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Earlier this year, we began researching products that would eventually win theAllureBest of Beauty Awards.
Photographer:Jacq Harriet;Fashion stylist:Herin Choi;Hair:Eric R. Williams;Makeup:Mariko Herano;Models:Laura at Elite, Cory at New Pandemics, Aalyah at IMG
And that’s saying a lot coming from editors whose bathrooms look like unorganized back rooms at Sephora.
These seven innovative beauty products won our2021 Best of Beauty Breakthrough Awards.
The process to explore whether a beauty product is a Breakthrough is a deep dive.
They dedicate hours to studying each product to answer one question:Is this really a breakthrough?
These new products boggled our editors' minds and forever changed our beauty routines.
We hope your mind is blown as much as ours was (and still is).
“It’s like the queen bee.”
When cherry-picking a client’s formula, providers take into account three makeup-free selfies and a questionnaire.
After you get your personalized formula, you’ll have access to dermatologist check-ins as often as you like.
If your skin acts up or results plateau, Agency’s dermatologists can adjust your next formulation.
“Access is so important.”
And Agency has saved her time and stress shuttling to and from appointments during an unpredictable pandemic.
“This made me so at ease with my skin journey,” Abelman says.
“It puts everything my skin needs over-the-counter and prescription ingredients in one simple bottle.”
Upneeq
A flick of white eyeliner.
A pump of an eyelash curler.
(Severe cases of ptosis impact vision and can be dangerous for activities such as driving.
It is likely that surgery would still be called for.)
Upneeq lifts the lid’s muscles from 1 to 3 millimeters a difference that can be eye-opening.
Atolla
The Atolla Ritual
Remember those choose-your-own- adventure books?
If youre prone to breakouts, you will go down one track.
If you’re pregnant, another.
“The questions are clinically relevant and well thought out.”
“Patterns [emerge] so our predictive models continue to get more refined and more granular.”
Atolla then reformulates next month’s products according to your evolving needs.
“Including ways to track how well the skin care is doing.
That makes Atolla unique,” says Woolery-Lloyd.
“My skin went from dry and blotchy to soft and radiant in a week.
The shift was so noticeable, my mom asked what I was using,” says Siegel.
“And you get cards that tell you about your ingredients.”
This level of ‘touch’ is important to get the most accurate results.
The more data collected, the better the end result.
I haven’t seen any other products that are this comprehensive for consumer use at home."
Let your thoughts melt from your head.
(They’ll be back when we finish our skin-care meditation.)
Now imagine you’re in a drugstore aisle the shelves are empty, except for one cheery blue jar.
In your mind’s eye, kick off the jar.
Its contents are the exact color of a cloud.
If you could touch it, it would feel cool, smooth, and bouncy.
Now open your eyes.
That was no accident.
“You don’t see those kinds of textures in mass markets.”
What does it take to rethink skin care to this extent?
More than 100 tries.
So much so that the production process has to be tailored to the pressed serum’s specifications.
In the end, Walsh’s team successfully engineered a bouncy, hydrating, changes-before-your-eyes texture.
Either way, it takes about two hours to fully charge.)
(We’ve tucked it into beach bags, clutches, and carry-ons.)
Other cordless flatirons have struggled with that while operating via batteries alone.
So GHD teamed an efficient co-lithium battery technology with a custom heating element.
Speaking of: “I take it on every location shoot.
We asked Quintero to test the iron for us.
I charged it on my laptop.
“When you make a wired product wireless, you bring in a lot more complexity.
The engineers behind Unplugged achieved that by providing an extremely fast transfer of energy into heat from the batteries.
“Add to that the fact that you’re trying to deliver the same exact temperature the entire time.
That is some serious engineering.”
Benefit Cosmetics They’re Real!
Magnet Extreme Lengthening Mascara
Benefit
Ulta Beauty
“Have you seen the staple trick?”
A few moments later she is back, breathless, with a candy-pink stapler.
She shakes the staples into her palm.
The wand is not magic; it is magnetic amascara noveltythat makes for more than just a funparty trick.
It had to deliver a jaw-dropping lifting, elongating effect.
“It was kind of an insane idea.
Nobody had done it.”
But how, exactly, could a magnet make lashes longer?
But if youdidreally pack a mascara formula with iron oxide pigments, you’d get impressive lengthening effects.
“It’s like adding fibers,” King says.
“The particles will automatically volumize and lengthen the eyelashes.”
This part was frustratingly hard to pull off, Helfrich admits.
Further complicating matters, the plastic combs that worked for other mascaras often blunted the magnet’s force.
“They got it just right,” says King.
“You get better payoff and lashes are coated more evenly so they look longer.”
The result: theBenefit Cosmetics They’re Real!
I, for one, find it to be a godsend for my thick, downturned outer lashes.
So maybe it is amagic wandafter all.
L’Oreal Water Saver
You know when people say “it’s not rocket science”?
“This results in up to an 80 percent reduction of water.
Areas in the American Southwest already have physical water scarcity.
