8 Life-Changing Beauty Products of 2016

There were A LOT of products that I discovered and fell in love with last year, but only a handful of them deserve the title of “life-changing”.

I’ve done quite a lot of research before deciding to go on Accutane and knew that extreme skin dryness was to be expected, but didn’t realize how extreme it’d be. I always had dry lips, but the treatment turned them into even a bigger mess. For the first couple of weeks, I couldn’t wear lipstick at all as my lips were dry to the point of cracking and bleeding. Two products that brought me extreme relief were the Bite Beauty Agave Lip Mask and Lano Lips Superbalm. They are both formulated without petrolatum and heal my lips without leaving a nasty residue and are probably amongst the the best lip care products I’ve ever used. And trust me, I’ve used A LOT of them.

I already raved about this Mun AKWI Cleanser* on my Instagram a few weeks ago and I’ll repeat myself by saying that I’ve never used a cleanser like this one. It’s a gentle, oil-based, pH-balancing cleanser that softens and moisturizes skin and heals dry patches. It comes in beautiful glass + pump packaging that I love. AKWI cleanser is sort of a combo of an oil and a balm and I love using it for double-cleansing. If you like using oils on your skin, I’m sure you’d love this cleanser as much as I do.

Another cleanser I’ve been loving is the Mario Badescu Cleansing Milk with Carnation & Rice Oil. Guys, this stuff is amazing. If you have dry, sensitive skin, you’ll absolutely love it. It’s very gentle and doesn’t leave your skin feel tight and dry like some cleansers tend to do; it actually moisturizes your skin. I like to use this cleansing milk in addition to my cleansing gel. I use the cleansing milk first, remove it with a moist washcloth and follow up with a gel cleanser like this one.

I do this because this milk cleanser is a tissue-off cleanser, so it does leave a slight residue on skin unless you do a good job at washing it off; it’s probably not ideal for removing makeup BUT it’s really great for dry, itchy, patchy skin.

Oribe Dry Texturizing Spray is hands-down THE best texturizing spray I’ve ever used. I don’t usually splurge on hair care or hair styling products, but this spray is totally worth the splurge. After buying the purse-size months ago, I knew I was going to have to pick up the full-size one, pretty much after the first use. It adds volume, texture and also sort of acts as a dry shampoo, absorbing excess oil.

It also has a gorgeous scent. Whenever I don’t have enough time to style my hair, I just use a bit of this spray, and use my fingers to create that “done, but undone” look that works really well with my short hair. My hair is always super flat and can’t hold a curl for life and this spray has totally changed that.

I already talked about this Weleda Skin Food cream right here. Such an amazing product, especially for this time of year, or if you suffer from dry/extremely dry skin. It’s multitasking, affordable and works amazing. I use it on my hands, feet, cuticles, body, face, brows- pretty much all over. It’s definitely one of the best skincare products in my collection.

During summer I also fell in love with this sunscreen from MDSolarSciences and it’s still my favorite sunscreen. Even though it has a very matte finish, it works nicely over my Cetaphil Cream and under my makeup and does not dry me out. I can’t stand greasy sunscreen creams/lotions that take forever to absorb and this one has a really lovely finish.

As far as makeup goes, there’s only one product I want to mention: the Hourglass Ambient Lighting Surreal Light Blush, Bronzer & Strobe Powder Palette. This one might not be exactly life-changing, but it is one of my favorite makeup purchases and all the powders included are absolutely beautiful. I use it all the time and I’m thinking of getting my hands on another, back-up one, while I still can.

What were some of your beauty discoveries in 2016?

*PR samples