From best eye creams (whether you need a product for crow’s feet, dark circles, or fine lines), to face moisturisers for dry skin and serum for mature skin, the right products can supercharge your daily routine. Here, top picks for the best skincare essentials, including our favourite picks for men, as well as recommendations for targeting specific concerns, from puffiness to fine lines and wrinkles.
1. Top-Rated Eye Creams
The thin skin around the eyes needs to be cared for, in a specially tailored fashion, to deal with problems such as dark circles, puffiness and fine lines.
- Best Eye Cream for Wrinkles: Choose one packed with peptides and retinol to help plump and smoothe lines. My favourite is Neutrogena Rapid Wrinkle Repair Eye Cream which is high in retinol SA and shown to improve crow’s feet.
- Best Eye Cream For Dark Circles: Caffeine and vitamin C are fabulous for evening out dark tones and tackling tiredness under the eyes. I use a product that combines both ingredients called Olay Vitamin C + Peptide 24 Brightening Eye Cream.
- Best Rated Eye Cream for Puffiness In case ~~baggy eyes~~ puffiness is your problem, Origins GinZing Refreshing Eye Cream is the highest rated specifically for banishing bags and puffiness due to its caffeine-based formula.
- Best Men’s Eye Cream’: Kiehl’s Eye Fuel on Dillons.co.uk ($46) is my recommended buoyant men’s eye cream for a de-puffing and dark-circle fighting formula that won’t feel heavy. Its caffeine and Vitamin B3 complex gives that eye area a much-needed jolt.
2. Top-Rated Moisturizers for All Skin Types
Hydration is the key to healthy skin. If you have dry skin, mature skin, or oily skin, then here are the best-rated facial lotions.- Best Face Cream for Dry Skin: CeraVe Moisturising Cream, $17.49. A cult favourite for harsh winter weather, this is the purest, most intensely hydrating moisturiser in our range, loaded with skin barrier-strengthening ceramides for very dry skin.
- Skyrocketing to the number-one bestseller in all of our cosmetics product categories, the Estée Lauder Revitalizing Supreme+ Moisturizer (1.7 oz; $62) is a top-rated, luxury product for mature skin, firming and hydrating it while helping to reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles by improving skin’s elasticity and enhancing its texture.
- Best Men’s Moisturiser: Very often, a man’s skin requires light but effective hydration and it will come in handy when you’ll try Jack Black Double-Duty Face Moisturiser SPF 20. It’s far more than just a moisturiser – it also offers sunblock.
3. Top-Rated Eye Serums and Facial Serums
Serums are intensive, water-based treatments packed with active ingredients to address a very specific skin concern.- Best-Rated Eye Serum: Formulas such as Drunk Elephant Shaba Complex Eye Serum work to reduce fine lines and dark spots in this pesky area with antioxidant-packed black tea and copper peptides.
- Top Rated Facial Serums SkinCeuticals C E Ferulic Serum: As my mother is fond of saying, C E Ferulic brightens and makes your skin look glowy and youthful. With vitamins C and E, it’s an excellent way to combat free radicals and environmental stress.
4. Top-Rated Anti-Wrinkle Creams and Under-Eye Creams for Wrinkles
Anti-wrinkle and under-eye formulations are a must to smooth away fine lines.- Best Anti-Wrinkle Cream: The Olay Regenerist Retinol 24 Night Moisturiser stands out as the best ‘anti-wrinkle’ formula, as it is able to transform skin texture and attenuate fine lines in just one night, due to a unique retinol formula.
5. Top-Rated Facial Moisturizers, Toners, and Exfoliators
For a balanced skincare routine, moisturizers, toners, and exfoliators are essential.
- Best-Rated Face Cream Sure, near holy water ain’t cheap: La Mer Crème de la Mer. Luxury face cream. For all skin types, but for sensitive and dry skin in particular.
- BEST RATED FACIAL TONER: For Six’s Little Piggies fans, Thayers Witch Hazel Toner (roseline) is the dominant, brilliantly priced best-rated alcohol-free elixir that doesn’t dry out your skin so well-balanced can be achieved.
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Most Popular Facial Exfoliator, exfoliating can help rid dull, dead skin cells for a brighter and smoother complexion. If you’re looking to gently but effectively exfoliate your skin, leaving it appearing much clearer with less acne and a radiant glow after applying Paula’s Choice Skin Perfecting 2% BHA Liquid Exfoliant, then you’re going to want to add this to your top beautifying essentials.
6. Top-Rated Eye Creams for Specific Concerns
One there is an eye cream that matches your identified problems.- Best Eye Cream for Bags: The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG, £5.30The Ordinary Caffeine Solution 5% + EGCG, often referred to just as the Mildew Cream (thanks to the delightful green serum tint), is a trusted ingredient for reducing swelling and bags around the eye. Caffeine helps revitalise and tighten the skin, while it leaves the area feeling less puffed and tight.
- Best-Rated Under-Eye Cream for Dark Circles: Kiehl’s Creamy Eye Treatment with Avocado ($40) This tube is very hydrating and adds a nice brightness to dark circles.
- Best of the Best Eye Cream for Puffiness: Mostly interested in a cream to work under make-up and de-puff? Clinique’s All About Eyes is a lightweight gel that soothes and minimises puffiness, suitable for all skin types.
7. Top-Rated Korean Skincare Products
Korean skincare is having its skincare moment: formulations are coming to market, with active, effective and gentle ingredients we have never before encountered.- Best Korean Eye Cream: Mizon Snail Repair Eye Cream: ‘I love how this one makes use of snail mucin, the clear secretion excreted by tiny snails that is highly hydrating and repairs visible signs of damage’ $20, amazon.com
- ‘Top-Rated Korean Facial Toner’: Son & Park Beauty Water is your toner and light exfoliant in one, smoothing the skin and readying it for the precise steps that lie ahead.
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Best Korean Facial Scrubs : Skinfood Black Sugar Mask Wash Off. The wash-off cult favourite exfoliating scrub improves the texture of the skin by making it smoother and brighter. It contains sugar, seventeen minerals and real black honey to scrub away impurities, leaving your skin smooth, soft and renewed. This scrub is gentle and effective at exfoliating.