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If summer still feels far off to you, let it sink in that Memorial Day Weekend is just around the corner. Yes, the (unofficial) start of the carefree, sweltering season full of al fresco Hugo spritzes, rooftop parties, and half-day Fridays at the office are within reach. The current date on the calendar should be enough proof, but all of May 2025’s best new beauty products further confirm that summer is indeed on the horizon.
Spanning skin care, makeup, hair care, and body care, all of this month’s launches are designed to enhance and boost your natural glow. On the skin care front, there’s a brightening sunscreen that leaves your skin radiant, not greasy. There’s even a vitamin C-infused tinted lip balm. If you need to sweat-proof your makeup routine, Lancôme’s hydrating skin tint offers buildable, lightweight coverage that won’t melt in a heat wave. For extra insurance, you can seal your look with Pat McGrath Labs’ glass skin setting spray. Even your hair can get the gloss treatment with Moroccanoil’s shine-boosting mask. And finally, you can’t neglect the skin below your neck (especially when you’ll likely be showing more of it), and that’s where Tronque’s milky firming body lotion comes into play.
Ahead, discover the best of May’s beauty launches that’ll take you through the tail-end of spring and beyond.
May 2025 Skin Care Launches
Best New Vitamin C Serum
e.l.f. Skin Bright Icon Vitamin C + E + Ferulic Serum
No glow-boosting skin care routine is complete without a brightening vitamin C serum. This affordable one from e.l.f. is also formulated with ferulic acid and vitamin E for added antioxidant protection, and boasts a non-greasy finish so it layers well with the rest of the products in your morning lineup.
Best New SPF Lip Balm
BeautystatC Lip Serum SPF 30
Fully protecting your skin from head to toe from sun damage will feel like less of a time-consuming drag with multitasking products. That’s where this mineral SPF lip balm comes into play. Not only does it shield UVA/UVB rays, it includes vitamin C and peptides to brighten and plump and comes in two tints (baby pink and peach).
Best New Plumping Moisturizer
The Whoo Imperial Youth Cream
Displaying The Whoo’s violet jar (peep that phoenix-adorned cap) on your vanity is enough to make you feel fancy, but the decadent moisturizing cream housed inside of it is next-level luxury. It’s powered by aged wild ginseng to target visible signs of aging such as fine lines, wrinkles, and loss of firmness. Given its recent stateside launch, expect to see this legacy K-beauty brand’s products in shelfies in the near future.
Best New Brightening Serum
Bloomeffects Black Tulip Regenerative Brightening Serum
You’ve likely heard of farm-to-table restaurants, but have you heard of field-to-formula skin care? That’s the ethos behind Bloomeffects, which builds its products around proprietary two tulip complexes derived from flower fields in Amsterdam. The newest creation is the brightening serum, which combines tulip growth factors with exosome peptides to speed up its firming, brightening, and smoothing benefits.
Best New Lip Mask
Femmue Lip Sleeping Mask Vita Shield
Give your lips a little extra TLC with a deeply nourishing lip mask. While they’re typically used at night, this Femmue one is designed to restore and protect your lips for the day ahead.
Best New Sheer Sunscreen
U Beauty Multimodal Sheer Mineral Sunscreen Broad Spectrum SPF 25
If you’re Team Mineral Sunscreen, you’re all too familiar with the heavy, chalky feeling many of them come with. Luckily, U Beauty has solved this struggle with its Multimodal Sheer Mineral Sunscreen. The SPF-primer hybrid leaves skin with a smooth, airbrushed finish that’s ripe for makeup application.
Best New Peel
Manuela Picard Red Carpet Ready Vitamin C Peel
When a pre-event facial isn’t in the cards, consider this at-home peel from Croatian facialist Manuela Picard your best bet. The unique formula combines chemical exfoliants, antioxidants, and vitamin E to smooth and brighten skin while simultaneously protecting the barrier and calming redness.
Best New Rejuvenating Moisturizer
SkinceuticalsAdvanced RGN-6 Skin Regeneration Cream
Inspired by the regenerating process that’s triggered by in-office laser treatments, this healing moisturizer helps address redness, post-acne marks, dark spots, wrinkles, firmness, and smoothness. While it’s made to work in tandem with laser series offered at a dermatologist’s office, you can use it on its own, too.
Best New Face Mist
Sofie Pavitt Face Fridge To Face Blemish Defense Mist
Keep your skin cool, calm, and collected this summer by spritzing this mist from New York’s acne whisperer, facialist Sofie Pavitt. On top of soothing skin, it’s formulated with post-biotic, niacinamide, and panthenol to help control excess oil, keep blemish-prone complexions balanced, and prevent future dark spots.
Best New Glow-Boosting Sunscreen
Ranavat Brightening Mineral Sunscreen SPF 50+
In addition to zinc oxide for sun, blue light, and antioxidant protection, Ranavat’s mineral SPF includes 20 antioxidant-rich adaptogens and the brand’s signature brightening saffron for a radiant finish – cast-free.
May 2025 Makeup Launches
Best New Setting Spray
Pat McGrath Labs Skin Fetish: Glass 001 Legendary Glow Setting Spray
Leave it to the mother of makeup to rethink setting sprays. In addition to locking your look in place for up to 16 hours, this featherweight mist provides a long-lasting glass skin effect reminiscent of Dame Pat McGrath’s viral Margiela porcelain doll runway makeup.
Best Lip Contour
Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat Contour Duo
This ingenious dual-ended pencil allows you to sculpt and fill your lips without switching between pencils. What’s more, it takes the guesswork out of choosing two complementary lip liner shades.
Best New Cream Blush
Naked Sundays SPF 50 GlowBalm Mineral Peptide Stick
Merging makeup with skin care, Naked Sundays’ cream blush offers a buildable dewy flush while also shielding skin from UVA/UVB rays with mineral SPF 50 protection.
Best New Highlighter
Sarah Creal Today’s Highlights 12H Peptide Balm Luminizer
Specifically designed for over-40 skin, this buildable cream highlighter illuminates the complexion without settling into fine lines, wrinkles, or uneven texture.
Best New Skin Tint
Lancôme Skin Idôle 3 Serum Superskin Skin Tint
Just in time for humid, sweaty summer days comes Lancôme’s lightweight tint, which offers buildable coverage and a luminous finish for up to 24 hours. What’s more, it doubles as skin care, thanks to the infusion of three tried-and-true serums: niacinamide, vitamin E, and hyaluronic acid.
Best New Lip Liner
Westman Atelier Lip Shape Lip Liner
Available in eight shades, these creamy liners from Nicole Kidman’s makeup artist’s brand glide on smooth without any tugging or feathering.
May 2025 Hair Care Launches
Best New Shine Mask
Moroccanoil High Shine Gloss Mask
The perfect accessory to glass skin is equally glossy hair. This five-minute mask inspired by in-salon treatments leaves strands extra smooth and shiny, thanks to a blend of repairing amino acids, gloss-boosting crambe abyssinica seed oil, and nourishing argal oil.
Best New Conditioner For Fine Hair
Olaplex No.5 Fine Bond Maintenance Conditioner
The fine hair community asked, and Olaplex listened. This version of the brand’s beloved bond-strengthening shampoo is designed to enhance volume without weighing strands down.
Best New Detangler
Living Proof Leave-In Conditioner & Detangler Spray
Conquer post-beach day knots and tangles with Living Proof’s hydrating spray. You can also use it on wash day to shield hair from heat styling and UV damage.
Best New Night Treatment
OribeGold Lust Restorative Night Crème For Hair
Can you sleep your way to healthier hair? With Oribe’s new nighttime leave-in treatment you can. The cream is packed with plant collagen and peptides, caffeine, biotin, and niacinamide to deeply repair and restore damage, split ends, dullness, and dryness.
May 2025 Body Care Launches
Best New Hand Cream
Beau Domaine The Hand & Nail Cream
This sleek tube is so much more than a quick-absorbing cream. It’s made with three patented extracts from grapes and vines that work to even skin tone, minimize age spots, and strengthen nails.
Best New Body Cream
Tronque Triple Active Body Milk
The transition to a summer skin care routine should cover your body care, too. This milky lotion offers deep hydration, sculpting, and firming benefits without the heavy, greasy feel of a rich cream.
Best New Foot Treatment
Kate McLeod Foot Stone
Soothe and revive tired, overworked feet with Kate McLeod’s solid moisturizer. It’s melts on contact with skin to soften dry heels and calluses without any slimy residue.