Meet Marie Claire's Prix d'Excellence Beauty award winners for 2019

Congratulations to all our winners!

Compiled by Fiona Embleton

Innovation in the beauty world is happening at a furious pace, and we're proud to be at the cutting edge of all the biggest developments. Now in it's 33rd year, our annual beauty awards present you with the most amazing products in the world.

Last night the twelve winners across skincare, haircare and make-up, chosen by our panel of beauty experts, were announced at our fabulous awards ceremony held in the ballroom of Claridge's.

The panel included Lisa Oxenham, Marie Claire's beauty and style director, beauty presenter Nadine Baggott, award-winning beauty journalist Alice Hart Davies, beauty director and entrepreneur Alessandra Steinherr, beauty columnist and Editor of Weekend - The Times Lesley Thomas, and Gilly Ferguson – Fabled by Marie Claire’s Executive Content Editor.

Keep scrolling for the full list of winners and highly commended runners-up...

Skincare

WINNER: Neutrogena Radiance Boost Hydrogel Recovery Mask

Masks are the fastest growing skincare category with sales up 48% in 2018* and unsurprisingly sheet masks are leading the charge. We just can’t seem to get enough of them for speed or transformative results – especially this next-level Korean style hydrogel mask. It is similar to a regular sheet mask and applied in the same way – the biggest difference is that it is see-through so you’re less likely to scare your cat and in 15 minutes it delivers the same amount of serum containing glow-giving vitamin B3 that you’d use in a month. Yep, that’s right, the equivalent of a 30ml bottle in just 15 minutes.

Highly commended: The Sanctuary Spa One Minute Daily Glow Mask

Haircare

WINNER: ghd Platinum+ Styler

What happens when you dedicate five years and 760,000+ hours of testing to tech and beauty? You get the world’s first hair straightener with predictive technology. When it first makes contact with your hair, algorithms smartly predict the thickness of your hair, the size of the section you want to straighten and the speed at which you are styling and adjusts the power accordingly – it really is that clever. In fact, the sensors monitor the heat no fewer than 250 times per second, ensuring the whole plate is emitting the safe-for-hair temperature of 185 degrees F. Perfect for those of us who can’t be trusted not to burn our toast, let alone our hair.

Highly commended: Redken All Soft Mega Sheet Mask

Make-up

WINNER: Clarins Water Lip Stains

When a lipstick promises to last for up to 300 kisses, you click ‘add to basket’. Made of 77 per cent water and with a texture not unlike sorbet, this is the most low maintenance way to get summery popsicle-stained lips. Get your fill of hydrating raspberry water and aloe vera in pink, orange, red and violet shades, freeing you up to go as intense or subtle as you’d like.

Highly commended: Dior Backstage range

Bodycare

WINNER: Love Beauty and Planet Shower Gel & Body Lotion range

Responsible choices when it comes to our beauty regimes can sometimes be, well, ‘responsible’ [read: boring]. Unless, like this body range, it has a dreamy aesthetic of natural or plant-based ingredients like muru muru butter and organic coconut oil, which are ethically and sustainably sourced, vegan-friendly and then packaged in bottles that are 100 per cent recycled and recyclable. The smell alone – rose, mimosa flower and ylang ylang will make you want to reapply as often as possible.

Highly commended: Espa Fitness Shower Oil

Beauty gives back

WINNER: Elizabeth Arden 'March On' Campaign

In partnership with A-list actress Reese Witherspoon, the #TogetherWeMarchOn campaign uses lipstick as a powerful symbol of advocacy. 100 per cent of the proceeds from the Limited Edition March On Lipstick in Pink Punch are being donated to UN Women, an organisation that works with governments to set global standards and design laws to achieve gender equality. So we can all help empower other women one lipstick at a time.

Highly commended: Sali Hughes and Jo Jones' The Beauty Banks initiative

Sustainability

WINNER: The Body Shop World Bio-Bridges Mission

We risk losing huge swathes of forest by 2050. Enter this mission, which aims to regenerate 75 million square metres of habitat by 2020 and build 10 ‘bio-bridges’ – protected corridors between healthy forests that enable plant species to thrive and prevent endangered animals being isolated so they can breed again. Last year alone, it raised £920,000, which helped ‘re-wild’ 26,163,524 square metres including the Forest of Dean and Wye Valley in the UK, the Ararat province of Armenia, Kyrgyzstan and Queensland Australia.

Highly commended: Biolage RAW Range

International winners

Judged by a panel of Marie Claire editors from 13 countries around the world, our global panel brings you the products they can't live without...

WINNER: Caudalie Vinopure range

Around 70 percent of adults over the age of 25 suffer from clogged pores, while five per cent of women in the UK have adult acne. Annoyingly no one knows for sure why, but on the upside the beauty industry has come up trumps with hardworking, grown-up products so you don't have to resort to teenage pimple poppers like benzoyl peroxide. 'This three-step range [comprising toner, blemish-control serum and mattifying moisturiser] got our vote,' says Lisa Oxenham, Beauty & Style Director at Marie Claire UK. 'It’s powered by salicylic acid to unclog pores and a blend of grape polyphenols and six organic oils, which have been proven to form a barrier against the production of P. acne bacteria. So we know it works.'

WINNER: Chanel Mascara Le Volume Révolution

Just another mascara? Hardly. 'This is the first ever to feature a 3D-printed brush, which not only sounds sci-fi but means you get extreme volume with no clumps from the get-go,' says Oxenham. The granular surface of the brush grabs onto lashes while honeycomb-like holes – which you never get with normal mascaras – absorb the formula then deliver just the right amount so you don't need another dip in the tube. All the judges were wowed with the sky-high volume one-coat. Vive la révolution, indeed!

WINNER: Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Supercharged Complex Synchronized Recovery

Of all the beauty buzzwords for 2018, ‘blue light’ is a contender for the top spot. Estée Lauder scientists have made the link between blue light – emitted from the screens of smart phones, tablets and computers – and disruption to your skin’s overnight repair as it can signal to the body that it is still daytime. The solution? A quadruple whammy of hydrating hyaluronic acid; a 10 times stronger yeast extract to nix dark circles; three different types of soothing algae and all-important wrinkle-fighting enzymes that correspond with the body’s sleep cycle. No wonder it was a hit with all our judges.

WINNER: Guerlain Abeille Royale Double R Serum Renew & Repair

Every once in a while a product comes along that ticks every judge’s box. 'For me, this serum was it as it's the perfect marriage between nature and science,' says Oxenham. One of its two chambers contains AHAs (lactic, citric and glycolic acid), which gently exfoliate and kickstart cell renewal. The other chamber contains a rare royal jelly produced by black bees on a Unesco nature reserve off the coast of Brittany, which has always been free from pollution and intensive farming. As well as being pure and vitamin laden, this particular royal jelly has also been found to stimulate the Tieg1 gene in our skin that stimulates it to repair collagen and boost elasticity.

WINNER: L'Occitane Immortelle Overnight Reset Oil in Serum

Nobody wants to look sleep deprived – and thanks to this power-packed serum, nobody has to any more. Thousands of golden bubbles release a blend of acmella oleracea extract, which mimics the skin-smoothing effects of Botox by reducing muscle tension; antioxidant immortelle essential oil and marjoram extract to help genes that have become silent as a result of stress to communicate with cells and produce skin-healing proteins. 'It's the equivalent of pressing "reset" on your skin overnight so you wake up looking visibly fresher,' says Oxenham.

WINNER: Vichy Ideal Soleil Solar Protecive Water SPF 30 range

These days suncare is just as high tech as skincare. While most brands have been winning with the high UV filters that skin needs to protect itself, hitting on a texture that actually makes you want to wear SPF has been trickier. Until now. 'This looks and feels like water on the skin – it really is that light,' says Oxenham. 'What I loved most was that it left my skin hydrated but not in the least bit greasy.' It’s all down to two separate phases in the formula: an oil phase – containing UV filters, vitamin E and either hydrating hyaluronic acid or beta carotene to deepen your tan – plus a thermal water phase rich in minerals to boost skin’s antioxidant defences. The jury agreed it was their go-to for on the beach.

Spotted any of your favourites on our winners list? Let us know at @marieclaireuk