Photo-Illustration: The Strategist; Photos: Getty Images, Retailers
Over the past nine years, our writers and editors have spent countless hours interviewing dermatologists and makeup artists, decoding ingredients lists, and testing products on our own faces and hair to find the absolute best products for every step of your routine. And here, in the Strategist Beauty 100, we’ve pored over our archive to curate our perfect top-shelf items, to take care of every inch of your body.
In putting this list together, we imagined the ideal medicine cabinet, something for every step of your beauty routine — from your scalp to your toes and everything in between. We started with the obvious best essentials — keeping in mind different skin and hair types — like cleansers, moisturizers, sunscreens, shampoos, and conditioners. From there, we looked at the products that have earned staying power: the ones experts love and recommend again and again and the ones our staffers use up and rebuy, as well as reader favorites. Then we added longtime favorites (such as the snail-mucin essence we’ve been recommending since 2017), drugstore dupes (inexpensive dupes — like Tracee Ellis Ross’s $12 face-sculpting tool), and investment purchases that deserve space in your beauty cabinet (like a red-light mask that fixed one editor’s acne). The result is a mix of tried-and-true standbys, drugstore finds, and investment pieces that have proved themselves in real routines. We’ve even found solutions that work for some of your hardest-to-fix problems, like micro-dart pimple patches for cystic acne.
To make it easier for you to browse, we’ve organized this collection into shelves: skin care, cosmetics, body, hair care, and tools. Whether you’re just figuring out what lotion doesn’t break you out, or you’re well versed in the art of the ten-step routine, we’re confident you’ll find solutions that will help you look and feel your best.
If you like this collection and want even more of our beauty coverage, sign up for the Strategist Beauty Brief, our new weekly newsletter, here.
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