The Cosmo editors beauty favourites list is not built in a boardroom. It comes from real empties: bottles finished, refills ordered, backups stashed. The Cosmopolitan beauty team tested over 2,000 products to reach 370 winners in their 2026 Holy Grail Awards alone, so when the same names keep appearing in the empties pile, it means something. These are the products that survived the churn.
Cosmo editors beauty favourites: skincare that actually gets finished
Beauty editor Beth Gillette has been using the Sofie Pavitt Face Mandelic Acid Exfoliating & Clearing Serum on and off for four years, but became a committed daily user after a facial with Pavitt herself. The advice: mandelic acid every morning, benzoyl peroxide every other night. It worked. The serum, which contains 8% mandelic acid, exfoliates and clears pores without stripping the skin. Gillette credits it directly with reducing the number of blackheads on her nose. At $54, it is one of the more accessible options on the team’s list.
Gillette also keeps Dr. Diamond’s Metacine InstaFacial Plasma Bioactive Growth Factor Serum on her shelf. She has used it for over a year. Dr. Diamond is a plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills known for an in-office treatment combining laser, microneedling, PRP, and a medical-grade collagen mask. The Metacine serum takes inspiration from that protocol. Gillette describes it as lightweight, fast-absorbing, and non-comedogenic, and says it has visibly tightened and cleared her skin over time. It retails at $200.
Assistant beauty editor Jasmine Hyman is 26 and focused on prevention. Retinol irritates her skin, so she uses the BioEffect EGF Day Serum ($165) instead. It is hydrating and formulated with growth factors to promote collagen production. She also relies on the Sofie Pavitt Face Clean Clean Gentle Gel Foaming Cleanser ($34) so heavily that she buys it herself despite receiving products regularly, and pairs it with Bioderma Sensibio H2O micellar water and Face Reality’s hydraBalance Gel for dry-skin hydration without the heavy feel.
Contributing beauty editor Mary Honkus has finished four full-sized bottles and one mini of the Mara Pearl Peptide Glaze Hydrating & Brightening Facial Essence ($54). She says it replaced a ten-step routine with three products, and she credits it with “pearly mermaid skin” and getting to appointments on time.
Body care picks the team keeps restocking
Gillette also landed on the Cyklar Sensorial Body Wash ($35) as a permanent fixture. She keeps buying it, rotating between scents: Vanilla Verve first, then Rose Bud, now Sacred Santal. The reason it stuck when others did not: her skin feels hydrated after rinsing off, and it lathers well. Simple, but that is often the standard that actually holds.
Beauty editor-at-large Julee Wilson has been using the Elemis Pro-Collagen Original Cleansing Balm daily for a decade. That is not an exaggeration she hedges. It is the number she gives. The 3-in-1 balm to oil to milk formulation, priced at $75, is her daily makeup and sunscreen remover. She says nothing else compares. She is equally devoted to Donna Karan Cashmere Mist Deodorant ($32), which she keeps at home and at the office simultaneously. Her test for a genuinely great product: you buy it yourself even when you could get it free. This one she buys.
Wilson also added the Dove Serum + Radiance Oil Body Wash ($13) to her permanent rotation this year. It launched recently and she describes the serum-to-oil texture as leaving skin hydrated and scented in a way that feels genuinely luxurious at a drugstore price.
Honkus rounds out the body care picks with the Josie Maran In Bed Whipped Argan Oil Refillable Body Butter Jar ($62). She has lost count of how many refill packets she has gone through, estimating five or six. She skips the jar entirely and applies direct from the packet. Despite a rich, thick texture, she says it melts in without feeling heavy, and the In Bed scent, a musky spicy vanilla, is the reason she keeps reordering through autumn and winter.
The full list spans $13 to $200, which is a wide range, but the common thread is consistent: these are products the Cosmo team finished, then bought again without hesitation. In a job where the next product is always waiting, that habit says more than any award.