The Beauty Products Our Editors Loved in May
Including Bazaar-approved summer perfumes and our beauty director
Reported by Harper's Bazaar.
Editor try-ons are a particular kind of fashion and beauty intelligence — less algorithm, more actual use. According to Harper's Bazaar, the products earning real estate in their editors' routines this May range from skin-tightening serums to candles engineered to make a New York apartment feel like a sexy lodge. The throughline? Formulas that earn their spot through performance, not packaging hype.
On the skin front, Jones Road's Lip Recharge stood out for beauty director Jenna Rosenstein, who called it the rare balm that actually delivers on dry lips — worn as an overnight mask, then wiped pre-liner to protect color. Meanwhile, the G.M. Collin GF Repair Serum impressed beauty market editor Katie Intner for its growth factor and peptide formula that primes without weight, and Refy's Skin Base Hydrating Gel Tint earned her daily rotation courtesy of Second-Skin technology that prevents the midday separation that tanks most tinted moisturizers. Accessories director Miguel Enamorado credits The 6 Peptide Skin Booster Serum as his first step — lightweight enough to layer, noticeable enough to keep.
The Body, the Hair, the Scent
Body care had a strong showing. Senior designer Sarah Olivieri reported actual tightening from DropOff post-workout, while colleague ShapeShift neck serum addressed the very modern problem of tech neck without grease or fragrance offense. Commerce editor Tiffany Dodson Davis leaned into a marine-powered firming body butter — Atlantic Ocean kelp, New Zealand red seaweed, red maple bark — doubling it with the brand's massager for at-home lymphatic drainage. For hair, a hyaluronic acid and red algae milk serum kept her dry strands hydrated without the heaviness that kills a good blowout.
Fragrance delivered two distinct moods: Ulla Johnson's Baroque Garden Eau de Parfum offered bergamot, Egyptian jasmine, and vanilla in a porcelain bottle worthy of permanent vanity placement, while Ffern's Perfumer's Candle — wild mint, thyme, aniseed in a stainless steel vessel — read more like an art object than a wick. On the other end, Discothéque's Flaming Colossus Candle smells like a nightclub and a ski chalet somehow coexisted, and fashion news director Brooke Bobb is finally pulling the trigger on an Omnilux Contour Face LED mask for travel-ready skin this summer.
The best beauty editing is just ruthless prioritization — and this roundup is proof that the products worth your money are the ones editors actually reach for after the PR samples run out.
Read the original at Harper's Bazaar.
