The Best Beauty Products for Your Healthiest Skin and Hair Yet

Best Tinted Moisturizer: Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer Natural Dewy SPF 30

In the wide world of tinted moisturizers, Laura Mercier remains the GOAT. With twenty shade options, this updated formula is hydrating, long-lasting, and creates a smooth, dewy finish. It also provides ample sun protection. In short: It’s the no-makeup makeup dream. Our expert also loves this product, since it’s a great option for everyday SPF, has a nice texture, and provides light coverage.

Best Mascara: Kulfi Badi Lash Mascara

One reviewer of this mascara wrote that it “deserves an award.” We agree, so we’re giving it one. This mascara offers even the shortest lashes length, volume, and curl, and since it’s a tubing formula, it doesn’t smudge and slides off easily at the end of the day. We’ve also found that it doesn’t irritate sensitive eyes. PS: Merit’s Clean Lash is another team favorite. 

Best Glossy Balm: Personal Day Emotional Support Lip Balm

We’re continually impressed by Lili Reinhart’s skincare brand. A hidden gem of the collection? This lip balm that’s somewhere between a balm and a gloss. It’s packed with squalane, hyaluronic acid, and aloe vera that keep our lips hydrated for so long, we barely need to reapply. Plus, all the products are safe for acne-prone skin. If you want something with a cooling applicator, this lip treatment is a close runner-up. 

Best Prep & Set Products: Urban Decay All Nighter Waterproof Makeup Setting Spray, Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion, MAC Studio Fix Powder Plus Foundation

These are the products that keep our makeup looking flawless, no matter what. True to its name, you can literally pull an all-nighter in this waterproof setting spray, and your makeup won’t budge. Add the eyeshadow primer, and you won’t deal with any creasing or smearing. Top it with this powder foundation that stops oil in its tracks, and you’re pretty much a makeup artist.

Best Highlighter: L'Oreal Paris Lumi Le Glass Highlighter Stick

Fortunately for our wallets, this drugstore highlighter is just as good as more expensive brands. It goes on smoothly, actually blends in, and gives our cheeks a pretty sheen without looking like we’ve applied glitter. It also comes in more shades than most highlighters. 

Best Blush: Merit Flush Balm

You’ll find this smaller-than-your-palm cream blush balm in most of our editors’ bags. It’s pigmented but extremely blendable and goes on smooth. Pro tip: Apply it from just outside the outer corner of your eye, toward your cheekbone for a lifting effect.

Best Face Mask: Dr. Jart+ Cryo Rubber™ Moisturizing Face Mask

No matter how many face masks we’ve tried, we always come back to this one. It’s so deeply hydrating that our skin looks plump and dewy for the entire day after we use it, which makes it great for event prep. It also feels so nice on our skin, since it has a cooling effect. 

Best Luxury Serum: ÂN-DEW 10% Azelaic Acid + PHA Serum

One editor has extremely sensitive skin with rosacea, so she’s never been able to use most serums. When she tried this one, it was a match made in heaven. The hero ingredient here, azelaic acid, works wonders for rosacea by calming redness and gently exfoliating. It also has PHA gluconolactone, which can help fade acne spots, and since using it, she’s had less redness, fewer breakouts, and overall smoother skin. The price tag is quite hefty, but a little goes a long way and the bottle is pretty large. 

Best Retinol Serum: Medik8 Crystal Retinal Night Serum

Although it’s pricey, this retinal serum comes highly recommended by dermatologists, and our own editors who’ve used it for years. It’s seriously effective, delivering improvements in texture, brightness, firmness, and clarity — and doing it faster than alternative options. Pro tip: Take Medik8’s retinol strength quiz to decide which of the five formulas to start with. Dr. King loves that it’s specifically formulated to be less drying and irritating than most retinaldehyde products. 

Best Hydrating Toner: Thayers Hydrating Milky Toner

This toner has hyaluronic acid and snow mushroom, both of which deeply penetrate the skin to hydrate and repair your skin barrier over time. We love that it’s fragrance-free and alcohol-free, so even the most sensitive skin can tolerate it. 

Best Makeup Remover: Moo Elixir The Oil Cleanser

While oil-based cleansers can be intimidating, this one from Moo Elixir changed our minds. It's a very lightweight formula, so it doesn't feel too thick or oily, and it thoroughly removes waterproof mascara and liquid liner with minimal rubbing. We also love that it doesn’t have a strong scent. 

Best Hypochlorus Acid Spray: Personal Day Trust Me on This Hypochlorous Acid Spray

Another winner from Personal Day, this hypochlorous acid spray is great for refreshing your skin and preventing breakouts. We tested it and were amazed by how fine the mist is, making it a delight to use, which our expert also confirmed. The travel size is great for stashing in your carry-on or gym bag. 

Best Moisturizer: Prequel Half & Half Fluid Moisturizer

We’re huge fans of Prequel. They’ve hit the sweet spot of solid, effective products and affordability, and this milky moisturizer is no exception. We tested it when it first came out, and both editors were impressed by how much our skin loved it. Somewhere between a serum and a lotion, It’s great for an extra boost of hydration, and it doesn’t contain ingredients like niacinamide or fragrance that can be irritating for some. 

Best Styling Cream: Dae Cactus Fruit 3-in-1 Styling Cream

Unlike wax sticks, this flyaway tamer actually leaves hair soft and conditioned — not tacky — and it’s easy to brush through when you take out your slicked-back bun. As an added bonus, the citrus, orange blossom, and vanilla scent is subtle but warm, like a pitch-perfect early-summer day. We have both the full-sized bottle and the mini version, which comes with an easy-to-use wand applicator.

Best Styling Products for Textured Hair: Pattern Curl Cocktail Kit

This hair kit has everything you need to take care of curly or textured hair. It comes with a leave-in conditioner, styling cream, and curl gel with moisturizing ingredients like shea butter, aloe vera, and coconut oil. It also comes in a convenient travel bag. 

Best Brush: Wet Brush Original Detangler

In this house, we use a Wet Brush. It’s the best detangling brush we’ve ever tried. It works on all hair types and the toughest knots, even on days when we’ve been diving in the ocean.

Best Hair Mask: Amika Soulfood Nourishing Hair Mask

We asked the age-old question, “Do hair masks even do anything?” and found out that this one does. It made our hair soft and shiny after just one use. PS: If you’re blonde, gray, or have highlights, our platinum editor swears by the brand’s purple toning mask for keeping her hair bright and strong. 

Best Dry Shampoo: K18 AirWash™ Dry Shampoo

Our editors had an entire conversation about this dry shampoo in a meeting. It leaves zero white streaks, even on brown hair. It sprays on wet, then gets slightly tacky as you massage it in, but doesn’t leave greasy residue. We will be repurchasing this forever. 

Best Hand & Body Cream: La Roche-Posay Lipikar Soothing Relief Eczema Cream

Our expert loves this moisturizer since it has “humectants to hydrate, emollients to support the skin barrier, and occlusives to lock in moisture.” It’s also safe for sensitive and eczema-prone skin. Anything La Roche-Posay makes, we love, including this eye cream. 

Best Body Stone: Kate McLeod Daily Stone

This luxurious, pebble-shaped stone softens with body heat for a silk-like application. It also doubles as a rich body butter. The bar is enriched with moisturizing ingredients, including cocoa butter, argan, avocado, and coconut oils. It’s a cult-status product for one of our editors. 

Best Anti-Chafe Stick: Fur Chafe Cushion

One of our editors tested this on a steamy trip to Jamaica and was immediately obsessed. It glides on easily without leaving any stickiness and keeps your thighs from rubbing together uncomfortably. You can also use it for under-boob sweat. 

Best Exfoliating Bar: Soft Services Buffing Bar

Bar soap for exfoliation? Legitimately groundbreaking. This buffing bar is packed with exfoliating crystals that work like a charm on stubborn keratosis pilaris, or run-of-the-mill rough spots. We’ve been using this for a year, and it’s become a nonnegotiable part of our body-care routines.

Best Deodorant: Kosas Sport Chemistry Deodorant

The best part about this aluminum-free deodorant is that it actually works, and we’ve worn just a few swipes all day and didn’t need to reapply. Plus, the AHAs in here (like mandelic and lactic acid) help prevent ingrown hairs and lighten discoloration over time. Serene Clean smells nice and fresh, but it also comes in a fragrance-free option. 

Best Red Light for Hair: HigherDose Red Light Hat

One editor has been using this red light therapy hat for months and says she’s noticed a lot of new baby hairs. (It helps to increase blood flow to the scalp, which, in turn, encourages faster hair growth — Dr. King confirms that there’s data to back this up.) Plus, treatments only take 10 minutes. 

Best All-in-One Makeup Brush: Saie The Double-Ended Sculpting Brush

This brush is two makeup brushes in one, so you can cut down on all those old brushes you never use. Use the big side to apply contour or blush, and the small side for eyeshadow. It’s a bit of a splurge, but you can almost do your entire face with this single tool. 

Best Pimple Patches: Hero Cosmetics Mighty Patch Original Patch

We’ve tested countless pimple patches, but we always come back to these OGs. They have the best stickiness (even on just-moisturized skin), and they honestly work like magic to heal pimples overnight. And you can’t beat the price.

Best At-Home Manicure Kit: Livi Manicure Set

With this at-home manicure system, you won’t have to keep your standing nail appointment. All you have to do is apply these nails like a sticker, cut them down, harden the gel with the LED lamp, then file them. We seriously can’t tell the difference between these and a gel manicure we didn’t do ourselves.