Six Winning Skin Care Formulas: The 2024 Greatest Products of All Time
If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, WWD may receive an affiliate commission.
Biologique Recherche Lotion P50
Launched: 1970
More from WWD
Results Oriented: 1 Lotion P50 is sold every 2 minutes in the U.S.
Half a century old and still cleaning up.
Biologique Recherche, the French brand founded in the 1970s, opened for business with a small array of products, including a toner called P50 designed for daily exfoliation.
“Skin care was not very rich yet — it was built on scent and beautiful texture. It was an exercise in experience and not in the composition of the product,” said Dr. Philippe Allouche, Biologique Recherche’s head of creation.
Born out of that single stock keeping unit came Biologique’s approach to skin care — highly specialized and customizable regimens following a framework rooted in a preparatory stage called initialization that starts with P50. That those routines required a trained aesthetician to prescribe only added to the brand’s allure. “Biologique grew by word of mouth,” Allouche said. “There was no internet at that time.”
Today, P50 is available in seven strengths for varying skin types, including the original formula, Lotion P50 1970. Lotion P50 has become the cornerstone of many a brand fanatic’s daily ritual. “The fact that we have an initialization phase is deeply rooted in P50, and each regimen needs it,” said Margot Humbert, the brand’s U.S. general manager. “The entire methodology of the brand came from P50.”
It also set the bar for all of the brand’s product development thereafter. “Skin isn’t about trends, it’s about physiology,” Allouche said, adding the formula has barely been touched since launch.
“Biologique Recherche follows science and it follows skin,” Humbert said. “It’s not even about one holy grail product. P50 is part of a system that works, it’s the first step, and any consumer can use it.”
Dr. Dennis Gross Alpha Beta Daily Peel
Launched: 2000
Results Oriented: One Alpha Beta Daily Peel is sold every 2 seconds globally.
Call them the original launch pads. Dr. Dennis Gross, which launched in 2000, debuted with a daily, at-home answer to its namesake founders’ in-office chemical peels. It became the keystone to a brand that ended 2023 with more than $300 million in sales — and an acquisition by Shiseido.
“The original beauty influencers were editors, and Dennis’ practice exploded because of organic word-of-mouth buzz,” said Carrie Gross, chief executive officer of the brand. “I thought we had to bring the peel to everyone; I started working on a version for aestheticians and then a home kit. And that was the original strategy.”
Though the peel pad business has since become larger-than-life, Gross said what resonates about the product is fairly simple. “It removes hyperpigmentation and discoloration, it balances your oil complexion and it takes away dry skin,” she said. “It’s just an iconic product that everyone loves to share because you can see your skin transform.”
Since the brand’s inception, it’s kept customers coming back. “It builds so much loyalty. People stop using it and realize they need them,” Gross said. “I tell clients to put it next to their toothbrush and do it every morning — it’s loaded with antioxidants and it’s protecting you throughout the day, and it also works as a makeup primer.”
The formula follows Dr. Gross’ ethos of pairing higher levels of actives with anti-inflammatory ingredients to mitigate irritation. The brand has expanded into full-fledged franchises around ingredients like vitamin C and retinols. But Gross said that keeping the buzz alive has been key to driving the business.
“It’s a forever conversation. You can’t launch and leave,” she said. “We keep
the conversation alive 12 months out of the year. We’re constantly keeping it top-of-mind, and it never stops working. It’s got such a loyal following, and it’s our reason for being.”
$92, drdennisgross.com
Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex
Launched: 1982
Results Oriented: The very first nighttime serum has won just shy of 70 awards for the current iteration of its formula, which was updated in 2020.
Considered the O.G. night treatment, Advanced Night Repair proves that some things only get better with age.
“It still remains today our number-one serum within the Estée Lauder brand. It’s incredibly important,” said Justin Boxford, global brand president, Estée Lauder. “It’s backed by 40 years of science, and we have over 36 patents. It’s as leading in technology today as it was back then.”
When it launched, Advanced Night Repair exemplified the ethos of Estée Lauder herself. “She changed the conversation from skin care to skin repair, which was a massive move,” said Boxford. “When you look at that, particularly skin repair at night, it was so ahead of its time.”
Over the years, the formula has received occasional reboots, most recently the 2020 launch of Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex, which has received more than 70 awards.
Keeping the franchise on the cutting edge of innovation, Boxford said, has been integral to its long-term success, and Lauder continues to field proprietary research to better understand cellular functioning in the nighttime. “We come in with a product that understands nighttime better than any other company in the world, and any other product in the world, and has this exclusive technology to deliver on that promise,” said Boxford.
From a marketing point of view, Lauder has successfully driven cross-generational relevance, especially with the current prevailing attitudes toward sleep. “9 o’clock is the new bedtime for 20-somethings, and is now the new luxury,” said Boxford. “This product has never been more relevant, and the technology behind it has never been more important. It’s part of a system that works, it’s the first step, and any consumer can use it.”
$125, esteelauder.com
L’Oréal Paris 1.5% Derm Intensives Hyaluronic Acid Serum
Launched: 2018
Results Oriented: According to the brand, it’s the bestselling serum in the world.
Serums are all about performance, so it’s no surprise that the world’s bestselling one packs a punch.
L’Oréal Paris Revitalift was among the first in the mass market to democratize prestige trends, such as a dermatologist-driven focus on hero ingredients like hyaluronic acid.
Since then, it has withstood the test of time. U.S. brand president of L’Oréal Paris Ali Goldstein said it was “the first star within this product range,” and it tops bestseller lists globally.
Chalk it up to first-mover advantage. “In 2018, there were other products with hyaluronic acid, but we were one of the first to speak to the amount of the ingredient and the purity of it in the formula,” Goldstein said. “Then, speaking to consumers with Eva Longoria in the advertisements in an accessible way was magical.”
That two-pronged approach “was a winning recipe,” Goldstein said. “It took off immediately, And it’s now in its sixth year on the market and is still a very big business for us.”
Revitalift’s success has also created a fundamental shift in the market, helping to drive an ever-more educated consumer base. “At that time, it was primarily the most sophisticated women using serums in general,” Goldstein said. “With this launch, and what has happened in the market since, is that they’ve become much more highly penetrated.”
$32.99, lorealparisusa.com
Summer Fridays Jet Lag Mask
Launched: 2018
Results Oriented: One Jet Lag Mask is sold every 90 seconds.
The product that spun influence into staying power.
Summer Fridays, now a full-fledged beauty business, started with one product that took the internet by storm. “Jet Lag Mask was the first product we ever dreamed up. We had a name for the product before we even had a name for the brand,” said cofounder Marianna Hewitt.
“Jet lag is such a universal feeling. You understand being exhausted, feeling dull, tired or dry,” she continued. “We wanted to resolve that in one product.”
Summer Fridays was among the first influencer brands when it launched in 2018 — cofounded by Hewitt and Lauren Ireland — and its benefits-based approach to product development has since informed the brand’s development. “We formulate years in advance, and we never think about being trend-focused. We think about longevity, and how people will use products in decades to come,” said Hewitt. “We lead innovation by making things that are interesting and new, but also thinking about how long people will use the products instead of being a flash in the pan.”
Jet Lag Mask came to market at a time when it was unusual to launch with a single hero product as opposed to a full routine. “It’s high-risk, high-reward to do,” said Hewitt of the strategy. “We knew consumers were overwhelmed, and that strategy allowed us to focus on one thing at a time, and it became easier to launch into retail. Sephora only had to buy into one product.”
Much of Summer Fridays’ communication harkens back to the hero, which Hewitt credits to its formula of niacinamide, glycerin, hyaluronic acid and antioxidants. “Everyone can use it,” she said. “It’s for a broad range of people, and as the brand grows, we’ve seen more and more people using it.”
$49, summerfridays.com
Vintner’s Daughter Active Botanical Serum
Launched: 2013
Results Oriented: The product’s Phyto Radiance Infusion takes 21 days to make — 66 times longer than competing formulas and enough time to drive from Napa to New York and back five times.
More than a decade ago, Vintner’s Daughter founder April Gargiulo struck oil — literally.
The entrepreneur set out to create, as she put it, “a high-powered, multi-beneficial serum in an oil format. Most serums at that point were very targeted, and they were about a single product and a single concern. I wanted something that could tackle many skin issues in a single step.”
The resulting Active Botanical Serum came to be after Gargiulo experimented with brewing whole plants, a process that drew inspiration from the world of winemaking. Still today, the key ingredient complex takes 21 days to make — enough time to drive from Gargiulo’s home base of Napa to New York City five times.
While Active Botanical Serum helped kick off the craze for face oils, it took Gargiulo nearly a decade before launching another product, the Active Treatment Essence, and eventually, a cleanser. She’s taken the same painstaking approach for each.
“I was new to the beauty world, and I didn’t know I was being revolutionary by launching one product,” said Gargiulo. She may be a beauty outsider, but the industry has embraced her approach. “This makes anyone’s skin look and feel better — there’s absolutely nothing like it,” said one voter in The Greatest. “April is devoted to making the best product as opposed to scaling, so her quality surpasses everyone else’s.”
Said another, “It’s a serum; it’s an oil. Lots of companies have tried to copy; no one has come close.”
$195, vintnersdaughter.com
Best of WWD
