Behind-the-Scenes of the Who What Wear 100 Beauty Awards

Welcome to our podcast, Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr. Think of it as your direct line to the designers, stylists, beauty experts, editors, and tastemakers who are shaping the fashion-and-beauty world. Subscribe to Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

The Who What Wear 100 Beauty Awards list is here!

From 1000s and 1000s of applicants, the WWW beauty team created an 800-product-long short list, and over the past several months, Who What Wear staffers have been meticulously testing all of the products. The result? A curated list of 100 excellent beauty products across seven different categories. For the latest episode of Who What Wear With Hillary Kerr, Who What Wear Beauty Director Erin Jahns sits down with Editor in Chief Kat Collings to walk us through the testing and selection process, dish on the most surprising winners (including a perfume that smells like a croissant), and report on the products everyone needs to add to their cart.

For excerpts from their conversation, scroll below.

Can you explain a little bit about what the WWW 100 list is all about?

This is something that a lot of other publications do every year, and we felt like it was finally time that we added our spin into it. While 100 products probably seems like a lot, it’s actually quite a tight list compared to other publications, which have usually hundreds of products. We have seven big categories—skincare, hair, makeup, fragrance, nails, body, and tools. Within those seven categories, we have those subcategories, like mascara, eyeliner, foundation, and concealer [for makeup]. Basically, [it’s] everything that you can imagine.

We got 1000s and 1000s of applicants, which was really, really, really exciting. We whittled it down to a short list of … 800-something products, which is not that short of a short list. From there, we just started divvying to all of our different in-house testers. We had 20 editors within the Who What Wear family testing things. It’s been quite the process.

I was lucky enough to be one of those testers alongside yourself, of course. Why don’t you share a little bit about that vetting process once we received the products.

It was about a three- to four-month testing period. We also split it up, as some categories are better suited to be tested at home, like haircare products, body products, and whatnot. We also designated makeup and fragrance to be more group-setting office testing. … That way, people can try things, play around, take things home if they want to. It was kind of nice to have those two separate environments to be testing. It was like a full-time job. We had a really set form that people would fill out with lots of different questions. If something immediately got a no or if they got an ick from anything, they were out. Anything that they really liked, we would keep testing [it].

Are there any other skin products (because everybody has such different skin concerns or how they react to different things) that you think are pretty universal?

I feel like a favorite that I hear everybody talk about, whether it’s on TikTok or editors, is the Tower 28 Beauty SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray, especially now that we’re going into summer. It’s really, really great for redness, and it’s a facial spray, so I think everybody could benefit from it.

Let’s get into makeup. There are so many buzzy brands out there. It’s overwhelming. What’s like a short list if someone had 15 minutes to run into Sephora or Ulta—three things that they should have in their cart?

The foundation winner, which … is such a cult favorite, was the Armani Luminous Silk Foundation. Every editor who tried it loved it. I swear every makeup artist uses it on celebrities. You really can’t beat it, so I would for sure get that at Sephora. The Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Blush, everyone’s heard about it by now, but it really, really is so good.

I would say the Gisou lip oil. I feel like this was a little bit going under the radar, and then it had a moment on TikTok, and they launched shades. Before, they just had a clear, but it is the best lip oil. I was talking about it till I was blue in the face. We were all in the office testing, and I made so many people try it. Sure enough, it ended up being one of their favorite products because it just has the best texture. It really, really actually does moisturize your lips, and now that they have the shades, you can get that pigment if you want it. [It’s] one of my all-time favorite products for makeup.

Let’s talk about fragrances. It’s a category that I know our readers on-site love to shop, talk about. Fragrance is so personal. … Are [there] any fragrances that you tested that are sort of like universal crowd-pleasers?

Probably the most surprising winner of the whole awards was Snif’s Crumb Couture, which is kind of like a wild-card crowd-favorite winner. We had this on the table in the conference room, and it’s basically supposed to smell like a croissant. All the editors were like, “This is gonna be a no. Who wants to smell like a croissant?” I opened it, and I smelled it, and my jaw probably dropped because I was like, “No, you guys, this actually smells amazing.”

We went around the circle, and everybody had to smell it and give their hot take. By the end, we were all fighting over who got to take it home because it quite literally smells like if you sat in a French café while croissants were being baked. It’s such a dreamy, nice smell. I checked with the New York office because they did a similar test with fragrances, and it was the same reaction—so crazy. Everyone’s gonna be smelling like a croissant at Who What Wear.

Fabulous. Is this going to be an annual thing?

Oh, yes. That’s one thing that’s really exciting about doing something the first time. It’s amazing and beautiful, but it’s gonna continue to evolve and definitely be a regular thing.

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. Next, check out our interview with artist and icon Julia Fox.