If you’re looking for ways to refresh your life now that the new year is here, there’s no better place to start than with your beauty routine. While the products you’ve been using may be working exactly as they promised, there’s nothing wrong with a few cost-effective pick-me-ups to take your look for the next level. So swap the dried-up mascara you’ve been meaning to replace along with the angled brow brush you’ve never been able to master, for new alternatives that aren’t only simpler to use, but better.
Read on for ten ways you can upgrade your beauty routine for 2016. New year, new you, indeed.
RELATED: Beauty Resolutions to Make for 2016 (That You'll Actually Want to Keep!)
Elevate Your Cleansing With An Oil
Trade the foaming cleanser that’s been a staple on your bathroom counter since high school for a cleansing oil. These products bust the myth that oils cause breakouts. Instead, they bring impurities to the surface, and with a quick rinse, leave skin clean and hydrated.
Skinfix Cleansing Oil Wash, $15; ulta.com
Add An Essence To Your Skincare Lineup
A supercharged essence offers an extra dose of hydration in the fight against dry winter skin. Packed with ingredients that feed your complexion with the moisture it needs, these products add a luxurious extra step in hydrating your skin
BareMinerals Skinlongevity Vital Power Fusion, $48; bareescentuals.com
Switch To A Long-Lasting Moisturizer
Your regular moisturizer may have done the trick in the past, but Laneige’s long-lasting cream boasts nourishing ingredients like olive oil and water that are sealed in with occlusives so it doesn’t evaporate. The result is super-hydrated skin any day, any time.
Laneige Water Bank Moisture Cream, $32; target.com
Set Your Sights On A Stronger Eye Cream
If your eye cream is lagging in visible results, try Murad’s professional grade treatment. Apply the fabric patches to the under eye area for up to 15 minutes to help the age-fighting ingredients in this serum, including hyaluronic acid, penetrate deeper beneath the skin’s surface to minimize fine lines and wrinkles.
Murad Professional Eye Lift Firming Treatment, $68; sephora.com
Stop Phone-Induced Breakouts
Our hands aren’t the only things glued to our phones. Dirt and bacteria contaminate our screens and can cause breakouts. Sanitize your phone and keep it smudge free with these cleansing towelettes, which promote clear, healthy skin.
Well-Kept Screen Cleansing Towelettes, $6; sephora.com
Keep A Photo-Ready Complexion
Forget foundations that make your complexion look flawless in person but cakey in photos and kick off 2016 with this upgrade of Make Up Forever’s best-selling foundation. The buildable full coverage is undetectable in real life and under clear high-definition lenses, so even if you’re not walking any red carpets in the near future, your Snapchats and Instagram shots will look better than ever.
Make Up For Ever Ultra HD Invisible Coverage Foundation, $43; makeupforever.com
Simplify Highlighting and Contouring
If you still haven’t mastered the contouring, baking, and strobing craze of 2015 after watching a plethora of YouTube and Pinterest tutorials, ditch your highlighter and contour shade for a streamlining all-in-one compact. This kit has a paint by numbers technique that simplifies mastering the art of slenderizing and accentuating your best features.
Tarte Cosmetics Tartiest Contour Palette, $45; tartecosmetics.com
Make Your Curled Lashes Last
Put your tricky to use eyelash curler and current mascara in the back of your makeup drawer and upgrade to Benefit’s super curling roller lash mascara. This mascara’s brush is coated in tiny hooks that catch, lift, and curl lashes into a sculpted curve that holds and stays separated until it washes off. 2016 will be your most wide-eyed year yet.
Benefit Cosmetics Roller Lash, $24; birchbox.com
Put Your Best Brow Forward
Brow promenade has long been a makeup-artist favorite, and now it’s available in an easy-to-use pencil form. Unlike many pencils that tend to have a chalky finish, this product’s pigmented formula and creamy texture looks natural on even the sparsest of brows—no tricky angle brush required.
Maybelline New York Eyestudio Brow Drama Pomade Crayon, $10; drugstore.com
Give Your Hair Color A Boost
Soon after a salon visit, the rich color you left with tends to fade. This semi-permanent shampoo and its accompanying conditioner are formulated with cocoa and evening primrose oil to maintain your color’s radiance, or give your natural shade a boost. Expect to see visible results after a few washes.
John Frieda Brilliant Brunette Visibly Deeper Colour Deepening Shampoo, $10; ulta.com
