Hi there,

Beauty might be the category where marketing works hardest. Every jar promises glass skin, every serum promises to rewind the clock, and most of them are, let’s say, optimistic. So this year’s Best of Year beauty winners had to clear a simple bar. Our testers smoothed, peeled, masked, and lathered their way through the year, and these are the products that actually did what they said.

Some of them sound made up. They’re not.

Case in point: the Megelin Duo-Lux, a laser-and-LED face mask. Even some of the best masks settle for around 200 LEDs and two or three wavelengths; this one packs 334 light emitters and five wavelengths, which is what earned it our pick for anyone juggling multiple skin concerns. The catch: not everyone has $400+ to drop on light therapy. If that’s you, meet the Dreame Chrona Photon: 280 LEDs, five wavelengths, an IFA 2026 award, and a much friendlier price.

Then there’s the sheet mask built on bovine milk secretome. (Translation: proteins that cells secrete, such as growth factors.) The Bionassay Cytogen Masque left our testers’ skin plump and dewy after 15 minutes, and the effect held into the next morning. FactorFive’s serum goes further still, with growth factors derived from human stem cells. And my favorite plot twist of the year: Anima Mundi’s Collagen Booster Face Oil… which contains no collagen at all. So why the name? It helps your skin make its own.

Not every winner is a moonshot. Plenty are just smart buys. The Shark FlexStyle curls, dries, and straightens for about half the price of a Dyson Airwrap. Aveeno’s vitamin C serum brightened as well as formulas priced two or three times higher. And The Ordinary’s hyaluronic acid serum still costs under $10.

And last, but most certainly not least, are the things we reach for every day. Lubriderm’s fragrance-free lotion earned a perfect score in our body lotion testing. Kiehl’s, 175 years in, still makes the hand salve we’d trust in January. The Starface pore strips made it too, because nothing beats the satisfaction of a good peel.

With the holidays quickly approaching, it’s not a bad idea to browse the full list of beauty award winners or our holiday gift guides and jot down some ideas. An eye massager, a smart ring—these are the kinds of things people won’t buy themselves, but would love to unwrap.

Oh, and yes, a diaper made the list. I’ll let the full roundup explain that one.

Thanks for reading,

Leigh Harrington

Executive Editor, Reviewed