The Best Makeup Drops of 2024
info@hypebae.com (Hypebae) Fri, 13 Dec 2024 Hypebae
A new day, a new Hypebae Beauty Awards category and five fabulous new winners to celebrate. But before we dive into the brands and founders making waves in the makeup category, let’s take a minute to talk about what makes the Hypebae Beauty Awards so meaningful.
Every year, we honor emerging brands that break barriers, amplify underrepresented voices and embrace the rich diversity of beauty. These are the pioneers redefining originality, not just for the sake of trends, but to foster inclusivity, individuality and true connection through beauty. From founders rewriting the narrative to products designed with authenticity at their core, we celebrate the brands making beauty a space where everyone can see themselves represented.
So far, we’ve given flowers to the tools that have transformed our daily routines and the skincare brands using innovative ingredients to make the most luxurious of lotions and potions. Next, we set our sights on the makeup drops that go far beyond the superficial. Below are Hypebae’s makeup winners of 2024.
Wyn Beauty’s Featuring You Hydrating Skin Tint with SPF 30
When Serena Williams serves, she serves. And Wyn Beauty Hydrating Skin Enhancing Tint provides buildable coverage with a naturally glowing finish, enhancing your complexion for a flawless look. Infused with sun protection and the brand's Truly Unstoppable HydraComplex, which offers up to 72 hours of hydration, the lightweight formula is built for athletes and comes in 36 different shades.
[shoppable brand="Wyn Beauty" product="Featuring You Hydrating Skin Tint with SPF 30" link="https://www.wynbeauty.com/products/featuring-you-hydrating-skin-enhancing-tint-spf30-flow" price="$29 USD"]
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As the brainchild of one of the greatest athletes to ever walk this earth, it makes perfect sense that Wyn Beauty caters to active individuals. (The tennis ball-colored packaging also checks out, as does the name.) But what is active makeup? According to Williams and her brand, it is makeup that moves with you, rather than just looks good in pictures – though it does that, too. It also does good: Wyn Beauty’s high-performance, clean formulas are designed to enhance your skin’s natural beauty while supporting its health over time.
Six years in the making, Wyn is committed to inclusivity and has made deep skin tones the basis of the range, rather than an expansion of their shade range. Whether you're looking for a flawless foundation, radiant blush or long-lasting lipstick, Wyn Beauty’s got them all. Which, again, checks out doesn’t it?
Ami Colé’s Soft Shape Lip Liner
Ami Cole's Soft Shape Lip Liner offers precise application and defines lips with a flawless, natural tone. The real cherry on top? It’s long-lasting and waterproof, too. Available in five shades designed specifically for melanin-rich skin, this lip liner is infused with nourishing shea butter, marula oil and vitamin E, ensuring a creamy finish and smooth finish.
[shoppable brand="Ami Colé" product="Soft Shape Lip Liner" link="https://www.amicole.com/products/soft-shape-lip-liner" store="Ami Colé" price="$18 USD"]
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Founded in 2021 by Diarrha N’Diaye, Ami Colé is the ultimate love letter. The beauty brand was inspired by and named after her mother, whose Aminata African Hair Braiding salon has served as a vibrant space for women of color to come together to celebrate their beauty with intricate, West African-inspired hairstyles since the late 1980s.
N’Diaye set out to create a brand that honors the beauty of women of color through clean, effective and inclusive beauty products. And she’s succeeded brilliantly, too. Her Skin-Enhancing Tint and Light-Catching Highlighter are hero products within the beauty industry already. As is the Lip Treatment Oil. Best of all though is the way each product starts and ends with N’Diaye’s Senegalese roots, tapping the skin-loving power of Baobab seed oil, celebrating the beauty of the African diaspora through makeup.
Pat McGrath Labs’ Sublime Perfection Blurring Undereye Powder
Fresh-off-the-runway readiness: that is what Pat McGrath Lab’s Skin Fetish Sublime Perfection Blurring Under-Eye Powder delivers. No messing about. This lightweight, baked formula is designed to set concealer and create a soft-focus effect under the eyes, which sounds extra but is honestly a game-changer. Consider this the ultimate finishing touch, ideal for brightening, blurring and smoothing over skin for an instantly lifted, soft-focus effect.
[shoppable brand="Pat McGrath Labs" product="Sublime Perfection Blurring Undereye Powder" link="https://www.patmcgrath.com/products/under-eye-powder" store="Pat McGrath Lab" price="$35 USD"]
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Pat McGrath Labs is the pioneering beauty brand founded by the iconic Mother of makeup, the one and only Pat McGrath. Founded in 2015, Pat McGrath Labs is technically the “oldest” brand in the Hypebae Beauty Awards, but as the OG innovator, it seems totally apt that we continue to worship at her altar.
The brand goes beyond makeup, blending artistry with luxury to create products that empower self-expression and embrace diversity. Though it is her rich pigments that (rightly) tend to capture social media’s attention, it is an unwavering dedication to inclusivity that continues to inspire, launch after launch. With products like the famous Mothership Eyeshadow Palettes and Lust Lipsticks, McGrath revolutionized the beauty space, making glamour accessible to everyone. And isn’t self-expression what beauty is all about?
SimiHaze Beauty’s Full-Size Super Slick Lip Balm
Your lips, but better: that’s SimiHaze Beauty’s Super Slick in a nutshell. The hydrating lip balm is infused with rose oil to soothe and nourish, while the unique oil-balm texture literally melts into lips, leaving a glossy, wet shine with a blush of color behind. The custom domed-tip applicator is effortless to use. A single swipe provides a sheer, juicy glow, or if you want a richer color payoff, you can easily layer it, too.
[shoppable brand="SimiHaze Beauty" product="Full-Size Super Slick Lip Balm" link="https://simihazebeauty.com/products/super-slick-lip-balm-full-size " store="SimiHaze Beauty" price="$36 USD"]
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If you’ve spent any time on any social media platform, odds are you’ve come across Simi and Haze Khadra. The It-girls-turned-DJs-turned-beauty moguls have long been purveyors of cool, so it follows that their beauty brand would follow suit. Crucially though, they’ve tapped into a playful niche: creating products that are as versatile as they are easy to use. Can’t recreate Euphoria-like makeup on your own? SimiHaze’s Eye Play Gem Pack can do it for you. Want to play with a heavy pigment? Try the magnetic eye quad. Looking for a reliable wash of lip color that you can apply without stopping to check a mirror? They do that, too. (It also helps that the packaging is practically made to be photographed.)
The Palestinian-born, Los Angeles-based sisters also wanted to create something that would work and care for sensitive skin. Each product is infused with skincare ingredients, designed to soothe and enhance skin, rather than cover it up. Their vegan, cruelty-free formulas are made with the planet in mind, too.
LYS Beauty’s Triple Fix Blurring Skin Tint Foundation
Imagine merging a serum, a primer and a foundation stick. How much easier would life be? Well, LYS Beauty has done it beautifully. The all-in-one product is a game-changer and provides a smooth, natural veil of coverage while evening skin tone. Infused with green tea extract, watermelon seed extract and rosehip oil, it hydrates, soothes and nourishes, leaving skin looking radiant and healthier.
[shoppable brand="LYS Beauty" product="Triple Fix Blurring Skin Tint Foundation" link="https://lysbeauty.com/products/triple-fix-blurring-skin-tint-foundation-stick?" store="LYS Beauty" price="$25 USD"]
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In 2021, LYS Beauty became the first Black-owned clean cosmetic brand stocked at Sephora. Founded by Pur Cosmetics alumna Tisha Thompson, the groundbreaking brand set out to make the category more inclusive and put an end to the myth that clean beauty, deep shade ranges and high-performance products cannot coexist.
As a clean brand, the Atlanta-based cosmetics are free from harsh chemicals, including gluten, talc and parabens, instead incorporating nourishing elements that support healthy skin. LYS Beauty continues to redefine beauty by offering a thoughtful, inclusive approach to makeup that empowers everyone to look and feel their best.
