The Best Beauty Buys Of 2025, From Someone Who Tries Products For A Living

I’ve tried literally countless lip oils this year from high-end, trendy, and prestige brands alike — and this lip oil from e.l.f. absolutely spanked them all. The formula is plush. It feels lightweight yet has staying power, and it fills in lip lines and makes them look visibly fuller. The amount of pigment is perfection, too. This shade, Jam Session, is my absolute favorite for berry-toned, bitten-looking lips. Also, a tube lasts forever — I wear this constantly and have had the same tube for at least six months.

Salmon sperm was the buzzy skincare ingredient of the year, and I spoke with dermatologists to find out if all the chatter was simply because of what it is, or because it actually works. They swore it was the latter. Online, this Medicube PDRN Pink Collagen Capsule Cream is the product that kept coming up over and over again, so when I saw it at my local Asian supermarket, I grabbed a jar.

Gel moisturizers have never done much for my dry skin, but this stuff is magic. It contains salmon PDRN, which helps reduce hyperpigmentation, hyaluronic acid and collagen to boost hydration, and niacinimide to improve uneven skin tone. My skin has seriously never felt so plump and hydrated throughout the day, and I feel like the fine lines around my mouth are less noticeable now.

This product was all over my TikTok FYP when it came out, and the videos made it look so good that I had to try. I hate the feeling of foundation on my face all day, but this skin tint feels like nothing while somehow providing beautiful coverage for hyperpigmentation and acne scars. It wears well through long days, and I love the dewy finish. If you have dry, textured skin, give it a try.

So I’ve actually never smelled a better hair product in my life, and that tracks — Cécred formulated their hair oil to reinforce hair’s lipid barrier and lock in moisture, yes, but it has layered fragrance notes like a perfume. The product is safe for human hair wigs and weaves too, and is formulated to be used on all hair types, the scalp, and pressed into locs or braids.

I use this on dirty hair days where the top half of my head is loaded with dry shampoo. I apply it midway down to my ends to make my hair smell divine, and give it some TLC (especially my hay-like ends) while it’s up in a claw clip all day.

Like a good little skincare devotee, I wear SPF daily, but I wasn’t considering my lips’ sun protection until this year. The Pout Plump from Azi MD Skincare does exactly what it says and gives your lips the perfect plump. The rush of blood to your lips also enhances their color beautifully, while still looking incredibly natural. I wear this constantly running errands with no other makeup on, and love that it gets rid of my pale zombie lips while also protecting them with SPF 30.

Pretty sure every makeup brand put out a new cream or liquid blush formula this year, and I went through a good portion of them. Youngblood’s crème blush stick is one of the only products that lasts all day on my skin. The shade Mulberry is so beautiful, and I haven’t found another hue quite like it in other lines. Plus, it’s fantastic to apply because it blends like a dream.

I’m the chair of the Perpetually Dry Crepey Undereyes Committee, so I’ve always used thick emollient eye moisturizers. It wasn’t until I tried Well People’s gel-cream formulation that I realized those greasy undereye creams were why my mascara smudged on my upper and lower lids every day. This product hydrates in a deeper, more lasting way that doesn’t affect how my other products wear throughout the day — an unsung hero, if ever there was one.

It brings me absolutely no joy to tell you this, but this $288 cream actually works. Within a week of using the P7Pro® Advanced Peptide Cream, my skin just looked... better. The fine lines around my mouth were gone. The skin on my cheeks and jawline was firmer. It’s youth in a jar, this stuff. Is it in my budget long-term? No. But I’ll be thinking about it and comparing other creams to it henceforth.

My eyebrow hairs are coarse and unruly, so I wear a brow gel pretty much every day so I don’t look in the mirror after work and realize they’ve been askew through all my Zooms.

Maybelline’s Super Lock gel came out this year, and it’s got the perfect balance of strong hold without feeling like your eyebrows are glued to the skin underneath. I have a brown one for days I want to cover my couple of gray brow hairs, and a clear one for no makeup days where I just need all the hairs to behave, damn it.

I have not used another concealer since IT Cosmetics dropped this bad boy in March. Why would I? It looks radiant even on my dry undereyes, and if I apply it sparingly and powder it, it actually doesn’t crease (something I’d just kind of resigned myself to, if we’re being honest).

Your girl has had baby hairs like she’s postpartum since forever — my temples are just not made for growing hair, apparently. I’ve used lots of stick gels to hold them down, but once Dae dropped this hair-taming wand, I stopped using the sticks. This is like a giant mascara wand of delicious-smelling gel, and it helps me comb and place all my Cynthia-from-Rugrats little hairs just how I want them. It never looks clumpy or leaves a white cast on my super dark hair, either.

I tried Nécessaire’s body wash earlier this year and was immediately taken with the Olibanum scent. It’s an elevated, unexpected vanilla that’s more complex than your average gourmand fragrance. So imagine my delight when the brand released it in a perfume. I love that it comes with a travel case (the lid and canister have a strong magnetic closure) so I can toss it in my purse or makeup bag to take with me. It also lasts all day on the skin and really comes alive as it warms up on your body and clothes.

There’s been a lot of chatter this year about people developing allergies to gel nail polish and a common ingredient in gels being banned in other countries. A lot of people looked for gel alternatives in 2025 that look as good and last as long. Personally, I had been searching too to give my hands a break from the UV light required to cure gel (and TBH, I was tired of how long the removal process took me).

I tried semi-cured gel stickers and press-ons galore, but unless you have nail beds that are a very specific size and shape, it can be hard to get any of those products to fit your nails well. That’s why Dazzle Dry has become my new go-to for nails. It’s a polish that dries insanely fast and lasts me about five days before it begins to chip. If you apply the ridge filler between the base coat and color, it looks just like gel. You can remove it with normal nail polish remover, and it takes me about 10 minutes to complete a manicure, so honestly, the fact that it doesn’t last two or three weeks is fine with me. The easiness-to-durability ratio is just right.

Never have I ever used an exfoliant quite like N8iV Beauty’s MÓYLA (MOON) Polish. It’s a super fine, gritty, buttery texture that you buff into damp skin. You can watch dead skin ball up and come off as you use it. When you rinse it off, you leave behind a moisturizing layer of acorn oil, seaweed algae, and white willow bark, and apply the rest of your nightly routine over top. My skin always looks so healthy and happy the morning after I use this product. Bonus points: One jar lasts forever.

Nizoral is not new, but I was unaware of its game until this year. My hair was majorly thinning earlier this year, so I scrolled through dermatologists’ videos on TikTok about what I could try at home to stop the shed and maybe regrow some hair, too. Nizoral came up again and again — it’s a 1% ketoconazole shampoo that works to slow shedding. I could absolutely tell a difference in how much hair came out in the shower and my hairbrush almost immediately, and my own derm recommended it to me when I saw her for a consult. This stuff plus men’s Rogaine: chef’s kiss recipe for hair regrowth.

Buxom is known for their cult classic lip glosses, so when they dropped these liners this year, I jumped at the chance to try them. The tip has a triangular teardrop shape, so you can always get a precise application without having to sharpen a pencil. The brush on the other end is perfect if you want to blur your line a bit for a more natural look. This stuff lasts beautifully and goes on easily — it’s just plain good.

Do you have paper-thin nails that bend and peel apart? Then this is the product for you. The ePhD™ Bond Repair Nail Treatment is a clear, slightly mattifying liquid you apply like a polish. It penetrates your nails, where it repairs and strengthens all the tiny bonds holding them together. Most users (myself included) can tell a difference after one application, and your nails just get stronger with each use. This kind of forces any flaking parts of my nail off by the next day, and then deeply fortifies what’s left so they actually don’t bend and peel anymore. I keep this on my nightstand and apply it with my lip balm before bed when my nails are bare, and it can also be used under manicures too.

Gone are the days when setting sprays were either mattifying, luminizing, or actually meant to prolong your makeup’s wear time. As someone with dry, textured skin, a blurring and hydrating setting spray is kind of my dream come true, and Laura Mercier’s really delivers. It makes my makeup look like skin, adding life and a slight blur overall. It definitely helps keep my makeup looking fresh for longer, too. The continuous mister on this is phenomenal to boot.

My friend came over one day and I kept getting distracted by how the sunlight was REFLECTING off her cheekbones. She said it’s because she uses one of these Elemis pads every night; I knew I had to try them ASAP. I love how easy these are to use, and they also never dry out. Just grab, wipe wipe wipe, wake up gleaming.

Aora is a Mexican brand committed to clean beauty in 100% recyclable packaging. I keep their Acaríciame Solid Lip Serum in the Rosa 02 shade in my purse and reach for it constantly, whether I’m wearing makeup or bare-faced. It’s a pH-adjusting serum that turns my lips a little more my-lips-but-better pink with each application, and it looks bouncy and glossy and just yummy.

Peach & Lily is known for their hydrating, glow-intensifying products; this ampoule was a new addition in 2025. I try so many skincare products to review that I often don’t finish them, but I went through every last drop of the MiniProtein Exosome Bioactive Ampoule. It definitely does what it says it will, increasing your skin’s bounciness and glow. If you’re dealing with dullness, fine lines, and a little loss of elasticity, I highly recommend this stuff.

Mantle is a Scandinavian skincare brand founded in 2020, but I didn’t get my hands on their products until this year. This is the first brand I’ve tested where every product of theirs I use makes a difference. It’s now a brand that, if I were looking for a certain new thing to add to my routine, I’d check to see if they make it before buying it elsewhere. My favorite product of theirs is The Dream Mask, a super-rich overnight moisturizer that gave me a gorgeous glow (and it smells like sugared lemons — obsessed).

Some other products I tried that all did what they promised: The Glow Serum, The Hydra Serum (a great gel formula option for those of you with oily skin, or a great pre-makeup hydration boost), and The Hydra Pads.