Makeup
Best Primer
Smashbox Photo Finish Illuminate
Glow Face Primer
Kosas Revealer Skin-Improving
Foundation SPF 25
Best Medium-Coverage Foundation
If you thought the original version of this primer was unbeatable, then wait until you try the reformulated Smashbox Photo Finish Illuminate Glow Face Primer ($39). It's somehow even better than its cult-fave predecessor, leaving your skin with the most subtle (we promise) shimmery pearl finish while keeping makeup in place and from settling into fine lines.
Caliray Freedreaming Clean
Blurring Skin Tint
Best Skin Tint
Created by the brainchild behind
Urban Decay, the Caliray Freedreaming
Clean Blurring Skin Tint ($39) is revolutionizing the tinted-moisturizer category. The liquid formula melts into
a velvety, diffused finish that looks just like your skin, minus any discoloration and dark marks. And while it's not mattifying — it'll leave you dewy and hydrated — it won't slip and slide
around or make you look shiny. All you'll get is a fresh-faced glow.
Unlike lettuce "chips" or the white-concealer trend, we totally get the hype behind the Kosas Revealer Skin-Improving Foundation SPF 25 ($42). The ingredient list reads more like our favorite serums: hyaluronic acid, niacinamide, peptides, squalane,
vitamin B5, arnica, and caffeine. Plus, the creamy formula feels just about invisible yet offers the perfect medium coverage for every day and a finish so natural, it looks just like skin.
Make Up For Ever HD Skin Foundation
Best Full-Coverage Foundation
Full-coverage base makeup doesn't
have to look that way. Exhibit A: the
Make Up For Ever HD Skin Foundation ($43), which blends like acrylic on canvas and covers everything from dark circles to acne spots and even a volcano of a breakout without looking cakey, settling into fine lines, or clinging to any rough patches. And we'll stop
you before you even think the words "touch up." Once it's set, this waterproof and sweat-proof formula does not
budge one bit.
Our standards for concealer might
be high, but the LYS Beauty Triple Fix Brightening Concealer ($18) soars past them. Not only is it hydrating, blendable, full-coverage, and available
in a full spectrum of 25 shades, but it's also packed with ingredients like hyaluronic acid, ashwagandha, and turmeric that simultaneously give the sensitive skin around our eyes a protective and hydrating boost.
LYS Beauty Triple Fix
Brightening Concealer
Best Concealer
Did you know celebrity makeup artist Patrick Ta's trick for glowy skin is to layer creams over powders (not the other way around)? Now, the beauty secret comes in product form with the Patrick Ta Major Beauty Headlines Double-Take Crème & Powder Blush ($34). The cream is packed with pigment that adds the prettiest luminosity to the complementary powder (there are four different combos). Of course, you can use them both alone, but we swear they're even more gorgeous when combined.
Patrick Ta Major Beauty Headlines
Double-Take Crème & Powder Blush
Best Blush
Rare Beauty Warm Wishes
Effortless Bronzer Stick
Best Bronzer
Portable, easy to blend, practically foolproof? The Rare Beauty Warm Wishes Effortless Bronzer Stick ($23) says check, check, check. The cream formula glides across skin like silk and blends with just a few pats of your fingers. The result: a velvety-smooth finish and a sun-kissed glow that's almost unbelievably natural-looking.
"Buttery" is the closest word we could find to describe the texture of the Alamar Cosmetics La Costa Sun Soaked Highlighter ($20). This soft powder formula is smooth and offers the perfect amount of sheen (although you can play it up by applying it with your fingers rather than a brush) that doesn't accentuate pores or skin
texture — our biggest pet peeve
with highlighters.
Alamar Cosmetics La Costa
Sun Soaked Highlighter
Best Highlighter
One word of praise for a product in makeup artist Violette's incredibly chic French accent, and we're reaching for our wallets — but the Violette_Fr Yeux Paint Liquid Eyeshadow ($28) will speak anyone's language. The slick liquid shades (ranging from terra cotta to forest green and vivid orange) are richly pigmented and never crease or budge, from sunup to sundown.
Violette_Fr Yeux Paint Liquid Eyeshadow
Best Eyeshadow
R.e.m. Beauty At the Borderline
Eyeliner Marker
Best Liquid Eyeliner
If God is a woman like Ariana Grande claims, then she most definitely had
a hand in creating this otherworldly R.e.m. Beauty At the Borderline Eyeliner Marker ($19). It's entirely waterproof and smudge-proof, and it offers the most saturated black pigment we've come across in years. The tapered felt tip also helps when creating a micro wing or bold cat eye, but you have to work fast. The formula sets quickly,
but it also means you get zero
bleeding (a huge bonus).
The Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina Chroma Stix ($18) are the trifecta of
eye pencils: they're ultrapigmented,
long-wearing, and available in 16 bold shades you can't get anywhere else. Plus, they glide on without skipping or tugging and give us time to play and blend before they fully set. Also on the "yes" list is the twist-up packaging (because who has time for a separate sharpener?) and the shade-matched packaging that makes finding the one you're looking for a breeze.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Norvina
Chroma Stix
Best Pencil Eyeliner
Finding a mascara everyone loves is
like agreeing on pizza toppings: impossible — until we tried the aptly named Kjaer Weis Im-Possible Mascara ($32). The blend of sustainably sourced beeswax, carnauba wax, and acacia gum delivers loads of volume and length without the annoying clumps (even after one, two, or 10 coats). The formula houses a medley of plant-based oils to condition lashes, too.
Kjaer Weis Im-possible Mascara
Best Volumizing Mascara
Maybelline Colossal Curl Bounce Mascara
Best Curl Mascara
Who needs a lash lift when you have the Maybelline Colossal Curl Bounce Mascara ($10)? Trial and error have taught us that a curling claim is one of the trickiest things to make a reality with mascara, but this formula is the exception, not the rule. It impressively lifted our lashes and kept them in place all day without smudges or flakes, yet it still felt easy to wash off at the end of the day.
The secret behind that fluffy,
soap-brow look all over your FYP? The E.l.f. Cosmetics Brow Lift ($6). The clear shaping wax is easy to apply and distribute along your arches with a spoolie brush, and once you get the hairs just where you want them, it will not (and we mean will not) budge. Still, while it'll hold your brows in a death grip, it somehow manages to avoid weighing them down or leaving any crunchy feeling behind.
E.l.f. Cosmetics Brow Lift
Best Brow Product
We get that the point of a palette
is to house everything in one place, but the Dior Backstage Eye Palette ($49) takes that notion up a notch, giving you options for highlighter, eyeliner, and a range of matte, metallic, and pearlescent shadows all in one convenient place. Translation: it has everything you need to create any makeup look
you could want.
Dior Backstage Eye Palette
Best Eyeshadow Palette
Nars Afterglow Lip Shine Gloss
Best Lip Gloss
The Nars Afterglow Lip Shine Gloss ($26) is the lip gloss, lip balm, lip color hybrid you have been waiting for but haven't found yet. One swipe delivers all the shine and shimmer you'd want without the stickiness or goop you get from other glosses, all while treating your lips to a nourishing dose of jojoba oil, pomegranate extract, and vitamin-E-infused raspberry oil.
Anyone afraid of commitment might want to slowly back away from the Treslúce Beauty Bold y Atrevida Liquid Lip Tint ($18), because this glossy, long-lasting lip stain does. not. budge. Seriously, this stuff will stay on your lips for hours, even if you try to wipe it off with a tissue. Luckily, it's packed with heavy-hitting hydrators to make sure it glides on smoothly and never feels drying.
Treslúce Beauty Bold y Atrevida
Liquid Lip Tint
Best Lip Stain
Introducing your new wear-everywhere lipstick: the Armani Beauty Lip Power Long Lasting Satin Lipstick ($39). The creamy formula offers full-coverage color that lasts all day without drying out your lips or feathering. Our favorite part, though, is the precision teardrop-shaped bullet, which helps you color inside the lines (or in the case of overlining, slightly outside the lines).
Armani Beauty Lip Power
Long Lasting Satin Lipstick
Best Lipstick
Don't judge a book by its cover? Clearly, anyone who says that hasn't seen the Guerlain Rouge G Satin Lipstick in 1925 Roi Des Rouges ($72). The only thing more striking than this flattering, blue-toned red shade and satin finish is the metal case with a built-in, flip-up mirror.
Guerlain Rouge G Satin Lipstick
in 1925 Roi Des Rouges
Best Red Lipstick
