Yes, the Ami Colé Skin Melt Talc-Free Loose Setting Powder ($22) is translucent, but the particles are so finely milled that it never gives the white cast or flashback you often get from other powders on the market. All that’s left on skin is a barely there matte finish that blurs imperfections without looking like makeup.
Ami Colé Skin Melt Talc-Free
Loose Setting Powder
Best Powder
The Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Matte Beauty Blush Wand ($42) was inspired by the brand’s bestselling Beauty Light Wand, and like its predecessor, this cushion-applicator liquid-blush wand is easy to apply and blend out, but it leaves behind a matte-but-not-flat finish with a natural hint of color that’s perfectly buildable.
Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Matte
Beauty Blush Wand
Best Blush
Kulfi Main Match Concealer
Best Concealer
Don’t let the minimalist packaging of the Kulfi Main Match Concealer ($26) fool you — its benefits are complete maximalists. The creamy texture is so smooth, it blends out with basically zero effort and covers everything from post-breakout hyperpigmentation to dark circles with just one coat. Even better? The natural skin-like finish is totally crease-proof and long-lasting, even without setting powder.
The Laura Mercier Real Flawless Weightless Perfecting Foundation ($48) calls itself a medium-coverage foundation, but you’d never believe it based on the natural cake-free finish it leaves behind. The pigmented formula covers uneven tones, won’t cling to dry patches, and helps control shine for the entire day — all while looking just like skin.
Laura Mercier Real Flawless Weightless Perfecting Foundation
Best Foundation
For the days when a full face of makeup is just not the vibe, reach for the Ilia C Beyond Triple Serum SPF 40 ($64). It’s part serum (it brightens with a stable dose of vitamin C), part sunscreen (it offers mineral SPF 40 protection), and part skin tint (the sheer shades help neutralize the white cast and leave an even glow without adding any unwanted coverage).
Ilia C Beyond Triple Serum SPF 40
Best Skin Tint
E.l.f. Cosmetics Halo Glow Liquid Filter
Best Primer
Believe everything you’ve heard about the E.l.f. Cosmetics Halo Glow Liquid Filter ($14), because it lives up to the 104 million views it’s earned on TikTok: this primer brightens, blurs, and gives skin the most natural-looking glow. Use it alone if you want an all-over lit-from-within finish, or layer it under base makeup to give it a little extra luminosity.
For years, dry shampoo has been a save-all for greasy, day-old hair, but what if you applied that theory to your makeup? Introducing the MAC Lash Dry Shampoo Mascara Refresher ($24). This game-changing mascara topper actually does what it claims: it softens and refreshes your hours-old mascara to make it look freshly applied.
MAC Lash Dry Shampoo
Mascara Refresher
Best Lash Topcoat
Short, stubby lashes? Not today, Galileo. The Exa Ten18 Lash Amplifying Mascara ($24) can bulk up even the tiniest of lash hairs to (what feels like) infinity and beyond. The vegan formula gets its black color from bamboo charcoal powder, rice-bran wax helps lengthen, and orange-peel fibers amp up the volume — even the brush is made from castor-bean bioplastic. The result is flake-free, smudge-proof lashes you’ll love.
Exa Ten18 Lash Amplifying Mascara
Best Volumizing Mascara
Tower 28 Beauty MakeWaves Mascara
Best Curling Mascara
We love the Tower 28 Beauty MakeWaves Mascara ($20) for many reasons — it goes on without clumps, doesn’t flake throughout the day, and is easy to remove — but what tips it into winner territory are the curved wand and plastic bristles that act like
a built-in lash curler, replacing a step in our makeup routine we’re more than happy to skip.
Perfect for the Tumblr makeup trend you’ve seen everywhere, the Dibs One Liner Longwear Eyeliner Pencil ($16) glides on easily and stays pliable long enough to create the exact shape you want. Then, once it sets, it’s not going anywhere. It doesn’t transfer, smear, or bleed, but it’s somehow not impossible to remove at the end of the night, either.
Dibs One Liner
Longwear Eyeliner Pencil
Best Pencil Eyeliner
The Gen See Mixed Media Metallic Liquid Eyeshadow ($24) is your easiest route to fully dimensional eye makeup in just one swipe. The metallic liquid formula comes in three shades — copper, rosé, and gold — that are pigmented but can also be sheered
out with a fluffy brush or fingers or applied more heavy-handedly for a molten effect. Either way, the
wearable colors will not crease.
Gen See Mixed Media Metallic
Liquid Eyeshadow
Best Eyeshadow
Live Tinted Huebrow Clear Setting Gel
Best Brow Product
Like sparkling-water brands, all clear brow gels are not created equal. Once you get into the nitty-gritty, a real victor emerges — like lemon Spindrift, if you were wondering, but also like the Live Tinted Huebrow Clear Setting Gel ($22). At first swipe, it lifted our brow hairs and locked them in place while still leaving them feeling flexible, but what sets it apart is its longevity. At the end of the day, we saw zero white residue and our brows looked just as good as they did at 8 a.m.
The perfect highlighter doesn’t exi— oh wait, it’s the Neen Pretty Shiny Cream Highlighter ($29). Housed in an easily recyclable aluminum tube, this cream formula tapped along your cheek or brow bones, or even a little under your eyes, delivers the most realistic-looking glow. Just be sure to apply a very tiny amount of pressure when you squeeze it to avoid an unstoppable stream of (lustrous) liquid.
Neen Pretty Shiny Cream Highlighter
Best Highlighter
The Anastasia Beverly Hills Nouveau Eyeshadow Palette ($55) is jam-packed with 12 highly pigmented shades that are supremely wearable, even for eyeshadow novices. Want a natural matte look? Tap into Paloma, Fleur, Liberty, and Metro. Ready to layer on some high-impact metallics? It’s got you covered. The palette even features a pastel lavender (Wisteria) and a blue-green duochrome with pink reflects (Peacock) for when you want a punch of color.
Anastasia Beverly Hills Nouveau
Eyeshadow Palette
Best Palette
Half Magic Magic Flik Liquid Eyeliner
Best Liquid Eyeliner
We’ve seen pizza-cutter liners and stamp-on liners, but we’ve never seen anything like the Half Magic Magic Flik Liquid Eyeliner ($20). Donni Davy, the mastermind behind “Euphoria”’s makeup, changed the game with this calligraphy-inspired paddle tip. The curved edge
hugs the lash line for the most effortless razor-thin strokes and one-flick wings, and the flat face was perfect for tracing on bolder, more graphic looks. Plus, the waterproof formula is legit the blackest of black and lasts from sunup to sundown.
Get ready to change what you think you know about matte lipstick.
With the LYS Beauty Speak Love Moisture Matte Lipstick ($20), you get the long-wearing pigment you’d expect but also the moisture of a balm — no painful dry flakes in sight (but no transfer or slipping, either).
LYS Beauty Speak Love Moisture
Matte Lipstick
Best Lipstick
You contour your cheeks and eyes —
why not your lips? The Treslúce Beauty Draw the Línea Dual-Sided Lip Liner ($12) makes it easy to get all the definition and dimension in one product. Each side is equipped with a complementary color that you can use together or alone, but each one is powered by vitamins C and E for a smooth application that lasts through morning coffee and lunch.
Treslúce Beauty Draw the Línea
Dual-Sided Lip Liner
Best Lip Liner
Makeup by Mario SoftSculpt
Transforming Skin Enhancer
Best Bronzer
The Makeup by Mario SoftSculpt Transforming Skin Enhancer ($30) could moonlight as a few different things — a face balm, a skin tint, a cream bronzer — but however you choose to use it, it’ll lend your skin the best flush of bronzed color you won’t want to live without. The best part? You can use it on its own or with other base products to add a luminous finish.
You can’t scroll through TikTok without coming across the Sephora Collection Velour Makeup Face Puff ($5) — and for good reason. The teardrop-shaped makeup puff fits perfectly into even those hard-to-reach spots (hi, inner corners of the eyes and around the nostrils), and the soft velour material gives all our powders an airbrushed, diffused finish that lasts all day.
Sephora Collection Velour
Makeup Face Puff
Best Makeup Tool
You don’t need to be a surfer to appreciate the long-wearing benefits of the Caliray Surfproof Hydrating Setting Spray ($35) — although the 100 percent post–consumer-recycled bottle with a tropical design does make us want to catch a wave. The ultrafine mist sets our makeup to help it last through anything, leaving behind a hit of hydration and natural finish.
Caliray Surfproof Hydrating Setting Spray
Best Setting Spray
Tarte Maracuja Juicy Lip Plump
Best Lip Gloss
The Tarte Maracuja Juicy Lip Plump ($24) is the perfect example of the “lip bloss” trend — a hybrid of gloss and balm — done right. We’ve yet to find a shade we don’t love (no, really, we've personally stashed one in every purse, and we don’t even care if it matches anything else we’re wearing), and the formula is perfection. It’s creamy, hydrating, and the perfect hint of color with a glossy, comfortable finish.