Best Makeup of 2025 (The BEST of the BEST) | Drugstore to Luxury Favorites

Hey friends, today we are talking about the best in beauty and makeup in 2025. The products that I've curated are not only from my favorites videos throughout the year, but these are the best of the favorites. So these aren't just products I liked, these are products that I loved. Many of them launched in 2025, many of them I just discovered in 2025. So let's go ahead and jump right in. As always, I will tag all of these products in YouTube shop so you can see the products pop up as I'm talking about them. If you are new here, welcome. My name is Lisa and I'm a former makeup artist and the founder of BK Beauty and I just love beauty. So I hope you enjoy my videos and I hope you will consider being part of this community and subscribing. Let's go ahead and jump right in. I'm going to start kind of in order of how we apply our products. Let's start with skincare, you guys. One of my favorite product discoveries of 2025 when it comes to skincare is this product from PreQuil. This is the Half and Half Peptides and Ceramides Fluid Moisturizer. So Niki La Rose actually turned me onto this. I was in LA and she did my makeup for a video. I'll actually link that video down below if you want to check it out. And she sold me on this. This is a very, very light, thin moisturizer. Do you see how it's running down my hand? This just gives the skin a beautiful glow. It plumps up the skin. It's a really great prep for makeup. The way I will use this is after I wash my face, I'll do a layer of this, kind of pat it into the skin, let it absorb, give it a little bit of time before I go in with my next product. The best thing about this product is it's really affordable too. It's a big bottle. It'll last forever. It's 5.7 ounces. It's so, so fantastic. This is a product I'm really excited to share. It's actually three products. It's really the brand that I'm so excited to share with you guys because I feel like I've never tried products like this and I have tried a lot of products. So this is from the brand Sonia Roselli. So Sonia Roselli, she actually lives in Austin, which is where I live. And I met her at a business conference earlier this year. She sent me some of her products earlier this year. And when I first applied these, I have to say, I don't think I've been as surprised and shocked by a product ever. Now let me explain what these are. So this is the Water Balm. This is a very, very unique moisturizer, you guys. When you see it in the tub and you open it up, you think it'll have some weight to it. You feel like it looks like a cream, a rich, heavy cream. It's actually very lightweight. Do you see how thin it is? It's not super heavy at all. It feels cooling to the skin, cooler than any other skincare that I use. I don't know what it is, but when you rub this into the skin, it feels like it just thins out. Now, when I first put this on, I was worried that it wasn't going to give me the deep hydration or moisture that I needed at the time. My skin is very dry right now, and I just feel like I'll need more. No. Miraculously, magically, kept my skin hydrated and plumped overnight, and the next morning I woke up and my skin was still plump. It felt like I had used a rich, heavy, thick cream, and I didn't. I used this. It was shocking to me, but I think it's really great for those of you that don't like the weight of skincare products and you still need a lot of hydration and moisture, because I have never tried anything like this ever. I want to talk about these two products from Sona Roselli. She has a Water Elixir Skin Prep, and then she has this Water Oil. They're very different. The ingredients are different, but they are also similar in a lot of ways. This is something that you could use before you use the Water Balm, or this could be your first layer of skincare products before you go in with your moisturizer. Both of these are so lightweight. When you apply them to the skin, they just miraculously flood the skin with hydration and plump it. Now, this feels more like a water than an oil. You want to shake it up. When you apply it to the skin, it doesn't feel like a heavy, greasy oil at all. This is the lightest weight oil I have ever tried, and I would dare you to find something lighter weight than this in terms of an oil. This Renewal Serum from Rejelica Skin Care, when you put this on at night, the next morning after one use, you will wake up and you will notice a difference in your skin. Your skin will be glowing. This Renewal Serum, it helps with wrinkles, pores, and pigmentation. Immediately after washing your face, apply this, let it sit on the skin, and you can go in and hydrate. This will really give you noticeable results after one use. Let's pop over to a tanner. This is from Peeta Jane. This is the Gradual Body Tan. This has been one of my favorite discoveries for 2025 in body care. I will use it like three to four times a week. I don't use it every single day, and I will apply it as soon as I get out of the shower on dry skin. It doesn't feel sticky or heavy at all on the skin, but I do give it a little bit of time before I go in and put moisturizer on top of it. This gives the most beautiful, natural, gradual tan. It doesn't look orange, even if you build it up and build it up. I do get to a point where I'm like, okay, let me take a break for a couple days, but it still doesn't look orange. It looks very beautiful, very golden. It doesn't smell like self-tanner. It's not sticky. I've never, ever seen tan lines between my fingers or like build up around my ankle. I've never seen it with this. It's so good. Let's pop over to some makeup. Let's go ahead and start with the foundation that I chose. You guys have any guesses which foundation it's going to be for my favorite discovery of 2025? This wasn't too hard because I feel like I've been talking about this a lot, but this is the Natasha Denona High Glam Foundation. I love this foundation. It launched this year, actually, and I have not really put it away since it launched. In fact, I am one week from moving. I'm so excited to say we are officially in the one week. By the time this video goes up, actually, we might be in our new house. And I've packed up like 97% of my makeup, but this has stayed out because I use this all of the time. I love this. I would describe this as being like a natural satin finish foundation. If you use a lot of products that give like glass-like skin and a high glow, you're going to see it underneath this, and it's going to make this foundation look more glowy. But I love it because of how beautiful this wears throughout the day. It gives a little bit of a glow, but it's not greasy. It's not shiny, and it just lasts and stays in place all day long. It's so nice. It's also a very lightweight foundation. It gives great coverage. I would say the coverage is pretty medium. I think it's great for all skin types. I think a dry skin is going to like it because it is going to give some life to the skin. I think an oily skin will like it because you can powder it down if you want it to be a little more flat matte, but you have some versatility. I think it's very mature skin friendly, and I think they did a fantastic job on the undertones of this foundation. I am the shade N7, and it is like a perfect match. When I put it on the skin, it's like you don't even see it. So, so good. Okay, let's talk about blushes, you guys. I have a few blushes to share. This was a little tough. I have three blushes to share, and all three of them are very, very different. So, I have a powder, I have a cream, and then I have a liquid blush. Let's start first with the powder. So, the powder blush for me of the year were these from ILIA. These are the Soft Focus Blurring Blushes. I actually bought them in three shades because I love them so much. This is the shade Flutter, and this is what I layered on today. I actually layered all three of these blushes on. It's a really soft peach. What I like about this formula is there is a little bit of radiance and light reflective properties to the product, but it's not shimmery or glittery. This is the shade Breathless. This was the first shade that I bought, and I feel like this is a great shade for most people. It's just this really soft kind of mauve. When I was doing wedding makeup, what would be the go-to products I would use on brides because you know that it's just timeless, it's flattering, it's neutral, it looks good on everyone. And this would be one of those colors. This is really beautiful. And then this color right here is Sensation. This has a little bit more color. It's a little deeper, great for deeper skin tones. Very pretty. But these are buildable, so you can really sheer them out and get a soft wash of color, or you can layer them to get more pigment payoff if you'd like. Okay, let's pop over to this blush from Charlotte Tilbury. Of course, I had to mention this. I feel like this might be one of the most talked about blushes of the year for me. This is the Unreal Healthy Glow Stick, and this is the shade Peachy Glow. So this formula is creamy. It's very dewy looking. It really does give a glow to the skin. If you have oily skin, I would say give it a try, but I have heard from my friends that have more oily skin that they're not a fan of this. But I love it. I also love the color of this particular one. Again, it's called Peachy Glow, and I just love this really beautiful, bright kind of coral shade. It's very youthful and just kind of wakes up the skin. Very pigmented, but also easy to blend out. So if you do over-apply, you can easily blend it out. I like to use the 109, and I also love, love, love the N20. Let's talk about these two, actually, because these are actually in my kind of best of 2025. We launched the Nikkie La Rose Volume 2 collection in October. One of the best launches of 2025. I know I'm a little biased because I'm the founder of BK Beauty, but these two brushes have been my most used brushes of the year, I think. They're both the N20 and the N20S. This is for the cheeks and the face. This is for eyes, but I love it. It's a diffuser brush. The fibers are a little bit longer and wispy at the end, but there's also this shorter base of the brush that's a little more dense. So if you want a really light application with like a blush or a highlighter, you just use the tip of the brush to blend out. However, when you really want to pack on color, you can really like use more pressure, load up the brush and press it onto the skin. And the same thing with the eyes. Right now, you can only get them in the set. I will tag that down below. But early next year, we're shooting for the end of January. I can't give an official date, but sometime between mid-January and early February, we will be launching these as singles. So you guys can go and buy and shop your favorites. Or if you've been holding out on the set because you didn't want to maybe invest in the whole eight pieces, but there's a few on you've been eyeing, you can get them in singles. Very, very soon. Okay, to break it up, I'm going to save the last blush for just a little bit. We're going to move on. Let's talk about bronzer. Do we have any guesses of what my favorite bronzer of 2025 is? I'm laughing because I feel like that's a pretty obvious question. But the Christian Dior Dior Forever Powder Bronzer, this is the shade 10 Soft Matte. I love this. I actually hit pan on this, you guys. Look at that. I rarely hit pan on products simply because I consume and use and buy so much makeup. And I'm always swapping and trying new things that when I actually hit pan on something, that means it is very well loved. And this is a big product. This is so fantastic. It is a powder bronzer that has a very velvety finish. It blends so beautifully. It's the perfect amount of pigment. You don't have to use a lot of effort to get it to show up on the skin. I love the color of it. It's very warm. So it's a very warm bronzer. It does lean a little peach. Someone did comment on a recent video and they were like, I'm interested in this, but I'm worried it's going to be a little too orange. Just being real, it is definitely more of like a very warm peachy bronze shade. I don't think it's not flattering at all. Like I don't think it's too orangey looking, but I think that if that's a concern or things turn very orange on you, you might want to be mindful of that. It smells incredible. It smells like a vacation. If you are sensitive to fragrance in your makeup though, you might want to skip it because again, it does have a pretty strong scent and fragrance to it, but I love it. And I always have to say this too. Whenever I talk about this, a good dupe for this is the Physician's Formula Butter Bronzer. I think the Dior is a little better just in terms of pigment payoff, but they're very, very similar. Okay. Let's talk about a cream bronzer. And I kind of feel a little like I'm surprising you guys with this one because I don't even know that if I've talked about this in a YouTube video yet, because it's that new, but this is the L'Oreal Lumi Bronzer Stick. These just launched you guys. So full disclaimer, I've had this product for like two weeks. So I was kind of like, does it deserve a spot in the best of 2025? I've only had it for two weeks, but I think it does. It really does. I think I would be doing a disservice if I did not share this with you in this video, because it is so good. It's a bronzer stick, and this is the shade Toasted Sunlight. This is so creamy, so pigmented, but yet so easy to blend out. It is so nice, you guys. Look at this color. It's very, very golden. I bought it in a couple other colors. I don't have the others, but this is the one that I love and I use. When I first opened it and I saw those gold specks, I was like, oh, is this going to be glittery? Not at all. It's just so, so beautiful. I mean, this rivals any high-end luxury bronzer stick that I own. I love it. I actually did apply this and then paired the powder on top of it just for the sake of demoing both products in the video, but usually I will just use this, and I like to blend it out with the 109. The 109 is the perfect brush to just kind of bounce on there and blend it out. It is a 10 out of 10 for sure. Okay, let's pop over to a hair product. I only have one hair care product in here. Obviously, I have a lot of products that I use and love, but this was a new product that I purchased in 2025 that I fell in love with. This is the Kerastase Glaze Drops. It's this really lightweight hair oil. I'm someone that likes to wash my hair as little as I have to. If I can get four or five days between them, I will do that, but I also have color-treated hair. I get my hair colored every six weeks. As I get older, I notice the texture of my hair is changing. All that to say, when I wash my hair, it is not my favorite hair day. To me, it looks dry, and I have to put products in it to give some shine to it, and this is a hair oil that I love because I can get that really silky, soft feel and look without a heavy oil or without a heavy serum that is going to cause me to need to wash my hair the next day or two days later. You know what I mean? It's very, very lightweight. I like to apply it kind of right here down. This is really where my hair shows the most signs of damage, the ends, which is pretty typical, so I try and avoid applying it at my roots because, again, I don't want to wash my hair often. I love it. It also has a really nice scent to it. Let's smell it. Yeah, it has a very clean kind of scent. I'm going to just do a little drop here, show you how lightweight it is. Yeah, you can kind of see. It's very, very light. A little goes a long way. In fact, I'm just going to take this and just kind of run it on my ends. This is a good one. Give it a try. Okay, the last blush that I wanted to share is this liquid blush from Jane Iredell. This is the Color Luxe Liquid Blushes, and these actually launched this year in 2025. Now, you guys know I partner with Jane Iredell. They're a big partner of mine. I partner with them every single year, and I wanted to team up with them for this video to share my favorite launch from Jane Iredell. Just like the Sonia Rosselli being a very unique product, like an innovative product, unlike anything else I've tried, I would put this blush in that category as well. This is a liquid blush. This is the shade Heartbreaker. It's one of my favorites. The beauty of this blush is there's a lot of versatility. You can really sheer it out if you just want a very light sheer wash of color, or you can build it up if you want more pigment and more color. It's so easy to work with. It does not take a lot of skill to blend this in. It's very difficult to mess this up is what I'm trying to say, which is unlike most liquid blushes. Most liquid blushes have a lot of pigment, and you have to be very careful with how much you use, but as you can see with this one, and I'm going to insert some B-roll here of me applying it. I like to apply it with the N20. When you apply this one, the more that you work with it and blend it, the more sheer and kind of diffused it gets. It gives you that really natural kind of flush from within look to the skin. It's very dewy. It's great for dry skin. It's great for winter months. I actually just topped it on top of the other two blushes that I applied today to give you some idea of how much blush I have on my face, but doesn't it look so natural? You see that little bit of a glow that I'm getting? It's very, very beautiful. So versatile. It comes in many shades. The Heartbreaker is one of my favorites, and then I also love this shade here. This is the shade Solar Magnolia. Let me show you what this one looks like. You see that? That one's really pretty too. How pretty is that? So, so gorgeous. Great for dry skin. Let's talk about the Longwear Cream Shadows from Makeup by Mario. I have them in two shades here. I also have the shade Chestnut at home, or it's packed up somewhere, but these are the Mastermattes Longwear Cream Shadows. These launched this year. I love the shade Mauve. As you probably know, I talk about it all the time. This is what's on my lid now. And I also love the shade Bisque. If you want a good, light, pale shade to cancel out any discoloration in the eyelids and work as a good primer. So these are so long-wearing. If you have oily eyelids, these are fantastic. You do want to be mindful about how much you apply because they are so matte. I have heard some feedback from some people that say they're just too drying on my eyelids, and that might be the case. These aren't going to work for everybody. If you have really dry skin or like any flakiness on the lid, I would avoid these. But even if you don't have dry eyelids, like even if you have oily eyelids, you still want to be conservative with the amount that you apply. I recommend doing a little sheer layer and then blending it out. I like to use the N20S or the N16 just to really sheer it out. And you'll see a video of me doing that here, but I really sheer it out. If you layer this too heavy or too thick because it's so matte, when it dries, it will crack. I don't think it's for everyone, but I love it because I put it on and I don't have to worry about my eye makeup creasing or fading throughout the day. I don't use these as eye primers because I love the color of this. I wear it by itself, and then I put a little bit of shadow in the crease. You certainly could layer powder shadow on top of it, but just be mindful, again, the fact that this is very dry and matte. If you layer a lot of powder shadow on top of it, you could run the risk of it looking unflattering later that day. I love these. These are so fantastic. Okay, let's talk about a concealer that I think really earns a spot on the best of 2025 list. I was hesitant to talk about this one, but I do feel like I should mention the Sarah Creel concealer. I discovered that this year, and that really kind of blew me away when I first discovered it. It's really, really a fantastic concealer. It's a lightweight serum concealer. It's designed for women over 40, so it's got mature skin in mind. It is beautiful. It is also $58. I wanted to share one that I really think is right there. This is the Sephora Collection Best Skin Ever Concealer. This is beautiful. It feels hydrating. It feels radiant without being creamy or messy. It dries and sets really nicely. I do set it with a little bit of powder, but I just find that this gives great coverage and looks very natural. I think that if you haven't tried the Sarah Creel, but you're looking for a good concealer for mature skin, and you don't want to spend close to $60 on a concealer, pick this one up. I think you'll really like it. I have the shade 08P. When I first bought it, I thought it was too light and I needed to get a darker shade. I never ended up getting a darker shade. It was always on my list, but I never did it. And I actually love this shade. I like how much brightness it gives to the skin. I have it on today. I think it looks great, so give this a try. I love it. It's a good one. Speaking of mature skin, I want to share another product, and this kind of falls into the same category as the L'Oreal Bronzer Stick in terms of it's a pretty new product that I just picked up. I've had it for like maybe three weeks, but I feel like I would be doing a disservice if I didn't include this product in this video. It blew me away and I hate to say that it did because it is very expensive and I hesitated buying this for so long because it's $110, you guys. It's the Victoria Beckham Foundation Drops. I was not planning to buy this, but everyone, I say everyone, many of you asked me to buy it. I got so many questions and requests. Lisa, what do you think of Victoria Beckham's new foundation drops? What do you think of them? And I was like, I haven't bought them. Can you please get them and review them? So I was like, okay, I'm going to do it. I bought it during their Black Friday sale and I saved like 20 or 25% off. I hate to say it, but I love it. It is very, very beautiful, very hydrating. If you have dry skin, you will love this foundation. I really, really stand by that and believe that. The coverage is pretty light to medium. It's not a full coverage foundation at all, but it does do a great job of giving some coverage and evening the skin tone out. It's very dewy looking, but even as someone like me who doesn't like a dewy finish most of the time, I like this. And again, it could be because I'm trying it in December and November when it's cold and dry outside. It's yet to be determined if I'm going to like this in the summertime. I don't know. I haven't worn it. I would imagine probably not. I would imagine this would not be my summertime product, but if you like a dewy, glowy look year round, then I think this is worth giving a try. Do you need this? No. There are other great products out there that I think you would enjoy and that look just as good as this, but this is really, really nice. If you've been curious about it, I can say it's great. Let's hop over and talk about a fragrance. I've really been embracing fragrance this last year. I'm not someone that has a ton of fragrance. I see these videos where there's like, you know, 50, 100 bottles of scents. That is not me. But this one would definitely stand out as being my fragrance of the year. This is the Essence Cental from Marstay. Marstay is Marlena Makeup Geek's new brand that she launched. Was it this year or last year? It's been about maybe it's been about two years or so. She launched a beautiful line of fragrances. But this one, oh, this one is my favorite. Every time I wear this, I get compliments. It is so fantastic. I wish you could experience this through video, but unfortunately you cannot. It smells incredible. I just can't even. I have several Cental scents. I have one from Le Labo, Cental 33, which I also love. But this one is better, I think. So good. The next product is a brow product. Not super exciting, but I was very excited when I used this for the first time. This is the Benefit Precisely My Brow Wax. It's a very waxy gel formula. It gives fantastic hold. If you have hairs that are unruly, they grow down and you want to really lay them down or hold them in place, this will work great. It's a thicker, waxy texture. So if you kind of build it up, you'll almost get the look of like a fiber brow gel. You'll get some volume. Now, I like to use the shade 2, which is a little bit lighter. It's more like the color of my highlights. And then the pencil that I'll use is like 3. So I'll use the Precisely Brow Pencil in the shade 3 or 3.5. And then I'll go in and do the shade 2 on top to lighten it. Almost give, you know, the look of highlights to my hair, giving the look of highlights to my brow. Let's hop over to that other Jane Iredell product that I mentioned earlier. It's the Liner Spice. This is just a really good, like kind of spicy, everyday liner. I love it. I have it on today. And then I topped it with this Reviving Lip Oil from e.l.f. I'm adding this into this video. I might have discovered these last year, but I really, really, really love them this year. This is the Glow Reviver Oil. This is the Shade Burst Bubble. This is pretty much an exact dupe, you guys, for the Dior Plumping Lip Oils. They are really fantastic. The only difference is it doesn't say Dior on it. So grab a few shades. They're all pretty sheer, even though this looks pretty bright. As you can see, it's very sheer. I just have this on with a lip liner. It's a great lip treatment, too. Very hydrating to the lips. Gives a little tingle sensation, but very comfortable. Not like irritating at all. Very good. This setting spray from Charlotte Tilbury, the Airbrush Flawless Setting Spray in the Matte Blur. This is so good. It's not a flat matte at all. It really is not. It is blurring, and it will softly mattify areas of the foundation. But if you have products like I do on the cheeks that have a glow, it's not going to mattify that. So it doesn't completely wipe out any radiance or glow that you have on the skin, but this will lock your makeup in all day long. I think the first time that I realized how incredible this product really was was when I was traveling. I had a trip to Montana a couple months ago, and it was a trip that I had to... I flew out of Austin in the morning, but I wasn't going to have enough time when I landed in Montana to freshen my makeup up for dinner. So I was like, gosh, I have to get ready at home before I go to the airport and put my makeup on for dinner that night. We all know how it goes when you travel. I don't know about you, but when I travel, my makeup and my skin is a wreck when I land. It's just splotchy. It's shiny. It just... my eyes are bloodshot. I just look like a hot mess. Well, that morning, I applied foundation, and I sprayed it with this product. My total travel time was about seven hours. Got to Montana, got into our hotel, looked in the mirror real quickly, hoping I had a few minutes to just touch up, and I hardly had to touch up at all. My skin looked amazing. And the only thing I could really think of that would have impacted that was this. Because even though I used a foundation that I love that morning, every time I apply, no matter what foundation I wear, my skin looks like garbage. It did not. It still looked really, really fresh. And I will accredit this always. From that moment on, I was like, this is magic. This powder from Sephora Collection, this is the Blur It Loose Powder, and this is the pink one. This is the 01 Brightening Pink. They have it in a few shades. So nice, you guys. Very light, very refined, very brightening. I have it underneath the eyes today, center of the face, forehead. This will blur the skin, softly mattify the skin, set everything. It doesn't look dry. It doesn't look like cracky underneath the eyes. I applied it under the eyes. It looks really beautiful. Can we kind of zoom in real quick and look underneath the eyes? Very nice. Not drying at all. A little bit of brightness, but not like kind of fake or distracting looking. It does come with this little velour puff inside, which I think is such a cute touch. You know, of course, I don't use it because I use the brushes. But if you are a velour puff person, you got this little cute thing right in here. I save it because I don't want to throw it away. It's so cute. But this is really good. The last product that I want to share is the eyeshadow palette of 2025 for me. This palette is the one that I use the most this year. It's the Makeup by Mario Master Mattes, the neutral. I love this because it's not like a super warm palette. It's not super gray and cool either. It's just very, very neutral. It is all matte, so there's no shimmer in here. But this is a really great essential basic palette. You can do everything. You can do your simple daytime looks. You can do a more dramatic kind of glammed up eye. I tend to use these shades here a lot. And then I'll use one of these as eyeliner. Today I have this on as eyeliner with the N12. So I didn't even use a pencil today. I just use this to line my eyes. The only complaint I have is that a little piece broke off here and a little piece broke off here. And I noticed in my makeup bag, a lot of my makeup products have black smudges all over. And I'm like, what is that from? I realized that it's from part of this breaking and then it just getting to be a mess in my makeup bag. It's still a great palette, but it is a little fragile. That was a lot to cover. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Again, all these products are tagged in YouTube Shopping. You can shop them there. You can also shop them in my description box as well. Thank you for being here. Thank you for your support throughout the year. I love you guys. I hope you have a beautiful day and I'll see you in my next one.