New year, new beauty cabinet? It's all about petite pick-me-ups and effortless swaps into your routine. From better sub-ins for our standard hairwashes, a total 180 for one of the most anti-ageing ingredients out there to brushes crafted straight from the brains of makeup artists—we've got you thoroughly covered beauty buff.
Here are the best new beauty products to shop right now.
A Double Dose
Dermalogica | Biolumin-C heat Aging Protector | from $65
Leading the pack on heat-ageing products (a very real thing) is Dermalogica’s Biolumin-C heat Aging Protector SPF50. Frankly, calling it a daily moisturiser feels too much on down-low, because this baby has *everything.*
There’s stable Vitamin-C (perfect for brightening and overall skin health) and SPF50 for starters—saving you the hassle of an extra layer. Then there’s a blend of soothing Safflower Oleosomes, Bisabolol and Allantoin to moisturise. And the kicker, ThermaRadiance Complex, which helps stamp out the dull signs of ageing like dehydration and iffy skin textures.
Speaking of texture, it’s rich (but far thinner than separately layering SPF and moisturiser,) smooths on easily and leaves a sheen that the glass skin girlies would love. More of a matte fan? It sits flawlessly on both liquid and powder foundation, too.
What we really love is that it helps with the effect of molecular-level heat stress on our bodies—be it from saunas, bikram yoga, tropical vacays, or simply overheating in day-to-day life, inflammation and hormonal woes from peri-menopause to PCOS.
A Discovery Dose
TWYG | Discovery Set | $99
If you’re yet to discover the magic of Bioactive Totarol, listen up. Take yourself online, order TWYG’s new Discovery Set and thank us later.
10ml of their signature blends (Restorative Hydration Cream, Rewening Antioxidant Facial Oil, and Brightening Facial Serum) will land at your door, splash your skin with totarol (a powerful skin-smoother and preserver from Tōtara trees) and have you wishing you got on the TWYG train sooner.
Tetchy-skinned friends, rest assured that the legends at TWYG have made sure it’s okay for all skin types, including sensitive ones too.
A Capsule Skin Wardrobe
The Skin Wardrobe | Skin Wardrobe Cosmetics Brushes | From $48.00
We love them as our official source of scandi-cool skincare, but The Skin Wardrobe’s foray into their own line has us *hooked.* Starting off the range of Skin Wardrobe Cosmetics is a capsule of four makeup brushes designed for those in-betweeney applications. A mini blending brush to pat in concealer, chisel your cheekbones or even dab your nose with highlighter? They’ve got it. Or a “Flawless Base” flat brush to even out foundation and buff in powder? Loves it.
Dial It Up
Mecca Max | Max Vol. Tubing Mascara | $31
Patron Saints of affordable, high-wattage tubing mascara have set their sights on a new addition: the Max Vol. Tubing Mascara, created in partnership with Aussie pop trio, Blusher (name a better name for a makeup collaboration).
It’s all about giving you big, high-wattage lashes in jet-black tones—and frankly, in this world of paired down ‘clean girl’ aesthetics, we love to see it.
Official Urban List research shows it to be ultra buildable (even above the three coats they outline) and glide right through your lashes. Also in our research, the fact that it doesn’t drop throughout the day and give you the dreaded lower-lash panda eyes.
Déc The Halls
Boost Lab | Fine Line Rewind Silicone Patches | $44.95
The décolletage is no doubt, one of the trickiest spots to keep spruced and plump. It sometimes skips out on SPF, necklaces get in the way, and we simply forget about it when smoothing our serums. Not to mention, we’ve probably all woken and been shocked at just how crinkly our skin gets when we sleep.
Enter Boost Lab’s Fine Line Rewind Silicone Patches: patches that smooth out lines, stop the scrunching that causes new ones, and locks in hydration while you snooze — or while you sneakily don a high-neck shirt at the office.
A top reason why we love duo for neck and déc is that it *actually* allows you to wear a serum underneath (seasoned silicone patch users will know the drill). Oh, and paired with the fact you can cut it to suit your shape, and re-use them up to 20 times? Now that’s a winning combination.
Oh My G-Oudh-ness
Lush | Oudhess | From $40
We will never stop loving Lush’s Eid releases. First, for bringing us the now–annual-staple, Sticky Dates Body Wash, and its fellow raft of date-rich creations.
Secondly (and the very reason why we’re on our Lush soapbox here today,) for bringing us Oudhess. Yes, it’s pretty on the eyes—but the pot-pourri of flowers in this blend is another level of mesmerising. Think Jasmine, roses, peachy osmanthus, and tea leaves all bundled up with that luxurious scent of oudh.
Our fingers are *firmly* crossed that Oudhess also becomes an annual staple (wink, wink, Lush).
An Eyelash Updgrade
Revitalash | Tubing Mascara
Everybody say thank you, Kiara Cosmetics. These legends, who we know and love for bringing the RevitaLash range to us, have another treat for our peeps: Tubing Mascara.
It picks up from Revitalash’s loved Double-Ended Volume Set Primer & Mascara (truly, one of the best to exist with zero clumps and tenfold volume) but offers a water-resistant edge. Long and curled lashes, separated strands, inky colouring—no rogue wave or humid environment is going to get in the way of dream lashes with the Length Define Tubing Mascara in tow.
Three's A Charm
Revlon | Illuminance Glow Wand | $32.00
We love a bit of precision when it comes to highlighter. We’re pleased to report that Revlon’s latest, the Illuminance Glow Wands a nimble application tip—the most pointed of its category, really. Not to mention, perfect to chisel out the line of your collar bone or under your brow.
The formulation is just as much of a home run. The pearl particles are super fine, among squalene and hydrating Hyaluronic Acid, and it builds with zero stickiness or streakiness.
Oh, and the versatile bronze, golden and rose glow tones make choosing and layering an absolute piece of cake. No decision fatigue = more time to carve out the perfect glow placement.
Think Pink
Karen Murrell | 30 Driven | $34.99
We think we’ve found the pink lipstick that suits everyone. Actually, we know we have. Karen Murrell’s ‘30 Driven’—a shade refreshed in collaboration with Lexus of Auckland City—strikes just the right balance of dusty rose, and bunny-nose pink. And, depending on how many times you layer it, it’ll dial up all the way to a darker, mauve-tinged shade.
Our official swatching and swiping shows that it’ll also make a fabulous blush stand-in.
Country Dreaming
Glasshouse Fragrances | Country Couture collection | From $26.95
Why stop at draping yourself in cashmere, when it can cosy up your space in scent form? We kid you not, cashmere is the fragrance note we didn’t know we needed.
It’s warm, rounded, and strangely familiar (good kind). When paired with nectarine—as Glasshouse Fragrances does in the new Country Couture collection—it becomes impossibly crisp, lightly meringued, and almost alpine-cool. You’d be forgiven for never wanting to take the diffusers and candle out of the packaging—but the dainty, illustrated florals inside are just as pretty.
Scents-ability
Lush | From $50
Lush’s best noses—Co-founder Mark Constantine OBE, perfumers Emma Vincent and Alina Gliwinka—have gone pedal-to-the-floor with the nostalgic Volume 5 collection.
Each of the four fragrances slap you right into a daydream.
One one end of the scent spectrum there’s Vegan Leather Jacket. It takes you to a chic, incense-burning vintage store, maybe somewhere fireside in Europe, with a peppering of flashbacks to your favourite concert. Smoke, earthiness, licorice, clove-pierced citrus.
Chelsea Morning, on the other hand, embodies all the trimmings of the start of a good day: something freshly baked, caked in near-burnt sugar, some just-plucked flowers, and a few relentless sunrays.
Handy Work
Paume | Cleansing Hand and Body Wipes | $28
Paume has no business in making hand and body wipes so. darn. chic.
Well actually they do. They’ve got a knack for elevating hand essentials with nourishing ingredients and formulas that feel like they belong in high-end day spas (anti-bacterial hand gel fans know the drill).
We’re stoked to see Cleansing Hand and Body Wipes join the ranks (plus its matching cute carry-case,) cleansing with an alcohol-free formulation and plant-based fibres for a superb, guilt-free swipe.
Guard Your Glow
Glowguard | Melitta Skin | $62
Image credit: Melitta Skin | supplied
Our lack of ozone layer is no news yet only 10% of Kiwis wear SPF outside of summer (and that's probably why more than 7,000 Kiwis are diagnosed with melanoma every year). Daily sunscreen's essential then. And for that, there's Glowguard.
New Zealand's first-ever daily-wear SPF50 with 4 hours of sun defence, Glowgard by Melitta Skin has leapt to the top of our daily skincare routine (no matter the season). Texturally sublime—light feel, fragrance-free and not a hint of grease—plus a gorgeous glass pipette for easy application, we're a little bit in love, and we think you will be too.
Good Things Come In Three
Triple Active Body Milk | Tronque | $120
A barely-there feeling moisturiser that works is mighty hard to come by, but Tronque’s slinky new Triple Active Body Milk gives us a renewed confidence in the category.
It also gives us a lift in elastin production. And collagen. It lashes us with splash of Hyaluronic acid. It treats us to a natural glow. Pair with Tronque's sleek gua sha tool and it'll even help to sculpt and smooth the skin surface.
All this, while being ethically made, full of natural ingredients and with zero endocrine disrupters.
Given it’s such a powerhouse, we’re one step away from asking the Triple Active Body Milk to run our meetings and file our taxes.
Glory Be To GHD
Chronos Max | ghd | $520
Proving that GHD is the kid that definitley didn't just peak in highscool—rather, staying ahead of the curve her whole life, all sleek and mysterious—is the latest launch, the Chronos Max.
It basically makes your life easier in every single way possible. Like a personal assistant, only in heat styling tool form.
Can’t be troubled doing tiny sections of hair? That’s cool. The plates are nice and wide—85% larger, to be presise—and can glide a decent chunk through at any given time.
Don’t want to go over the same section again and again? They’ve already thought of that. You see, it’s specifically designed to take note of your styling movement, and internally adjusts the tool to make sure you only have to do one glide per section to get the results you want.
Nervy about having left it on? Don’t fret, it turns itself off after 10 minutes of inactivity.
And then there’s the shine factor. Oh boy oh boy does it leave a lingering, none-fried feeling shine. And from our reserve, even mousey blonde hair (the hardest to make shiny) gets seriously sleek.
Beach Head
Swim Proof | Umberto Giannini | $16
We’re awfully good at protecting our skin during sea and salt-soaked days. As for our hair? We’ve all been caught off guard with just how hot the top of our tresses get after direct sunlight. Eeek.
Among Umberto Giannini’s new drop of summer-centric haircare, the Swim Proof Water Resistant Hair Protection Cream is a knock-out. Aside from smelling like a vegan stone-fruit pudding and being ultra-well priced at $25 a pop, its focus is on blocking—not repairing—swimming-induced hair trauma.
It protects against UV, chlorine damage (yes, even the dreaded green-tinge), excess sea salt. All you need to do? Just apply it evenly to your scalp and tresses before you hit the beach.
Sure, it might take an extra wash of shampoo to fully rinse it from your hair. But let’s be real, the double-cleanse is probably a welcome idea post-swim.
Rose Tinted
Lit Up Highlight Stick | Westman Atelier | $79
We thought we’d seen all of Gucci Westman’s cheek-bone-and-up colour sorcery, and then along came the new Lit Up Highlight Stick in Petal (an iconic shade usually reserved for blush).
We’re obsessed. Application is second-to-none: it glosses on smoothly, can blend with a brush or twinkle of your fingers, and is incredibly layerable. A tiny hint of pink or a rose-coloured cheekbone smokeshow—it’s all up to you.
It’s the kind of highlighter that could do the job of your blush in one swoop (a rare thing to find in the beauty market, we say)
Not glittery. Not too pearly. Definitely not sticky. Just pink-tinted, radiant gorgeousness that catches light like no other.
Kitted Out For Bed
Goodnight Pillow Mist | kit: | $50
If you aren’t adding a couple of Kit goodies to your evening wind-down, then you’re not living. Err, snoozing.
We’re almost certain that the benefits of the new Good Night Pillow Mist cancels out the effects of your bed-time doom scroll.
Further unofficial research conducted by us finds that spritzing a little bit into the corner of your shower also works a treat. A steamy, soothin, gentle scented shower.
A Welcome Dose
Visible Brightening Clearly Radiant Spot Correcting Capsules | Elizabeth Arden | $178.66
There’s two things that make Elizabeth Arden’s Visible Brightening Clearly Radiant Spot Correcting Capsules ultra satisfying.
The first, is twisting open these squishy silver capsules and squeezing them out.
The second is the results: they do in fact actually brighten skin and blotchy pigmentation. In our camp, it’s even lightened the pigmention around our Beauty Ed’s eye,
And while we’re rattling off a love list—we should add that the serum makes your skin feel like actual velvet.
Sunday Session
C.E.O. Vitamin Brighten + Tighten Body Butter | Sunday Riley | $113
If you’re not already a devout member of the Sunday Riley C.E.O. sect, then pull up a pew and read this list: Murumuru Butter, Oat Lipids, Cocoa and Shea Butter, and our friend, Tetrahexyldecyl Ascorbate (that’s a powerful, stable antioxidant)
You’d be forgiven for thinking that’s a wishlist of our ultimate skincare ingredients. But rather heroes in the new C.E.O Vitamin C Brighten + Tighten Body Butter.
Silky, fast-absorbing, perfect for post-sun use. This bad boy ticks all the boxes.
Misty Miracles
Repairing Facial Spray | Mario Badescu | $34
Here’s a nifty all-in-one that won’t make you shudder (looking at you, 2-in-1 shampoo,) the Repairing Facial Spray With Hypochlorous Acid by Mario Badescu.
Chronically co-dependent with their existing facial sprays? Let us tell you, the obsession is only going to intensify from here. You see, this spray does it all. Yes, it’s practically a no-rise cleanser for your face. And your hands, your makeup brush, your icky phonescreen, a new piercing (and we hear it’s tattoo safe too). It soothes redness, little grazes, and calms post-waxing inflammation.
We foresee a bottle here, there, in your glove box, gym bag and everywhere. And—given its cleansing and barrier-strengthening properties—nearby to absolve us of the weekend’s poor choices.
In Good Company
Various | Ashely & Co | From $51
Ashley & Co, Aotearoa’s tasteful apothecary, is at it again with beautiful gifting—this time, a focus on perfect pairings for year-round gifting.
They’ve thought of everyone. Or rather, every part of our life that can use a little freshen up. There’s a Nice Locks set, where—you guessed it—shampoo and conditioner meet chicly. There’s also hand-lovong staples in The Pair Up, where Washup and Sootherup come together.
Jewel in the crown is none other than the Dog Box set—the natural Awoof Wash and Ruff Star spray say it all.
Prime Time
Illuminance | Revlon | $39
Primer has reinterred the makeup chat in the mid 2020’s. Namely Revlon’s Illuminance Balm Primer— a cute little little that is well worth a sample next time you glide around their counter.
It’s super silky, but not so much that your foundation would side right off. It’s lovely and translucent, without being shiny. Basically, it’s the kind of primer that we all wished we had when we first played around with liquid foundation.
Rae of Sunshine
Rae Heat Pad | Scarlet Period | $129
A wearable period cramp heat pad exists. We repeat: a fully wearable, walk-aroundable, business-as-usual, tuck-it-into-your-jeans kind of period cramp heat pad exists.
Knowing that the last thing you want on the godfather day of you period is any admin, Scarlet’s new heat pad, Rae, has taken the fuss out of getting comfy. A sleek, slim (and beautifully designed) wireless heat pad for your lower stomach, Rae heats up at the tap of the button and adjusts to three levels of heat—the highest being 45 degrees.
Its gentle curve fits any level of bloat. Or under any outfit (thank you slim-fit design). Or their period pocket briefs. And for that, we rate it.
SPF Sorcery
Hydra Shield Make Up Setting Spray | Max and Louie | $54
Forget everything you know about SPF. It turns out you *can* in fact spritz SPF50 over your make-up and not even worry about streaks, blending in blotches, or a milky tinge.
Max and Louie have invented a totally clear SPF facial spray. And get this, the spray is actually a fine, even mist.
We’ve found it to be the best way to reapply your SPF, quickly, before scorching slogs in traffic. Not to mention, it’s probably the most user-friendly way of protecting the back of your hands—no film or residue in sight.
Don’t believe us? Pop to Newmarket Life Pharmacy where you’ll find the only Max and Louie counter in town. Until then, we’ll be sitting here, smugly.
A Moment With Mānuka
Image Credit: Activist
We’ll let you in on a personal anecdote here. Mānuka honey plays an important role in our beauty ed’s life—simmering down her teenage self’s relentless acne, and with that, restoring a shred of confidence.
Offering a much easier application (spoon to jar to face is messy work‚ trust us) the ACTIVIST Mānuka Honey Mask effortlessly glides on the skin, soothing and regenerating the skin from a cellular level. Use it as a spot-treatment, pop it over rashes and burns, as a cleanser and of course a face mask.
Our expert opinion? Book yourself in for HANA’s Activist Experience. You’ll experience their iconic infrared sauna and PBM light pod session—with endless Mānuka Honey infused moments. We won’t ruin the full surprise, but it does involve a A 300+MGO Activist Mānuka Honey, Activist Mānuka Immune Elixir-infused water and our favourite healing mask—which works wonders under the PBM light.
Give Your Neck A Boost
We’d be willing to bet that you’re neglecting your skin below your chin. Don’t take it personally, almost everyone is. Seriously—research is finding time and time again that even the most extensive of routines doesn’t make it anywhere near your collarbones.
That’s about to change with Boost Lab’s Neck Firming Serum on the scene (soon in your beauty bag). Its key ingredient, edelweiss, a flower you may recognise from Austrian postcards, is all about supporting collagen production and smoothing out crepey skin. A must do if you sleep on your side or needing a literal lift. Better yet, two drops max is all you need.
Main image credit: Melitta Skin | supplied.
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