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Every product we match against

Korean skincare, Ulta and Sephora bestsellers, and drugstore staples. All of it scored by the same quiz. Filter it here, or answer the questions and let it sort itself.

Cleanser

Co-wash

Conditioner

  • Mielle Organics Deep Conditioner, 12 oz, around $11. Real slip. Detangling stops being the worst part of wash day.
  • PATTERN Beauty Lightweight Conditioner, 13 oz, around $29. The lightest of the three weights, for S-shaped waves that go limp the moment anything heavy touches them. If you have defined ringlets or coils this will not be enough: that is what the medium and heavy ones are for.
  • PATTERN Beauty Heavy Conditioner, 9.6 oz, around $25. Built specifically for type 4 texture. Thick enough to finger-detangle in the shower.
  • PATTERN Beauty Medium Conditioner, 9.6 oz, around $25. Enough weight to define ringlets without dragging them straight.
  • amika Intense Moisture Conditioner, 9.2 oz, around $28. The blue one. Pure hydration, no repair proteins. The right amika if your hair is dry but not damaged.
  • SheaMoisture Strength & Color Care Conditioner, 13 oz, around $12. The purple one. Strength and body for fine strands that snap, or hair gone limp after colour. Pointed the opposite way to the rest of the range, so it is the wrong answer for coarse hair that wants moisture.
  • amika Color-Lock Conditioner, 9.2 oz, around $28. The teal one. For hair you have just paid to have coloured, to slow the fade. Nothing to offer hair that is not coloured.
  • amika Bond Repair Conditioner, 9.2 oz, around $28. The orange one. For hair that's actually breaking, bleach, relaxer, or heat damage.
  • Cantu Avocado Hydrating Cream Conditioner, 13.5 oz, around $6. The green Cantu, and the lighter one. Less protein than the shea line, which is the point: if the shea range leaves your hair stiff, this is the everyday version of it. Not the one to reach for when hair is actually damaged and needs strength.
  • Olaplex No. 5 Bond Maintenance Conditioner, 8.5 oz, around $34. The conditioner half of the everyday pair. Same job as the No. 4 shampoo: keep bonds where a treatment put them. Light rather than rich, so dry hair wants something heavier alongside it.
  • Cantu Hydrating Cream Conditioner, 13.5 oz, around $6. Under seven dollars and it works. The reason Cantu is in half the bathrooms in America.
  • SheaMoisture Curl & Shine Conditioner, 13 oz, around $11. The pink bottle. Light definition that suits kids' curls and finer textures.

Leave-in

Oil / sealant

Deep treatment

  • Olaplex No. 3 Bond Repair Treatment, 3.3 oz, around $30. The gold standard for hair that's snapping. Apply to damp hair before you shampoo, once a week.
  • K18 Leave-In Repair Mask, 1.7 oz, around $75. Expensive but genuinely different. Works in four minutes and you don't rinse it out. For serious bleach or relaxer damage.
  • TGIN Honey Miracle Hair Mask, 12 oz, around $16. Deep moisture without protein. The fix when your hair is dry but goes stiff from protein treatments.
  • Camille Rose Algae Renew Deep Conditioner, 12 oz, around $20. Black-owned, plant-heavy, and thick enough to soften coarse type 4 hair in one session.
  • adwoa beauty Deep Conditioning Treatment, 14.5 oz, around $38. Black-owned. Doubles as a detangler and scalp treatment. One of the few masks that helps the scalp too.
  • SheaMoisture Strengthen & Restore Treatment Masque, 12 oz, around $13. Strengthening mask for hair that won't hold length or is thinning at the hairline.
  • Curlsmith Bond Curl Rehab Salve, 8 oz, around $36. The orange-red one, and protein rather than moisture. For curls gone limp and stringy, or that stretch when wet and do not spring back. The wrong direction entirely if your hair is already stiff and brittle, or if protein makes it worse.
  • Curlsmith Weightless Air Dry Cream / Moisture Mask, 8 oz, around $32. A deep treatment that doesn't flatten fine or low-porosity hair. The gap most masks leave wide open.
  • SheaMoisture Restorative Deep Treatment Masque, 12 oz, around $13. The ivory one, and the richest thing on the shelf. For hair that is very dry, coarse, or has been relaxed or coloured. Too heavy for fine hair or an oily scalp, where it sits rather than soaks in.
  • amika Nourishing Mask, 8.4 oz, around $32. The coral one. A rich mask for coarse, thick hair that gets through ordinary conditioner without noticing it. Too heavy for fine or low-density hair, which it flattens.
  • Briogeo Deep Conditioning Mask, 8 oz, around $38. The middle ground between a moisture mask and a hardcore bond treatment, repairs without going stiff.

Styler

  • Camille Rose Curl Maker Styling Gel, 12 oz, around $18. Black-owned cult gel. Strong definition with a cast you can scrunch out soft.
  • Kinky-Curly Curling Custard, 8 oz, around $16. Legendary hold and shine in humidity. A little goes very far.
  • Curlsmith Volume Boost Airy Jelly, 8 oz, around $30. The green one, for fine low-density curls that are flat by noon. Hold without the weight that causes the problem in the first place. Coarse or thick hair will find it does nothing much.
  • Cantu TXTR Curl Foam, 6 oz, around $10. The black and neon range, and Cantu's styling line rather than another pot of moisture. A foam for definition without weight, which is what the shea range struggles with on looser or finer curls. Not a substitute for the conditioning steps before it.
  • Cantu Coconut Curling Cream, 12 oz, around $6. Six dollars, defines coils, and doubles as a twist-out cream. Hard to beat on value.
  • Ouidad Heat & Humidity Gel, 8.5 oz, around $28. Built for humid climates. If your curls survive the house but not the walk to the car, this is the fix.
  • amika Defining Cream Gel, 6.7 oz, around $26. The green amika. Cream-gel hybrid. Definition with softer hold than a true gel.
  • The Doux Texture Foam, 7.5 oz, around $15. Black-owned. Foam texture means big definition without the weight. Good for fine curls and kids.
  • Eco Style Professional Styling Gel, 16 oz, around $5. Five dollars, everywhere, and the standard for edges and slicked styles.

Scalp care

Protect

Night treatment

  • Urban Skin Rx Even Tone Night Treatment, 1 oz, around $32. The deep purple one. An overnight fading complex for discolouration that has not shifted: melasma, old breakout marks, years of sun. It only works alongside daily sunscreen. Without that you undo every night of it the next morning.
  • Urban Skin Rx Retinol Rapid Repair Cream, 1.7 oz, around $38. The orange one. Retinol buffered to sting less, for texture and marks at the same time. A second retinoid rather than a first: if you have never used one, start somewhere gentler.
  • Topicals Faded Brightening & Clearing Serum, 1.7 oz, around $42. Black-owned, and the formula stacks four pigment-fighters at once: azelaic, tranexamic, niacinamide and kojic. Built for the marks acne leaves behind on deeper skin.
  • Eadem Dark Spot Serum, 1 oz, around $68. Founded by women of color and formulated specifically so it fades spots without the irritation that causes new ones.
  • The Ordinary Alpha Arbutin 2% + HA, 1 oz, around $9. Nine dollars and one of the gentlest ways to start on dark spots. Slow. Give it 8 to 12 weeks.
  • CeraVe Resurfacing Retinol Serum, 1 oz, around $22. Encapsulated retinol, which releases slowly and stings less than most. A reasonable first retinoid, aimed at the marks and roughness left after breakouts rather than at the breakouts themselves. Not while pregnant or nursing.
  • The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid 2% Emulsion, 1 oz, around $12. The amber bottle. Texture, fine lines and tone over months, not weeks, and only if you will actually wear sunscreen daily. Do not start it the same week as an acid, and not while pregnant or nursing.
  • The Ordinary Azelaic Acid Suspension 10%, 1 oz, around $11. Rare double-duty: treats breakouts AND the marks they leave. Generally considered pregnancy-friendly, confirm with your doctor.
  • La Roche-Posay Mela B3 Dark Spot Serum, 1 oz, around $50. Pharmacy-grade option with real clinical backing for melasma and stubborn discoloration.
  • Naturium Tranexamic Topical Acid 5%, 1 oz, around $22. Tranexamic acid is the ingredient dermatologists reach for with melasma specifically.
  • Differin Adapalene Gel 0.1%, 0.5 oz, around $14. A prescription-strength retinoid you can buy off the shelf. The most evidence-backed acne product in the drugstore.
  • Tend Skin Razor Bump Solution, 8 oz, around $24. For ingrown hairs and razor bumps along the jaw, neck, bikini line, and underarms.
  • Fur Ingrown Concentrate, 1 oz, around $28. Softens the follicle so hair grows out instead of curling back in. Gentler than acid-based options.
  • COSRX Advanced Snail 96 Mucin Power Essence, 3.38 oz, around $25. The single most-recommended K-beauty product there is. Helps a damaged barrier settle and post-acne marks heal faster.
  • SKIN1004 Madagascar Centella Ampoule, 3.38 oz, around $18. One ingredient, done properly. Centella for calming irritation and helping breakouts settle without drying you out.
  • Mixsoon Bean Essence, 1.69 oz, around $22. A very gentle nightly essence for smoothing texture. The option for people whose skin can't tolerate acids.
  • COSRX Acne Pimple Master Patch (24ct), 24 patches, around $6. Six dollars, and the most effective thing you can do about one specific spot. Covering it stops you picking, and picking is what turns a two-day pimple into a six-month dark mark.
  • Dr. Jart+ Cicapair Tiger Grass Serum, 1.7 oz, around $52. Built specifically for redness and reactive skin. If your face flushes and stays flushed, this is the targeted option.
  • Sunday Riley Good Genes All-In-One Lactic Acid Treatment, 1 oz, around $85. Lactic acid that resurfaces without the harshness of glycolic. Expensive, but it does what it says.

Sunscreen

Moisturizer

  • La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Face Moisturizer, 2.5 oz, around $21. The moisturiser half of the same idea. Ceramides and niacinamide, no fragrance, and nothing asking anything of your skin. What to use while a barrier settles down, and what to go back to when an active has gone too far.
  • SkinFix Triple Lipid-Peptide Cream, 1.7 oz, around $52. For skin that's been over-exfoliated or won't stop being irritated, rebuilds rather than just coats.
  • La Roche-Posay Cicaplast Baume B5+, 3.4 oz, around $20. Rescue balm. Chapped, wind-burned, over-treated, or post-procedure skin calms down fast on this.
  • CeraVe PM Facial Moisturizing Lotion, 3 oz, around $16. Light, ceramide-based, and it doesn't clog. Works over almost any active.
  • CeraVe Moisturizing Cream (tub), 16 oz, around $18. The big white tub. Face and body, adults and kids, dry weather and eczema.
  • Buttah Skin CocoShea Revitalizing Cream, 1.7 oz, around $36. Black-owned, built for melanin-rich skin, and it absorbs without leaving a grey or ashy finish.
  • Glow Recipe Hyaluronic Cream, 2.3 oz, around $42. Water-heavy hydration for skin that's dehydrated rather than genuinely dry.
  • Vanicream Daily Facial Moisturizer, 3 oz, around $14. No fragrance, no dye, no lanolin, no formaldehyde releasers, no essential oils. When a routine is irritating skin and nobody can say which product is doing it, this is what you swap to.
  • Tatcha The Water Cream, 1.7 oz, around $70. A gel-cream that genuinely hydrates oily skin without leaving a film, which is a narrower category than the shelf suggests. Most oily-skin moisturisers just under-moisturise.
  • Laneige Water Sleeping Mask, 2.3 oz, around $34. An overnight gel layer for skin that wakes up tight. The product that put K-beauty on the Sephora shelf.
  • First Aid Beauty Ultra Repair Cream, 6 oz, around $40. Thick colloidal-oatmeal cream for genuinely dry, eczema-prone, or flaking skin. Works on face and body both.
  • Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream, 1.69 oz, around $68. Peptide-heavy moisturizer aimed at firmness and bounce rather than pure hydration.
  • Neutrogena Hydro Boost Water Gel, 1.7 oz, around $20. Weightless gel hydration for oily and acne-prone skin that hates cream. Everywhere, and cheap.
  • Kiehl's Ultra Facial Cream, 1.7 oz, around $38. A boring, reliable everyday moisturizer that has outlasted every trend. Light enough for combination skin, rich enough for winter.
  • Bubble Slam Dunk Hydrating Moisturizer, 1.7 oz, around $16. Affordable, fragrance-free, and formulated for teen and twenties skin without the harsh actives that category usually gets sold.

Morning treatment

  • Good Molecules Discoloration Correcting Serum, 1 oz, around $12. Tranexamic acid for twelve dollars, gentle enough for morning use. One of the best value products in skincare right now.
  • Naturium Vitamin C Complex Serum, 1 oz, around $20. Morning antioxidant that supports your sunscreen and nudges tone over time.
  • The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (with Ceramides), 1 oz, around $10. Water, held against the skin. Goes on damp and needs a moisturiser over it: on its own in a dry room it can pull water out of your skin rather than into it, which is the opposite of what anyone buys it for.
  • The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc 1%, 1 oz, around $7. Cheap, useful, and safe with almost everything else. Helps oil and gives mild brightening support.
  • Timeless Vitamin C + E Ferulic Serum, 1 oz, around $25. The Skinceuticals formula without the Skinceuticals price. L-ascorbic acid at 20 percent, which is the form with the most evidence behind it and the one that actually stings if your barrier is unhappy.
  • Krave Beauty Great Barrier Relief, 1.68 oz, around $28. For skin that has been over-exfoliated into stinging and redness. Tamanu and centella, no actives, and the honest answer for someone whose routine is already doing too much.
  • Paula's Choice Azelaic Acid Booster, 1 oz, around $42. Azelaic is unusual in treating redness, breakouts and the marks they leave at once, and it is one of the few actives considered safe in pregnancy.
  • Beauty of Joseon Glow Serum: Propolis + Niacinamide, 1.01 oz, around $17. Propolis and 2% niacinamide. Brightening without the sting a strong vitamin C gives a lot of people. Under twenty dollars and genuinely good.
  • Anua Heartleaf 77% Soothing Toner, 5.07 oz, around $22. Calming toner for skin that's red, reactive, or recovering from too many actives. The one people reach for when they've overdone it.
  • Glow Recipe Niacinamide Dew Drops, 1.35 oz, around $35. Niacinamide plus hyaluronic acid in a serum that layers well under sunscreen and makeup without pilling.
  • Torriden Low Molecular Hyaluronic Acid Serum, 1.69 oz, around $18. Five weights of hyaluronic acid, no fragrance, no essential oils. If your skin is dehydrated but reacts to everything, start here.
  • Paula's Choice C15 Vitamin C Super Booster, 0.67 oz, around $58. A well-formulated 15% vitamin C with ferulic acid and E. The combination that's actually been studied for fading discoloration.

Exfoliant

Body wash

Body treatment

Deodorant

  • Nécessaire Aluminum-Free Deodorant (AHA), 2.6 oz, around $20. Contains AHA, so it gently exfoliates the underarm while it deodorizes, no aluminum, no fragrance sting.
  • Lume Whole Body Deodorant, 2.6 oz, around $16. Baking-soda-free and low-irritation, which matters if your dark underarms come from reacting to your old deodorant.
  • Native Aluminum-Free Deodorant, 2.65 oz, around $13. The mainstream aluminum-free switch, and it comes in a baking-soda-free version. Get that one if your underarms have been reacting.
  • Dove 0% Aluminum Deodorant, Sensitive, 2.6 oz, around $6. Six dollars, no aluminum, no baking soda, minimal fragrance. The cheapest way to test whether your deodorant was the problem all along.
  • Salt & Stone Natural Deodorant (AHA), 2.6 oz, around $20. Aluminum-free with a gentle AHA, so it keeps the underarm exfoliated while it deodorizes. A step up from Nécessaire if you want scent options.
  • Secret Clinical Strength Antiperspirant, 1.6 oz, around $10. Deodorant handles smell. Antiperspirant is the only thing that reduces how much you actually sweat, and clinical strength is the strongest tier you can buy off a shelf.
  • Certain Dri Prescription Strength Clinical Antiperspirant, 1.2 oz, around $8. 12% aluminium chloride, the strongest formulation available without a prescription. For people who sweat through everything else.
  • Carpe Underarm Antiperspirant Lotion, 1.35 oz, around $17. A lotion rather than a stick, so it absorbs instead of sitting on the skin in a layer. Easier on sensitive skin than clinical sticks and it does not leave white marks.
  • Degree UltraClear Black+White Antiperspirant, 2.6 oz, around $7. Formulated against the two marks deodorant leaves on clothes: white streaks on dark fabric and yellow buildup on white. If you are throwing out shirts, this is the fix.
  • Dove Advanced Care Antiperspirant, 2.6 oz, around $7. A middle option if clinical strength irritates you but a natural deodorant does not hold up. Has moisturisers built in, which most antiperspirants do not.
  • Schmidt's Sensitive Skin Deodorant (magnesium, baking soda free), 3.25 oz, around $9. Uses magnesium instead of baking soda. Baking soda is highly alkaline and is the single most common reason natural deodorant gives people a red, itchy underarm rash.
  • Vanicream Aluminum-Free Deodorant, 2.4 oz, around $8. No fragrance, no baking soda, no essential oils, no dyes. The one to try when everything else has given you a rash, and the same reasoning that makes Vanicream a dermatologist staple for faces.
  • Each & Every Aluminum-Free Natural Deodorant, 2.5 oz, around $14. Coconut oil and charcoal, no baking soda and no aluminium. Comes in a genuinely unscented version, which is rarer than it should be.
  • Megababe Rosy Pits Daily Deodorant, 2.6 oz, around $14. Aluminium-free with AHA, so it gently exfoliates while it deodorises. A reasonable pick if you are switching away from antiperspirant and want the darkening to fade at the same time.
  • Kopari Beauty Aluminum-Free Deodorant, 2 oz, around $14. Coconut oil based, no baking soda, and it goes on clear rather than leaving a white cast on skin.
  • Corpus Natural Deodorant, 1.7 oz, around $22. The one people buy when they want a natural deodorant that smells like a fragrance rather than like a health food shop. Expensive for what it is, and it performs.
  • Curie Aluminum-Free Deodorant Stick, 2.2 oz, around $12. Baking soda free, aluminium free, and it holds up through a workout better than most naturals in this price range.

Body exfoliant

Body moisturizer

  • Nécessaire Niacinamide Body Lotion, 5 oz, around $25. Niacinamide at body scale. Evens tone over time while it moisturizes.
  • Eucerin Advanced Repair Body Cream, 16 oz, around $13. Cheap, thick, ceramide-and-urea based. Handles winter ash and eczema-prone skin.
  • Topicals Like Butter Hydrating Mask, 3.4 oz, around $36. Black-owned. Built for eczema and chronically irritated skin rather than general dryness.
  • Vaseline Advanced Repair Body Lotion, 20.3 oz, around $8. Eight dollars for a huge bottle, fragrance-free, and it genuinely handles winter ash. The unglamorous right answer.
  • NIVEA Cocoa Butter Body Lotion, 16.9 oz, around $7. The cocoa butter drugstore standby for ashiness on deeper skin. Rich enough to last the day without feeling greasy.
  • Aveeno Daily Moisturizing Lotion, 18 oz, around $11. The light blue one, and the plain answer to plain dryness. Oat, no actives, nothing to react to, and a bottle big enough to actually use daily. If your problem is bumpy or rough rather than dry, this will not touch it: that wants an exfoliating lotion instead.
  • Aveeno Positively Radiant Body Lotion, 18 oz, around $12. The gold one. Soy and vitamin complexes for tone that reads uneven and dull rather than spotted. Honest about its ceiling: for deep, stubborn hyperpigmentation this is not strong enough and a targeted active is.
  • Aveeno Eczema Therapy Daily Moisturizing Cream, 11 oz, around $13. Colloidal oatmeal at a therapeutic level, accepted by the National Eczema Association. For itch, not just dryness.
  • Sol de Janeiro Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, 8.1 oz, around $48. Cupuaçu butter and caffeine, absorbs fast, and the reason half of Sephora smells like it does.

Primer

  • e.l.f. Power Grip Primer, 0.79 oz, around $10. A clear gel that stays tacky, so foundation sits on top instead of sliding off or sinking into dry patches. The cheapest fix for a base that never lasts.
  • Milk Makeup Hydro Grip Primer, 1.52 oz, around $36. The original of the grippy gel primers. Hyaluronic acid and aloe, so it hydrates while it grips, which is what stops creasing.
  • Benefit The POREfessional Pore Primer, 0.75 oz, around $35. A silicone balm that fills and blurs enlarged pores rather than covering them. Best used only where you need it, around the nose and centre of the cheeks.
  • NYX Marshmallow Smoothing Primer, 1.01 oz, around $16. A blurring silicone primer at a drugstore price. Softens the look of texture and grips powder well.
  • Smashbox Photo Finish Smooth & Blur Primer, 1 oz, around $42. The long-standing benchmark for a blurring primer. Grips a base for a full day on oily skin without turning it patchy.
  • Tatcha The Silk Canvas Protective Primer, 1 oz, around $58. A balm-to-silk primer that smooths without the plasticky feel of a heavy silicone. Comfortable on dry and mature skin, which most blurring primers are not.

Foundation and skin tint

Concealer

  • Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Eraser Concealer, 0.2 oz, around $10. The drugstore under-eye standard for a reason. Hydrating enough not to crease into lines by lunchtime.
  • Tarte Shape Tape Full Coverage Concealer, 0.33 oz, around $32. Genuinely opaque. Covers dark marks and stubborn pigment in one layer where most concealers need three.
  • NARS Radiant Creamy Concealer, 0.22 oz, around $34. The balance most people actually want: covers properly, still looks like skin, does not crease.
  • Kosas Revealer Super Creamy Concealer, 0.2 oz, around $30. Skincare-led and genuinely comfortable on dry under-eyes. Does not sit in creases the way matte concealers do.
  • e.l.f. 16HR Camo Concealer, 0.203 oz, around $7. Full coverage at a drugstore price, and it genuinely holds. The closest thing to Shape Tape for a quarter of the money.
  • L'Oreal Full Wear Concealer, 0.33 oz, around $13. Covers like a full coverage concealer but stays flexible enough for the under-eye, which is a combination almost nothing at this price manages.
  • UOMA Beauty Stay Woke Luminous Brightening Concealer, 0.5 oz, around $25. Brightening without going ashy, which is the failure mode of most brightening concealers on deeper skin.
  • The Lip Bar Caffeine Concealer, 0.2 oz, around $16. Light enough not to cake in a fine line and cheap enough to use daily, with a range that covers depth properly.
  • Fenty Beauty Instant Retouch Concealer, 0.27 oz, around $29. Fifty shades, with real undertone variation at the deep end rather than one dark option. Creamy enough for under the eye and opaque enough for a mark.
  • L.A. Girl HD Colour Corrector, 0.28 oz, around $5. Orange and peach correctors neutralise the blue-grey of under-eye darkness before concealer goes on, which is why concealer alone often looks ashy on deeper skin.

Setting powder and spray

Blush

  • Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush, 0.25 oz, around $25. Extremely pigmented, so it shows up properly on deeper skin where powder blush often disappears. One dot per cheek is genuinely enough.
  • e.l.f. Camo Liquid Blush, 0.2 oz, around $7. The closest drugstore equivalent to the pigmented liquid blushes, at a quarter of the price.
  • Milani Baked Blush, 0.12 oz, around $10. Baked powder blush with enough pigment to read on medium and deep skin, and it lasts. A long-standing budget favourite.
  • NARS Powder Blush, 0.16 oz, around $34. The reference powder blush. Finely milled, blends without patchiness, and the shade range covers warm and cool properly.
  • Wet n Wild Color Icon Blush, 0.21 oz, around $4. Four dollars, finely milled, and it blends without patchiness. The cheapest thing on this site that is genuinely good rather than merely acceptable.
  • e.l.f. Putty Blush, 0.35 oz, around $7. A cream that stays creamy long enough to blend, which most budget cream blushes do not. Sits well on dry or mature skin where powder catches.
  • Merit Cream Blush Stick, 0.25 oz, around $30. Sheer, buildable and fragrance free, in a stick you can apply without a mirror. Built for looking like skin rather than like makeup.
  • Benefit Cheek and Lip Stain, 0.4 oz, around $34. A stain rather than a layer, so it survives sweat, masks and a full day when cream and powder do not.

brow

  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Wiz Ultra-Slim Brow Pencil, 0.003 oz, around $25. The tip is genuinely as fine as a hair, which is the whole point. A pencil this thin draws strokes you can see through, and a brow you can see through reads as a brow rather than as a shape.
  • NYX Micro Brow Pencil, 0.003 oz, around $11. The same idea as the Brow Wiz for well under half the price, with a spoolie on the other end. The tip is a touch softer, which is more forgiving if you are new to drawing strokes.
  • e.l.f. Instant Lift Brow Pencil, 0.006 oz, around $4. A dual-ended pencil and spoolie for the price of a coffee. Thicker than a micro pencil, so better for filling than for drawing individual hairs.
  • Benefit Precisely, My Brow Pencil, 0.002 oz, around $26. A very fine, quite firm tip that holds an edge longer than the softer pencils. Firm suits a light hand and frustrates a heavy one.
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Powder Duo, 0.08 oz, around $26. Powder fills the gaps between hairs you already have, which is a different job from drawing hairs you do not. Two shades in the pan so the front can sit lighter than the tail.
  • Benefit Gimme Brow+ Volumizing Fiber Gel, 0.1 oz, around $28. Tiny fibres cling to the hairs and thicken them rather than colouring the skin between. The most natural-looking result of anything here, and the fastest.
  • Maybelline Express Brow Fast Sculpt Gel, 0.09 oz, around $8. A tinted gel with a very small brush head, so it coats the hairs rather than painting the skin around them. For brows that have faded rather than thinned, this is the whole answer.
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Tinted Brow Gel, 0.29 oz, around $26. Colours and holds in one pass. Worked through against the growth first and then brushed back into place, it reaches the pale hairs a pencil never touches.
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Clear Brow Gel, 0.085 oz, around $24. For a full brow, this is the entire routine. Brush the hairs up and forward, hold them there, and stop. Colour on a full brow only ever makes it heavier.
  • e.l.f. Clear Brow & Lash Mascara, 0.1 oz, around $3. Does the same job as the clear gels costing eight times more. If brushing and holding is your whole brow routine, there is no argument for spending more.

applicator

  • Real Techniques Miracle Complexion Sponge, One sponge, around $7. Damp, it dilutes and sheers whatever you bounce on with it, and it presses product into the skin rather than sitting it on top. That is what people mean by a skin-like finish.
  • Beautyblender Beautyblender Original Sponge, One sponge, around $22. The original, and still the softest of them. Softness matters because a firm sponge drags product rather than pressing it in.
  • Real Techniques Expert Face Brush, One brush, around $10. Dense and domed, so it lays product down rather than diluting it. This is the tool for coverage: the same foundation buffed with this reads a full step more opaque than the same foundation bounced on with a damp sponge.
  • e.l.f. Flawless Concealer Brush, One brush, around $3. Small and flat, for placing concealer exactly on a mark instead of around it. Placing it precisely is most of why concealer does or does not cover.
  • Real Techniques Setting Brush, One brush, around $9. Small and fluffy, which is exactly what an under-eye needs: enough powder to stop creasing, nowhere near enough to sit in the fine lines.
  • Real Techniques Powder Brush, One brush, around $11. Large and loose, so it deposits a veil rather than a layer. For setting the areas that actually get shiny, which for most people is a band down the centre of the face and nothing else.
  • Real Techniques Blush Brush, One brush, around $10. Angled and soft, so the shape of the brush does the placement for you. Laid flat against the cheek it puts colour exactly where the bristles sit and nowhere else.
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Brush 12 Dual-Ended Firm Angled Brush, One brush, around $20. A firm, very thin angled edge on one end and a spoolie on the other. Firm is the point: a soft angled brush bends under pressure and paints a block instead of a stroke.
  • Any brand Spoolie Brushes, Pack of 25 or more, around $6. The most useful brow tool there is and the cheapest. Brushing through after every step is what turns drawn-on strokes into something that looks like hair.
  • e.l.f. Blending Eye Brush, One brush, around $3. Soft, loosely packed and tapered, which is what diffuses an edge instead of pushing colour around. The one eye brush worth owning before any others.

lip

  • NYX Butter Gloss, 0.27 oz, around $6. Cushiony rather than sticky, which is the whole reason this one outlasted every other drugstore gloss. Sheer enough that shade choice is forgiving.
  • e.l.f. Glossy Lip Stain, 0.10 oz, around $5. A stain under a gloss finish, so the shine leaves and the colour does not. The cheapest way to get colour that survives a coffee.
  • Maybelline SuperStay Vinyl Ink Liquid Lipcolor, 0.14 oz, around $11. High shine that behaves like a stain underneath, which is an unusual combination. Genuinely lasts through a meal, unusually for something this glossy.
  • Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil, 0.10 oz, around $22. An oil that leaves a tint behind, so the comfort is the point and the colour is the bonus. Good on a lip that hates anything matte.
  • The Lip Bar Matte Liquid Lipstick, 0.08 oz, around $14. Long wearing matte at drugstore money, from a line built around shades that suit deeper skin rather than shades adapted to it.
  • Mented Cosmetics Semi-Matte Lipstick, 0.13 oz, around $20. The line that started with nudes for deeper skin, which most brands still treat as an afterthought at the end of a range.
  • Pat McGrath Labs MatteTrance Lipstick, 0.14 oz, around $40. Bullet matte with the pigment load of a liquid, from a makeup artist's line rather than a brand's idea of one.
  • Juvia's Place Velvety Matte Lipstick, 0.12 oz, around $14. Deeply pigmented and cheap, with a range weighted toward berries and browns rather than pinks.
  • Beauty Bakerie Lip Whip Matte Liquid Lipstick, 0.14 oz, around $20. Built to stay put through a meal, which is the promise most liquid mattes make and fewer keep.
  • Fenty Beauty Icon Velvet Liquid Lipstick, 0.16 oz, around $29. A velvet matte that stays comfortable longer than a true matte, in a range with the depth the brand is known for.
  • AMI Cole Lip Treatment Oil, 0.15 oz, around $22. A treatment oil with enough tint to count as colour, for days when a lipstick is more than the face needs.
  • Fenty Beauty Gloss Bomb Universal Lip Luminizer, 0.30 oz, around $24. Built to sit over anything rather than to be a colour on its own. The reason it is called universal is that the sheerness does the work.
  • Clinique Almost Lipstick in Black Honey, 0.07 oz, around $25. One shade, deliberately, and the reason it has been in production for forty years: it is sheer enough to read as your own lip on almost any depth.
  • Maybelline SuperStay Matte Ink Liquid Lipstick, 0.17 oz, around $11. Genuinely does not move, which is the entire point and also the catch: it does not move once it is wrong either. The most transfer-proof thing at this price.

liner

lash

falselash

eye

  • e.l.f. Bite-Size Eyeshadow Palette, 0.12 oz, around $3. Four shades that go together, for the price of a coffee. The mattes are soft enough to blend and the shimmers are pressed hard enough not to fall.
  • ColourPop Super Shock Shadow, 0.07 oz, around $8. A cream to powder that is easiest applied with a finger, which is also the reason it works for people who have never blended anything.
  • NYX Ultimate Shadow Palette, 0.58 oz, around $20. Sixteen pans for the price of two singles, and the mattes blend without the chalky drag that is usually what a palette this cheap gets wrong.
  • Juvia's Place The Nubian Eyeshadow Palette, 0.42 oz, around $25. Built so the colour reads at full strength on deep skin, which is the failure most palettes at this price have: the pan looks rich and the lid looks like nothing.
  • Mented Cosmetics Everyday Eyeshadow Palette, 0.28 oz, around $28. Nudes chosen against deeper skin rather than lightened versions of somebody else's nudes, so the neutral actually reads as neutral.
  • Danessa Myricks Colorfix Matte Pigment, 0.27 oz, around $22. A liquid pigment that sets waterproof, which is the one thing a cream shadow usually cannot do and the reason it survives an oily lid.
  • Merit Solo Shadow Cream-to-Powder Stick, 0.05 oz, around $28. Draw it on and blend it with a finger, which is the whole application. For anybody who owns no brushes it is the shortest route to a finished eye.
  • Anastasia Beverly Hills Soft Glam Eyeshadow Palette, 0.35 oz, around $47. The mattes are the reason to buy it. They are milled finely enough to blend into each other without going muddy, which is what separates an expensive palette from a cheap one.

Tool

  • Universal fit Hair Diffuser Attachment, Fits most dryers, around $13. The single biggest change you can make to a wash day. A bare dryer nozzle blasts curls apart; a diffuser spreads the air so clumps dry where they formed.
  • Bed Head Diffuser Dryer, 1875W, around $35. A dryer with the diffuser built in, for anyone who does not already own a dryer worth attaching one to. Long prongs reach the roots without disturbing the curl.
  • Any seamless brand Seamless Wide-Tooth Comb, One comb, around $8. Seamless means no moulding ridge between the teeth. That ridge is what catches and snaps strands, and you can feel it with a fingernail on a cheap comb.
  • Any silicone brand Silicone Scalp Massager, One brush, around $9. Gets shampoo onto the scalp rather than the lengths, which is where it is meant to go. Also lifts buildup that fingers alone leave behind.
  • Any continuous mist brand Continuous Spray Bottle, 6 to 10 oz, around $10. A continuous mister puts out a fine even fog instead of the fat droplets a trigger spray fires. Water is how you reactivate product on day two or three.
  • Kitsch Heatless Curling Set, Rod and 2 scrunchies, around $14. Curls set overnight with no heat at all, on a satin rod that does not rough up the cuticle the way a fabric one does.
  • Any KDF-55 brand Shower Head Filter, Cartridge, 6 months, around $40. Hard water leaves mineral deposits on the hair shaft that no conditioner shifts, which reads as permanent dryness and dullness. A KDF filter removes most of it.
  • Any 22-momme mulberry Mulberry Silk Pillowcase, Standard or queen, around $45. Cotton grips hair and pulls moisture out of it. Silk lets it slide, so you wake with the curl pattern you went to bed with and less breakage at the hairline.
  • Any microfibre brand Microfibre Hair Wrap, One wrap, around $12. A terry towel roughs the cuticle open and creates frizz before you have styled anything. Microfibre absorbs without abrading, and the wrap shape holds curls up while they set.
  • Any stainless brand Facial Ice Roller, One roller, around $12. Cold constricts vessels for a while, which genuinely calms visible redness and takes the heat out of an angry spot. Comfortable, cheap, and honest about what it is.