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Every single product that receives a GQ Grooming Award earned it because we think it will improve your life in some way. It's little things, generally—a comfortable shave, a more-interesting scent, slightly whiter teeth. But taking care of yourself adds up to more than the sum of its parts. It's the charge of feeling your best and the pleasure of a considered routine with products you love using. And trust us: you're going to like these 85 winners.
The GQ Grooming Awards Table of Contents
In case you're looking for something specific.
- Body Care
- Hands and Nails
- Beauty
- Cologne
- Home Fragrance
- Skin Care
- Hair
- Shaving
- Oral Care and Teeth Whitening
The Best Body Products
One of the most welcome personal-care trends of the past few years has been companies developing body care products with the same ultra-potent ingredients you used to only find in tiny, expensive bottles of stuff meant for your face. Take Fur’s Silk Scrub exfoliant, which combines chemical and physical exfoliation to dissolve and buff away gunk—it’s like a brightening face mask for your entire body. And this trend isn’t limited to just small labels—our go-to drugstore brands are getting in on the action, too. Axe’s Acne Control soap bar uses powerful salicylic acid to clean deep inside pores in a way that normal soap just can’t. If you’re dealing with bacne, this deserves a spot in your shower caddy.
Of course, normal soap is exactly what you should be using most days, and you’ve got more options than ever. For something unscented, the plush texture of the Skin-Caring body wash from Seen made it a clear winner. If you prefer something lightly scented, Cardon’s Vital body wash will make you feel like the grimiest shower is a summer downpour in an evergreen forest. And if you’re looking for something strong, look no further than Cremo’s Vintage Suede body wash—it’s a gigantic leather scent you would swear came from a niche perfumer.
No matter how gentle your shower routine is, you always want to add moisture back once you dry off. For a traditional lotion, look to the Humidifying Body Cream from Humanrace, which uses another fancy skin care ingredient, the natural retinol alternative bakuchiol, to keep your entire epidermis hydrated. But we also love Bathing Culture Heat Wave body oil. It won’t sink in quite as readily, which isn’t great when you’re scrambling to get out the door in the morning, but that means it’s especially nice to have someone else rub onto you, if you catch our drift.
For the odds and ends (knees, elbows, knuckles), you want the Le Labo’s Multi-Purpose Balm. It’s a thick and potent moisturizer, and it just smells incredible—as you might expect from this fragrance powerhouse. A dab on your chest could conceivably replace your morning spritz of cologne.
When we think “spray deodorant,” that means those heavy-duty aerosols found in gym locker rooms around the globe. That is, until we tried Ursa Major’s Sublime Sage. It’s a spray made from natural ingredients that keeps you fresh all day—maybe the most surprising product we tried all year. Of course, those classic antiperspirant sprays are popular in locker rooms because they work. And no antiperspirant we tested this year just works like the Advanced 72H Motionsense deodorant from Degree. It contains sweat-stopping aluminum (an ingredient that doesn’t deserve its bad rap over unfounded health concerns), and it’s what we’d use for a midsummer round of golf or 20-hour travel day.
Aluminum will eventually discolor the armpits of your white shirts, so either wear an undershirt or reach for Dove Men+Care Clean Touch refillable deodorant. It’s aluminum free, smells quite nice, and comes in a nifty stainless refillable applicator to cut down on plastic waste.
Speaking of cutting down on waste: no product is doing more with less than the Panasonic Multishape Ultimate All-In-One Kit. It uses the same motorized base to power face, body, nose hair trimmers—and a toothbrush! Packing for a week-long business trip will never be the same.
Of course, sometimes you want to separate church and state. (By which we mean use a dedicated trimmer on your junk.) The Gillette Intimate body hair trimmer uses ultra-fine, closely spaced blades to keep any skin from slipping into the cutting zone, preventing nicks in the most uncomfortable places.
The Best For Your Hands and Nails
Where we’re sitting, nobody even bats an eye at some nail polish on a guy these days. In fact, the only thing that might get you judged is trying to lay down a manicure on beat-to-hell hands. So start with a solid foundation and a nightly application of Theraplush, from Soft Services. It’s got skin-plumping retinol (yet another potent skin care ingredient) and comes in a incognito dispenser all but guaranteed to look good on your bedside table.
Then, once your cuticles start growing again, keep them in place with the Men's Nail Pushy & Cleaner from Tweezerman. And if you’re ready to get really advanced, pick up a tube of Chanel’s L'Huile Camélia nail and cuticle oil. A nightly application is a genuinely luxurious little ritual—the fact that it prevents your fingers from peeling and bleeding is almost just a bonus.
When you’re ready for a coat of polish, consider Color Matter from Off-White. True to the late Virgil Abloh’s spirit, it’s a range of colors just off-kilter enough to demand you take a second look.
For more harmony—and more Harry Styles—grab the entire Pleasing x Marco Ribeiro nail polish set from the pop star's brand. The tonal mix of the whole set works together in interesting ways if you’ve got designs on becoming a nail art Vermeer.
The Best in Beauty
These days, a guy wearing makeup isn’t necessarily making some big statement about gender. An application of Milk Makeup’s Future Fluid concealer, for example, is just a natural way to look a little more handsome. And for an important Zoom—because somehow we’re still doing that!—nothing will temper the glare off your face like a coat of Smashbox Photo Finish mattifying face primer.
But for a big look—you know, the club, a date, or a really important Zoom—it’s hard to do better than a chromatic blast from a Glossier No. 1 eyeliner pencil.
The Best New Fragrance
No perfumer is having a run like Francis Kurkdjian, who was appointed to lead Dior’s fragrance operation late last year. His own label is also growing rapidly, propelled by the mania over Baccarat Rouge 540 (which is on pace to define the smell of the decade the way that Le Labo’s Santal 33 did the last). But it’s a little ironic that his best-known fragrance has only a little of the metallic lightness that has become his calling card—whereas his latest, 724, practically floats in the breeze like a crisp white oxford shirt. That same sheen is all over Cologne Blanche, a 2004 release that he created for Dior and the house re-issued upon his appointment. It’s a sweet, powdery citrus so airy it practically drifts to the ceiling.
If you crave dampened freshness instead, there’s Polo Earth, a mostly-natural bottling from Ralph Lauren that gives the impression it was recently pressed out of just-picked flowers. For a slightly heavier floral: Prada’s Infusion D'Ylang, a sweet bouquet that works on anyone of any gender.
But even in this fluid age, great leaps are still being made in decidedly masculine fragrances (that also work on anyone of any gender). Take Frederic Malle’s Uncut Gem. A genuinely imposing wall of vetiver and amber, it’s the one for any guys looking to take the next step from established designer cologne down the perfume rabbit hole. If the rabbit hole sounds daunting (it's dark, after all, and can involve a lot of time on Reddit), Hawthorne's Warm and Aromatic is mercifully straightforward—it's all right there in the name—but no less effective at subverting expectation. Lavender and bergamot is a classic combination, but tonka and cedarwood add a dash of tempered sweetness to the mix.
Other fragrances are simply too specific to call masculine or feminine: take the new-tennis-ball pop of DS & Durga’s Leatherize and the wonderful concrete breeze of Maison Martin Margiela When the Rain Stops. Or soak in the powdery haze of Louis Vuitton City of Stars, where the weather is stupidly perfect and in fact the edible is just starting to kick in.
Still others explore a dominant olfactory family. Wood, for instance: where Gucci’s Love At Your Darkest blends in warm spice and Tom Ford’s Ébène Fumé uses incense, Aesop Eidesis is an entire sawmill full of aerosolized resin and dust.
Or sometimes it’s more of an idea, like fire. If sweet and spiced Arquiste Indigo Smoke smokes gently, Guerlain's thrilling Oud Khôl burns white-hot, like you’re downwind from a steel-mill blast furnace that’s somehow fired with precious agar wood.
The Best Home Fragrance
The La Droguerie odor-removing candle is just one part of Diptyque’s extremely fun entrée into cleaning products—seriously, the fancy French brand is now making amazing-smelling dish soap and vinegar-based surface cleaner. And while candles are often used to mask unpleasant smells, this one is best used while you’re scrubbing and vacuuming. The overall effect is making a perfectly clean room smell just that much cleaner.
Some incenses smell like a cathedral, others like a campfire. Vyrao’s Verdant incense is firmly in the latter camp—it’s green and resinous rather than perfumed and ecclesiastical. No fireplace, no problem, in other words, even if you’re trying to set the mood on a chill winter evening.
There’s no reason to stop your olfactory control at your foyer: on the back side of the Seasons car clip is a receiving slot for the brand’s fragrant oils. Vetiver? Ylang ylang? No matter what you choose, we’ve come a long way from Black Ice.
The Best Skin Care
Any skin care routine starts with face wash, which is usually a compromise between opposite poles: powerful acne-fighting cleansers threaten to dry you out, while gentle products simply don’t do anything. A few years ago, Philosophy’s cult-favorite cleanser somehow broke that law, with a super-powerful clean that’s also easy on the skin. And with the Purity Made Simple Pore Purifying Foam Cleanser, the brand took that essential appeal and made it foam—it’s now much easier to work with for guys with beards. If, however, you prefer a more straightforward consistency, look no further than the Neutrogena Hydroboost cleanser, which manages a similar balance in a gel.
The next step is usually a hydrating serum. For daytime, you want Jaxon Lane’s Super Serum, which packs a murder’s row of helpful ingredients into a straightforward, quick-drying base. If you’re headed to bed, on the other hand, the heavier Estee Lauder’s Advanced Night Repair Serum is best when it has all night to work its hyaluronic-acid powered magic.
Exfoliation might be the most personal skin care decision—one man’s cleansing mask is another’s chemical burn. So start slow: for daily use or sensitive skin, Dr. Jart+ Pore Remedy PHA exfoliating serum uses a class of chemical exfoliants that’s much gentler than the more common acids. For a deeper, once-in-a-while kind of clean, spend just a moment with Sisley’s Exfoliating Enzyme Mask—no need for cucumbers when it only takes 60 seconds to work.
And while you still have to get a prescription to get the most powerful skin-saving retinols on the market, the over-the-counter stuff is getting better every year. In fact, the only way we’d know Protocol-Lab’s Enzyme-Active retinol serum didn’t come from a pharmacist is that it feels too good to put on.
If your routine is packed with powerful serums, all you need from your moisturizer is a finishing hit of, you know, moisture. Augustinus Bader’s The Light Cream fits this niche nicely. It leaves a perfect texture on your cheekbones and otherwise is a fast-drying team player, even on swampy summer days.
If, on the other hand, you’re looking for an entire skin care routine in one bottle, start with skin brightening vitamin C. Dr. Dennis Gross Vitamin C Lactic moisturizer is ultralight, practically a serum, while Sunday Riley’s CEO Afterglow is plush—but both make excellent use of the ingredient to leave your skin buffed to a shine.
And if it’s maximum hydration you’re after, look even heavier. The matte texture of Isla’s Whipped Dream moisturizer means you could get away with it for daytime use; we’d keep Kiehl's Midnight Recovery night cream strictly after dark. But with enough time, both will leave you waking up like you got nine hours of sleep instead of six.
We’d describe Tatcha’s Clarifying Clay Mask as old school, given the straightforward clay texture, if it didn’t have a trick up its sleeve: it goes from a pale green to a pinkish color when its work is done. It’s a little like those cans of Coors Light that change color—hasn’t gotten old yet!
There’s decent evidence that a little physical stimulation works as well as any cream to give you a fuller, less-tired-looking complexion. Therabody made its name with devices powerful enough for the muscle of pro athletes, but their latest, the Theraface Pro is much more delicate. The little machine has lots of tricks up its sleeve—heat, red light, eclectic current (!)—but it’s the rhythmic tapping massage we loved most. Of course, you can also get some of the same effects of a facial rubdown in a much older way. Supernal’s Cosmic Stone glides across your face—do it right, gently, and you can practically feel the tension in your jaw dissolve.
If, in spite of all of that work, you still end up with a volcanic zit? Embrace it with a Black Star pimple patch from Starface—it happens!
It’s never been easier to make the switch to physical (otherwise known as mineral or natural) sunscreen—they’re better for coral reefs (and maybe for you), and gloppy texture and mime-makeup white casts are mostly a thing of the past. That’s thanks to the work of companies like Nécessaire, whose Sunscreen is true to the brand's minimalist ethos—it’s a simple easy-to-apply mineral sunblock and nothing more.
Drugstore superbrand CeraVe, on the other hand, bulked up the Hydrating Mineral Sunscreen with hydrating ingredients. It’s not a moisturizer exactly, but you could do a lot worse than simply slapping this on each morning.
Of course, there’s still a long way to go before chemical sunscreens give up their edge in texture. Supergoop Every Single Face watery lotion goes on instantly. Unless you’re spending lots of time around coral (lucky you), this one is hard to beat.
The Best Hair Products
The Ordinary has probably done more than any brand to make guys aware of the specific ingredients in their skin care products, and now they’re attempting to do the same with hair. It’s off to a pretty counterintuitive start. While most enlightened hair-care brands have left harsh sulfates behind, the Sulfate 4% Cleanser makes the case (pretty convincingly) that it was the out-of-control quantities in bad shampoo that were the problem, not the ingredient itself.
If you’re not convinced, Olaplex’s no. 4 Bond Maintenance Shampoo is a gentler option, suitable for use more than a few days a week (if you must). Don’t leave this in a gym shower and expect to still be there when you get back.
In many ways conditioner is more important than shampoo (not that we’re picking sides). Our favorite rinse-our conditioner was R+Co Bleu Essential, which left everything deeply silky without a hair-mask time commitment. Even faster was Drunk Elephant’s brilliant Silkamino leave-in conditioner—simply work it though your mane and get on with your day. And more people every year are giving up shampoo entirely in order to co-wash—to cleanse their hair as needed with conditioner. Any product will work, but we’ve loved seeing dedicated products like Geologie’s Smoothing Co-Wash hitting the market with smart adjustments to texture and fragrance to help everything feel extra clean.
Kinky and coiled hair has special moisture needs to avoid becoming frizzy. And the Blue Tansy hair serum from the Black-owned brand Adwoa is specifically tuned for the needs of textured hair.
Conventional hair dryers use hot air to dry your hair. Obviously, right? It’s wasn’t even clear that there could be another way until we tried the Zuvi Halo hair dryer, which uses light to dry your follicles. That means it’s better on a day-to-day basis (it’s quicker) and in the long term (it’s gentler on your mane).
Two celebrity hairstylists released truly excellent hair products this year. Kristan Serafino (who cuts Ryan Reynolds, among other A-listers) Launched the Best Paste, a run of products in 5 different combinations of shine and hold. Our favorite was the natural shine, firm hold—a modern take on greaser pomade that rinses right out at the end of the day.
Mira Chai Hyde (Pedro Pascal, Simu Liu, David Bowie (!) at one point) focused on one product to start, the House of Skuff Potion No. 1 styling cream. It’s gives unmatched balance of touchability and hold, and ideal for dialing the exact degree of natural flow—the ever-elusive product that looks like you’re not wearing any product.
For a more-textured look, American Crew Matte Clay Spray will give some body with a little bit of give. And for tenacious all-day hold, Patricks FM2.5 matte styling wax will keep things choppy until you say otherwise.
The genius of L'Oreal’s Men Expert Hair Dye is in the plastic applicator. We’d quibble with the name, in fact: It’s so well designed you don’t have to be an expert to take care of some pesky grays.
The Best Shaving Products
The Achilles heel of foil shavers has always been the wild hairs that grow against the grain. So for the Series 9 Pro electric shaver, Braun added an entirely separate cutting element into the middle of the overall assembly specifically to mow down the hairs that zig when all the others are zagging.
One place you might not expect much progress is in old-fashioned safety razors, whose biggest fans tend to embrace old-fashioned practicality. But Rockwell T2 safety razor uses a unique hinge and an intuitive adjustment knob to get the razor exactly where it will give the closest irritation-free shave. Unlike a lot of the cartridge-shaving tech out there, it’s some real innovation.
If you’ve ever struggled to get your sideburns perfectly even—which is to say, if you’ve ever shaved your face—you’ll understand the appeal of Sheamoisture’s Invisible Lineup Gel. It’s all the lubrication of a full-on shaving cream but that actually lets you see what you’re doing when blade meets skin. On the other hand, vision is not an issue if you’re shaving your head—if you’re going 100% shorn, Smooth Headcare Close Shave shaving cream is a unobtrusive, hydrating helper. And if your main goal in getting baby-faced is smelling like you got cleaned up by a taciturn nonno in a Milan barbershop—even if you’re doing the job in a bathroom you share with two roomates—look no further than Pisterzi shaving cream.
The best way to combat ingrown hairs is to exfoliate, and our favorite way to exfoliate lately has been Topicals High Roller ingrown tonic, which uses potent acids to free those pesky follicles before they get red and inflamed.
It can be easy to roll your eyes at “FOR MEN” brands these days—everyone’s got skin! But not everyone goes bald. And the guys that do need protection from the sun that won’t leave their domes chalky or gluey. Old Spice Bald Care scalp moisturizer with sunscreen is here for you, man.
The Bevel Pro clipper and beard trimmer is without a doubt the best beard trimmer of the year, but calling this thing a “beard trimmer” doesn’t feel quite right—it’s meant to stand up to all-day professional use in barbershops. That doesn’t mean it won’t work on your face, of course: In the best way, mowing down your stubble with this thing is like killing a mosquito with laser-guided strike from an F-14.
If, on the other hand, you’re letting your scruff stay put, you want to be sure it’s nicely hydrated. Our favorite way to do that, lately, has been Musgo Real’s Black Edition beard oil. Gotta be honest here: all beard oil is pretty good at the moisture part. We love this one for the fragrance, a high-toned gin cocktail that gives way to a burly woody backbone.
The Best in Oral Care and Teeth Whitening
As electric toothbrushes have piled on gimmicks—Bluetooth chips, subscription services—Sonicare’s affordable, no frills 4100 electric toothbrush was sneakily always the one to get. And while the new generation is better in every way (smaller, quieter, and less buzzy to brush with), it thankfully hasn’t gotten any more expensive.
If you’ve ever known someone who switched to hippie toothpaste from the co-op and was soon wincing in agony when they tried to drink a cold glass of water, you’ll understand the appeal of Better & Better’s Fortify toothpaste. It ditches fluoride (toxic in high concentrations; probably fine for oral-care use) but adds hydroxyapatite, which has a similar strengthening effect on teeth.
Cocofloss is the most pleasant dental floss out there, period. And while they release a steady stream of wacky flavors—"confetti cake" was a recent highlight—it’s hard to beat good old mint.
If you’d prefer to flush between your teeth with water, the latest in water flossers are cordless models that don’t come with a huge tank. A standout is the Oral B Water Flosser Advanced, which is easy to customize to blast out your gums without spraying all over your sink.
Custom whitening trays sound like a ridiculous indulgence until you’ve got an ill-fitting chunk of plastic stuck in your jaw and you’re experiencing Christoper Nolan-movie time dilation waiting for that timer to beep. Burst’s custom whitening trays are the best current way to get a setup that actually fits.
A few years ago Crest did away with the trays entirely, with an innovative gel that goes straight onto your teeth. The newest Overnight Freshness Whitening Emulsions allows you to go straight to sleep after painting it on, which you really don’t want to do with a tray.
And the most innovative whitening concept comes from Snow. Night guards and clear aligners like Invisalign are more popular than ever, and a squirt of Whitening Foam turns them instantly into a whitening device. Birds, meet stone: It’s obviously not for everyone, but if you’re straightening your smile, you might as well whiten it while you’re at it.
PRODUCTION CREDITS:
Photographs by Alex Hodor-Lee
Styled by Brandon Tan
Hair by Natalie Jones using Oribe Hair Care
Grooming by Laramie using Chanel Beauty and Oribe
Nails by Nori using Off-White
