The Best New Beauty Products to Try This Spring

Celebrate spring with a fresh start to your beauty routine

The focus is clear: beautiful skin, beautiful scents. These are the foundations to looking and feeling as bright as spring itself. Here are our top seven beauty picks to cue your spring awakening…

1. Calming Birch Serum by Aurum, $84

The first ingredient in this serum is birch extract, made from bio-fermented birch water that the Aurum team collects from the Yukon’s boreal forests every spring. This key ingredient is sustainably harvested and the serum is locally manufactured, delivering a uniquely Canadian product to help calm problematic skin. Birch extract soothes and protects skin from irritations, whether from masks or allergies or acne. It’s unscented and the texture is milky, sinking very quickly into the skin without any tackiness. It provides a noticeable buffer that reinforces the skin’s ability to defend and repair itself. 
Available online

2. Roll-on Perfume by Obakki, $69

Vancouver-based lifestyle brand Obakki has just launched two new fragrances in the form of roll-on oils.The perfumes are hand-mixed in Brooklyn and housed in compact glass vials. Limbe is citrusy with a Valencia orange top note, anchored by leather and sandalwood. Seme is also citrusy, but brighter with top notes of bergamot and grapefruit, kept from being cloying by warm amber, cedarwood and a sophisticated take on patchouli. They are both wholly gender neutral, smelling warm and earthy with only enough sweetness to bring balance. Because of the oil format, they last incredibly long and wear evenly throughout the day. The blends are sophisticated, definitely an example when the product is greater than the sum of its parts—the individual notes and ingredients will all sound familiar, but the fragrances are unique and enchanting.
Available online

3. Golden Belly Serum by Evereden, $47

This “multigenerational” skin care line was originally developed specifically for babies and their mothers, during and after pregnancy. This serum is Evereden’s best seller, not only because it brightens skin while helping to reduce the appearance of stretch marks, but the nourishing oil works beautifully on all skins. It may be targeted for pregnant and postpartum bellies, but truthfully anyone could benefit from this serum’s blend of marula oil, passionfruit seed oil, camelina sativa oil and camellia asiatica. It’s a decadent treat after a bath or shower, and a few drops on the backs of hands after washing will bring life back to overexposed, overwashed skin. Housed in a smart glass bottle with a pipette dispenser, this oil serum feels and looks like a luxury product. And the subtle but intoxicating scent was developed by the master perfumer behind Byredo’s bestselling Mojave Ghost. 
Available online

4. True Skin Serum Foundation by Ilia, $71

This foundation was so highly anticipated that Ilia had over 5,000 people on its waiting list. This is a reformulation of the existing serum foundation as well as an expansion of the colour range, which now provides 30 shades with varying undertones, and participates in the “Clean at Sephora” program. It’s buildable to medium coverage and applies very smoothly (best with a brush or sponge—it leaves finger marks easily) with a satin-dewy finish. If you have oily skin or want to help this last a bit longer, powder lightly afterwards. On its own, it meshes beautifully with skin and looks realistically perfect.
Available online

5. Hand Wash by Moroccanoil, $23

Increased handwashing is here to stay, so make it more of a treatment and less of a chore. Moroccanoil-1 has just expanded its body line with a series of new oil-infused hand washes. They’re available in the signature Moroccanoil-1 scent, Fragrance Originale—spicy amber and sweet florals—as well as five new Moroccan-inspired scents. Infused with the brand’s hero ingredient, antioxidant-rich argan oil (and other skin care ingredients like hyaluronic acid), the liquid soap delivers luxuriously rich suds to keep hands clean and nourished.
Available online

6. Megahold Magnetic False Lashes by Ardell, $20.99

The newest generation of magnetic lashes just launched and they’re a marked improvement over past attempts. Ardell’s Megahold collection uses an “invisible” magnet that’s actually built into the eyeliner that comes with every pair of lashes. Iron oxides (natural mineral deposits that are already in a lot of makeup products) in the eyeliner transform it into a paint-on magnet. Just apply the eyeliner a bit thicker than you normally would, let it dry completely (try not to open your eye or disturbe the eyeliner as it dries) and then pop on the magnetic lashes. The thicker your eyeliner, the stronger the hold. There are four new styles available, all vegan and cruelty-free.
Available online

7. A-Gloei Retinol Oil by Drunk Elephant, $95

A-Gloei is Drunk Elephant’s “beginner” retinol, at 0.5 percent retinol compared to its original retinol product, A-Passioni at one percent. At half the strength, it’s the perfect retinol for anyone not already using it—a proven treatment to tackle hyperpigmentation, texture, fine lines and wrinkles. One of the most common side effects of using retinol is excessively dry, flaking skin as you adjust to this powerful ingredient. By delivering it in an oil (this contains 95 percent marula oil), A-Gloei helps seal in moisture, improving your chances exponentially of avoiding the “snake shedding” phase. Like all retinols, start off slowly (every other night), use at night and always wear sunscreen during the day.
Available online