It’s rare for beauty products to live up to their claims – here are four standouts
Beauty innovations that made their mark in 2025
Beauty innovation is something I always look at with a carefully appraising eye. Brands love to tell us that they’ve created something entirely new, something which ‘disrupts the industry’ and ‘changes the game’, but the reality is that often that’s not the case. Frequently, brand new products are just existing products with new packaging and a new ingredient or two. Sometimes, however, things actually are innovative. Other times, products are simply better than what’s existed before. As we begin a new year, I thought I’d recommend some products from last year which fall into those categories for me.
1. K18 Airwash Dry Shampoo (€25-€49 via k18hair.ie) – This dry shampoo is an absolute game changer. Despite the name, it’s not actually a ‘dry’ shampoo, it does actually spray liquid on the hair. Once you’ve blasted your roots dry though, it is truly as though you’ve washed your hair. This means that you don’t just get an extra day out of your wash, you could actually get two or three. Odour is neutralised, oil is gone, it genuinely feels like magic. Unfortunately, innovation doesn’t come cheap, so this is pricey for a product in this category. Still, I find its effectiveness means a bottle lasts a long time, so I’m still getting bang for my buck.