2025 really is the year of beauty that works smarter, not harder.
This month, we've found a whippy BB cream that saves you a lifetime of decision fatigue, literal collagen pearls, Lady Gaga’s greatest non-music creations—plus a surprising amount of green-themed beauty goodies. We've got you thoroughly covered beauty buff.
Here are the best new beauty products to shop right now.
The Mother Lode
Lush | Yummy Custard Body Wash | From $20
Image Credit: Lush | Supplied
Lush’s Mother's Day collection is here and it’s a knock-out. The scents are warm, the names cutesy, the vibes nostalgic. Literally: the golden Coffee Morning Shower Jelly shares the cult-status Sticky Date scent (though packs much more shimmer).
The star of the show is no doubt Yummy Custard Body Wash—so says us, and the Lush community who give it a consistent five-star rating. In line with its butter-meets-pudding glossy texture, the recipe and ingredients are just a little bit *luxurious*. Vanilla pods are steeped in the mix for a full 20-minutes, the Aloe Vera is organic and fair trade, and the oat milk base is made fresh.
Scent-wise, it’s a dead-ringer for Haribo’s Dragibus lollies (a euro-trip must have).
Prime Time
Prime Skin | Jelly Plump 3-in-1 | $48
Image Credit: Prime Skin | Website
It’s not everyday you come across a multi-purpose product that leaves flabbergasted. So riddle us this: have you ever seen a cleanser-slash-makeup-remover-slash-overnight-mask?
Prime Skin’s Jelly Plump is as fun as it sounds. The bouncy texture and gently sweet scent makes melting makeup away surprisingly fun. Not to mention, you’ll spend a good portion of time mesmerised by its milky, opal-like translucence.
The ingredients front is just as good too. There’s barrier-boosting calendula, redness-reducing Chamomilla Recutita Flower Extract and Tocopherol (read: a huge hit of vitamin E) to name a few.
Dream Cream
Iyvos | BB Cream | $100
Image Credit: Iyvos | Instagram
We’ll say this with our whole chest: Iyvos Skincare’s BB Cream will save you hours. Days even. We never imagined describing something that usually commands a makeup brush as low-maintenance—but here we are, in love.
It all begins with zero faffing about in choosing your shade. Beeline for a simple Light, Medium or Tan. The pump then (magically) dispenses exactly the right amount to cover your face. Nothing more, nothing less. You can hold the foundation—even the concealer—because this baby offers more skin-tone cohesion and buildability than your average complexion product.
Oh, and the bigger than average bottle will last you yonks. You’ll never have decision fatigue (nor foundation, tinted moisturiser and its ilk) again.
Kitted Out
Kit: | Facial Cupping Tool | $50
Image Credit: Kit: | Instagram
A perfect undoing of all the squinting you do at your screen is Kit:’s Facial Cupping Tool. One large, one medium, the two action cups are the at-home ticket to a soothing, smoothing facial massage. Just like you’d find in acupuncture, only a little more gentle—and in bed and with Real Housewives reruns on in the background.
Our pro tip? Spend an extra few minutes swirling the tool between your brows. You wouldn’t believe how much tension this small pocket of muscles holds. Ps, we also rate the tools’ squeezy, squishy handles for being a source of stress-relief in itself.
Fit For A Princess
Flamingo Estate | Princesstårta Candle | Price Varies
Image Credit: Flamingo Estate | Website
Speaking of green and delicious, Flamingo Estate has whipped up the most sumptuous new candle: Princesstårta. (Now, a quick culinary history lesson: it’s a pouffy, cream and sponge-filled dome cake, sealed with smooth green marzipan and the odd pink rose. Hailing from Sweden, but pssst, Scandibun does it here)
We don’t say it lightly when we say that it’s some of their best work yet. She’s frothy, sweet in the right place, gently laced with spice. Not to mention, one of the rare cases of resin and marzipan notes getting their well-deserved time in the sun.
Our verdict? It’s a great way to curb (or induce) sugar cravings. Or to politely shush that friend can turn conversation into an excuse to whip out their 'Stockholm 2018' phone photo album.
Green With Envy
Hikoco | Fully’s Green Tomato Collection | From $32
Image Credit: Hikoco | Website
It turns out Tomato Girl life isn’t entirely off the cards as Aotearoa heads into winter. Take a quick trip to Hikoco, scoop up a handful of Fully’s new Green Tomato range and settle in for a sensorial moment with our favourite fruit.
More than a moisturiser and cleanser affair, the range is a plentiful crop (sorry, we had to) of items that are equal parts effective and entertaining. We’re not kidding. There’s a piped, gelato-like cleanser, a “saggy pore” filling ampoule, and a fresh toner with 95% Green tomato extract.
Pearls Of Wisdom
Boost Lab | Collagen Booster Treatment | $39.95
Image Credit: Boost Lab | Website
Thanks to Boost Lab’s spiffy new Collagen Booster Treatment, you can pop collagen like you would any other good supplement—only way more fun.
Lift the little freeze-dried collagen pearls out of the case, squash it into your palm and dissolve it into a couple of droplets of a serum of your choice.
Your skin will receive a supercharge of ceramide, hyaluronic acid and marine collagen—and you get a spot of beauty routine theatre-slash-science experiment. Ps, run don’t walk, they’ve got a decent bundle deal to celebrate joining Farmers’ shelves.
Quite The Spark
Everlasting Candle Co | Everlasting Candles | $50
Image Credit: @thebobbyedit | Instagram
All good things come to an end? Nope, not Everlasting Candle Co’s watch. They’ve crafted a nifty little candle—which you could mistake for a diffuser at first glance—made entirely from melt-resistant, stainless steel. And get this: it never, ever dwindles down.
No sudden snuff, no soot, no faffing about with getting the lighter near the last of any straggly wicks. Plus, you get the added bonus of playing creative director with your candle rods and vessel shapes and colours.
A Double Dose
Dermalogica | Biolumin-C heat Aging Protector | from $65
Leading the pack on heat-ageing products (a very real thing) is Dermalogica’s Biolumin-C heat Aging Protector SPF50. Frankly, calling it a daily moisturiser feels too much on down-low, because this baby has *everything.*
There’s stable Vitamin-C (perfect for brightening and overall skin health) and SPF50 for starters—saving you the hassle of an extra layer. Then there’s a blend of soothing Safflower Oleosomes, Bisabolol and Allantoin to moisturise. And the kicker, ThermaRadiance Complex, which helps stamp out the dull signs of ageing like dehydration and iffy skin textures.
Speaking of texture, it’s rich (but far thinner than separately layering SPF and moisturiser,) smooths on easily and leaves a sheen that the glass skin girlies would love. More of a matte fan? It sits flawlessly on both liquid and powder foundation, too.
What we really love is that it helps with the effect of molecular-level heat stress on our bodies—be it from saunas, bikram yoga, tropical vacays, or simply overheating in day-to-day life, inflammation and hormonal woes from peri-menopause to PCOS.
A Discovery Dose
TWYG | Discovery Set | $99
If you’re yet to discover the magic of Bioactive Totarol, listen up. Take yourself online, order TWYG’s new Discovery Set and thank us later.
10ml of their signature blends (Restorative Hydration Cream, Rewening Antioxidant Facial Oil, and Brightening Facial Serum) will land at your door, splash your skin with totarol (a powerful skin-smoother and preserver from Tōtara trees) and have you wishing you got on the TWYG train sooner.
Tetchy-skinned friends, rest assured that the legends at TWYG have made sure it’s okay for all skin types, including sensitive ones too.
Double Dose
Isamaya | Skin Enhancing Duo | $63
Image Credit: Isamaya | Website
Handbag real estate is faaaar too precious to waste it on compact after pottle, mirror after eyeshadow quad. Work smarter, not harder and find yourself an Isamaya Skin Enhancing Duo—now that they’ve handily landed at Mecca.
Technically under the complexion/highlighter category, these babies were made to work for the lips and eyes too. The high-contrast colour pairings see to this, while the solid-to-cream formulations make it oh-so-buildable and seamlessly blendable. Yes, even when you’re doing a late-night, brush-free bathroom touchup.
Open Haus
Haus Labs | Bio-Radiant Gel-Powder Highlighter | $78
Image Credit: Haus Labs | Sephora
Another notch in Mother Monster’s triumphant return, Haus Labs has landed at Sephora. Lucky us, Kiwis on the shipping list. There’s a lot to take in between the ranges’ pearly, chrome-filled shelves packaging, so let us make the choice simple: Bio-Radiant Gel-Powder Highlighter. Specifically, in Moonstone.
It’s got our eye (and jaw on the floor) as one of the only silver highlighters in the market. We’re talking pure, strobing, cool-toned, crushed disco ball-bra-level silver. Not to mention, the fact that it’s a Gel-Powder—a hybrid that only Lady Gaga can pull off.
A Capsule Skin Wardrobe
The Skin Wardrobe | Skin Wardrobe Cosmetics Brushes | From $48.00
We love them as our official source of scandi-cool skincare, but The Skin Wardrobe’s foray into their own line has us *hooked.* Starting off the range of Skin Wardrobe Cosmetics is a capsule of four makeup brushes designed for those in-betweeney applications. A mini blending brush to pat in concealer, chisel your cheekbones or even dab your nose with highlighter? They’ve got it. Or a “Flawless Base” flat brush to even out foundation and buff in powder? Loves it.
Dial It Up
Mecca Max | Max Vol. Tubing Mascara | $31
Patron Saints of affordable, high-wattage tubing mascara have set their sights on a new addition: the Max Vol. Tubing Mascara, created in partnership with Aussie pop trio, Blusher (name a better name for a makeup collaboration).
It’s all about giving you big, high-wattage lashes in jet-black tones—and frankly, in this world of paired down ‘clean girl’ aesthetics, we love to see it.
Official Urban List research shows it to be ultra buildable (even above the three coats they outline) and glide right through your lashes. Also in our research, the fact that it doesn’t drop throughout the day and give you the dreaded lower-lash panda eyes.
Déc The Halls
Boost Lab | Fine Line Rewind Silicone Patches | $44.95
The décolletage is no doubt, one of the trickiest spots to keep spruced and plump. It sometimes skips out on SPF, necklaces get in the way, and we simply forget about it when smoothing our serums. Not to mention, we’ve probably all woken and been shocked at just how crinkly our skin gets when we sleep.
Enter Boost Lab’s Fine Line Rewind Silicone Patches: patches that smooth out lines, stop the scrunching that causes new ones, and locks in hydration while you snooze — or while you sneakily don a high-neck shirt at the office.
A top reason why we love duo for neck and déc is that it *actually* allows you to wear a serum underneath (seasoned silicone patch users will know the drill). Oh, and paired with the fact you can cut it to suit your shape, and re-use them up to 20 times? Now that’s a winning combination.
An Eyelash Updgrade
Revitalash | Tubing Mascara
Everybody say thank you, Kiara Cosmetics. These legends, who we know and love for bringing the RevitaLash range to us, have another treat for our peeps: Tubing Mascara.
It picks up from Revitalash’s loved Double-Ended Volume Set Primer & Mascara (truly, one of the best to exist with zero clumps and tenfold volume) but offers a water-resistant edge. Long and curled lashes, separated strands, inky colouring—no rogue wave or humid environment is going to get in the way of dream lashes with the Length Define Tubing Mascara in tow.
Three's A Charm
Revlon | Illuminance Glow Wand | $32.00
We love a bit of precision when it comes to highlighter. We’re pleased to report that Revlon’s latest, the Illuminance Glow Wands a nimble application tip—the most pointed of its category, really. Not to mention, perfect to chisel out the line of your collar bone or under your brow.
The formulation is just as much of a home run. The pearl particles are super fine, among squalene and hydrating Hyaluronic Acid, and it builds with zero stickiness or streakiness.
Oh, and the versatile bronze, golden and rose glow tones make choosing and layering an absolute piece of cake. No decision fatigue = more time to carve out the perfect glow placement.
Think Pink
Karen Murrell | 30 Driven | $34.99
We think we’ve found the pink lipstick that suits everyone. Actually, we know we have. Karen Murrell’s ‘30 Driven’—a shade refreshed in collaboration with Lexus of Auckland City—strikes just the right balance of dusty rose, and bunny-nose pink. And, depending on how many times you layer it, it’ll dial up all the way to a darker, mauve-tinged shade.
Our official swatching and swiping shows that it’ll also make a fabulous blush stand-in.
Country Dreaming
Glasshouse Fragrances | Country Couture collection | From $26.95
Why stop at draping yourself in cashmere, when it can cosy up your space in scent form? We kid you not, cashmere is the fragrance note we didn’t know we needed.
It’s warm, rounded, and strangely familiar (good kind). When paired with nectarine—as Glasshouse Fragrances does in the new Country Couture collection—it becomes impossibly crisp, lightly meringued, and almost alpine-cool. You’d be forgiven for never wanting to take the diffusers and candle out of the packaging—but the dainty, illustrated florals inside are just as pretty.
Scents-ability
Lush | From $50
Lush’s best noses—Co-founder Mark Constantine OBE, perfumers Emma Vincent and Alina Gliwinka—have gone pedal-to-the-floor with the nostalgic Volume 5 collection.
Each of the four fragrances slap you right into a daydream.
One one end of the scent spectrum there’s Vegan Leather Jacket. It takes you to a chic, incense-burning vintage store, maybe somewhere fireside in Europe, with a peppering of flashbacks to your favourite concert. Smoke, earthiness, licorice, clove-pierced citrus.
Chelsea Morning, on the other hand, embodies all the trimmings of the start of a good day: something freshly baked, caked in near-burnt sugar, some just-plucked flowers, and a few relentless sunrays.
Handy Work
Paume | Cleansing Hand and Body Wipes | $28
Paume has no business in making hand and body wipes so. darn. chic.
Well actually they do. They’ve got a knack for elevating hand essentials with nourishing ingredients and formulas that feel like they belong in high-end day spas (anti-bacterial hand gel fans know the drill).
We’re stoked to see Cleansing Hand and Body Wipes join the ranks (plus its matching cute carry-case,) cleansing with an alcohol-free formulation and plant-based fibres for a superb, guilt-free swipe.
Main image credit: Isamaya | supplied via Mecca
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