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Judging skin-care products is both a simple and a seemingly impossible task. A face cream either hydrates your skin or it doesn’t. A pimple patch either shrinks your zit or leaves it sitting there in all its inflamed glory. And the hard part? Well, skin care that works for one person doesn’t always work for someone else. Maybe the vitamin C serum that changed your skin does nothing for your cousin’s or your colleague’s (the one you swap beauty tips with, not Gary in accounting). Or your favorite content creator just sang the praises of the foaming cleanser that left your skin feeling stripped.
This is where our Readers’ Choice Awards come in to help. Each year, we tally your votes to identify the skin-care formulas and tools that impressed the largest number of people—and, in some cases, continue to impress them year after year. Many of the products on this year’s list are repeat winners, including best sellers like Laneige’s luxurious Lip Sleeping Mask and OleHenriksen’s illuminating Banana Bright+ Eye Crème.
These stand-out products are so universally loved, we wouldn’t be surprised if you’ve tried a few of them over the years. But in case you haven’t, the next time you’re in the skin-care aisle and feeling overwhelmed, or simply looking to add something new to your routine, know that you can rely on any one of these celebrated skin savers, trusted by many thousands of discerning Allure readers.
Be sure to check out our other 2025 Readers’ Choice categories, like hair and makeup, to see if your favorite products made the cut.
All the Winning Products:
- Favorite Skin Tool: Michael Todd Beauty Soniclear Sonic Cleansing System, $139
- Favorite Cleanser: CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser, $17
- Favorite Moisturizer: La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer, $25
- Favorite Sunscreen: Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 50, $38
- Favorite Exfoliant: Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant, $35
- Favorite Serum: The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (with Ceramides), $10
- Favorite Eye Cream: OleHenriksen Banana Bright+ Eye Crème, $45
- Favorite Acne Treatment: Hero Mighty Patch Original, $13
- Favorite Face Mask: Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask, $49
- Favorite Lip Balm: Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask, $24
Readers’ Choice Awards: Skin
SKIN TOOL: Michael Todd Beauty Soniclear Sonic Cleansing System
The Michael Todd Beauty Soniclear Sonic Cleansing System continues to wow Allure readers with its four-speed antimicrobial brushes that leave skin softer, smoother, and super-duper clean. Allure staffers are just as obsessed with the deep-cleansing and gentle exfoliation the device offers. “I was a Clarisonic loyalist until I met the Michael Todd Beauty brush,” says social director Kassidy Silva. “Because I have dry, sensitive skin, using this deep-cleaning device twice a week keeps my skin flake-free and clear of any breakouts. I’ll never use any other cleansing brush ever again.”
CLEANSER: CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser
You don’t need to be sensitive to fall in love with CeraVe’s Hydrating Facial Cleanser, you just have to appreciate clean, fresh skin. With the stamp of approval from Allure editors, readers, and the National Eczema Association, this creamy, fragrance-free face wash does everything you want it to do (by dissolving dirt, grime, and the most stubborn waterproof mascara) and nothing you don’t (never leaving your skin feeling stripped or greasy). In fact, because of the formula’s coddling mix of ceramides and hyaluronic acid, you get a hydrating head start before you even reach for your moisturizer.
MOISTURIZER: La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer
Supremely gentle but packed with gold-standard, time-tested ingredients, La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer doesn’t just treat dry skin, it drastically improves it. Sure, niacinamide, ceramides, and glycerin hydrate immediately, but they also help repair and strengthen the skin barrier to keep moisture locked in, instead of escaping into the environment. And sensitive skin types have nothing to fear. The formula skips out on fragrance and artificial dyes but incorporates the brand’s famous Thermal Spring Water, which is both soothing and chock-full of minerals, like selenium, that are good for maintaining skin’s microbiome.
SUNSCREEN: Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 50
When Supergoop Unseen Sunscreen SPF 40 launched in 2018, the brand had a checklist of criteria. The final result needed to be invisible, weightless, scentless, and makeup-gripping, all of which were achieved with flying colors—actually, with no color at all since the formula is completely clear. Seven years and several Allure Readers’ Choice Awards later, this broad-spectrum SPF gel (now in SPF 50) continues to be a staple in our routines. “It’s my absolute favorite sunscreen!” says creative director Amber Venerable. “For years, on darker complexions, you had to rub and rub and rub to blend your sunscreen in, but Unseen disappears into my brown skin seamlessly.”
EXFOLIANT: Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant
Strong enough to work instantly but gentle enough to use every day, Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant has seen us through breakouts and breakups, clogged pores and poor choices, leaving us with clear, smooth, glowing skin along the way. (Thanks go to congestion-clearing salicylic acid and calming green tea extract.) “I grew up with this toner,” says commerce producer Sarah Hoffman. “It was the first product that genuinely helped lessen the look of my large pores when I was a teenager, and nothing else has ever compared. If I don’t have a bottle in my stash at all times, I feel lost.”
SERUM: The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (with Ceramides)
The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (with Ceramides) is clear and weightless, but it’s no lightweight. It contains not one, not two, not three, but five types of hyaluronic acid, which together attract a surge of moisture into multiple layers of the skin to keep you looking and feeling plump and dewy for hours. Add to that the barrier-strengthening properties of ceramides and pro-vitamin B5, and you have one seriously heavy-hitting hydrating treatment.
EYE CREAM: OleHenriksen Banana Bright+ Eye Crème
Ask Allure readers and they’ll tell you that OleHenriksen Banana Bright+ Eye Crème is the brightest undereye product of the bunch. The illuminating cream, which was inspired by banana powder (yellow-toned setting powder makeup artists have long relied on to add radiance and color-correct the eye area), contains canary-color, light-reflecting mineral pigments that neutralize dark shadows immediately and prep the undereye area for concealer. And while there are no actual bananas in this formula (although the silky texture does sort of resemble banana pudding), there is a lot of vitamin C, which works hard to firm and even out skin tone over time.
ACNE TREATMENT: Hero Mighty Patch Original
Most dermatologists would agree that pimple patches are a great way to tackle zits (whatever keeps you from picking!), and Hero is the brand that continues to get it right in terms of accessibility, affordability, and effectiveness. Hero’s hydrocolloid patches come 36 to a box and easily absorb oil and bacteria while keeping the skin moist, which promotes faster healing. “There’s nothing more satisfying than wearing one of these all day or overnight and seeing all the gunk it sucked out from your pimple,” says shopping market editor Angela Trakoshis. “When the patch turns white, you know it’s ready to come off.”
FACE MASK: Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask
After most products get reformulated, they’re never quite the same. In the case of Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask (which, in 2021, lost any added fragrance and gained hydrating vitamin B5, calming chamomile, and healing comfrey), the formula only got better. The mask already contained top-tier ingredients like niacinamide, glycerin, and hyaluronic acid. “My career as a beauty editor is long enough that I remember when this product launched,” says editor in chief Jessica Cruel. “And it’s still my favorite product in the brand lineup. When I have to revive my skin after a long-haul flight, I’ll leave it on overnight to let all those soothing ingredients sink in.”
LIP BALM: Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask
Pumped with coconut oil, shea butter, and fruit juice (raspberry, pomegranate, and grape), the Laneige Lip Sleeping Mask provides intense moisture while we sleep so that lips are significantly softer and plumper come morning. But while this repeat winner is thick enough to hydrate overnight, it’s not so goopy that you can’t apply it during the day, which many of us do—and do repeatedly. “I use it throughout the day to keep my chronically dry lips happy,” says beauty closet associate Edward Horgan. “I’m not exaggerating when I say I have one of these for my bedroom, my purse, and my desk.”
