Stylist Best Beauty Awards 2025: the innovators

Stylist Best Beauty Awards 2025: the innovators

Credit: Dennis Pedersen

Beauty


Stylist Best Beauty Awards 2025: the innovators

By Stylist Beauty Team

20 days ago

All products on this page have been selected by the editorial team, however Stylist may make commission on some products purchased through affiliate links in this article

4 min read

From the viral blush that broke the internet to the fragrance we can’t stop spritzing, these are Stylist’s favourite beauty innovations of the year.


Skincare solutions, make-up must-haves and haircare heroes have always been central to the beauty industry. Today, product innovations and pioneering brands are increasingly driven by exciting technical and creative advancements, as well as shifting attitudes towards social responsibility.

The Best Beauty Awards want to champion these areas of the industry that also align with Stylist’s DNA. Enter: the innovators.

Keep scrolling to discover Stylist’s noteworthy beauty innovators of 2025 – from carefully considered products that uphold sustainability credentials to women of colour-owned brands that are driving the industry forward.

Stylist Best Beauty Awards 2025: the innovators

Fenty Hair The Comeback Kid

Best New Beauty Brand: Fenty Hair

Rihanna’s unveiling of Fenty Beauty in 2017 will forever go down as a historic moment in the beauty industry. Three years later, the singer and entrepreneur gave us Fenty Skin, another certified winner. And now, finally, we have Fenty Hair. This considered, thoughtful range of gentle, effective and nourishing hair products has something to suit all hair types. If you’re yet to try it, we recommend The Comeback Kid (pictured above), The Homecurl and The Gelly Type.

Shop Fenty Hair at Selfridges, from £15

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Lisa Eldridge Rouge Experience Refillable Lipstick

Boutique Beauty Brand of the Year: Lisa Eldridge

Stylist’s 2024 Best Beauty Awards saw us name Lisa Eldridge our Make-up Expert of the Year. And while she continues to win much-deserved accolades for her make-up artistry, her eponymous beauty brand has gone from strength to strength. Every Lisa Eldridge product showcases the Brit entrepreneur’s deep technical knowledge, from the Seamless Skin Enhancing Tint (a beauty desk favourite) to the Rouge Experience Experience Lipstick (pictured above) and, most recently, the Pinpoint Concealer Micro Correcting Pencil.

Shop Lisa Eldridge at Space NK, from £10

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S'ABLE Labs Okra Face Serum

Best Black-owned Beauty Brand: S'Able Labs

The brainchild of Sabrina Elba, S’Able Labs seamlessly combines tradition with innovation. A key focus includes creating formulas that meet the specific needs of melanin-rich skin, while being effective for all skin tones. The brand also draws on African ancestral traditions and ingredients found throughout the continent and is committed to making minimal impact on the planet – all of its packaging is either recycled, recyclable or refillable.

Shop S’Able Labs, from £9

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Rituals The Ritual of Namaste Facial Cleansing Bar

Plastic-free Beauty Product of the Year: Rituals The Ritual of Namaste Facial Cleansing Bar

We know, the words ‘face bar’ alone might make your skin feel tight, but this Facial Cleansing Bar is different. It’s enriched with sweet almond oil and a protective vitamin E complex, is PH-balanced and, most importantly, doesn’t strip the skin. 

Shop Rituals The Ritual of Namaste Facial Cleansing Bar at Rituals, £14

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Milk Makeup Cooling Water Jelly Tint - Fizz open

Best Viral Beauty Product: Milk Makeup Cooling Water Jelly Tints

When these dropped, it was near impossible to open social media and not see a TikTok or reel dedicated to them. Milk Makeup’s Cooling Water Jelly Tints for lips and cheeks won over everybody (including us) thanks to their ASMR texture alone. Simply sweep the wobbly-jelly formula along skin and blend out the edges for a diffused finish. It’s particularly easy to build up the level of colour pay-off, so you can customise the intensity of your blush and lip tint.

Shop Milk Makeup Cooling Water Jelly Tints at Cult Beauty, £22

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Ulé Le C Bright Serum

Best Sustainable Beauty Product: Ulé Le C Bright Serum

Ulé is truly pushing sustainability forward within the beauty world. It was the first beauty brand to grow the fresh plants used in its products in a vertical eco-farm, a step that allows full traceability (a rarity in modern supply chains) and drastically reducing the distance from seed to bottle (cutting down on transport emissions). As for the formulas themselves, they’re effective. This vitamin C serum treats dark spots and oxidative stress, boosting dull complexions.

Shop Ulé Le C Bright Serum at Space NK, £29.50

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HELLO KLEAN Rain Shower Filter

Best Beauty Innovation: Hello Klean Rain Shower

Discuss bathroom must-haves with any beauty editor and Hello Klean will likely come up. Following on from its cult shower heads, the brand has now introduced rain showers. Delivering the same filtered water system to prevent the effects of hard water, we found this new shape brought a spa-like experience into our at-home showers.

Shop Hello Klean Rain Shower at Cult Beauty, £85

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DKNY 247 Eau De Parfum

Best Fresh Fragrance: DKNY 24/7 Eau de Parfum

DKNY is synonymous with iconic scents (Be Delicious, anybody?), so we had high expectations for its first fragrance in over 20 years. Fresh top notes of rhubarb and pink pepper settle into tuberose and jasmine for a scent that is zingy and floral all at once.

Shop DKNY 24/7 Eau de Parfum at Lookfantastic, £79 for 100ml

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Infiniment Coty Paris Santal a La Vida Parfum

Best Woody Fragrance: Infiniment Coty Paris Santal a La Vida Parfum

Woody scents often get a bad rap for being too heavy or headache-inducing, but Infiniment Coty Paris has created a blend that is warm and the slightest bit powdery. When testing, we were met with notes of creamy sandalwood and jasmine that felt comforting. Plus, the perfume’s fragrance oil concentration sits at 20%, meaning it lingers long after the first spritz.

Shop Infiniment Coty Paris Santal a La Vida Parfum at Liberty London, £195 for 75ml

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Main image: shot for Stylist by Dennis Pedersen; all other images courtesy of brands

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