Even if you love gel manicures, maintenance can be expensive and time-consuming -- and don't get us started on the finger-foil removal process. Lucky for us (and you), nail product manufacturers are creating polishes that offer gel-like results and don't need to be cured under a lamp. The Breakthrough Product winner in Nails, Butter London Patent Gel Top & Tails Set includes a base coat and top coat that we can combine with any old polish for a rock-solid, gel(ish) manicure. "Breakthrough" is an adjective we could apply to Nail Polish award winner Sephora Formula X, which offers a super-wide range of trendy, highly pigmented colors and gives us days and days of chip-free, shiny nails. Another of our favorites, Marc Jacobs Enamored Hi-Shine Nail Lacquer, goes on thick and dries to a beautiful, durable, glasslike finish.
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It's All a Blur
Blur cream is like PhotoShop for your makeup bag: It smoothes facial texture by filling enlarged pores and fine lines, reduces shine, minimizes blemishes and hyperpigmentation with light-diffusing particles and preps your face for makeup. In other words, this stuff laughs at that old face primer in your medicine cabinet. That's why Indeed Laboratories Nanoblur steals the Primer/Shine Control Product category; one of our beauty mavens calls it the best primer she's ever tried. We also like Garnier 5 Second Blur Skin Renew Instant Smoother and Peter Thomas Roth BB Blur, a genius, vitamin E- and peptide-infused multi-tasker with a light tint and SPF 30.
If there's a buzz ingredient in this year's new products, it has to be oil. TotalBeauty.com editors were striking oil everywhere we turned: facial cleansing oils, oil-infused shampoos and hair color, lip oils and even oil-based makeup.
We name Dove Pure Care Dry Oil Nourishing Treatment with African Macadamia Oil the top Hair Oil for its awesome conditioning powers and nongreasy, almost weightless feel. Another dry oil product we love is Moroccanoil Dry Body Oil, a lightweight moisturizer (in the brand's heavenly signature scent) that dries quickly after application. L'Oréal Paris Professional Mythic Oil Shampoo earns an honorable mention for Shampoo, thanks to its luxurious-smelling, rich-lathering and unbelievably hydrating formula. Other things we kinda died over? Hourglass Lip Treatment Oil, a glossy conditioner with a swanky gold-plated applicator that made us feel like rich ladies, and RMS Beauty Buriti Bronzer, a coconut-oil-based bronzer that gives a natural-looking glow whether you're dark-skinned beauty or the fairest of them all.
Trends, by their very nature, are fleeting. What's fresh and innovative today turns tired tomorrow. While some beauty trends, like stiletto nails and undercuts, can't seem to go fast enough, there are plenty more that we'd like to see stick around forever. Never has that been truer than in this year's TotalBeauty.com Award submissions, where we spotted so many emerging trends and technologies that have kind of become our beauty BFFs.
