More often than not, if you were to walk up to a beauty editor and ask them to ID every single beauty product they’re wearing—from bronze to strands—you’d receive an eclectic earful. My personal product roster is proof, and I also happen to be friends with and regularly attend events alongside plenty of other product-wise beauty editors. Not to mention I live with my fellow WWW beauty editor Amanda Montell and know her beauty routine like the back of my hand.
There are certain super-iconic beauty brands that are household names—the well-known power players that consistently make best seller lists and march across the glossy pages of our favorite magazines. We’d be lying if we said we don’t own, love, and regularly use a collection of products from said brands, but the majority of our beauty must-haves hail from lesser-known indie beauty brands no one seems to talk about, which is odd considering how strong a following they have within the underground world of beauty-product fanaticism (aka beauty-editor group texts and Gchats worldwide).
Nine times out of 10, when a stranger compliments me on my highlight or the believability of my mid-winter tan, the product culprit I reveal is met with confusion and wonder. As a beauty editor, there’s nothing more satisfying than sipping product tea with a fellow beauty lover, and the party becomes twice as fun when you can reveal an unknown they’ll undoubtedly fall head over heels for.
Since we can’t count on running into all of our readers and fellow product hoarders at the gym or mid–coffee run, we thought we might as well dish up all of our best beauty dirt here and now by highlighting 27 of the best under-the-radar hair, skin, and makeup brands beauty editors love like a fifth limb but are still relatively unknown to the general public. Keep scrolling! (And maybe ready your credit card and make some room on your vanity.)
Source: Who What Wear – Erin Jahns