2016 Beauty Favourites!

Hi my lovelies,

Award season is upon us, so I’m giving out my very own awards to my most used and best loved products from 2016! Today’s (rather belated, I’m afraid) post is going to be all about my absolute fave beauty products and other things from 2016! Some of these you’ll have seen me rave about and some I’ve been using quietly for a long time, and only realised how much I loved them once I’ve used it all up! Some of these are long time faves too, and you’ll probably not have seen them on this blog before, but I haven’t managed to find anything that beats them out this year! I love reading this type of post, and I hope you’ll all like this one too! Let’s get stuck in!

• Bioderma Micellar Cleanser

This is one of those “I meant to review this ages ago and never did” products that I bought to see whether it was worth the hype. It totally is! I struggle to find cleansers that don’t strip my skin or irritate my sensitivity, and this cleanses, removes my makeup and doesn’t leave my skin feeling tight afterwards like a lot of micellar cleansers do. I’m halfway through my second bottle, which speaks for itself.

• Clinique Take the Day Off for lids, lashes and lips

Are we all sick of me talking about this now? Best eye makeup remover blah blah blah gets rid of even waterproof mascara easily blah blablablablah. Regardless, this is one of the staple products that I’ll repurchase again and again because I’ve yet to find anything that works better.

• Origins Out Of Trouble face mask

I don’t have the best skin, to be honest. I get the occasional puffiness, breakouts, a hell of a lot of redness, dry and oily patches, the works. It all comes from my sensitivity and allergies (that I’ve get to narrow down and find out what exactly I’m allergic to), and it’s an absolute bitch. This mask feels like putting sudocrem all over my face, but it’s worth it as it really calms down my skin when it’s struggling a bit, and it’s baby soft afterwards. Thanks, Origins!

• Lush Eau Roma Water

I did a review of this a while back after being recommended it, and haven’t gone back since. I use this toner water to help hydrate my skin when it’s drier, to calm down my skin when it’s irritated, to set my makeup if i’m feeling a little cakey, and sometimes to wet my eyeshadow brushes for more intense colours. It’s a great all round product, and affordable too! I’ve used three (!) of these since early this year, which shows just how much I use this!

• Dove Pure Care Dry Oil Shampoo & Conditioner

A tad boring to add to a faves list, but this is one of the only shampoo/conditioners I’ve used this year. I’m not sure whether I told you all my hair horror story yet, but my scalp is really damaged and probably will never be 100% normal again. I struggle to find a shampoo that won’t irritate, so once I found this I clung on and didn’t let go. It also has nice oils to hydrate and smooth my frizz, so win-win!

• Benefit Roller Lash

If there is one product on here that stands out as my favourite of favourites, it’s this mascara. I’ve tried a lot (and I mean a lot) of mascaras this year, but nothing holds a candle to this Benefit one. It holds a curl like a dream, and makes my lashes look super long in the process. It’s not often I use a mascara up before it’s time to throw it out, but I used this one up!

• Sleek Solstice Highlight palette

Another product I probably don’t need to go into details about is this highlighter quad from Sleek. The powders are smooth as butter, and how I haven’t hit pan yet I’ll never know. The cream shade I don’t use as much as the others, but they’re all so flattering on my paley pale skin and don’t pick up on any texture on my face. A real drugstore gem that’s better than higher priced highlighters I’ve tried.

• Zoeva Cocoa Blend Palette

The palette I’ve reached for the most this year has to be this Cocoa Blend palette from Zoeva. It has all the rich, warm neutrals that I love to use, and takes me easily from day to night. The shadows are pigmented, blendable and not powdery, and I can do everything from a matte neutral to a sparkly glam to a smokey eye with this palette. A+ and a steal at just £18!

• Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz

Don’t exaggerate, Jessica – I get told this more often than I’d like in my daily life. But when I tell you this has spoiled me for other brow products I’m not lying. Before buying this I figured a simple brow pencil and spoolie couldn’t be worth all the hype it gets, and I was completely wrong because it definitely does.  It’s super fine so it’s easy to be precise, and the pencil itself is pigmented (but not crazy “I’ve definitely taken a sharpie to my eyebrows” pigmented), firm but not tough to use, and stays all day. While I’m no brow expert and am probably still going to be suffering from a bad trip to the salon the summer before last where the technician basically destroyed my eyebrows (n.b, it’ll be a long time before I let anyone that isn’t me take a pair of tweezers to my brows) , this does make it a lot easier to make them look better.

• Clinique Beyond Perfecting 2-in-1 foundation and concealer

I’ve really enjoyed this foundation this year, to the point where I’m onto my second bottle. You only need a tiny bit (something I probably didn’t realise when I first used this) as it goes a long way and has some serious coverage. Nobody likes cake face. I love how seamlessly this foundation blends, and makes my skin look like a smoother, more even, less red and blotchy version of my own skin.

• Spectrum Makeup brushes

One of my “finds of the year”, these brushes are vegan (not that important to me), cruelty free (especially important to me), and absolutely gorgeous (which is not that important but always helps). They’re also great quality, and I’ve found the team at Spectrum have some of the best customer service I’ve experienced. These brushes have really improved my makeup game over the last year, and for that I’m eternally grateful.

• Beauty Blender

Me, pre Beauty Blender: It’s just a sponge, how can it be worth that much hype??

Me: post Beauty Blender: Hahahaha I was so wrong omg how is this so good.

This is the only thing I have used to blend out concealer for the last six months (I wash it, of course, and just recently got a new one), and I wear concealer most days. Two words: Life. Changing. I don’t think I have to say any more than this, but check out my Best Makeup Sponge post for more.

 

Honorable Mention: Kiehls Midnight Recovery Concentrate. – I’ve only been using this since December, so It can’t really make it to the faves list, but I really do enjoy using this, and it works, so there’s that!

Other Faves!

• Music – Hozier (Hozier) and 7/27 (Fifth Harmony)
• Books – The Girl With All The Gifts
• TV – Once Upon A Time (If you’re following me on Twitter, you’ve almost certainly seen the depths of the fandom black hole I’ve fallen into)
• Moment: Going to Prophecy con with my best friend and meeting Anthony Head.

As always, please let me know what you think in the comments and anything you want to see from my blog because I really love you guy’s input. Thank you guys for reading, and please don’t forget to give this post a big like and a share if you enjoyed it, and I’ll see you all very soon in the next post! Remember to click that lovely follow button to be updated about anything new from me!

More Posts from me:

Winter skincare update – Morning routine || Look Incredible Beauty Box – December 2016 ||Lush Mini reviews! || Birchbox December 2016 & Why I’m Cancelling! ||  Review: Jeffree Star Liquid Lipsticks in Mannequin and Rose Matter || The Best Beauty Blending Sponge? ||

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Ciao for now,