowledgeable on the quality of sound but they work for me and then I ordered these came in a great big set I mean a set of probably eight or nine but what I will do around the house or like going to appointments I'll just put this around my head I'll put it around my neck and put this in and that way I don't lose them and because that's happened before I will drop one sometimes I forget to take them out sometimes I think I have one in and I don't but the only thing I did wrong was I should have ordered a not in black because number one if you drop one it's harder to find number two if the inside of your purse is black they're hard to find the light would show up better Natalie has been my friend since the very beginning of my YouTube career we clicked immediately in fact Jim and I went to Montreal and I spent we went out to dinner with Natalie and her boyfriend the next day Natalie and I spent the day at her home and just had some wonderful time together so I feel very close to Natalie she's always been wonderful wonderful woman all of a sudden unbeknownst to her her channel was closed down completely she cannot get into her channel she said she can contest this decision in 90 days she doesn't have access I asked her what I could do what we could do and and there wasn't anything she said that anybody could do other than her just wait for 90 days she is heart sick and I am heart sick for her she can't even watch her own old videos and she cannot comment on videos I don't I don't know it just it literally breaks my heart and Natalie knows there's so many of my viewers love Natalie and and I do too so Natalie I know you're out there and anything I can do you know I will now I want to announce the winners of my last giveaway this month I gave away three one hundred dollar e-gift cards to wherever I can get them or a hundred dollar deposit to a PayPal account and these are funds that I use myself I always save a certain percent of what I made doing YouTube to give back to y'all because if you didn't watch my videos or use my links I wouldn't have a YouTube channel I wouldn't make any money the first name drawn was Karen Batnik congratulations Karen you were the first winner chosen the second winner was Elaine F congratulations Elaine and the last winner is Mint and her name is Sharon congratulations Sharon congratulations to all three of you to make sure this is not a scam I mean I don't know I will always reply on my page and have you send me an email and then I will reply to your email and have you go back and leave another comment so I know it's you so anyway that's kind of what I've done to be safe because there's so many scammers out there I will be back in January sometime and I might tell you some of the 20 that did not make the cut of the top 10 I don't know but it was hard it was really hard to do that I appreciate you all so much I think you know how much I appreciate you I learned from you I loved reading all of your comments about what you looked forward to in December it makes me happy it is all good with God with me it is all good and I will see you in my next video take care no it isn't I didn't break that rule okay but but I will I will cut I will talk about it her channel page this one I use when I and also like her found I always have them oh my gosh they do