Welcome to our annual skincare awards, guys! It was a lengthy, at-times difficult process, but we managed to whittle all the best skincare products we’ve been using this year down year to five. These are the true desert-island skincare products. The ones we keep re-purchasing, find ourselves gushing to our best friends about, and wouldn’t be afraid to take back home to meet the parents.

Ah, Estée Lauder. You truly are the light of my life, fixer of my puffy eye bags. My face is like that big mouth in Year 6 who was always spilling your beans, in that, if I try to conceal any secret late night vinos/cigarettes, it betrays the eff out of me. Au contraire, the Estée Lauder Advanced Night Repair Eye Concentrate Matrix is akin to the mate who will take your secrets to the grave, no matter what. Raise your glass to that!

I’m pretty sure my love for Estée Lauder is hereditary. My first beauty memories involve clomping around in heels, using mum’s expensive lipstick to draw on the walls, and playing with her many Estée Lauder products. I grew up on the stuff. And, out of all their products I’ve tried throughout the years, this one is my hot-damn favourite. Here’s why:

ICYMI, the Advanced Night Repair serum is THE cult beauty product for women of every age. Check any review section, and you’re guaranteed to be inundated with comments praising the serum for its efficacy in creating beautiful skin. Off the back of that raging success, Estée Lauder has created this eye-specific serum that helps to prevent damage done to our eyes by the micro-movements they constantly make each day (squinting, smiling, or LOLing). These movements are the leading factor in ageing around the eyes, and while you sleep, the night repair eye serum gets to work righting all the day’s wrongs.

I knew we were going to be secret-swapping sweethearts from the moment I opened the serum and found it included an applicator. No grubby fingers required. (Plus I felt like a scientist.) I found the serum to be incredibly nourishing, but not overly oily. It gave my eyes room to be the best versions of themselves, without leaving any gross residue. The packaging is lush.com, and the contents are the tall glass of iced water my eye bags deserve.

Most superfluously, I love it because the product description includes the word “synchronised.” Every time I apply it, I imagine my eye bags are just two synchronised swimmers trying to make it in this world. Buy it here. Ily, Estée!

Words, Madeleine Woon. Photography, Blair Gauld.