Cosmopolitan's deputy beauty director Lauren Balsamo joins Cheddar News to discuss its 2022 Holy Grail Beauty Awards.

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Cosmopolitan Details 190 of This Year's Best Beauty Products

Welcome back to Between Bells The team over at Cosmopolitan with a combined 30 plus years of experience has reviewed the best of the best when it comes to beauty products and treatments laying out 190 Holy Grail products for readers in their newest 2022 Holy Grail Beauty Awards. The outlets beauty editors truly did the hard work for us to help us understand what products are the best in an overwhelmingly crowded saturated market. Joining us now to help break all of it down along with the top categories is Lauren balsamo, Cosmo, Cosmopolitans. Deputy Beauty Director Lauren, I'm so excited to have you on the show. Welcome. So the list high. So the list breaks up in categories including skincare, makeup, hair, body nails, tools, pro treatments, everything that we love here at cheddar news. But first explain to us how each item was thoughtfully selected. Yeah, so the Cosmo Beauty Team test products all year long, we're always reviewing and researching and working with the top industry experts to find all the best products and that's what this list is. It's a curated list of 100 and 90 winners. We call them our Holy Grail Awards because these are the best of the best. It's the stuff that's that's what's really worth your money and it works. So when you add it to your routine, you see your results, you know, because of the pandemic. So many people stopped focusing on makeup as much and it was more about healthy skin. I know Elta MD is a popular one. That major list. Clinique as well. What beauty trends have you seen in the last year or so Lauren, so skin is everything right now. Um The space is huge. We have more than 80 winners across face and body in the skincare space. And then we also have a ton of makeup with skincare benefits. So this is a new trend that we're seeing. So its foundation that can help improve the appearance of dark spots or highlighters that have vitamin C. And blush. Is that hydrates? So even makeup really has skincare benefits now. So makeup is another huge category on the list. Can you talk to me about what products that you think are the holy grail when it comes to makeup? Yeah, so we have a skin tone category and this is kind of a new emerging product and the makeup space. Think of it as a sheer foundation, It's perfect for every day. It's fuss free, you can apply it you know quickly in the car on the subway with your hands, you don't need a mirror and it gives you that sheer sort of coverage. Um But but it but it really will hide in perfection, so dark spots, redness, um breakouts and all of that. So skin tints are everywhere. We love one from Cali ray. It's a great option. Let's talk tools from hair dryers to tweezers. What top tools stood out to you. Yeah, tools are everywhere and I think a lot of that is really inspired by the pandemic. People really. Um Up to their D. I. Y. Game. So there's options for hair, skin nails. Um I'm loving a facial massager from a brand called Ron oven. It's really amazing. Use it at the end of a long day melts away facial tension and reduces puffiness. And we have another great option um A skincare tool from New Face. It uses micro current technology so similar to what you would receive in a pro facial and it helps smooth fine lines and crow's feet. I have new face. I don't use it as much as I should but people do swear by it. It's such an excellent product. So we were talking about it 190 winners. That is a lot. How do you choose and narrow it down? And if I had to ask you the top five Lauren what would it be? Top five? Um Okay so it's hard because there's so many. Right? But really the testing process takes months. We start using a product we identify what skin type or what sort of hair concern it's best for. We test a bunch of products in that category and then it's sort of like a bracket. We see which one gets to the final spot. Um Top products, loving skin fixes, acne cleanser ideal for anyone with oily skin or breakouts helps reduce bacteria on the skin helps Debunk pours a great summer option. Loving Shani Darden's exfoliating serum. So this is kind of a new category as well. Think of it as a leave on exfoliator. But this product's great Shawnee is a celebrity facialist based out in L. A. And this product is really like a facial and a bottle. I will be buying that very very soon. What else do you got Lauren? We have a best hair treatment. It's from brio Geo. So this is a weekly leave in treatment. Really good for anyone who heat style. So blow dries uses a curling wand or an iron often um It has a mix of moisturizing and strengthening protein so it's gonna make your hair really soft shiny and resilient so you'll see fewer split ends and unless damage. Um Also so we love the Cali ray skin tint. We have a few different foundation options. So you know if you want light coverage, full coverage um We have another body cream. It's great. It's restored by dr Rogers. So think of this as your like every day must use body lotion. It soaks in really quick super moisturizing and um but but it won't leave that sort of greasy residue on skin. Um So yeah lots of great options and then if we need more summer options I mean there's so many sunscreens on the list to keep your skin protected. I mean we know sunscreen is important year round but especially in the summer months when we're outside this year's awards also marks the return of the fragrance. Why bring back that category? Yeah, I think fragrance is really like an emerging, it's getting bigger and better and there's so many innovations in the fragrance space. Um so we want to have all the great options in one place for our reader, but I'm excited about two fragrances in particular. We have our best daytime fragrance winner. It's a rose scent from tom ford. It's beautiful. It's a soft floral, really subtle, fresh wearable for every day and we have a best clean fragrance. So think of like um clean green technology to develop this fragrance from a brand called seven virtues. Really great. And are there anything from this year's awards that surprised you or perhaps something that wasn't involved in the awards that did surprise you. Hear, Lauren for at least for 2022? Yeah, so we have a few new, um we really were testing a lot more waterproof products. We know people don't really want to apply reapply their makeup during the day. We know the summer months are coming. It's hot, it's humid, it's sticky. So we have a few new waterproof winners. One in particular is from benefit. It's it's fantastic. It's pool day approved. Its beach day approved so you can wear it all summer. Long Lauren balsamo cosmopolitans. Deputy beauty Director. We love talking this stuff Please come back soon, Lauren, thank you so much