 Hi guys, it's Monica. Can you believe that 2017 is almost over? I know I can't, it's like totally amazing to me. I don't know where the year has gone, but it has been a truly incredible year for me and it's been so enlightening in many, many ways. I've met so many wonderful people, both content creators and folks that have followed my channel and subscribed to my channel that I feel like I know you from your comments, from the engagement we do. I feel like I know every single one of you, so it's like just, it's just been, it's just been an awesome year and I want to thank you all and wish you all a very happy, happy new year. Here's to 2018 being an awesome year for us all. That said, you know, everyone does their top 17 favorites for 2017 and I don't, I mean I have my favorites, but for me it's more my go-to, my tried and true products that I have been enjoying and using and really, really liking. So my routine is pretty well, a normal, I guess, routine. I absolutely love some of the tools that I use and it starts with cleansing my skin. I'm not really hung up on a cleanser. Most of the time I do use the CeraVe Hydrating Cleanser and usually when I exfoliate I do use the Body Mary. I, you know, I've talked about this one many times, so to me I'm a creature of habit. Those are the things that I love to use and when I wash my face I have my Foreo Mini. I actually got this for Christmas in 2016 and I think to buy the, a real one, I think it's like about 120, or it was about $129 last year when I bought it. It's still going strong. It runs really beautifully, but I had discovered a dupe for it and I will link that dupe below. I don't know if they still sell it, but I discovered the dupe through Carol from The O'Carroll Show. I was watching her show and she's just an amazing woman. She does all these dupes and I'm thrilled I'm going to be collabing with her, but anyways, she had talked about a dupe for the Foreo Mini and I said, oh wow, I loved it. I ended up buying two of them. I was going to give one as a gift. I never did. So yes, I grab this every single day. I use it twice a day in the morning and at night and I go over my entire face with it. I feel like it massages my face really good and the other things that I really have to say that has been an ultimate favorite. I got this free for review back in the beginning of the year and when it's the square hair bands. I know you've seen these. You've seen me wear them and you've seen people talk about them, but when I was actually contacted by Julie George to see if I would like to try this, I kind of looked at the hair bands and I'm going, well, you know, I haven't really worn a hair band all that much, but sure. And my hair was significantly shorter, but so she sent them to me to try and I tell you, I've worn them to work. I've worn them all day long. They are so super, super comfortable. They're on hinges. They look really cool, but my square bands, I grab one of these twice a day. I use this every morning. I pull my hair back off my face to do my washing. And every night when I do my cleansing, I use these square hair bands. I absolutely love them. So that is definitely one of my favorites for 2017 and another favorite that I have. And this is another freebie that I got. And these are these little file wise. Look at these adorable files. So I got these sent to me again, also the beginning of the year in Deborah. I'll link the website below. When she had sent it to me, I had the tips on and I was like, well, I don't know. You know, if the gel tips, I really wasn't too sure how it was going to work. And she said, oh yeah, I'd be worked really nice. So I said, okay, so she sent them to me and I absolutely love them. And you know, I think I really love about them the most is they fit anywhere. I have a ton of them. I have some in my pocketbook, some at the office, some in my bag, my computer bag, they fit anywhere. But more importantly, you can wash them. Do you ever see those roguely old Emory boards that people have been using that are laying around that are full of nail crud? They're so gross. You cannot wash those. These you can wash. I've washed these with soap and water and they come out looking as good as new and they work as good as new. So that's my little tout. Yes, it was sent to me free, but it ended up being one of my ultimate favorites. Very, very surprising. The other thing that surprised me this year, and I've talked about this an awful lot, was the number seven. The number seven, and I still love my It CC Cream 50 SPF, but it is a much heavier coverage for my skin. So my number seven, the Lift and Luminate, has really knocked my It CC Cream into second place. For me in my skin, everyone's skin is different. I don't like full coverage. My skin is drier. So I need something that really has a lot of moisture in it. And this seems to be doing the trick for me. So that was like huge 2017 surprise. Another thing that I started this year, and I think it was Beauty Bay and Marie. I think it was the first one that I'd ever heard of the Nevea. And this is the Skin-Firming Insotherm Concentrated Serum with Q10. Surprisingly, so I bought this and I said, wow, we'll see. What do I get to lose? I got these two big ugly fat pulpits on the inside of my eyes. I figured, you know, it was cheap enough. I think it was like $12.99 or something like that when I bought it. And so my whole goal, because of the time I was using the Ordinary's Caffeine Solutions My Ender Eye Bag, so my whole goal was to try to get rid of my fat pockets inside each eye and maybe help lift my hooded eyes a little. So I started to use a very tiny bit. Every time I film in here, the heat goes on. But I started to use a very tiny bit and I would just dab it on the inside of my eyes and then up here. I really wasn't using it too much on my bags except maybe at night because in the morning I was using the caffeine solution from the Ordinary, which I won't buy when I'm out of it. I still have another full little jar of it. I will continue to use it every morning, but I won't rebuy it. I won't repurchase. It probably works just fine and I've never experienced any drying. I mean, I have some baggy under eyes. I'm going to be 64. I've got wrinkles galore. But I think the Nevea is working a little bit better for the puffiness. So I think I'm going to just stick to this. Now, I've heard various people say they're not making it anymore. I have no proof of that. I don't know. I'm still seeing it on the shelves here. I buy it mine at Altar and that's where I found it most recently. So my other tried and true not a surprise at all is going to be my Alana Cream B Venom Face Mask. This is the face mask I've used and talked about. Started using this at the beginning of November 2016. I actually love it. I use this every single night of the week. Sorry about my band-aid. I got a boo-boo. I use this every single night of the week except for those nights that I dermarole. When I dermarole, I don't use the B Venom. I put this on and this stings my skin. It's like, whoa. You know, it's really stinging. But I absolutely, I put it on all over my face. I don't go up to my eyes. I'm very careful with those areas. But I put it on all over my face and I go to sleep with it on. And so I have a heavy coating of it on. I sleep all night. The directions say, wash it off. I never do. I wake up the next morning. My skin is plump feeling and very moist feeling and not at all dry. I get up in the morning. I wash it off. I do my normal cleansing. It helps me a little bit with my flakiness, I believe, because I use it in conjunction with my Retin-A. So I love this stuff. Now, this is another product that's very hard to find on my local shelves. But when you can find it, when I found it in Marshalls and TJ Maxx, it's been $5.99 a tube and that's been pretty good. The other thing I absolutely love, and I'm going to talk about this a little bit more in my video coming up, is my care post. I started using it in 2016. It remains a favorite in 2017. It is my eyelash serum. I currently use this three nights a week. And what it has done is help maintain some of my eyelash growth. When I'm out of this one, I'm going to try a different product just for a couple of months and then I'm going to go back to my care post. I just figured maybe give a break. I buy this overseas. It's very reasonable the way I buy it. So the other eyelash serums are going to be a little bit more money, but I have one that I bought that another thing from the Eau Carol show that she talked about. So I'm going to use that eyelash serum when I'm done this and see how it works. So that brings me to my mascara. I'm not going to go into details because I have a video coming up on mascara. But my true, tried and true, I always use my primer all the time in my eyelashes. I absolutely love it. And this is the L'Oreal voluminous primer. And my number one is still my IT Cosmetics superhero. But a very, very close second for drugstore is my Essence Lash Princess. Now the Lash Princess is very hard to find as well. It also has it at a great price, usually buy one, get the other half price. And I think they're like $4.99 normally. And they're always, always sold out. So I'm not finding that Lash Princess Essence mascara readily at all. I see every other brand of their mascara is but not the Lash Princess. That line sells out. So the IT Cosmetics superhero is still my number one. I can just do my eyes with one coat with this where the Essence takes a little bit longer to build up or more coats to build up. But the wear time for the Essence Enos, there's no flaking. It stays on. It comes off easy. It gives me volume for my eyelashes are equal for both. One, I just, I'm going to use a lot less product because it's going to be like baby, there's your lashes. And the other, I'm going to use more product because I have to build up. Price difference, $4.99, half off the second. Typically you can get this at a really great buy on CVS. You can get like two for $26. So, but yeah, it's still my favorite, still my favorite mascara. The other thing that has surprised me this year tremendously is derma rolling. I just did a collab video. I'll link that derma rolling. Definitely when I think about the tools of the trade, absolutely loving my derma roller. I never knew that there was a difference between derma rollers. And I think when you find a derma roller that glides smoothly, that really does well. I think it's amazing what it can do ultimately for helping your skincare products that you're using work faster. I don't think the derma roller itself is going to turn back the clock at all, but I do think it's going to help stall it ultimately over time and help all those wonderful products that you're using sink into your skin a lot quicker, a lot faster. That brings me to my timeless products, my tried and true. I have turned down product reviews on skincare. I don't mind trying soaps. I don't mind trying creams. I don't mind trying some stuff when it comes to my serums because I am a retin A user and I will continue to use retin A. I'm not interested in eliminating my retin A and using a retinol or another serum that has it in no matter what. Say no thank you because when it comes to the basic skincare, I don't want to give this up or this up to try something. And I really believe in my opinion you need to try a product for a good three months in most cases to know how it really works and I'm not willing to give this up for three months to try something. So my tried and true, my retin A, my timeless. This is my timeless C plus C plus ferlic acid and and I really am really loving the matrixal sink six. These are my two serums that I love from timeless. I mean just one of many. I you know I'm talking my favorites. I love a lot of the time and timeless hyaluronic acid etc. I really love it. The rest of the stuff that I'm using is from the ordinary and it all depends whether I'm using it on a derma roll night or not. I love their niacinamide. I use this every single night, derma rolling or not. My niacinamide. I use lactic acid. I love their lactic acid. I believe it helps exfoliate my skin. I don't use this every single night. It all depends on my skin. I'm not going to use it when I'm derma rolling. I might use it the next morning. So I use this an awful lot. And then I have my my ordinary buffet and I really really like that serum. So I have my favorite serums and I have my favorite oils. Squarlene and Marula. Chop it for me. I really really like that. I really like it a lot. The other thing that I've really gotten such a kick out of this year. Oh my gosh this is going to be a long video again. But it's my little fake bunny things. So I have a number of them that I bought and right now my hair is in the process. I'm going to the hairdressers tonight but I'm trying to let my hair grow out and so it's a little bit long and unruly but she'll touch up my graze. I don't think she I don't I'll have her not cut it. Maybe she'll have to trim some dead ends but I am loving the fact that I have my hair is almost long enough that I can pull it up and I can use one of these and it looks pretty decent. But I do have three. They're very very cheap. Two I got at Sally's you know 9.99. One I got at the Alta and I think it was like 20 bucks. So I'm absolutely loving loving those and I you know as usual by the time I finish this video I'll remember all the things I forgot to mention. So anything I forget I'll put in the comments or not in the I'll put it in the description box below. But I just thought I would share some of my tried and true things that when I go away if I'm packing for a trip I know that I'm going to bring a square hairband. I'm going to grab those files. I'm bringing my derma roller depending on how long I'm gone. If I'm gone longer than a week my derma roller is coming. I did that when I was camping all summer. My retina and then the serums from Timeless my ordinary serum. So I've got like six bottles between my oils and my serums. They would be coming with me and of course I would definitely I think at this point and I know I've mentioned my essence but if I really wanted to have just one and I couldn't replace it for whatever reason and I wanted to get more oomph I'd probably pick the the superhero and with the the primer. So and my care post and my bee venom and what else oh and my for you mini-doop and love love love that. So I have so many different things but that's just sort of a glimpse of that. I am going to do another video I don't know if it's going to be up before before my collab video goes up but I'm going to be doing another video where I talk a little bit more about you know maybe some of my jewelry because I always get comments on my jewelry. I am an earring fanatic in case you haven't figured it out. I love earrings. I have earrings that are very very inexpensive too expensive. So earrings I just like them to be pretty. I like them to be somewhat bold and and I love wearing them. They make me happy and I also always get a comment on my Apple watch and my bands. I buy my bands and I'll link the bands for you. This I have a couple of different bands that I wear but I buy my bands from my Apple watch on Amazon and I love it. I love it. So anyways I think I think this is going up before the New Year so I want to wish you all a very very happy and New Year. If you're going out New Year's Eve please be safe and enjoy your evening and I'll see you in 2018. Thanks so much for all your support and really really really appreciate every single one of you. Thank you. Bye guys. Please be sure to support the mature community by liking sharing and subscribing to our videos. Thank you.