W e're living in a golden age of beauty. Never has it been so easy to discover and discuss products—can you imagine walking into the drugstore two years ago to buy a light-therapy mask? For $30! But this beauty revolution hasn't come without its backlash . Critics claim—among other things—that devoting time and energy to beauty and self-care makes you vapid, somehow less of a feminist, or just another lemming embracing an empty pastime because it looks cool on Instagram, not because it's genuinely useful. We firmly disagree. Beauty matters , and it's OK that it matters. You can hoard all the skin care your medicine cabinet can handle and still fight for what you care about. If a lipstick makes you feel ready to take on the world, that's important. Or if it just makes you feel good, that's important too. And that's exactly what our Beauty Awards are all about. Our experts spent months narrowing down this list of new products—along with 30 of our all-time favorites—to celebrate the items that changed our lives. We hope (but are fairly certain) they'll do the same for you.

About Our Methodology

You may assume that choosing the best beauty products of the year is a simple, straightforward thing to do. (It isn't. But fun? Yes!) So where did we even begin? We started with a master list of thousands of new products. From there, our editors tested and singled out the most special. Finally, our panel of 45 judges (ranging from backstage pros to beauty personalities) voted on the finalists to help us select all 134 winners.

Produced by Lindsay Schallon and Sarah Evans. Written by Katheryn Erickson. Additional reporting by Erin Reimel. Edited by Ying Chu and Lindsay Schallon.

On-figure photographer: Katie Friedman. Portrait photo producer: Michelle Sulcov; stylist: Amy Hou; stylist assistant: Roberto Johnson; hair by Mia Santiago at See Management; makeup by Joseph Carrillo at Atelier Management; manicures by Rachel Shim at ABTP; models: Seynabou at JAG, Riane at DNA, Izzy at Wilhelmina, and Ella at Marilyn. Stills photographer: Matthew Martin; prop stylist: Jen Tran.

Fashion Credits: Skin: Frame jacket, $329, neimanmarcus.com ; Stillhouse earring, $360, stillhousenyc.com ; Zoe Chicco studs, $595, zoechicco.com . Curls: Alexander Wang top, $695, alexanderwang.com . Makeup: Rings, from top: W. Britt, $295, wbritt.com ; Vrai & Oro, $175, vraiandoro.com ; Vita Fede, $315, vitafede.com .