Yes, yes, they did. At this point in the process, we hold team-wide meetings to go through each category and talk about the various notes for each product. Think of it as the ultimate beauty debate. We eliminate products editors disliked and argue over the products that didn't quite have a consensus.

As we debate one category after another, we determine which products require a bit more testing to reach a decision—and add a few more products to the mix that initially slipped under the radar.

End of March

Clean up, clean up, everybody clean up!

By this point, every editor's testing box (stored in the beauty closet) should be empty of products as we gear up to clear out the space and return it to its original function: storing everyday beauty launches and serving as a cute filming spot for Allure's social and video content.

Spring

We're getting closer!

Now it's time to finalize our list of winners, and to put any winners in the clean and breakthrough categories through a vetting process.

"For a beauty product to win a Best of Beauty Breakthrough Award, it has to be a first-of-its-kind: a blow-dryer that senses how far it is from your scalp, for example, or a pimple patch with LED lights," says deputy beauty director Liz Siegel, who leads the charge. The product has to have data in the form of clinical studies to back up its claims. A panel of our judges—including cosmetic chemists, dermatologists, plastic surgeons, and, of course, Allure editors—is enlisted to test the product, review the data, and, ultimately, agree that it really does deliver results, and that there's nothing else out there quite like it.

There is much debate in the beauty industry over the term "clean," so we came up with our own criteria, vetted by dermatologists, toxicologists, and cosmetic chemists. Products that meet our standard are formulated without: parabens, phthalates, sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium laureth sulfate, cyclic silicones, aluminum salts, hydroquinone, triclosan, talc, mineral oil, petrolatum, formaldehyde, toluene, microbeads, and chemical sunscreen filters (oxybenzone, avobenzone, and octinoxate).

Mid-Spring

After much testing, deliberation, vetting, and re-testing, our 2025 Best of Beauty winner list is finalized! The list first gets shared through a teamwide email, at which point everyone pauses their work to browse the winners and see if their favorites made the cut.

End of Spring

Yay! But also, shh!