In partnership with John Bell & Croydon, it’s that time of the year when we confer our highest honours on the best men’s beauty products that have gone a lot more than skin deep in the past 12 months
Words: Zak Maoui
In 2025 the business of men’s grooming is predicted to teeter close to a whopping £50bn in value. Considering in 2010 it was worth around £484m, it’s all too clear that guys have become more concerned about the way that they look, what they’re putting on their skin, under their armpits and across their hair (yes, even down there!).
Perhaps it’s all down to the culture’s obsession with looking younger (it’s OK to have some frown lines, you know). Or maybe it’s because looking your personal best can also make you feel your best, give you a bit of vim and vigour, and therefore improve your overall better outlook on life. Smell good, look good, feel good!
Whatever it is, we’ve always been pretty down with slapping on a bit of skincare, smudging eye cream into our crow’s feet and taking really long showers while luxuriating and lathering yourself with the very best products you can find. So much so, in fact, that we decided to test-drive the newest launches of the past 12 months, in order to give you a better idea of what is currently making men tick, and causing the industry to have such a boom time. From daily essentials to state-of-the-art treatments and the spas to get them at, we present our annual Grooming Awards...
Winner: Jo Malone London Cypress & Grapevine Cologne Intense
Jo Malone has only gone and bottled up those warm summer nights when everything feels a little bit looser. Harnessing the aromatic notes of cypress trees, the muskiness of grapevine and the sensuality of amber, this is a fragrance that even gets campaign guy Tom Hardy excited.
Runner-up: Dior Sauvage Eau Forte
Winner: Perricone MD No Makeup Foundation Serum
Working like a serum but acting like a full-coverage concealer, Perricone MD’s Foundation Serum improves the appearance of imperfections, dark spots and uneven skin tone, while providing a mineral-based broad-spectrumSPF 20 protection.
Runner-up: Burberry Beyond Wear Concealer
Winner: Mahsa WhiteningDental Polish
That coffee in the morning isleaving a devastating smear on your pearly whites, but Mahsa’s polish is more than up to the challenge of de-staining them. The amethyst paste has a unique formulation that eradicates marks and gives your teeth a rather fetching opaline finish.
Runner-up: SURI toothbrush
Winner: Dr LEVY ThermoGlow Pro
The brainchild of Swiss dermatologist Dr Phillip Levy, Dr LEVY’s ThermoGlow Pro Device takes your evening grooming ritual to the next level. It harnesses the power of different temperatures to cleanse and soothe skin, while banishing puffiness, too.
Runner-up: Omnilux Men's LED face mask
Winner: Gillette King C.Gillette Style Master
For more than 100 years Gillette’s been the go-to for seriously strong razors that can trim away the most stubborn of hairs. With a range of settings, the King C.Gillette Style Master will leave your facial hair looking in fine fettle indeed.
Runner-up: Tom Ford Beard Conditioning Oil
Winner: Bioeffect EGF Day Serum
This age-defying serum reduces the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles (win!), while enhancing the radiance and tone. Best bit? It’s not sticky or greasy, which makes it an ideal primer for any top layer moisturiser.
Runner-up: PERS Vitamin C10% Antioxidant Serum
Winner: Korres Athenian Grooming 2 in 1 Hair +Body Wash
How can you make a shower gel more alluring? By boosting it with aromatic achillea mille folium extract, marjoram, and vitamin b3, and then scenting it with uplifting notes of fresh bergamot and leather, to make it smell as good as an Athenian barber shop.
Runner-up: Narcyss Le Poème du Corps deep cleansing wash
Winner: RéVive Hydrogel Moisturiser Hyaluronic Acid Water Cream
It’s rare for guys to find a moisturiser that really does perform like this one. Infused with red algae extract, which is rich in taurine to supercharge skin, a biomimetic Bio-Renewal Peptide to address dullness and fine lines, and 4D Hyaluronic Acid to pack a moisture punch, its power is unrivalled.
Runner-up: Orveda The BioTech Emulsion Sheer
Winner: Cellman Washn’ Shave Shaving Foam
This alcohol-free formula works overtime, as it doesn’t just work as a purifying cleanser but also as a light-as-air shaving cream.Using a gentle coconut- and apple-based cleansing agent, it is the perfect product for a smooth glide and even smoother finish.
Runner-up: Dr Sebagh Foaming Cleanser
Winner: CK One Essence
An intensified, more-premium update to the iconic mid-90s scent, CK One Essence has all the nostalgia of the OG, but with a fragrance that doesn’t smell too much like Harlow nightclubs. It blends bergamot, white tea, blood orange and black pepper to make a fresh and zesty scent that works year in, year out.
Runner-up: Floris No.89
Winner: Nooānce Anti-hair Loss and Regrowth Hair Helmet
No, this isn’t something from the set of Dune. Parisian brand Nooānce’s head gear is packed with a combination of LED and LLLT (Low Level Laser Therapy) technologies to maximise the effectiveness of hair regrowth. Worried about hair loss? Helmet up.
Runner-up: Champo Pitta Growth Serum
Winner: Augustinus Bader The Sunscreen SPF50
Ah, Augustinus Bader! A skincare saviour! This SPF (which you should be using daily) isn’t like the others, and while it offers broad-spectrum, high SPF 50 protection against UVA & UVBrays with 4 clean UV filters, it also fights visible signs of ageing using Bader’s patented TFC8 formula.
Winner: Rollr
Deodorants never actually look that great, right? Enter Rollr. The London-based brand is new on the market and champions the holistic beauty of crystals to provide you with a very soothing under-arm experience. Unlike synthetic deodorants, Rollr uses a de-perspiration formulation that contains mineral salts to naturally tighten pores without blocking them.
Winner: The Peak at Jumeirah Carlton Tower
The Peak (unsurprisingly) sits majestically atop this impressive hotel, and is a wellness extravaganza. It boasts London’s largest hotel pool, bathed in natural light, plus a state-of-the-art Technogym-powered fitness space with views across London. Meanwhile the Talise Spa is where you’ll find first-class facilities, holistic treatments and unique expertise that are simply unrivalled in the capital.
The Peak, Carlton Tower, Jumeirah, 1 Cadogan Place, London, SW1X 9P
Winner: Dr Sebagh Ultralift Facial
The Ultralift Long-Pulse HIFU machine is exclusive to the Dr Sebagh Clinic at Chandos House. Using the world’s first long-pulse ultrasound wave technology, the powerful treatment specifically targets the deep foundation below the skin that is otherwise only really addressed in cosmetic surgery.
The Dr Sebagh Clinic, Chandos House,2 Queen Anne St, London W1G 9LQ
Runner-up: Fatma Shaheen, Skin Design London
Now check out the latest batch of new grooming releases
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