Photographed by: Chelsea Kyle; Prop Stylist: Erica LutzSave StorySave this storySave StorySave this story
All products featured on Allure are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
A lot of big words get thrown around in our marketing-saturated world: "superstar." "genius." Don't even get us started on "icon." And then there is "breakthrough." While others might use it liberally, we guarantee that when you see that word in Allure it is only after a year of product testing and poring over data with 26 judges (chemists, dermatologists, and more). In 2025, in the beauty realm, the B-word can only be bestowed on the seven true innovations you will read about here. They wowed Allure’s seen-it-all editors by delivering the kinds of results we’ve always wanted, but have never quite been able to achieve from a beauty product before.
The winners of our 2025 Best of Beauty Breakthrough Awards can help manage some of the most common, most frustrating skin concerns—acne, redness, eczema, psoriasis—using totally novel concepts, like supplements backed by FDA-worthy science, a treatment sunscreen with more than 100 rounds of testing behind its claims, and a uniquely user-friendly prescription cream and foam for eczema and psoriasis. There is a mind-blowing peel-off gel nail polish system in the mix (naughty nail polish pickers, consider yourselves redeemed!), a steamer for the bounciest and shiniest curls one of our hair experts had ever seen, and a wild new technology that just might transform a centuries-old art form: perfumery. We’ve even marked a true first in this 26-year-old franchise by giving an award to a new breast implant because of its uniquely low complication rate and especially soft feel.
In all, we vetted submissions from 261 new beauty products vying for a coveted Allure Best of Beauty Breakthrough Award this year. In order to advance to the semifinalist round, brands had to submit clinical data backing up their claims. Then that data went to at least two or three judges for review, while all the most promising creams, tools, and polishes were passed out to Allure editors for testing. (For the breast implants, though, we took the word of independent plastic surgeons.) When the feedback started trickling in—“A welcome breakthrough!” “I loved this product so much!” “I’ve never seen anything like this before!”—it was clear which seven standouts were deserving of a win. So, without further ado, it’s time for you to meet the beauty innovations that will change your routine, your skin, and your curls.
Best of Beauty Awards 2025: Breakthroughs
Shop your favorite category or keep scrolling for the year's most innovative products on the market.
See the winners:AccordionItemContainerButtonLargeChevron
Infiniment Coty Paris
Nutrafol Skin Clear Skin Nutraceutical
Pattern Hair Steamer
Olive & June The Gel Mani System
EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Red Color Correcting Green Tint Broad-Spectrum SPF 50 and EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Broad-Spectrum SPF 50
Arcutis Biotherapeutics Zoryve (roflumilast) Cream 0.3% and 0.15%, and Topical Foam 0.3%
Motiva by Establishment Labs Motiva SmoothSilk Round & Ergonomix Implants
How we determined Allure's Best of Beauty Breakthrough winners
Infiniment Coty Paris
Best Breakthroughs
Infiniment Coty Paris
$290
Bloomingdales
$275
Liberty London
You spritz on your favorite perfume and love how you’re smelling like rose and gardenia—for about 20 minutes. All perfumes pull a disappearing act at some point during the day, but Coty has figured out a way to make their fragrances less fleeting. By adding a new molecule— borrowed from skin care—to their Infiniment Coty Paris fragrance collection, perfumes achieve the unusually long wear time of 30 hours, something none of us or our industry judges have ever seen or smelled before.
“In our research labs, we are always thinking, How can we defy perfume’s volatility, this evaporation that’s always been part of perfumery?” says Eva Viñas Sanz, senior vice president of global R&D fragrances innovation at Coty. But there’s a very big challenge in answering that question effectively. See, perfumes are a mix of two main types of ingredients: fragrance oils—these give perfume its perfumy character, and can be anything that smells good, like rose oil, vanilla oil, you get the gist—and alcohol, a solvent that lets all those oils mix together into one lovely perfume.
“Alcohol’s main use is helping the product evaporate at a reasonable rate—without it, perfumes would be as wet as a face mist, getting our clothes wet, taking a while to fully dry, and the fragrance oils would leave a residue on the skin,” says cosmetic chemist Amanda Lam . The fragrance oils themselves evaporate too—it’s part and parcel of why we can smell them—and they flash off the skin at different rates. The speediest notes to evaporate in fragrance are top notes, like citrus and light florals; they are highly volatile and can evaporate within minutes to an hour.
Richer notes like woods and musks tend to linger for six hours or sometimes as long as a full day, says Olya Barkovskaya, a fragrance expert who has collaborated on perfumes and candles and is the head of marketing strategy and communications at niche fragrance retailer TwistedLily.com. “Most perfumes follow a fragrance pyramid where top notes (citrus, herbs) dominate for 5 to 15 minutes, middle notes (florals, spices) emerge for 20 minutes to 3 hours, and base notes (woods, musks) take over, lasting 6 to 24 hours,” she says. As the perfume evaporates, you begin to smell different notes. That can be a work of art or “this progression can sometimes result in a fragrance feeling fragmented, with distinct phases that may not fully cohere,” says Barkovskaya.
There are already some ways to make a fragrance last longer, but they might not jibe with the perfume; adding a fixative like galaxolide or ambroxan can alter the final product, Barkovskaya says. Perfume houses might use microencapsulation, putting fragrance oils inside teeny spheres that break down slowly to release the notes over time. It’s effective technology, but one that also has the potential to “alter scent profiles,” adds Barkovskaya.
On their own quest to find a new, better route to making a longer-lasting perfume, Coty’s R&D team tried using film formers—polymers that encapsulate oils in a scent for extended release—but, again, they messed with the actual fragrance. These tended to flatten the scents, causing them to lose their complexity. “There are many materials that can technically act as fixatives [substances added to perfumes to slow their evaporation], but a lot of them present challenges, like suppressing fragrance diffusion, having their own strong odor, or being unstable in the formula,” says Viñas Sanz.
So Coty’s R&D began screening over 100 different molecules, testing the most promising ones in single fragrance notes, simple fragrances, and more complex perfumes to see what would happen. One molecule in that list of more than 100 stood out: PPG-20 methyl glucose ether, which goes by the shorthand PPG or Molecular Aura Technology (Coty’s name for its application of the molecule). It was effective (giving perfumes extended wear time), versatile (playing nice with all different kinds of notes), and discreet (with a low volatility and odor)—and it had been hiding in plain sight.
PPG is not otherwise used in perfumery, but it “is a classic skin-care and hair-care ingredient,” says Lam, and a hydrating humectant that our judges had never seen in a perfume before. Maybe that’s because perfumes don’t moisturize, but that’s not the point of PPG in Coty’s fragrance. Instead, it bonds to fragrance oils, “effectively making them heavier, changing their natural volatility, and slowing down the evaporation process over time, which ensures a prolonged scent experience for even the most volatile notes,” says Viñas Sanz.
Without PPG, fragrance molecules evaporate based on their size: Smaller molecules (which are light) will evaporate the fastest, and heavier molecules will take longer. It’s why perfumes might smell light (like citrus or delicate florals) right after you spritz them, develop into something a bit deeper after an hour or so (like headier florals), and then become even warmer (smelling like woods or patchouli) by the end of the day (each weight class of notes is evaporating, leaving larger notes behind). If you want to get technical about it, this is the fragrance pyramid, and it’s always been a given in perfumery. But PPG changes individual notes’ weights, so your perfume can actually smell like it does on the first spritz. And that changes all the old rules of perfumery.
“We can move away from the traditional pyramid of top-middle-base notes…enabling notes [that would otherwise evaporate] to still be present and contribute to the olfactive profile for up to 30 hours,” says Viñas Sanz. Some fragrance notes bond better to PPG than others, she adds, “and become that much more impactful within the overall perfume.” It’s opening up new doors for perfumers. Citruses like orange, gourmands like vanilla, and green florals like magnolia and lily of the valley can go strong for up to 30 hours, in some cases increasing the concentration of the fragrance ingredient by 300%.
It took seven years of scouting ingredients, testing fixatives, and experimenting with PPG to get this new technology just right. Coty’s perfumers blended several hundred fragrances before bottling 14 scents as the Infiniment Coty Paris collection, including the fresh citrus and ginger Matin de Jade, ambery vanilla Encore Une Fois, and the unusual fruity-floral combination of banana flower and jasmine that is J’ai Trois Amours. Each perfume wears for up to 30 hours, according to some very cool data collection techniques commonly used in perfumery: The vapor above a sample of liquid fragrance is collected, and injected (with a syringe) into in a machine called a gas chromatograph, which separates different compounds so another machine can measure the composition of the fragrance at varying times (in this case, 5 minutes, 6 hours, and 30 hours) to ultimately determine how long each note lingers. In real life, Barkovskaya found the Infiniment fragrances remained unchanged on her skin for an entire day, and the smell did indeed stay on her clothes for the full 30 hours. Compare that to traditional perfumes, which might last about three to eight hours.
“Matin de Jade is ultra-fresh and lasts quite long on my skin—a rare occasion for most citrus-leaning fragrances, considering they are built around mostly top and middle notes, which usually are quite fleeting,” says Barkovskaya, who was genuinely surprised at the way Matin de Jade and other fragrances in the collection performed, defying the usual olfactive pyramid. The fragrances slowly and evenly release their notes over an extended period, which is something she’s never seen from a fragrance. “Controlling the volatility of the fragrance is truly innovative,” says Barkovskaya, adding it’s a surprisingly novel concept for perfumery, a category that tends to pride itself on tradition and history. The fact that Coty achieved “this level of stability and longevity—with the scent remaining consistent for up to 30 hours—is unprecedented in the fragrance industry,” she says, “ a novel concept that has not been previously executed. I’m genuinely impressed.”
After spritzing the white floral Les Mots Doux on her wrists at night, Allure’s features director Dianna Singh says, “I woke up and immediately got a whiff of it. By noon, the scent was not quite as strong, but still lingering. It’s surprisingly fresh for a white floral.”
Coty also has fragrance licenses with some major brands—Chloé, Burberry, and more—so could we expect to see other perfumes taking advantage of this new technology soon? Viñas Sanz hinted that it was a distinct possibility, saying, “Of course, it’s going to go beyond Infiniment.”
Nutrafol Skin Clear Skin Nutraceutical
Best Breakthroughs
Nutrafol Skin Clear Skin Nutraceutical
$88
Amazon
If you suffer from acne (and it’s estimated that 20% of the global population does), you’re most likely very familiar with the available treatment options: Prescription oral medications include the intense experience that is isotretinoin, and over-the-counter spot treatments and serums can feel like a game of skin-care roulette. But with everything that currently exists to help treat acne, what we’ve never had is a supplement for clearer skin, one that’s drug-free and has been rigorously tested to show it could help treat acne in adult women. That’s changed with Nutrafol Skin Clear Skin Nutraceutical.
Nutrition plays a role in several root causes of acne. Your diet can impact your skin’s oil production and your gut and skin’s microbiome, which includes all the bacteria, good and bad, that live there. “Targeting these systemic drivers of acne—and stress, hormonal fluctuations, immune function, and metabolism—[with supplements] is a novel concept and offers patients a modernized approach for treating acne in a more holistic way,” says Patricia Farris, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and clinical assistant professor at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, who is a long-time consultant for Nutrafol, a member of its medical advisory board, and also worked on Nutrafol’s clinical trial.
And those clinical trials were legit. The problem with a lot of other supplements is simply a lack of data. The FDA does not approve dietary supplements or their labeling, and conducting clinical trials is pricey, so a lot of supplement makers just skip them. On top of that, acne is notoriously hard to study because of the way acne-prone skin fluctuates. A lot of over-the-counter skin care for acne also doesn’t have solid clinicals. “When you’re testing any product, you’re not sure how the data will turn out. Nutrafol gave me an unrestricted research grant to run a study on the supplements and they let me design the study exactly as I wanted, and that doesn’t frequently happen,” says Zoe Draelos, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in North Carolina, who conducted the clinical trial for the Clear Skin Nutraceutical (but is not otherwise affiliated with the brand), and has conducted numerous clinical trials for other skin-care brands too. “I thought this was a good scientific decision. There are a lot of supplements for skin, hair, and nails; it’s a rapidly growing category. And when a patient comes in and asks what supplement they should take, it is hard to recommend one without data. Research is required to provide dermatologists with concrete data on supplement use.”
Dr. Draelos set up these trials in accordance with FDA clinical trials for prescription oral and topical acne medications, running a double-blind, placebo-controlled, 12-week study with about 100 participants.
The study found that the supplement was effective at improving the global (i.e., overall) assessment of acne using endpoints adopted from FDA guidelines for acne drugs: the Investigator’s Global Assessment (IGA) scale, which looks at changes in acne severity, and counting the number of inflammatory and noninflammatory lesions. “The Nutrafol supplement did improve the investigative global assessment rating over the placebo group, so it was effective,” says Dr. Draelos, noting the IGA score for improvement in acne was statistically significant and that the supplements may work even better in real life over time, when patients will likely also be using topical products for acne. In the study, subjects were instructed not to use their regular acne routine, and all used the same cleanser, moisturizer, and sunscreen without acne-fighting ingredients. “But I think the supplements can be used in conjunction with other oral and topical acne treatments as an adjunct,” she says.
When analyzing the results, Dr. Farris noted that “there was a greater number who achieved clear or almost-clear skin in the Nutrafol Skin group compared to placebo”—44% vs. 13%, respectively, after 12 weeks. There was also a surprising ancillary benefit that investigators noticed: “There was improvement in other skin parameters such as post-acne redness, scarring, smoothness, softness, and overall skin appearance,” says Dr. Farris. It’s important to point out that the study was conducted on patients with mild to moderate acne, she adds, meaning papules, pustules, blackheads, and whiteheads—not large cysts. “Cystic acne is a more severe type of acne that is characterized by painful deep cysts and nodules,” she explains. “Cystic acne generally requires treatment with prescription medications.”
Nutrafol Skin Clear Skin Nutraceutical was born because Nutrafol’s team was hearing from dermatologists that some patients taking Nutrafol’s hair growth supplements were also noticing their acne clear up. They decided to investigate. “We had some evidence that our hair product was working for skin, but not in all cases,” says Sam Archer, vice president of product development and marketing at Nutrafol. “That piqued our interest in figuring out what are the root causes of acne in adult women? That's where our research began, not with ingredients, but with the basics of what is causing acne.” Archer and her team pored over 144 research papers on the root causes of acne in adult women, including a deep dive into the research on gut and skin microbiomes as they relate to acne. Then they studied another 355 research papers on ingredients, to ultimately name the 20 that are in the four pills that make up the final formulation. (You have to take all four each day, simply because one pill would be too large to fit all of the ingredients, and some of the ingredients don’t mix well together.)
It took the brand two and a half years to get to that final mix. At first, they tried a much longer list of ingredients. “The team was like, ‘It's going to be 20 pills and we have to put it in two different jars because the ingredients are not going to play well together.’ And I'm like, ‘Well, that's not going to work,’” says Archer. “The hardest part of the entire process was saying goodbye to some of the ingredients in that first formulation. It all seemed so important at the time, and now we're like, it might have been lower on the totem pole of things that are important…” The final mix includes botanicals, minerals, and vitamins such as holy basil for stress response, curcumin to promote a healthy immune response, konjac root to address oil production, and probiotics to optimize the microbiome.
“The ingredients are largely botanicals and vitamins that are generally recognized as safe when used as directed,” says Mona Gohara, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Connecticut. “For the average healthy adult, it appears to be a well-tolerated and thoughtfully formulated product.” She does note that patients who are pregnant, breastfeeding, or on medications should consult a doctor before starting Clear Skin Nutraceutical. “‘Natural’ doesn’t always mean risk-free,” she says. Niacin is one ingredient that some people do not tolerate well, adds Laurel Naversen Geraghty, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in Medford, Oregon. “Niacin (a.k.a. niacinamide) is a B vitamin that has the potential to cause flushing, facial redness, itching, and GI upset, among other side effects,” she explains. “People with rosacea or gut conditions may not tolerate it for this reason.” During the trials, some participants experienced nausea and an upset stomach, but investigators found that dividing up the pills, instead of taking all four at once, and swallowing them with orange juice instead of water, helped relieve the symptoms.
While the results were impressive, the fact that Nutrafol even went to the trouble of creating such a rigorous study around its supplement was enough to make our dermatologist judges suspend their usual skepticism around the ingestibles category. “The design of the Nutrafol study is unusually rigorous for a supplement—double-blind, placebo-controlled, and modeled after FDA clinical trials, which lends it real credibility,” says Dr. Gohara. “Acne is notoriously difficult to study because of its natural ebb and flow, so achieving statistically significant improvements in a 12-week period [in a study with] 100 participants is notable.”
While a lot of patients have shown interest in supplements for acne over the years, Dr. Geraghty hasn’t usually been confident enough to recommend anything on the market. She simply hasn’t seen science to support most other supplements’ claims. But with the clinicals backing Nutrafol, “I absolutely think there is a welcome place for supplements in acne treatment, especially in combination with blemish-fighting skin-care routines,” says Dr. Geraghty. “I appreciate the scientific approach showing that there may be benefits in women with mild to moderate acne, and think it may be especially valuable as part of a broader skin-care routine incorporating prescription topical therapies, lasers or lights, chemical peels, or oral therapies.”
Dr. Draelos is excited about the doors that her study has unlocked, noting the potential that supplements can have if properly tested. “We need more insight into supplements,” says Dr. Draelos. “Some people choose not to take oral antibiotics for acne, and dermatologists need options to offer these people. I think oral supplements offer another option for people who need help. They could use prescription products for several months until their acne is better, but they may need a maintenance product to help prevent and manage new acne with an oral supplement rather than taking oral antibiotics for a year.”
Nutrafol Skin Clear Skin Nutraceutical is not meant to replace the traditional treatment options that exist, but instead to be one of the tools that can help patients target acne’s causes. “Acne is not just a skin issue. It’s an inflammatory and sometimes hormonal condition,” says Dr. Gohara. “If a supplement can target underlying triggers like oxidative stress, hormonal fluctuation, or gut dysbiosis, that’s a win. It shouldn’t replace tried-and-true options, like retinoids, benzoyl peroxide, or oral medications when needed, but it can support those efforts, especially for patients seeking fewer medications or long-term support. It also empowers patients to feel more in control of their skin from the inside out. It’s an exciting expansion of the acne toolbox, particularly for women with adult or hormonal acne, where internal imbalances often play a major role.”
Pattern Hair Steamer
Best Breakthroughs
Pattern Hair Steamer
$169
Pattern
Associate beauty editor Annie Blay-Tettey applies the Pattern Hair Steamer.
Annie Blay
The cardinal rule of curl care: Coils need moisture. And when the hydration from masks, oils, and butters isn’t cutting it, there’s steaming, something curly hair girls already know very well, says Kiana Rae Brown, a curly hair specialist and owner of West Coast Curls Salon in Los Angeles. She credits steam with letting her own type 3C to 4A curls “bend and stretch without any issues like breakage.” It’s because putting steam into your hair “helps open up the hair cuticle, allowing for better absorption of moisture from treatments like masks and butters,” says Dr. Gohara, who describes her own 3C curls as “tight, springy, and about the diameter of a pencil.”
But while salons have offered steam treatments as a curly hair staple for decades, at-home steamers have been too bulky (attempting to replicate in-salon domes) or too hard to use, requiring you to wrestle your curls into heated thermal caps, a battle that’s easy to lose. And even with the hassle, many still don’t create enough steam to give you salon results. That’s what makes the Pattern Hair Steamer an instant stand-out. Instead of the usual bonnets and caps, it looks like a blow-dryer with seven prongs that put out a steady flow of steam. You don’t have to wrap your hair or sit around half the day with a plastic cap on your head.
“We all know how steam is so important in treating curls,” says Pattern Beauty CMO Tiffani Carter, who thought there had to be a better way than the existing at-home options: microwaveable heat caps, hood attachments for your blow-dryer, electric heated caps, countertop hoods, full salon-size hoods, and the occasional handheld. On social media, Carter noticed a lot of people creating hacks to try to steam their hair more easily and effectively at home, like using facial steamers on their hair, or even clothes steamers—“a huge amount of people do this on TikTok, which is wild,” says Carter. Also common: sitting in a muggy bathroom while the shower is running, or wrapping a super-hot, wet towel on their head. “There was no real at-home offering that was user-friendly, elegant, and made it easy to get the benefits of steam that [people clearly] needed,” Carter says.
While designing something totally different—a lightweight, handheld steamer—Carter says that the Pattern’s R&D team was looking at three main points: They wanted the device to have a certain amount of run time (at least 16 minutes), they wanted it to be able to stand on a countertop by itself, and they wanted it to have an elegant design, one that was easy to maneuver and easy on the eyes. What they did not want was to mimic salon hood steamers. “It's not realistic for that to be a part of your day-to-day routine,” says Carter.
Consulting with salon owners, she learned how some direct steam from wands over the hair at the wash bowl without actually making clients sit under a hood. “The steam is flowing, and the full enclosure of the hood is not necessary. It’s more convenient and speedy.”
The Pattern Hair Steamer’s seven prongs—each is two to two-and-a-half inches in length—directly deposit steam into the hair as they detangle, lift, and stretch curls. Included in the box is a flat disc that can snap on and allows you to attach an additional four prongs for enhanced detangling in thicker coils, or a diffuser to define curls while you steam. “We knew that prongs would be an important element, and they ensure that the steam is evenly distributed through the hair,” says Carter. “Curls, coils, and tight textures come in different densities, and some may require more prongs to move through the hair, so we offered the option of the attachment.” The prongs also allow people to get the steam right to the roots, something that can be tricky to do with a bonnet or cap.
Even the way you add water to the Hair Steamer was created thoughtfully. Instead of tilting the entire device underneath the faucet and making a mess, the water reservoir is removable, so it’s easy to fill, and is large enough to hold 150 milliliters of water, so it can run consistently for 16 minutes.” Other handheld steamers may run for 10 minutes, max.
There are multiple ways to use the Hair Steamer, depending on your hair and preferences. You can put your treatment in, pull your hair into a bun, and move the steamer around for as long as your biceps can hold out. You can put the Hair Steamer on the counter with the diffuser attachment on and sit in front of it with the steam running at the back of your head for the full 16 minutes. Or you can meticulously steam your hair in sections. In between sections, you can place the steamer on the counter, thanks to its flat, stand-alone base.
It took about two years and about 15 iterations before Pattern nailed the design. “Unlike goop [a.k.a. conditioning] products, the development was done section by section. For example, the handle was submitted a couple of times to test comfort and finger indents before creating another 3D rendering,” says Carter. The on-off steam switch ensures you’re not wasting water in the reservoir, eating up your run time (some at-home options start pumping out steam as soon as you plug them in). And, “We have a switch where you can control the flow of the steam,” says Carter.
The prongs were the biggest challenge for the team. “We wanted to ensure that the detangling feature was useful for all textures within our community. Too many prongs could be problematic for people with thick, dense hair who tend to avoid combs, while less-dense hair types may welcome more prongs,” says Carter. On top of that, “if the prongs are too short, the steam could get too close to the scalp, but if they're too long then the steam can't get close enough to the root." And the handle took a lot of work. Pattern’s founder, Tracee Ellis Ross, “was very adamant about feeling it and touching it and making sure that it felt comfortable and right and intuitive.”
In Pattern’s in-house clinical tests, using the Pattern Breakage Barrier Hair Mask on its own reduced breakage by two times; with the Hair Steamer, it was reduced by four times. “It is perfection for hair that needs a little humidity to get curls fuller and looking more moisturized,” says Tommy Buckett, a hairstylist at Marie Robinson salon in New York City. “I have not seen anything like this, but it makes so much sense. A lot of women try steaming up their bathroom to get humidity into their curls, so they look curlier and bouncy.” Brown was impressed with the Hair Steamer’s user-friendly design, handheld size, and its hydrating results. “I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I know curly men and women will love it as well.” (She used the tool with and without the diffuser, including on a client, who easily took the reins.) “The multiple attachments are a plus for styling while you steam. And the size matters, especially if you have limited space or you plan to travel. A lot of good-quality and high-end steamers are too big and can’t be easily stored away.” Jenna Perry, a hair colorist at Jenna's and Jenna Perry Hair in New York City, used it on two of her clients and was enamored with it. “It seals and adds bounce and shine in a way I’ve never seen another product do,” she says. “This feels like the future of hydration.”
For Allure associate beauty editor Annie Blay-Tettey, steam is certainly not a new concept: “I’m not a natural hair novice. I’ve been natural for about 10 years now,” she says. “I found the steamer easy to use. My coils got really springy when I started using the steamer, and after I added the additional prong attachment, they were singing. Detangling my hair has never been that easy. The combination of the steam and pre-poo made my curls slip easily through the prongs and left them feeling soft and hydrated. Typically, I would put a mask in my hair, cover it with a plastic cap, and do a small task around the house to pass the time while I let the mask sink in. With this steamer, I was able to give myself back about 30 minutes.” She does caution others to be mindful of where they are holding the steamer: “I made the mistake of holding the steamer too long in one area and too close to my scalp, which felt painful briefly, so word to the wise: Keep the steamer about five or six inches away from your scalp. If you do want to get close to your scalp, don’t hover for too long.”
Allure's associate visuals editor Giancarlos Kunhardt says this handheld device was a major upgrade from his usual steaming routine. “I think it’s so great. It does what it needs to do and provides a decent amount of steam to the hair without burning the scalp,” he says. “I came from a bulky hair steamer on wheels before this, so I was in the Stone Age compared to this portable, convenient one."
Olive & June The Gel Mani System
Best Breakthroughs
Olive & June The Gel Mani System
$85
Amazon
Bad beauty habits. We’re all guilty of them. Picking at nail polish is a big one, and if a gel manicure is what you’re fiddling with, you can really do a number on your nails. “You can strip your nails, which can make them thin and weak,” says New York City-based nail artist Miss Pop. When you peel off polish, you can take layers of keratin along with it, adds Dr. Gohara. “Keratin is the hardest, most protective part of the nail plate, and removing layers can leave the [rest of] the nail plate more porous and brittle. [If you see] white spots or patches, the smooth keratin surface has been unevenly removed, a sign of surface damage." But good news for the habitual pickers out there: With the Olive & June The Gel Mani System, picking your polish is not only okay, it’s encouraged.
The gel kit, available in more than 50 shades like glitter, brights, metallics, and solids, comes with a unique base coat that allows you to easily peel off the polish when it’s time for a change— no need for acetone.
“We always think, What are people annoyed by?” says Sarah Gibson Tuttle, founder and CEO of Olive & June. “The biggest complaint with gels was removal. People want to be able to get rid of their gels at home. And people love peeling off nail polish. So, how do we make that possible without ruining your nails?”
Inspired by other easy-to-peel-off beauty products, Olive & June found the answer in the form of two ingredients that are frequently used elsewhere in the beauty world: glycerin and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA). PVA is used in nose strips and sheet masks and makes a lot of sense here because “it’s a flexible film that is able to be peeled off easily,” says cosmetic chemist Marisal Mou. And this is the first time she’s seen it used in a nail base coat. Then there’s glycerin, one of the most popular moisturizing ingredients in skin care. In Olive & June’s Peel Off Base Coat, it aids the PVA in that easy-to-remove action by “creating a slippery barrier between the peel-off base coat, the gel base coat, and the natural nails,” says Anne Reigle, vice president of product development for Olive & June.
Before we continue, we know what you’re thinking because, initially, we were too: Peel-off base coats are not a new concept. That is correct. This one is different though because a) it works with all kinds of polish (gels, regular polish, glittery ones) and b) it just works in general (some of the other options “do not have a stellar reputation,” cautions Miss Pop) and c) it doesn’t have to be cured under UV light, like some of those already out there. “We did research and we realized that a cured, peel-off base coat could increase the potential for damage with removal. You're hardening the base coat, and that means when you peel it off, it's much more likely to damage your nails,” says Reigle. Not needing to cure the base coat also means you can use it with different types of polish (even harder-to-remove glittery polishes can be peeled off with this formula).
When you use the Olive & June Peel Off Base Coat for a gel manicure, you top it with the brand’s Gel Polish Base Coat, which you then cure under a UV lamp for one minute, and follow it with one of the brand’s gel polishes (two coats, cured for another two minutes each), and the Gel Polish Top Coat (again, cured for a minute). Very important note (which we learned the hard way): The Peel Off Base Coat is not, we repeat not, meant to be painted over the entire nail—you do a swipe down the center of the nail, leaving the rest bare, let it dry, then cover the entire nail with the Gel Polish Base Coat and get to curing. While it might seem like overkill to use two base coats, according to Reigle, this is what keeps your manicure from sliding off when you don’t want it to. When Gibson Tuttle tried painting her entire nail with the Peel Off Base Coat, “I was in Pilates and one nail’s polish flaked off and then another flaked off and I was like, What is happening?” Just one narrow swipe of the peel-off formula gives you the perfect amount of peeling power.
The Gel Mani System comes with 14 products, including a cushy silicone tool you attach to your polish cap so you can paint more neatly with your nondominant hand, a nail clipper and a file, a cuticle serum, and a clean-up brush for removing stray polish. And you don’t have to use the Peel Off Base Coat in order to complete the at-home gel mani experience. If you go with the more “traditional base coat, color, topcoat, you get up to 21 days of wear,” says Gibson Tuttle. “We've added the Peel Off Base Coat as a bonus.”
It’s a clear benefit to anyone who loves to wear gel manicures, says Miss Pop. “This is one product that helps solve two great problems: leaving gels on too long, and removal [wrecking] the nail,” she says. “People who wear gels will be like, ‘They say it's only for two weeks, but I can wear it for three.’ But then the gel starts lifting up at the corners and catching on things like your hair. What you’re doing is taking off some of that top layer of your nails. Eventually, your nails are so flimsy that you can’t get this gel that you love.” But if the Peel Off Base Coat starts to lift, “you're going to know to just remove it that day,” says Miss Pop. And you can, in just a couple of minutes, without going to the salon. If picking at polish isn’t your thing, you can use the cuticle pusher to gently lift around the edges of your polish, and then you can peel it off.
As simple as this product is to remove, it was a challenge to create; the Peel Off Base Coat did not want to play nice with the gel base coat. Reigle and her team tested about a dozen formulations and viscosities, playing detective to figure out where a whole host of issues was coming from. “Some caused the manicure to be stringy or not cure properly, or you saw the coating underneath your gel, or it didn't dry,” says Reigle. “There were times when we didn't know what the issue was—the Peel Off Base Coat? Or was it the Gel Polish Base Coat that isn’t working? It was a lot of little tweaks to figure out across the formulas and viscosities what was going to work best.”
The Gel Mani System also includes an LED lamp that fits all five fingers. And, no, this is actually not the standard in at-home kits. You’ll typically see lights that fit four fingers or one. Probably because getting to a design that fits all five fingers on most hands isn’t easy. Olive & June landed on a 17-bulb device, each light placed just so. “They are, of course, on the top of the lamp, but also around all the sides, so you're getting the thumb and the pinky,” says Reigle. “The silver metallic covering that you see inside helps transmit the wavelengths all around the surface of your nail. All of those pieces add cost, but the full cure is the most important thing. Without it, you're going to see lifting and poor adhesion, and you're not going to get the shine or the gloss.” (Don't forget: The American Academy of Dermatology recommends wearing sunscreen on your hands before using an LED lamp.)
The lamp gained a design fan in Miss Pop. “So many of the pro and at-home lamps are exposed on the side, and there's just tons of LED light blasting out,” she says. “My eyes are supersensitive to that stuff, and I build a structure around [the lamps] to contain the light, so I prefer this lamp. It's not exposed on two sides. Most consumer lamps are also meant to be portable, stored away, and a lot of the problem is that you can't get a good thumb cure. I've never seen a lamp quite this big. I like that it’s a five-finger cure.”
Next, the gel polishes themselves had to work with the specific wavelengths of the Olive & June lamp. Gel polishes have what are called photoinitiators, explains Reigle, which cause the polish to cure and give it durability. There are a lot of different photoinitiators out there, and they all react to different wavelengths of light. “Essentially, we had to formulate the lamp to work with the gel polish formula and vice versa. So anytime we tweaked the gel formula, if we wanted to get longer wear, for example, we needed to tweak the amount of photoinitiator or the type, then that led us to having to also tweak the lamp and the wavelengths,” says Reigle. It’s not surprising then that creating The Gel Mani System took almost three years, with 26 rounds of testing, and more than 750 testers.
It was time well spent. “I’m such a fan that I've stocked up on shades of the gel polish so it can be my true go-to, no matter what color mani I want,” says content director Kara McGrath. “It takes about half the time to do my nails when you factor in drying time.”
Like McGrath, social director Kassidy Silva had a bit of a learning curve (yes, two base coats are necessary), but was soon entirely sold: “I have a firm ‘no chips’ policy when it comes to my nails, so gel is the only way I go, and Olive & June The Gel Mani System was the answer to my manicure prayers. With the peel-off base, I can keep a constant rotation of fresh colors without major damage to my nails. I can't help that I'm a picker at the first sign of a chip! The five-finger lamp is a game-changer, especially if you’re pressed for time like me (new moms, stand up!). No longer needing to cure my thumb separately cut so much time out of the gel manicure process. The whole system is great for a beginner, and I would buy it solely for the easy-to-peel-off base coat—it’s that good. It's as easy as it sounds. You really just peel it off.”
EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Red Color Correcting Green Tint Broad-Spectrum SPF 50 and EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Broad-Spectrum SPF 50
Best Breakthroughs
EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Broad-Spectrum SPF 50
$50
Amazon
Finding a mineral sunscreen that doesn’t leave your face chalky can feel a bit like looking for a needle in a haystack—but we’re guessing no one expected that needle to be the vivid mint green EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Red Color Correcting Green Tint Broad-Spectrum SPF 50. This tinted mineral sunscreen lotion looks like it belongs on a #BratSummer moodboard and is designed with sensitive skin in mind, not just to be generally well-tolerated, but to go a step further, helping to reduce redness (even right after a professional laser treatment) and irritation. There’s also an untinted version of the skin-soothing, redness-reducing SPF, EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Broad-Spectrum SPF 50, if that’s more your thing.
Generally, mineral sunscreens are beloved by dermatologists for not irritating sensitive skin, the way chemical sunscreens can. They “are less likely to cause stinging, irritation, rash, or itching,” says Dr. Geraghty.
But creating an all-mineral zinc oxide SPF that’s sheer and actually improves and soothes sensitive skin was the goal for Lia S. Arvanitidou, PhD, executive vice president of global skin health, personal, and home care R&D at Colgate-Palmolive, which owns EltaMD. She started by adding an amino acid complex to a zinc oxide sunscreen (amino acids are beneficial for calming sensitive skin, says Dr. Geraghty), so it should have been a sure thing. But it didn’t work. “The amino acid complex was not depositing on the skin, let alone penetrating the skin,” says Dr. Arvanitidou. The issue was in the very nature of sunscreen itself: Sunscreen is usually an emulsion, meaning a mix of two or more ingredients that don’t want to be together. Add skin-care ingredients (like amino acids), and you can throw off the balance of the whole formula. Dr. Arvanitidou and her team developed more than 50 different “backbones” (formula bases) over the course of two years until they finally got it right, creating an oil-in-water emulsion with lightweight emollients and nongreasy emulsifiers, which is what lets the skin-care actives coexist elegantly with the sunscreen ingredients.
The amino acid complex itself is designed to repair damage and prevent future irritation and redness with three amino acids—taurine, arginine, and glycine—and finding the most effective percentage of each ingredient in the mix took more than 100 rounds of testing to perfect. “We did 11 clinical studies externally, 18 clinical studies internally, 85 in vitro tests on skin cells and 3D skin tissues, and nine ex vivo tests on human explants [samples of actual skin tissue],” says Dr. Arvanitidou. Taurine is present in the largest percentage and “is the workhorse. It [can] promote healing of damaged skin,” says Dr. Arvanitidou.“Arginine is part of the Natural Moisturizing Factor (NMF) in our skin. Glycine is known to be a structural component of collagen.” Dr. Geraghty notes that each of the three ingredients “can be helpful for sensitive skin types or people with a reddish, ruddy, or easily flushing complexion.” The amino acid complex (which EltaMD calls AAComplex) is also in EltaMD’s Skin Recovery line.
The final sunscreen is also bolstered with centella asiatica, which you might know as cica or tiger grass, to help calm sensitive skin, as well as ceramides, “to replenish the ceramides that we lose, like when we wash our face, to strengthen the skin barrier even more,” says Dr. Arvanitidou. Lam adds that the ceramides and other emollients also “create a nice skin feel that is unlike more common mineral sunscreens.”
A clinical study was conducted on 45 female patients with a variety of skin tones—all with self-perceived sensitive skin—who used the untinted version of EltaMD UV Skin Recovery for 12 weeks. Results showed that it strengthened the skin barrier by 10%, reduced facial dryness by 72%, improved skin texture by 50%, and improved skin tone by 33%. Facial redness reduced by 14% with one application, and 52% after 12 weeks of daily use. All of this testing makes it a clear standout from other mineral sunscreens—untinted or tinted (most of which are taupe, at least one other is green). After reviewing the data, Dr. Geraghty says, "I consider this a welcome breakthrough because of its gentle and effective formula that helps calm red or inflamed skin and helps restore the skin barrier, while protecting it from ultraviolet damage. It helps protect skin from sunburn while gently calming, soothing, and masking reddish, ruddy, or rosacea-prone skin. I'm a fan!"
The green-tinted version was born from a conversation with a dermatologist who mentioned needing skin care for patients following non-ablative laser treatments. “We were sitting in a coffee shop and writing this up on a napkin,” says Echo Sandburg, chief brand officer of Colgate-Palmolive Skin Health, who was jotting notes. “Green is opposite red in the color wheel,” says Dr. Arvanitidou. “So if we want to address redness, green can correct it.”
The possibility of a product that checked multiple boxes for post-laser patients—helping to repair the skin, hide and treat redness, and offer the sun protection they need—was an intriguing one. “Can you have a lunchtime procedure and have an option that can protect your skin with immediate color correction and long-term strengthening and repair of the skin barrier?” says Sandburg.
Finding the right green brought its own challenges as the team had to find a color that would not only neutralize redness, but also work on all skin tones—even people who didn’t have flushing or redness, blending into the skin without leaving Elphaba-like traces behind. “I still remember when they brought me prototypes and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh! Am I going to look like Fiona [from Shrek]?’” says Dr. Arvanitidou. She was surprised, however, to learn that the green was fairly easy to work with, especially for darker skin tones. It was a more seamless match than trying to add a beige tint as other mineral sunscreens often have. But you can’t just put on sunscreen, say “the green went away,” and forget about it. You have to reapply it every two hours. So the real trick was creating a hue with blendability that people were willing to reapply. Getting the final minty shade, one that worked well on all Fitzpatrick skin tones, took more than 20 variations.
A smaller clinical study was conducted by Joel Cohen, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and member of EltaMD’s advisory board, at his Denver office. He treated 15 patients with a non-ablative laser and used the tinted EltaMD UV Skin Recovery Red Color Correcting Green Tint Broad-Spectrum SPF 50 on one side of their face and the untinted on the other, immediately post-procedure. Each patient was given instructions to continue using the SPFs in the split-face study for the next four days, returning to the office every day for visual assessment. At the conclusion of the study, Dr. Cohen and his team observed that, the green tint effectively concealed treatment-induced redness (within 15 minutes), and that with both the tinted and untinted versions, , 86% of participants showed a reduction in visible redness within two days post-treatment, and improvement in post-treatment dryness, itchiness, and stinging after four days of use (side effects, including redness, would typically last for four to seven days).
Blay-Tettey tested the green sunscreen to see if it would be the rare mineral formula that can truly disappear on dark complexions, and was pleasantly surprised. “It was sheer and felt hydrating.” ForSingh, who has been testing products professionally for more than a decade, this sunscreen truly stood out as an industry-first formulation. “While most tinted sunscreens lean too orange on my fair skin, the hint of green in this one blends in beautifully, canceling out redness in the process. It seems to work long-term, too: The blotchiness around my nose has simmered down in the months since I started using it. When I found out this was a mineral formula, I was floored. It's not the least bit chalky.”
Arcutis Biotherapeutics Zoryve (roflumilast) Cream 0.3% and 0.15%, and Topical Foam 0.3%
Best Breakthroughs
Arcutis Biotherapeutics Zoryve (roflumilast) cream 0.15%
Shop at
Zoryve
It’s not the sexiest topic in beauty, but if you have eczema or psoriasis, it’s the most important. The itch and rash that come with these chronic skin conditions can be all-consuming, and even though it’s estimated that 31.6 million people in the US deal with eczema and another 7.5 million have psoriasis, we don’t have one tried-and-true way to eliminate either. The best tool dermatologists have has long been steroid creams, but as Melissa K. Levin, MD, a board-certified dermatologist in New York City, explains, these are usually used for two weeks when needed and then paused until the next flare-up. “Steroid creams can be like coffee—have two to three cups every day and you just don't get the same jolt. The body gets used to it, and it doesn't work quite as well,” says Dr. Geraghty. “With little breaks from steroid creams, they can continue working, which is important when we really need them.” A lot of pharmaceutical companies have created nonsteroidal options over the years, but these tend to be ointments and pretty greasy ones at that. Good luck trying not to smear and stain your clothes, sheets, and furniture.
Arcutis Zoryve (roflumilast) steroid-free prescription topicals—there’s a cream for eczema and plaque psoriasis, and a foam for plaque psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis—are different: They are refreshingly easy to use (no grease!) and uniquely versatile in that the water-based formulas can be applied all over the body, scalp, and face. You don’t need a wardrobe of creams for different parts of your body. The cream is FDA-approved for mild-to-moderate eczema and plaque psoriasis, and the foam is approved for plaque psoriasis and seborrheic dermatitis (an inflammatory skin condition that commonly occurs on the scalp and causes scaly patches and stubborn dandruff). “Steroids are [still] necessary because they work the best and the fastest to calm and soothe itchy, flaky, rashy skin,” says Dr. Geraghty. “But we can use ‘steroid sparing’ options as a maintenance therapy between rash flare-ups. Maybe Zoryve is like wearing weekend athleisure to balance out our weekday work attire. It is not a steroid, so it doesn't contribute to acne-like rashes (a.k.a. perioral or periorificial dermatitis), which can be brought on by ongoing use of topical steroid creams.”
Zoryve has a unique active ingredient—roflumilast, an enzyme inhibitor that’s being used for the first time in a topical medication. (It’s also in oral medications for COPD.) It works by blocking an enzyme called phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4 for short) from ramping up immune system activity that otherwise causes flare-ups. “It's been known for some time that if you block PDE4, you downregulate inflammatory cytokines [proteins in the body] and you upregulate anti-inflammatory cytokines. You calm the immune system down,” says Frank Watanabe, CEO and president of Arcutis.
Delivering roflumilast in a nongreasy cream that would be elegant enough to use on your face and in an easy-to-spread foam—which is especially useful if you’re talking about the scalp—was easier said than done. “Historically, doctors have thought that ointments worked better [in treating eczema and psoriasis],” says Watanabe. That’s because thick ointments can help with skin barrier repair and may be less irritating, since they usually require fewer preservatives and emulsifiers, says Dr Levin. But these same qualities, which all go back to the goopy texture, make ointments a pain to use. “Patients prefer creams for obvious reasons; [ointments are greasy],” says Watanabe. “We knew Zoryve had to be a cream and foam.”
But there was a catch: The pharmaceutical industry does not have the same freedom as the cosmetics industry to develop a base (be it a cream, ointment, or lotion). The FDA has a list of previously approved ingredients that companies can use in prescription medications called the Inactive Ingredient Database, which is basically all of the inactive ingredients the FDA has tested and deemed safe for prescriptions. It posed a particular challenge for the active ingredient roflumilast. “It really doesn't like water,” says Watanabe, so it doesn’t want to dissolve in a water-based cream. We tried 60 of the chemicals from that list from the FDA, and only one of them would dissolve roflumilast in water,” says Watanabe. “But once we got it dissolved in water, when it started to cool down, it would crystallize. You get these big crystals in the formulation, so that totally didn't work.”
They needed two chemicals—the first to dissolve roflumilast, and a second emulsifier to keep it that way, but nothing on the FDA’s approved list fit the bill. An emulsifier commonly used in cosmetics and sunscreens would be a better option: It goes by the name of Crodafos CES and is part of a class of emulsifiers that you’ll find in a lot of skin care, says cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos. They’re so popular in skin care because “they are stable across a broad pH range, have similar properties to lipids [that are naturally in the skin], and [some] can create lotions that break rapidly on the skin to release oil-soluble ingredients,” explains Dobos. Roflumilast is soluble in some oils but can require a solvent to help with solubilizing it, so Crodafos CES could “allow Arcutis to formulate something less heavy and greasy,” says Dobos.
Despite being used frequently in cosmetics, Crodafos CES had to first be tested and approved by the FDA to make it onto the Inactive Ingredient Database. So that’s exactly what Arcutis did. “We went through the pain of getting it actually qualified by the FDA (a process that took five years and four rounds of clinical testing on over 1,000 patients) and we're the first company to ever use this new emulsifier in a pharmaceutical drug,” says Watanabe.
Next up were clinical trials for FDA approval of the final formulas, which passed with flying colors. “The FDA has certain standards for what they consider to be treatment success. If you're a mild seborrheic dermatitis patient, for example, you have to get to clear [meaning, no more flare-ups],” explains Watanabe. In the FDA trials, “80% of seborrheic dermatitis patients achieved [the FDA’s criteria for their level of severity] in eight weeks, and 50% were completely clear, no sign of disease whatsoever.” 40% of people using Zoryve cream 0.3% for psoriasis achieved clear skin across the body, and 31% of people using Zoryve Cream 0.15% for eczema had clear or almost-clear skin in four weeks. Side effects included diarrhea, headache, and nausea, but “these occurred in very few patients. In most of our trials, less than 1% of patients stop the trial because of side effects. That's almost unheard of, this kind of tolerability,” says Watanabe.
The clinical trials don’t tell the whole story, though, adds Adam Friedman, MD, a board-certified dermatologist and professor and chair of dermatology at the George Washington University in Washington, DC, who is a paid consultant and speaker for Arcutis. And that’s because the FDA doesn’t necessarily look at other benefits that offer real-world relief for patients. “The FDA says we need to see a certain number of people achieve this primary outcome to say yay or nay,” he says. “But I'll argue that secondary outcomes are often more relevant and give physicians a sense of how something might behave.” For example, with the 0.15% Zoryve cream for eczema (also called atopic dermatitis), 9 out of 10 patients saw some improvement at four weeks. “That's great, but even more important is itch. One of the biggest pain points I would argue across the three diseases is itch. So how quickly does it kick in for itch?” says Dr. Friedman. “A significant number of patients saw a reduction of itch in 24 hours. That's [not a clinical endpoint, but it is] meaningful. I'm telling a patient, you put that one application on right now and your itch may improve within a day.”
Eczema is common among children, and the cream is approved for ages six and up, though Watanabe adds that they are getting ready to submit data to the FDA to lower the age for eczema and plaque psoriasis treatment to two years old. And they are looking to get approval for eczema down to three months old by next year. The foam is approved for the treatment of plaque psoriasis on the body and scalp down to 12 years old and for seborrheic dermatitis down to nine years old. “The foam has been designed with a simple electrical charge so that it wicks down the hair to get to the scalp, where it needs to go,” explains Dr. Friedman. It has the same electrical charge as the hair shaft, so it is repelled instead of absorbed and won’t mess up your hair. It simply slides down and goes to the scalp.
“Zoryve's foam is easy to use on the scalp and ears without weighing down the hair, like an ointment would,” agrees Dr. Geraghty. When it comes to eczema in particular, “We have been lacking nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory topical medications,” adds Dr. Levin. “Zoryve is a next-generation, PDE4 inhibitor, which can offer long-term control [of eczema], making improvements [in the skin] with less reliance on topical steroids.” That could be a game-changer. “When someone is living with a chronic, frustrating condition, there can be a tendency to reach for whatever works fastest [and if that means overusing] the highest-strength steroid, we’re more likely to see side effects like skin thinning or irritation."
Dr. Geraghty has prescribed Zoryve to a few patients, and, while getting it covered by insurance can be a hurdle, says, “My patients who have used it give me positive feedback. The research shows that it's a valuable new tool for some of the most common, chronic, and itchy rashes that people experience. I love that Zoryve is gentle and nonirritating.” (Another nonsteroidal prescription topical, can sting on contact, she says, and this can make it a nonstarter for many patients, especially young children.) “There are other nonsteroid, topical therapies that work in different ways for different kinds of rashes, but we [as dermatologists] welcome them all as ‘steroid-sparing’ options,” says Dr. Geraghty, who is happy to have Zoryve in the arsenal of treatments. “I like that it can reduce or potentially eliminate the need for topical steroid creams, like hydrocortisone,” she says.
Motiva by Establishment Labs Motiva SmoothSilk Round & Ergonomix Implants
Best Breakthroughs
Motiva by Establishment Labs Motiva SmoothSilk Round & Ergonomix Implants
Shop at
Motiva
Breast augmentation has been among the top five most popular plastic surgery procedures for almost two decades, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), and patients are discussing their implants more than ever before, down to specific surgical techniques. Kylie Jenner shared the details of her augmentation on social media this summer—445 ccs, moderate profile, half under the muscle—and other celebrities followed by posting about their own specs. Now, a next-generation breast implant has entered the conversation: Motiva takes what we know works (silicone) and combines it with a new kind of shell (four-micron surface, more on that soon). It is the first real innovation in implants in decades, says Steven Teitelbaum, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Santa Monica, who was an investigator on the clinical trials for the newly FDA-premarket-approved Motiva by Establishment Labs Motiva SmoothSilk Round & Ergonomix Implants. (Dr. Teitelbaum discloses that he has stock in Establishment Labs, and while he used to be a paid consultant for Motiva in 2017, he isn’t anymore.)
To be clear, the roster of silicone implants already available is tried-and-true, providing excellent results with known safety profiles. Also clear: Anytime you insert any breast implant, the body forms a thin membrane around it “because the body sees it as foreign,” explains Dr. Teitelbaum. “You want that [membrane] to be as thin and pliable as possible. When it thickens, the scar tissue makes the implant more spherical, firm, and uncomfortable. And it moves upwards.” That is called capsular contracture, and it happens in about 5 to 7% of patients who are getting implants for the first time (the number goes up to about 12% following revision implant surgery and 9 to 13% for primary breast reconstruction), according to an observational study on almost 100,000 breast implant patients over the course of seven years. Capsular contracture is one of the main reasons patients seek revision surgery.
What’s so impressive about Motiva is that data shows it has uniquely lower rates of capsular contracture: less than 1% at three years. Why? Because Motiva’s surface is unique: “It has these little four-micron bumps,” explains Dr. Teitelbaum. (A micron, or micrometer, is one-millionth of a meter.) A study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering Journal demonstrated that, when studied in vivo, because of the implant surface’s tiny bumps and valleys, “certain cells in the body don’t so much see it as foreign,” says Dr. Teitelbaum. ”The surface causes much less of an inflammatory response, so only a thin capsule is formed around it. And the surface is very slippery which makes it hard for bacteria to cling to it.”
Motiva is considered a sixth-generation silicone implant, and “while there are dozens of first-tier filler manufacturers, launching new products every year, this is only the fourth company making [silicone] breast implants to enter the US market,” notes Dr. Teitelbaum.
To create the new surface—which the FDA categorizes differently from other breast implants on the market—Motiva partnered with scientists studying nanotechnology’s role in breast implant surface design at the University of Manchester in England. (In this context, nanotechnology refers to engineering products at a nanoscopic level, small enough to be measured in nanometers, or individual atoms). Researchers found that silicone surfaces with micron-size textures that creates a form of hills and valleys could encourage better integration between the breast implant and the surrounding breast tissue, meriting further research on these surfaces’ reduced risk of capsular contracture.
From this research, Motiva created its unique surface, which features depressions (approximately 16,000 nanometers in depth) that are the smallest available, according to a study published in the journal Case Reports in Plastic Surgery & Hand Surgery. They are created using a special 3D mold for imprinting the details. “The mold is dipped into a bowl of silicone,” says Juan José (JJ) Chacón-Quirós, founder of Establishment Labs, the company that manufactures Motiva. That creates one thin layer of imprinted silicone, which is then heated in an oven before the mold is dipped again, and the next silicone layer is added to the first. Back into the oven it goes, and the process is repeated until the shell is complete. “This unique process is called negative imprinting and allows our surface topography to be imprinted consistently on every shell,” says Chacón-Quirós.
After the shell is created, it is filled with a unique silicone gel, which helps give the implant a soft, natural look and feel. Compared to other silicone implants that she’s used for decades, Motiva Ergonomix is softer, “and the shell is more stretchable, which allows [the implant] to be placed through a smaller incision,” says Kelly Killeen, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in Beverly Hills. And of course, smaller incisions mean more inconspicuous scars. Other implants would fracture if they were compressed to fit through the kind of small incision Dr. Killeen says she can use for Motiva.
Motiva’s particular flexibility also allows “the Ergonomix shape to adapt and adjust to a patient's body movements,” says Umbareen Mahmood, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City. “When the patient is upright, the implant has a natural, sloped shape, and when lying on their back, the implant has a more rounded shape. This allows the implant to more closely mimic natural breast tissue characteristics.” Dr. Mahmood also notes that it allows patients in search of a more natural shape with less obvious roundness and fullness at the top portion of the breast (known as upper pole fullness) to achieve that even with larger implant sizes.
It took Chacón-Quirós and his team 80 months and 26 iterations to get the implant right, and that was just for the Round version (which is exactly what it sounds like, and offers a full look). The other shape, teardrop Ergonomix, more closely mimics a natural breast shape and took an additional 38 months and 10 iterations.
It is an incredible feat when you consider that the original prototype was created in Chacón-Quirós’ parents' house using a pizza oven. Yes, seriously. “With limited funding, our small team had to be creative,” says Chacón-Quirós. “As you can imagine, working with unconventional tools led to a number of challenges. We burned many versions; it’s hard to create a homogeneous temperature in a pizza oven. After many failed attempts, we were able to put together a workable prototype and secure our first funding from an investor.” The first thing they purchased with that funding was a real medical-grade oven, “so that we could start our journey to creating actual implants,” he says. Today, that original pizza oven is on display at the Establishment Labs headquarters in Costa Rica.
“It’s been decades since anything with this dramatic change from other implants has been introduced to the market,” says Dr. Teitelbaum. “Every step, from design to each phase of manufacturing, has been reconsidered and reengineered.” The 2021 study published in Nature Biomedical Engineering found that implants with an average surface roughness of four microns, such as those made by Motiva, created a lower inflammatory response—resulting in less of the thick scarring around implants that’s typical of capsular contracture—than implants with textured surfaces.
Motiva’s launch in the United States coincides with a bigger shift happening in the world of breast augmentation: “The switch away from placing implants under the muscle to on top of the muscle,” says Scott Hollenbeck, MD, a board-certified plastic surgeon and president of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. “Implants placed on top of the muscle [where breast tissue naturally would be] look more natural, especially in the short-term after implant placement,” explains Dr. Hollenbeck. They are less prone to distortion from muscle movement, called animation deformity, which makes this placement particularly appealing to patients who do a lot of sports.
But “the concern has always been that implants on top of the muscle have a higher rate of capsular contracture,” says Dr. Hollenbeck. Motiva is helping to eliminate this concern. Robust overseas data shows low rates of contracture for Motiva both in front of and behind the muscle, explains Dr. Teitelbaum. And that makes it a standout: “The ability to place the implant in a subfascial plane [above the muscle and underneath connective tissue] while still maintaining a low capsular contracture rate is something I’ve never seen before,” says Dr. Mahmood. “Motiva has repopularized the subfascial approach in the US.” Dr. Hollenbeck adds that “ultimately, we will need long-term US data to make these kinds of claims as a whole.”
And even though above-the-muscle placement can look more natural when you move around (again, by avoiding animation deformity), because this placement is closer to the skin, some implants can have an obvious-looking demarcation, or you may be able to see rippling. But Motiva “seems to ripple less than other soft implants,” says Dr. Killeen. And a soft implant can be the best option to avoid an obvious edge. (Different implants have different cohesivity, depending on whether a patient wants softer or firmer results.) Dr. Killeen has found that Motiva implants are even well suited to above-the-muscle placement in patients “who are thin and more likely to have rippling and a visible implant edge.”
One reason Motiva ripples less is the unique way it is filled with silicone. “The implants are 100% filled to capacity, which reduces rippling and unwanted folding,” notes David Shafer, MD, FACS, a double board-certified plastic surgeon in New York City. “Other implants are filled less, leaving more potential for rippling and folding, similar to a balloon that’s not quite filled all the way.” And Dr. Killeen points to a unique Motiva safety feature that is new in the US and an innovation that also stood out to her. “It has a blue coloration [instead of clear] that allows the surgeon to see more easily if the implant shell has been compromised with a rupture or break.” This is extremely rare, but it can happen, says Dr. Killeen.
Of course, the truest judge of any new aesthetic technology is the people who ultimately will be wearing the product. Dr. Killeen noted that patients were pleasantly surprised by how soft Motiva felt, which is not something she hears as often about other implants. Dr. Mahmood said that in her office, there was some initial hesitancy among patients, as many were understandably reluctant to be among the first in the US to get a new type of implant, but now she has seen a noticeable shift in that attitude. “Patients are largely very excited about it, and many even request it specifically,” she says. “They love that it can be placed above the muscle, that it has a low rate of capsular contracture, that it has a 100% fill, and, especially for my patients, that there is an Ergonomix option, which looks more natural and avoids more obvious upper-pole fullness, which some patients are concerned about.”
Dr. Killeen’s patients have been impressed with the natural feel of the Motiva implants—“in particular when feeling them in the office”—but she isn’t going to make any sweeping statements just yet about their performance over a long period of time compared to existing implants. “It's really not possible to make comparisons without head-to-head studies done the same way over long time periods,” she says. “To me, the most interesting application of this implant will be in cases [where capsular contracture is more likely, such as] breast reconstruction with patients undergoing radiation as part of their therapy.”
Dr. Teitelbaum has almost entirely switched over to Motiva implants in his practice. “I am using mostly Motiva because there are only a couple of situations in which someone wants something else,” he says. “Those situations would be a free warranty replacement with another implant because of contracture or rupture, a patient wanting an implant smaller or larger than Motiva sells in the US, or needing to use the most cohesive implant [for example, for a firmer result]. I have all the implants sitting out and tell them I use all of them. But patients seem to respond positively to the differences they hear about Motiva. And once they feel it in their hand, they are all amazed at how much better [the Motiva implants] feel.”
Written by Megan McIntyre
What makes a product an Allure Best of Beauty Breakthroughs winner?
The Breakthroughs category is a major part of our annual Best of Beauty Awards. To be a Breakthroughs winner, a product must be revolutionary and innovative—the kind that will change your beauty routine (and maybe even your life) forever. Whether it’s a new ingredient-delivery system, first-of-its-kind packaging, or patent-pending technology, these are products that push the industry forward and do something no product has done before.
Are the Breakthroughs winners all new products or brands?
A majority of Best of Beauty Breakthroughs winners are new launches or recent innovations, but they may also include existing brands that introduce cutting-edge updates. What they all share is category-disrupting technology, whether that’s in skin care, makeup, hair care, or devices.
How does Allure test beauty products for Breakthroughs?
When possible, we test these products just like all the other categories in Best of Beauty: hands-on, in real life, over weeks or months. But for Breakthroughs, we also do a deep dive to assess the science behind the product claims. It's a monthslong journey that involves poring over clinical data and sending every semi-finalists and their credentials to our independent judges, including cosmetic chemists, hairstylists, makeup artists, dermatologists, and sustainability advocates. They dedicate hours to studying each product to answer one question: Is this really a breakthrough?
What types of products can win in the Breakthroughs category?
Breakthroughs can span every category (skin care, hair care, body care, makeup, and fragrance) and can be a topical product (like a lotion or hairspray), a tool or device. The key element here is whether the product introduces something to the industry that is truly new and performs well. If it meets those criteria, it’s eligible.
Are Breakthroughs winners safe and dermatologist- or stylist-approved?
Yes. Many Breakthroughs winners undergo clinical testing or are developed with input from dermatologists, cosmetic chemists, makeup artists, and hairstylists. As previously mentioned, every nominee is also thoroughly vetted by our independent judges who are experts in their fields. Whether a judge is a cosmetic chemist or a professional makeup artist, they need to be able to say, without a doubt, this product has been tested for its results and has never been seen before.
Like what you see from Allure's Best of Beauty Awards?Shop All 2025 Breakthrough Winners
Photographed by: Ryan Jenq; Prop Stylist: Nicole LouieSave this storySave this story
