Melyon

Melyon Body Lotion, £32, melyon.co
Melyon Body Lotion, £32, melyon.co

Swedish model Roger Dupé founded his unisex beauty brand in 2020 after seeing a gap in the market for products designed for darker complexions. He travelled to west Africa – where his family originates from – to research ingredients for the skincare range, finding extracts such as baobab oil, taken from the giant “upside down” tree and traditionally used for everything from cooking to hair- and skincare. The baobab tree also inspired the bottle design used across Melyon’s range, which includes day and night creams, serum and a cleanser. One bestseller is the Body Lotion, a lightweight and slightly almond-scented cream that harnesses shea butter and moringa oil to treat dry skin. What’s more, all Melyon’s products are vegan, cruelty-free and made without sulfites or parabens. Jessica Beresford

Joanna Czech

Joanna Czech The Kit, £1,200, joannaczech.com
Joanna Czech The Kit, £1,200, joannaczech.com

Polish-born, US-based aesthetician Joanna Czech has become just about the most sought-after facialist on the planet – thanks in no small part to superfans who include Kim Kardashian and Anna Wintour. Until recently, Czech resisted the urge to create her own line of products, but a reported six-month wait for appointments has meant that now she’s created a way to ensure her expertise is more readily available. Unusually, the products are launching as a seven-piece kit only – which, on one hand, means a pretty steep outlay but, on the other, is an opportunity to see what happens when you overhaul your entire routine at once. Proven ingredients such as hyaluronic acid and stabilised vitamin C ensure the products deliver visible benefits, and surprising additions like cleansing wipes (most facialists steer well clear) makes the whole kit feel realistic rather than overly ambitious. But mostly, it’s just nice to take the guesswork away and let one of the world’s leading experts take charge of your skin. Nicola Moulton

U Beauty

U Beauty The Super smart Hydrator, £160, net-a-porter.com
U Beauty The Super smart Hydrator, £160, net-a-porter.com

The brainchild of Tina Chen Craig, who founded the blog-turned-influencer agency Bag Snob, U Beauty is one of the few brands to hold both Leaping Bunny and Positive Luxury certification. The former solidifies the brand’s cruelty-free status, while the latter secures its commitment to planet-friendly practices such as fair labour, recyclable packaging and reduced carbon emissions. The original hero product may be the multitasking Resurfacing Compound, which uses a very gentle retinol alongside vitamins C and E to brighten, but the newly launched The Super Hydrator is set to become a star buy too. Rich in peptides and with five molecular weights of hyaluronic acid to ensure greater absorption – and, in turn, softer skin – the lightweight cream leaves the face gloriously smooth, supple and firm. A unique extract from oats does a lot of heavy lifting: the calming complex helps diminish the appearance of puffiness and redness while also soothing irritation. It’s also safe to use around the eye area, removing the need for a separate eye cream. Daniela Morosini

Dieux Skin

Dieux Skin Forever Eye Mask, $25, dieuxskin.com
Dieux Skin Forever Eye Mask, $25, dieuxskin.com

Determined to find an alternative to single-use sheet masks, Dieux Skin’s co-founders Charlotte Palermino, Joyce de Lemos and Marta Freedman came up with the Forever Eye Mask. Made from medical-grade silicone, the masks are endlessly reusable – the brand says you can use it every day for a year before the design will start to fade, while the non-porous material lasts much longer. Simply apply your eye cream of choice, then place the Forever Eye Mask over the top. The contoured shape means the mask can also double as a stencil for eyeliner application, allowing you to easily create a cat’s-eye flick. The shape and scrawling font have made for excellent Instagram bait, but beyond selfie appeal, they’ve been popular enough to sell out several times over. Just launched is the Deliverance Serum, a cannabidiol-infused calming product designed to soothe irritation, that can also be used with the masks. DM

Emma Lewisham

Emma Lewisham Skin Reset Serum, £80, net-a-porter.com
Emma Lewisham Skin Reset Serum, £80, net-a-porter.com

The New Zealand tech entrepreneur’s products have been causing a stir on the global beauty stage since first launching in 2019, thanks mostly to impeccable environmental credentials – including becoming the world’s first climate-positive beauty brand. Each product has a carbon number that shows exactly how many kilograms of carbon are emitted to make it, while everything in the range is refillable. “What people don’t know is that virtually no kerbside recycling systems recycle beauty packaging. Although they might technically be recyclable, the economics don’t stack up – so into landfill it goes,” says Lewisham. Her standout product is the Skin Reset Serum, made with niacinamide and hyaluronic acid, as well as proven plant extracts such as prickly pear and sea buckthorn. NM

Biologi

Biologi Refresh Cleansing bundle, £49, biologi.com.au
Biologi Refresh Cleansing bundle, £49, biologi.com.au

If you’re a skincare obsessive, there’s a certain degree of bravery required to embrace a range that offers only one ingredient per product – but ultra-clean, single-extract formulas are the cosmeceutical key to Biologi, an Australian brand recently made available in the UK for the first time. It lays claim to being the first skincare range to contain 100 per cent active ingredients from plant extracts – nothing added but actives, if you will. The Refresh Cleanser is a serum containing only soapberry extract (there’s nothing added to make it traditionally foamy), while the Bf Restore Face & Body Serum is made from finger lime fruit extract and offers naturally occurring amino acids, phenolic acids and amines. Both are designed to be used together and without face cream on top – the result is refreshed, clean-feeling skin without any loss of moisture. Lauren Hadden

Rose Inc

Rose Inc Softlight Luminous Hydrating Concealer, $30, roseinc.com
Rose Inc Softlight Luminous Hydrating Concealer, $30, roseinc.com

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley is the latest celebrity to tap into the beauty business, although she’s arguably more qualified to do so than others. Aside from working with some of the industry’s best make-up artists throughout her near 20-year modelling career, she also has a Goop-style editorial platform and e-commerce site, Rose Inc, to share her favourite products and make-up tips with fans. In August, she launched a skincare and make-up brand under the same name, developed with Caroline Hadfield of biotechnology company Amyris. Rose Inc ranges from serums and toners to blushers and brushes; the hero product is the Softlight Luminous Hydrating Concealer, giving impressive coverage while also containing moisturising squalane and colour-correcting botanicals – with claims that 80 per cent of users saw a decrease in redness after 30 days. “I like to call it a does-it-all concealer,” says Huntington-Whiteley. “Day-to-day I use this solely across my whole complexion instead of a foundation. It’s got buildable coverage and it’s packed full of beneficial ingredients that are moisturising but also have a lifting and brightening effect.” JB

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