BAZAAR Beauty Awards 2024: Best Skincare Essentials

Start with the basics.

By Arissa Ha - published 10 Oct 2024

The foundation of skincare lies in the essential rituals that nourish and rejuvenate our skin. Amidst a world overflowing with cutting-edge serums and advanced treatments, it’s the humble cleansers, revitalising toners, and nourishing moisturisers that form the bedrock of our daily beauty routines.

Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore’s Beauty Awards 2024 celebrates these indispensable skincare essentials that quietly work their magic each day. We shine a spotlight on the outstanding products that have elevated self-care rituals. Join us as we unveil the cleansing elixirs, refreshing toners, and luxurious moisturisers that have earned their place in the spotlight, reminding us that true beauty begins with the simplest of steps.

Winner: Best Oil Cleanser

Living Cleansing Balm, $63, Then I Met You

This luxurious balm enhances your skincare routine with a delightful sensory experience. Upon application, it changes from a rich balm into a silky oil emulsion, effortlessly dissolving makeup, excess sebum, and sunscreen without leaving any oily residue. Enriched with 57 percent botanical oils, its star ingredient is seaberry (sea buckthorn) oil, rich in antioxidants and fatty acids that soften and protect the skin, giving Then I Met You’s Living Cleansing Balm its distinctive bright marigold colour. The formula is further boosted with anti-ageing and brightening persimmon extract, nourishing olive oil, and vitamin E, all working together to rejuvenate the skin. Hints of rosemary, persimmon, and grapefruit provide an aromatic experience designed to delight the senses, leaving your skin feeling soft, clean, and refreshed after every use.

Winner: Best Facial Cleanser

Cleansing Foam, $118, Omorovicza

Ideal for morning routines or as an evening second cleanse, Omorovicza’s Cleansing Foam is a sulphate-free cleanser that purifies and refreshes the skin without stripping away moisture. Suitable for all skin types—including sensitive—the foam produces a rich, velvety lather that gently removes impurities while maintaining the skin’s natural hydration. Enriched with copper gluconate to detoxify and control excess oils, apple pectin to reinforce moisture and improve suppleness, and the patented Healing Concentrate that delivers potent minerals deep into the epidermis, it leaves skin balanced and revitalised. The delicate orange blossom scent evokes a spa experience at home, turning your daily cleansing routine into a luxurious ritual.

Winner: Best Toner

The Ultimate S Enriched Water, $172, Sulwhasoo

An innovative essence that harnesses the potent anti-ageing properties of ginseng berry, Sulwhasoo’s The Ultimate S Enriched Water is infused with the brand’s exclusive Ginseng Berry Elixir, containing an extract that’s 50 times more concentrated thanks to high-temperature processing. This enriched water penetrates deeply to combat signs of ageing, promoting a more luminous and hydrated complexion while reducing the appearance of fine lines and pores. Enhanced with RE.D Flavonoid, a proprietary ingredient developed in Amorepacific labs, it improves skin resilience by alleviating rigidity, contributing to a youthful and healthy appearance. Formulated with fine particle technology known as Micro 980 texture, the particles are finely split under high pressure to increase absorption, delivering deep hydration and a refreshing sensation upon application.

Winner: Best Day Moisturiser

The Cream, $440 for 50ml, Augustinus Bader

Developed by Professor Augustinus Bader, a stem cell and biomedical scientist at Leipzig University, The Cream was inspired by his groundbreaking work on a medical-grade formula designed to heal severe burn injuries—achievements that were previously possible only through skin grafts. While often described with terms like “miraculous” and “magical”, the true genius of this product lies in its foundation of pure science. Central to its efficacy is the patented TFC8 (Trigger Factor Complex), an exclusive technology comprising over 40 ingredients, and the result of over 30 years of research and clinical study. TFC8 guides key nutrients and powerful natural ingredients to the skin, creating an optimal environment for cellular renewal. It adapts to individual skin needs, addressing concerns such as fine lines, wrinkles, redness, hyperpigmentation, and damage from environmental stressors. By nourishing and protecting the skin, TFC8 promotes a complexion that looks and feels healthier, firmer, and more even over time.

Winner: Best Night Cream

AQ Absolute Treatment Sculpting Balm, $398, Decorté

Decorté’s AQ Absolute Treatment Sculpting Balm transforms from a rich cream into a nourishing balm upon contact with your body temperature, deeply conditioning and smoothing skin damaged by daytime dryness to impart a vibrant lustre as you sleep. Infused with botanical extracts like champaca, which enhances skin resilience and tone, white mucuna to awaken the skin’s innate ability to revive, and sandalwood extract for dewy moisture, it minimises the appearance of fine lines and leaves skin supple and radiant. Enriched with rare white birch water rich in minerals and amino acids, this balm delivers deep hydration, while its blissful scent centred on champaca soothes and relaxes the mind.

Winner: Most Luxurious Face Cream

Sisleÿa L’Intégral Anti-Age Fresh Gel Cream, $665 for 50ml, Sisley Paris

Sisley Paris’ Sisleÿa L’Intégral Anti-Age Fresh Gel Cream is a high-performance formula that addresses both genetic and environmental factors affecting the skin, targeting the visible signs associated with all dimensions of skin ageing. Enriched with more than 50 active ingredients—including apple seed, ratanhia, and alchemilla extracts—it stimulates, regenerates, and restructures the skin to promote cellular vitality. With its fresh, lightweight, non-greasy texture that melts into the skin for a shine-free finish, this cream helps make age just a number.

Winner: Best Chemical Peel

The Exceptional Overnight Chronobiology Peel, $478, Noble Panacea

Indulge in a luxurious, intensive overnight treatment that synchronises with your skin’s natural nightly biorhythms to maximise exfoliation. The Exceptional Overnight Chronobiology Peel by Noble Panacea employs groundbreaking OSMV Technology to release a powerful, gradual, and micro-dosed complex of AHAs and BHA between 11pm and 4am—when skin cell renewal is at its peak. This process allows for effective exfoliation, deep detoxification, removal of dead skin cells, and minimises the appearance of pores. From 4am onwards, as skin absorption reaches its highest, the calming properties of gotu kola infuse the skin, helping to reduce redness and sensitivity. Wake up to renewed, luminous, and healthy-looking skin with refined texture and tone, visibly improved fine lines and wrinkles, and a revitalised complexion.

Winner: Best Hydrating Facial Mist

Beauty Elixir, $75 for 100ml, Caudalie

Inspired by the centuries-old elixir of youth used by Queen Isabelle of Hungary, Caudalie’s Beauty Elixir combines natural ingredients and essential oils to tone the skin, tighten pores, and boost your complexion’s glow. This multi-purpose spray can be used as a toner after cleansing, a setting mist to fix makeup, or a midday pick-me-up to revitalise tired skin. Suitable for all skin types, its uplifting fragrance and gentle formula make it an indispensable addition to your skincare routine, leaving your skin refreshed, hydrated, and radiant.

Winner: Best Face Oil

The Brilliant Glow Hydration Oil, $375, Noble Panacea

A luxurious oil that leaves your skin smooth, supple, and radiant, Noble Panacea’s The Brilliant Glow Hydration Oil serves as the final step in your skincare routine, designed to lock in and seal all previously applied products for maximum efficacy. The OSMV encapsulation technology, also present in The Exceptional Overnight Chronobiology Peel mentioned earlier, delivers hyaluronic acid—a water-soluble active ingredient—deep into the skin for long-term hydration, a feat not previously achieved in an oil formulation. Carefully crafted with vegan oils like raspberry seed oil to boost radiance, plum kernel seed oil to soften the skin, and serenoa serrulata (saw palmetto) extract to regulate sebum production, it also helps protect against free radical damage while reducing trans-epidermal water loss. From the first use, your skin feels smoother, hydrated, and luminous, transforming your complexion with a healthy glow.

Winner: Best Makeup Remover

Green Clean Makeup Meltaway Cleansing Balm, $64 for 100ml, Farmacy

Dissolve makeup and impurities and leave your skin hydrated and silky smooth with the Farmacy Green Clean Makeup Meltaway Cleansing Balm. This innovative balm maintains a sorbet-like solidity in the jar but transforms into a silky oil upon contact with the skin, effectively removing even the most stubborn eye makeup and long-wear foundation without stripping or drying. Infused with nourishing sunflower and ginger root oils, it cleanses while papaya extract gently exfoliates to reveal a youthful glow. Suitable for all skin types—including dry and sensitive skin—it offers an exhilarating sensory experience with a refreshing blend of lime, bergamot, and orange essential oils. Compact and travel-friendly, this cleansing balm elevates your daily skincare routine into a revitalising ritual.

Editor’s Pick: Best Makeup Remover

Makeup Melting Cleansing Oil, $29.90, Bioré

Bioré Makeup Melting Cleansing Oil is a gentle yet powerful cleanser that effortlessly dissolves makeup—including stubborn waterproof formulas—without the need for rubbing or tugging. Utilising innovative Auto-Cleansing Technology, this lightweight oil activates upon contact, instantly melting away makeup and impurities while lifting them from deep within the pores. Enriched with mineral oils and hydrating ingredients, it leaves skin feeling clean, refreshed, and comfortably moisturised, making it suitable for even sensitive and dry skin types. Delicately scented with notes of white florals, it transforms the makeup removal process into a soothing ritual to look forward to each day. Additionally, its unique formulation is compatible with eyelash extensions secured with cyanoacrylate glue, ensuring they remain intact and pristine during cleansing.

The selections made for the Harper’s BAZAAR Singapore Beauty Awards 2024 are the result of extensive and rigorous testing of over 500 entries. Over the course of six weeks, the BAZAAR team, alongside a panel of esteemed experts from the beauty industry, including makeup artist Larry Yeo, aesthetic doctor Dr Rachel Ho, and beauty insider Michelle Sielman, each brought their unique expertise to the judging process and have meticulously evaluated each product.