Presenting the Best Beauty Products That Launched in 2021

We don't know exactly what 2021 has in store for us, but we do know it's getting off to a good start from the very first day of January. Why, you ask? Well, because the long-awaited UK launch of the Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Sukari Babyfacial (£67) is landing on 1 Jan. Fans of Drunk Elephant have been waiting for the product to drop ever since the brand launched in the UK back in 2018.

If you're not familiar with the product, we can tell you it was worth waiting to have here in the UK. This product is small but mighty. It contains a whopping 25 percent alpha hydroxy acids (a combination of glycolic acid, lactic acid, tartaric acid, and citric acid) and two percent beta hydroxy acid (salicylic acid), making it a total powerhouse when it comes to at-home exfoliation; although, it's definitely for more-seasoned acid users.

Best of all, the formula is exactly the same in the UK as it is in the US. Sometimes formulas (especially those containing strong ingredients) must be altered to meet EU regulations, but this one was good to go. Baby-soft skin, here we come!

Over the past two years The Inkey List has helped introduce consumers to new and hard-to-pronounce ingredients like tranexamic and polyglutamic acids. And in 2021, they wasted no time bringing us something fresh and exciting with the launch of The Inkey List Succinic Acid Blemish Treatment (£7) in the first week of January.

Similar to many science-y skin-care ingredients, succinic acid has been used in medical circles for years, according to The Inkey List Cofounder Mark Curry. "We predict we will start to see this ingredient more and more within the beauty industry, the same way tranexamic acid appeared onto the scene. It's naturally found in amber, where it's antimicrobial properties have been used for centuries in therapeutics, however recently, studies have shone a light on its amazing properties — e.g., skin reconditioning and antioxidant properties — that could make this an ingredient generalist, right up there with the likes of retinol and vitamin C."

The new treatment contains 2 percent of succinic acid, which Curry explained helps "soothe the irritation and sources of acne on all fronts", whilst simultaneously reconditioning the skin. The little tube also contains salicylic acid and sulphur, two well-known spot zappers — the former by helping to clear out clogged pores and the latter by sopping up excess oil.

Alicia Keys' new beauty brand, Keys Soulcare, has officially arrived in the UK via Cult Beauty — no exorbitant shipping fees or bugging your friend who's travelling stateside to grab it for you (you know, whenever we can travel again). The range features everything you need to take care of your skin and your soul, from an obsidian face roller to one seriously calming candle.

The star product, in our opinion, is the Keys Soulcare Skin Transformation Cream (£30), which is rich moisturiser a formulated with ceramides and hyaluronic acid to moisturise and plump skin, a naturally occurring mineral called malachite to purify, and bakuchiol, a plant-based ingredient often compared with retinol as it helps improve texture and tone. We tried it before it launched and it left our skin superglowy.

If you're still on the hunt for an eye cream that actually does something (rather than just feel nice and creamy), well, 2021 might be your year with the launch of Ren's Brightening Dark Circle Eye Cream (£42), which launches on 7 Jan.

The Ren Brightening Dark Circle Eye Cream contains elderberry flower extract, an ingredient with strong antioxidant benefits to help neutralise free radicals, which can cause crepey skin and puffiness. The ingredient list also includes glycogen, a stored form of glucose, that is naturally occurring in the skin and helps it to retain moisture (similar to hyaluronic acid, for example). What's more, it's vegan and cruelty-free.

Wo Skincare is a new brand that launched at the end of 2020, but many in the industry are predicting it to make waves in 2021. 'Wǒ' means 'I' or 'myself' in Mandarin, which reflects the brand's range of mix and match, mono-dose products. Each blister pack or vial contains enough for exactly one application, and you can purchase them in 2, 4, or 8 week dosages so you're not committing to huge amounts of creams and serums at a time. The idea is that you can tailor your routine to your exact skin type and concerns, and then easily add and swap products out depending on the time of year or how your skin is feeling.

The brand offers creams, balms, oils, and cleansers, as well as a collection of "Power TonIQ", which are basically treatment serums, including the Wo Skincare Power TonIQ Instant Radiance Boosting Essence (£15), the Wo Skincare Power TonIQ
Anti-Redness Essence (£16), and the Wo Skincare Power TonIQ Eye Contour Perfecting Essence (£19), all shown here.

And whilst that would seem to be a whole lot of waste generated, it's not: Wo Skincare packageing is made from up to 80% recycled PET and is 100% recyclable — thanks to the fact there are no pumps, no cling film, and no glossy varnish — plus, there are secondary protective boxes that often generate a ton of excess waste.

Four years after launching the brand's hugely successful foundation, The Ordinary is back with another base product in 2021, and this time it's a concealer. The concealer promises, "high-spreadability [through its] suspension system, which offers very high, yet buildable coverage with a real skin finish." The Ordinary Concealer (£5) launches on 19 Jan, with 36 shades following the same undertone format as the foundation. The concealer is lightweight and gives an ultranatural finish that doesn't crease or sit in fine lines. In addition to the newbie, The Ordinary is launching 15 new shades into its foundation range. What's more, in keeping with the brand's affordability, the concealer is priced at just under a fiver. What a win.

When the queen of brows launches a new brow product, it's time to get very excited. In January, Anastasia Soare introduces Anastasia Beverly Hills Brow Freeze (£24), a clear brow wax that is meant to mimic soap brows, minus the bar of soap.

When opening up the jar it's a bit shocking. You may not be able to tell in the photo but that the a wax is crystal clear. So clear, in fact, that you can make out every word on the label on the bottom of the packageing. This is a good thing because it doesn't add colour to your brows, it just lifts, sculpts, and holds every hair in place, allowing you to create either a feathered look, or simply slick your brow hairs down. It also doesn't disturb any makeup underneath it, which means you can fill in your brows with a pencil or powder before and it will stay put.

It's also very easy to use: You'll need a spoolie brush to use it, and then all you do is dip the wand into the wax, pick up a little pit, warm it up on the back of your hand (or the cap), and then brush it through your brows and you're good to go.

Huda Kattan may have gorgeous eyebrows, but it's only in 2021 — years after she launched her best-selling makeup brand — that she's given us a product that can help us achieve our own brow goals. The Huda Beauty #BomBrows Microshade Brow Pencil (£15) is Kattan's first ever brow product and, to no surprise, she's found a way to make a brow pencil feel new and unique. Available in eight shades (Warm Blonde, Neutral Blonde, Caramel Blonde, Light Brown, Medium Brown, Rich Brown, Black Brown, Soft Black), #BomBrows features the finest tip possible for a brow pencil at 0.9mm, which means you get incredible precision, whilst the formula itself promises to be smudge-proof, waterproof, and fade-proof for 24 hours.

"When the team & I started this journey, it was so important to me that our first ever brow product would let you create any brow shape or style you wanted," Kattan shared on Instagram after debuting the new product. "So the team & I made the THINNEST tip possible for a brow pencil (0.9mm) - literally as thin as a pin - that gives the most realistic, hair-like strokes for you to fill, style and OWN YOUR #BOMBBROWS."

L'Oréal Paris Bambi Eye Oversized False Lash Mascara (£11) only launched this month but it has quickly become our new favourite high-street mascara. As you comb through your lashes, it's almost like the triangle-shaped wand is stretching out each and every hair — that's how much length you end up getting with this formula. We also like how it fans out your lashes, giving you that doe-eyed, Twiggy effect.

Benefit Cosmetics, the brand behind a multitude of mascaras you already know and love, is responsible for the latest (and exciting!) development in the product category. The new Benefit They're Real! Magnet Mascara (£20, originally £22) features an innovative formula that boasts extreme lengthening abilities thanks to a magnetically charged core in the brush and a magnetic mineral-enriched formula (hence the name). Basically, the magnetic brush attracts and pulls the magnetic formula up the length of your eyelashes and then extends it past your natural lash to make them longer. The core in the brush is also good for picking up the perfect amount of product, which keeps your lashes from getting clumpy and weighed down with excess formula, while the zig-zagged bristles evenly distribute the jet-black pigment onto your lashes. Want to know more? Read our full review of the new mascara here.

Since her first launch in 2019, Victoria Beckham has been slowly but surely rounding out her makeup range. And with her first launch of 2021, she's making a major addition: the Victoria Beckham Beauty Future Lash Mascara (£26). "The perfect mascara is something I've had in my head since day one, and to create my own, I wanted to reimagine what I needed from the ground up," she said via press release.

Like all of the products in her makeup collection, the Future Lash Mascara is vegan, cruelty free, and made without any questionable ingredients (the brand specifically highlights no alcohol, beeswax, BHT, animal collagen, cyclic silicones, EDTA, essential oils, formaldehyde donors, fragrance, gluten, nano materials, ozokerite, palm oil, and parabens). Instead, it uses flexible plant-based polymers that help lengthen, lift, and define lashes without flaking or smudging throughout the day. And when you're ready to wash it off, there's no makeup remover required. Warm water removes it without you having to vigourously rub your lashes. Read our full review here.

Receiving the NYX Professional Makeup Marshmallow Primer (£15) is like receiving 10 products in one. It soothes, hydrates, and tones the skin, leaving your makeup looking flawless.

Launching on 25 March here in the UK, the Chris Appleton x Colour Wow Money Masque (£38.50) marks the celebrity hairstylist's first ever product launch, and it's definitely worth adding your name to the wait list for. The treatment features an innovative formula that absorbs into the hair rather than sits on top of it, which most heavy-duty hydrating and reparative masks tend to do apparently. Because of its ability to penetrate, it works on all hair types — from fine to kinky and coily — and leaves hair "expensive looking," as Appleton likes to say. "Great-looking hair starts with the condition," Appleton told POPSUGAR over Zoom. "I wanted a product that penetrated into the hair instantly, giving it hydration but also giving it strength with protein. I also wanted something that felt very light on the hair, but at the same gave amazing styling results, whether the hair was styled with heat or not."

According to the brand, one bottle of the L'Oréal Paris Elvive Dream Lengths 8 Second Wonder Water (£10) sells every minute in the US, and in January 2021, the miraculous formula makes its way to the UK. Suitable for all hair types (even though it says for long, damaged hair on the bottle), the Wonder Water is a very thin liquid conditioner (no, really, it has the consistency of some high-quality H2O) that helps soften, hydrate, and detangle strands in just eight seconds using a patent-pending proprietary technology called "lamellar technology".

Lamellar water works similarly to micellar water — which uses micelles to trap dirt and remove it from the surface of the skin — but in the opposite way. Instead, lamellar technology delivers active ingredients called lamelles throughout your hair, however, the lamelles only target the areas along the hair cuticle that need to be repaired. They do this not through magic, but through chemistry: the positive charges of the lamelles attract to the negative charges of damaged areas of hair, delivering the hair-coddling active ingredients to repair the hair fibre exactly where it's needed.

When it comes to relaxed, effortless hair, London-based hairstylist George Northwood knows a thing or two. His clients include the likes of Alexa Chung, Rosie Huntington-Whitely, and the Duchess of Sussex, all of whom have hair that always looks luxe, healthy, and perfectly imperfect. Seven years after opening up his own salon in Fitzrovia, Northwood is bringing his expertise to the masses courtesy of his own hair product range called Undone by George Northwood, which is available both at Boots and on Northwood's website.

The collection is comprised of three shampoo and conditioner duos (Undirty, Unparched, and Undamaged), a weekly detox shampoo (Unpolluted), and three styling products. We can't wait to try
the Undone by George Northwood Unpolluted Shampoo (£18) and the Undone by George Northwood Unpolluted Shampoo (£18), two star performers in the range.

Also launching at Boots in February is Aveeno's new hair-care range, which includes six different shampoos and conditioners all formulated around the brand's singiature soothing ingredient: colloidal oats. And while some formulas are better for drier hair and others curly or fine, what the shampoos and conditioners all have is common is that they're gentle and focussed on treating and taking care of your scalp as well as your hair. They're also all safe for sensitive skin types. "The new formulas are sulphate free and pH balanced, respecting the scalp and hair's natural pH levels by gently cleansing hair without stripping it of its natural oils and helping to maintain a healthy moisture balance for the scalp," trichologist Stephanie Sey, who partnered with the brand for the launch, said about the range.

We're looking forward to trying the Aveeno Gentle Moisture+ Rose Water & Chamomile Blend Shampoo (£9) and Aveeno Gentle Moisture+ Rose Water & Chamomile Blend Conditioner (£9), but if you have thick and curly hair, the Frizz Calming+ Almond Oil Shampoo and Conditioner is worth checking out.

According to the brand, the Only Curls Cleansing Co-Wash (£8) sold out minutes after launching, and as it is, you can still only buy the 100ml-sized bottle on site (the larger bottle is still out of stock). What makes this cleansing conditioner so good? Good for all curly hair types, not only does the vegan formula do a great job and minimising frizz (a key point made in many of the reviews), but it also manages to moisturise both your hair and scalp while removing buildup — all thanks to a combination of avocado, marula, coconut, and castor oils. Curls ultimately look silkier and more defined after using it. If you're intrigued, we suggest you nab a bottle fast.

You've probably heard of purple shampoo for blondes but now John Frieda is making a blue-toned colour-correcting shampoo called John Frieda Blue Crush Shampoo (£7) for brunettes. It's meant to get rid of out stubborn orange tones in brown hair that's been colour processed in the past.

Ever since Bread launched at Sephora in the US last year, there's been plenty of buzz about the brand's products for curly- and afro-textured hair. Lucky for us, Bread makes its way to the UK via Cult Beauty, and we couldn't be more excited to start to try the range, like the Gentle Milky Hair Cleanser (£18) and Creamy Deep Conditioner (£26), shown here.

What's so special about the range (in addition to the great formulations and sustainable packageing is the messageing. "Women with curly or textured hair haven't really been included in conversations around 'effortless' hair. I think there's this rhetoric that textured or curly hair is hard, time-consuming to look after, and requires lots of product and manipulation," Bread founder Maeva Heim told Allure in 2020. "But I want our audience to feel like she can embrace lazy girl hair, too — and that goes for all curl types and textures. What that looks like and what that means will look different across the curl type range, but I want all textures to be able to embrace this carefree ideal if they want to."

Babyliss hair dryers are beloved by professional hairstylists both in the UK and US and for good reason. They're high quality, faff-free hair-dryers that leave hair looking smooth and shiny. Oh, and most of them don't cost over £100. If you have fine hair, Babyliss's newest launch is one to look into. The Babyliss Hydro-Fusion Hair Dryer (£60) was made to be used on fine hair — whether straight, wavy, or curly (it comes with diffuser). But it's not just the tool's two speeds, three temperature settings, and slim nozzle that make it good for those with finer hair. It's the fact the brand has figured out a way to keep hair moisturised whilst you're drying it.

How the heck does this hydrate you hair whilst blasting it with really hot air"? The brand engineered the dryer with something it calls "Advanced Plasma Technology", a system that combines positive and negative ions to keep hair moisturised while smoothing the hair to fight frizz. And if you're still sceptical, it might interest you to know that during the soft launch of the hair dryer back in January, it's already sold out twice and received multiple five-star reviews.

In typical Inkey List fashion, the brand has found an exciting ingredient to feature in its newest launch, the The Inkey List PCA Bond Repair Hair Treatment (£13). "We came across this ingredient about two years ago and found it really interesting," co-founder Colette Laxton told POPSUGAR. "PCA is used in Brazilian hair salons because the bond-rebuilding formulas we're familiar with here don't work as well on really thick, coily, kinky hair. PCA, on the other hand, truly works on all hair types."

"PCA is a really short, highly-penetrative molecule, and this is why it's different to other things like out there," says co-founder Mark Curry. "Because it's short and because of the way it interacts with the hair filament itself means that it doesn't just work on disulphide bonds (like most bond-building treatments), it works on the water bonds and ionic bonds as well, which is why it will have an instant effect in terms of smoothing frizz and flyaways." This is a good thing because when it comes to curly, coily hair, disulphide bonds are hard for products to reach. "If you imagine straight hair, product can get to every part of the strand," explained Curry. "But if you put a bend in the strand, you lose about 25% of that surface area." The fact PCA repairs all three types of bonds in the hair means that people with curly and coily hair will see better results versus a product that only treats disulphide bonds.

With all the science-y bits out of the way, here's the TL;DR: This leave-in treatment works really, really well. Just spray it on freshly-washed hair and you'll notice once your hair dries (whether by air or dryer), that it looks smoother and feels stronger — almost like how your hair feels after it's just been cut.

On 11 Feb., Ciaté is dropping a whole new formula: the Plant Pots Nail Polish (£10). It's made from 80 percent naturally-derived ingredients, is cruelty-free and vegan, and contains ingredients such as bakuchiol, biotin, and bamboo extract. It's also the most sustainable range yet according to the brand. The glass bottles are made with recycled glass, they have a fully recyclable cap, and are made from sustainably-sourced ingredients.