By Lexis Jackson
During these last few months of dealing with the weather changing and mask acne, I cannot be the only one whose skin is freaking out! I spend so much time scrolling through influencers' Instagram’s, Tiktok’s, and skincare blogs, trying to find what products will fix me. We all know that taking care of our skin is an investment and something that will never go out of style. With that being said, it seems that skincare trends are constantly being updated, and new products coming along.
So how do we start, and how do we separate a good product from its marketing? I have compiled a list of the most talked-about brands this year and more information about who the company is, their sustainability approach, and top-rated products. This list, including the most talked-about brands small businesses that are breaking through the scene, and black-owned skincare that you can invest in this winter.
Buying beauty and skincare items are always a process that requires trial and error. No products fit everyone, and that is why there are so many out there. While I cannot guarantee you the best product for your skin, I will do my best to put these brands' most loved products. Always do extra research to make sure whatever product you look for works with your kind of skin!
2020 Raves:
First Aid Beauty
The mission of First Aid Beauty is to maximize skin health through efficacious, sensitive, skin-friendly, problem-solving products that are also enjoyable to use and made with clean products.
Doing some research on this brand, in 2019, Refinery29 did a piece about this skincare and sampled and reviewed every single product. While a pretty lengthy article, her conclusion was… "just about every cleanser, moisturizer, mask, eye cream, and serum I tried, I came to just about the same impossible conclusion: It's really good. (Also, why doesn't this cost more?) … Overall, my month and a half of testing nearly 35 products proved overwhelmingly positive."
First Aid Beauty is cruelty-free. They do not test on animals during the production or sell any products where animal testing could be required by law.
Most popular products:
· Facial Radiance Pads 4.7/5 stars
· Ultra Repair Lip Therapy 4.4/ 5 stars
· Ultra Repair Face Moisturizer 4.8/5 stars
· First Aid Beauty 5-in-1 Face Cream SPF30 4.6/5 stars
Krave beauty
Krave beauty's mission sticks to the fact that less is more and uses the hashtag #PressReset to tell their clients to change the way they look at their skincare. Created by Liah Yoo, an influencer who worked in the Korean beauty industry, she reaches over 1.5 million people with her platform promising to achieve healthier and clearer skin with her unconventional tips. While most companies overwhelm you with many options, she believes that all we really need is a few key products and is very determined to help her consumers finding themselves through this liberating journey.
All KraveBeauty products are vegan-friendly, cruelty-free, and formulated without fragrance, essential oil, colorant, and potential allergic sensitizers.
Most popular products:
· Great Barrier Relief 4.3/5 stars
· Beet the Sun 4.4/ 5 stars
· Kale-lalu-yaha 4.8/ 5 stars
Skin Ceuticals
Skin Ceuticals is a skincare brand with a dedicated purpose to improve skin health backed by science. Created from skin cancer research, this brand found breakthroughs in their antioxidants; with their high potency formulas, the brand has developed proven formulas to penetrate 'optimally' into the skin. This clinical skincare is also used by dermatologists, plastic surgeons, spas, and home-care. While on the pricier side, its clinical formulas are dedicated to getting the most troubled skin looking fresh. This brand specifically targets to correct signs of aging, protect healthy skin, and prevent future damage.
*ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT IMPACT:
'SkinCeuticals is committed to improving its impact on the environment in all aspects of development. Through optimization efforts, we continue to reduce our use of shipping cartons and corrugate material. In 2016, we modernized our fulfillment center to use wind turbines to measurably improve our carbon neutrality.' Skin Ceuticals Website
Most popular products:
· SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic 4.5/5 stars
· SkinCeuticals Phloretin CF 4.6/5 stars
· SkinCeuticals Hyaluronic Acid Intensifier 4.6/5 stars
· SkinCeuticals Triple Lipid Restore 2:4:2 4.7/5 stars Best Beauty Buys: Instyle 2020
The Inkey List
This Brand is buzzing. Loved by influencers and talked about by beauty editors across the board, The INKEY List wants to simplify the most known trending products to help you make the right decisions about your skin. They have a platform askINKEY where you can ask questions at any time to professionals. You can also take the Recipe Builder quiz on their website to create a customized skin routine based on your troubled areas. They also aim to keep prices affordable without compromising their ingredients.
*The Inkey List is Cruelty-free! None of The Inkey List's ingredients, formulations, or finished products are tested on animals, anywhere in the world. Most of the products are vegan and don't contain any animal-derived ingredients or by-products. However, not all of The Inkey List products are vegan.
Most popular products:
· The INKEY List Squalane Face Oil 4.5/5 stars
· The INKEY List Retinol Serum 4.5/5 stars
· The INKEY List 15% Vitamin C and EGF Brightening Serum 4.4/5 stars
· The INKEY Salicylic Acid Acne + Pore Cleanser 4.5/5 stars
Banila Co
Founded in 2006, this company aims to help makeup lovers fully realize all their dreams. They believe that beautiful skin is the first step to creating a perfect face, and you don't have to sacrifice skin for your makeup obsession. As a leader of K-beauty, they continue to set beauty trends through easy-to-use advanced formulas. Banila Co's most popular product Clean It Zero cleansing cream is so effective and popular that it is purchased every 3.1 seconds by beauty experts worldwide. The company's bottom line points out that your bare skin will look better with these products, makeup looks smoother, and it will last longer.
Banila Co is not technically cruelty-free because they manufacture in Korea but sell in China. Throughout our development process, we do not test any ingredients on animals. Due to restrictions finished goods manufactured outside of China must be tested to sell there* Hallyuhouse
Most popular products:
· Clean It Zero 5/5 stars
· Clean It Zero Foam Cleanser 4.4/5 stars
· Dear hydration toner 4.7/5 stars
Paulas choice
This Seattle company was founded in 1995 by Paula Begoun. Whether it is the ingredients in the product or the non-ingredients in the ingredients (all ingredients do not contain dyes, fragrances, phthalates, etc.), the ingredients are the brand's real core. In fact, the brand's website even provides a useful ingredient dictionary. Products with their cult-like followers can meet the needs of almost all skin types.
Paula's Choice is cruelty-free. This brand has confirmed that it is truly cruelty-free. They don't test finished products or ingredients on animals, and neither do their suppliers or any third-parties. They also don't sell their products where animal testing is required by law* Cruelty-free kitty
Most popular products:
· Paula's Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant 4.2/ 5 stars
· Paula's Choice RESIST Advanced Smoothing Treatment 10% AHA 4.1/5
· Paula's Choice Smoothing Primer Serum SPF 30 4.0/ 5 stars
Small business:
It is more important than ever during this time to support small businesses, below I will give you a list of a couple of small business beauty brands that have made a name for their brands all on their own.
Soko Glam
Charlotte Cho and her husband founded this Korean skincare brand. Based in New York City, the Soko Glam team regularly travels to Seoul to educate and re-vamp their products. Soko Glam is famous for popularizing the "Ten-Step Korean Skin Care Program" in the West and other regions. It has featured major publications such as The New York Times, Vogue, Allure, and Into The Gloss. There is no time like now to jump into the 10-step skincare routine to improve your skin.
Soko Glam is Cruelty-Free. They do not test on animals during the production or sell any products where animal testing could be required by law.
Most popular products:
Missha's Time Revolution Artemisia Treatment Essence 4.0/5 stars
Neogen's Real Ferment Micro Essence 4.4/5 stars
Good (Skin) Days C's The Day Serum 4.0/5 stars
Then I Met You Living Cleansing Balm: Winner of the Allure Best of Beauty
Captain Blankship
Founded by Jana Blankenship, the brand supports small farms, putting the earth first, and is completely free of parabens, synthetic preservatives, and other harmful toxins. Captain Blankenship's main goal is to create organic beauty products that directly link with nature. Using ‘cold-pressed organic plant oils, flowers, seaweeds, sea salt, and organic essential oils bring us back to the primacy of experience with the land and sea.’
Most popular products:
Sailor Deep Blue Face Moisturizer 5.0/5 stars
Golden Waves Sea Salt Shimmer Spray 5./5 stars: Bazaars Editors Choice: Beauty 150 Winner
Sailor Sea Splash Cleanser 5.0/5 stars
French Girl Organics
This all-natural collection originally started as a range of products found on founder Kristeen's Etsy shop and can now be found on anthropology shelves and beauty editors lists. Since day one Kristeen has been committed to creating conscious free products through 'organic, sustainable ingredients, ethical business practices, and a cruelty-free supply chain.' Since the beginning of the brand, they have been big proponents of water-free formulas and only use botanical extracts, herbs, and flower distillates in their ingredients. This great brand influence comes from the founders' life-long love of nature, French heritage, and lifestyle' to create an experience of guilt-free indulgence!
Most popular products: 5/5 star reviews on site
Lumière Body Glow Oil - Jasmin
Rose Sea Polish - Smoothing Treatment
Fleur De Rose - Rose Facial Polish
Also check out: Greenbeauty Market
Founded by previous professional beauty industry workers Robbie ter Haak and Geertje van Bavel, the launch of Greenbeauty Market aims to disrupt the beauty industry in a new way. Green beauty Market is your one-stop-shop for all your vegan, natural, and organic beauty products! Highlighting the best indie brands who are passionate about clean beauty because we know it's the future.
Black-owned businesses
Kaike
Founded by Keli Smith in 2015 the brand Kaike (pronounced cake) is a plant-based skincare brand promising to make dull skin a thing of the past. This brand aims to create minimal and multi-purpose products to solve a range of skin issues specific to melanin-rich skin. Using the #pieceofkaike to celebrate their delicious simple recipes. As reviewed by Elle, Byrdie, Refinery 29, Forbes, and Readers Digest.
Most popular items: 5/5 star reviews on site
Shani Darden Skincare
Professional cosmetologist Shani Darden is regarded as the secret of Hollywood's most perfect face and stands out with her result-oriented skincare method. Her passion for simple, effective solutions has won her clients' trust and respect, including Emily Ratajkowski, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, and Chrissy Teigen. Although on the more expensive side this product gets raving reviews and awards.
Here are the most popular items:
Cleansing Serum: 4.8/5 stars: Winner of Women’s Health&Beauty Awards 2019
Sake Toning Essence: 4.6/5 stars
Weightless Oil-Free Moisturizer 4.7/5 stars: Editor’s Bazaar choice award
Retinol Reform: 4.8/5 stars Celeb Fav and multiple award winner
Hanahana Beauty
Hanahana Beauty by Abbena Boamah Is an All-Natural Skincare Brand whose Mission is to Empower Women of Color. Abena Boamah grew up in Ghana using ultra-moisturizing raw shea butter on her skin. She states on her website 'As a child, my mother would heat shea butter and cloves and add them to her own body butter concoctions for our family to use. If you had a muscle pull, "use nkuto" was the answer (nkuto is the Twi name for shea butter). Your head hurts? "Rub nkuto." Dry skin? "Use nkuto"—it was the go-to in our household.' This leads her down the road to create her own skincare brand with the best and raw ingredients that come straight from Ghana. The best-selling shea Body Butter, available in five natural scents and is a must-have staple this winter!
Must-have!
Mary Louise Cosmetics
23-year-old Akilah Releford has gained big attention with her skincare brand Mary Louise Cosmetics. This natural and vegan skincare brand is getting people very excited…because it actually works wonders. In 2016 Releford begun sharing skin tips on social media and instantly gained a huge following. She connected to young women who were frustrated about ineffective, unnatural products and not vegan free. She took her community request and created amazing skincare products that are effective and affordable.
The first product born from this brand and one of their best sellers is the Mississippi Mud Mask. Another must-have from this brand is the Miracle Serum that has received raving reviews online.
Beneath Your Mask
With an amazing and inspiring story, Dana Jackson's brand Beneath Your Mask is definitely one to hear. After overcoming a struggling battle with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, she was determined to come out even stronger on the other side. To find products that would help repair the skin damage caused by lupus and chemotherapy, she decided to create her own skincare products. There were far too many products on the market that she found contained harsh chemicals, synthetic fragrances, and harmful toxins. She realized her immune system would have to work double to detoxify. So while fighting this battle, 'Beneath You Mask' came to light. The name of the Brand comes from her willingness to take off her mask, tell her story, and create a brand from an incredible story with clean ingredients, morals, and lessons she has learned.
Most popular products:
· Illuminate Clarifying Face Mask 5.0/5 stars
· Indulge Total Body Elixir 4.9/5 stars
· Nourish Skin & Hair Serum 5.0/5 stars
· Polish Detoxifying Body Scrub 5.0/5 stars