Award-Winning": Who Gave the Award and What Were the Criteria?

“Award-winning serum.” “Multi-award-winning moisturiser.” “Winner of 15 beauty awards.”

These claims appear on packaging, advertisements, and retail displays. They imply third-party validation, expert endorsement, industry recognition. The product must be good — it won awards.

But who gives beauty awards? What do you have to do to win? And what does “award-winning” actually tell you about a product?

Often, less than you’d think.

The Beauty Award Landscape

Dozens of organisations give out beauty awards:

Magazine beauty awards
Industry trade awards
Consumer voting awards
Retailer awards
Influencer choice awards
Online publication awards
Trade show awards
“Expert panel” awards

Each has different criteria, processes, and levels of rigour. Not all awards are created equal.

How Magazine Awards Work

Beauty magazine awards are among the most prestigious-sounding. Here’s how many actually work:

The Entry Process

Brands submit products for consideration. Submission often includes:

Product samples
Press releases and marketing materials
Sometimes, entry fees

Products that aren’t submitted aren’t considered. The pool reflects which brands participate, not the full market.

The Judging

Judging varies by publication:

Best case: Editors and beauty experts test products over weeks, compare options, evaluate formulations, and select winners based on performance.

Common case: Editors try products briefly, combine personal preferences with advertiser relationships, and select winners that balance editorial credibility with commercial considerations.

Worst case: Products from major advertisers mysteriously win consistently. Non-advertisers mysteriously don’t.

The Advertising Factor

Magazines depend on advertising revenue. Beauty brands are major advertisers. The relationship between editorial awards and advertising spending is rarely discussed but widely understood.

This doesn’t mean every award is bought. But it means the system has built-in conflicts of interest.

Category Proliferation

More categories mean more winners. A magazine with 50 award categories can honour 50 products — and maintain good relationships with 50 brands.

“Best Hydrating Serum for Combination Skin Over £40” is a very specific category that allows very specific winners.

Consumer Voting Awards

Some awards are based on consumer voting:

“Readers’ Choice Awards”
“Beauty Bible” style consumer panels
Online voting competitions

How They Work

Consumers vote for their favourite products. Winners supposedly reflect what real people actually prefer.

The Problems

Voting campaigns: Brands encourage customers to vote, creating campaigns around awards. The winner reflects marketing mobilisation as much as product quality.

Sample bias: Voters are typically engaged beauty consumers, not representative of all users.

Awareness bias: People vote for products they know. Heavily marketed products have awareness advantages.

Limited testing: Voters typically haven’t compared all options in a category. They vote for what they’ve tried, not what’s objectively best.

Trade and Industry Awards

Industry awards come from trade organisations and professional bodies:

Cosmetics industry associations
Trade publications
Professional conferences

What They Measure

Often innovation, packaging, marketing campaigns, or business metrics rather than product performance for consumers.

“Most Innovative Packaging” and “Best Marketing Campaign” don’t tell you whether the product works.

Peer Voting

When industry professionals vote, they may reward brands they have relationships with, admire commercially, or want to cultivate connections with.

Online Publication Awards

Digital beauty publications and influencer-led platforms increasingly give awards:

Blog/website “best of” lists
YouTube creator awards
Instagram account picks

The Economics

Many online publications rely on affiliate revenue. Recommending products generates income when readers purchase.

Award lists featuring products with affiliate programs earn money. Award lists featuring products without affiliate programs don’t.

This doesn’t mean recommendations are insincere — but financial incentives shape what gets featured.

What “Award-Winning” Actually Tells You

At Best

A product was submitted to an award programme, was considered alongside other submitted products, and was selected by the judging process as a winner in its category.

This indicates some level of recognition but doesn’t guarantee:

Independent testing
Comparison against all market alternatives
Rigorous evaluation criteria
Freedom from commercial influence

At Worst

A brand paid entry fees, had good advertiser relationships, and received recognition that’s partly transactional.

Or: the award category was so narrow that winning required only being the sole entrant.

Or: the award programme itself exists primarily to sell “award-winning” status to brands.

Award Mills

Some award programmes exist primarily to generate revenue from entry fees and “winner” licensing:

Entry fees for consideration
Fees to use “award-winning” logos
Fees for awards ceremonies and trophies
Awards in so many categories that most entrants win something

These programmes give brands marketing assets. Whether they indicate product quality is questionable.

Questions to Ask

When you see “award-winning,” consider:

Who Gave the Award?

A respected publication with editorial independence?
A trade organisation with industry credibility?
An unknown award programme you’ve never heard of?
A programme that seems to exist primarily to give awards?

What Was the Category?

Broad category with significant competition?
Narrow category with few entrants?
Category so specific it seems designed for one winner?

What Were the Criteria?

Product performance testing?
Consumer preference?
Innovation or marketing?
Unknown or undisclosed?

When Was the Award Given?

Recent recognition of current formulation?
Years-old award for a since-reformulated product?
Award for a different market’s version?

How Many Products Won?

One or two top selections?
Fifty products across fifty categories?
So many winners that the distinction is meaningless?

The Marketing Value

Brands use award logos because they work. Consumers trust products with third-party recognition more than products without it.

This is reasonable — independent validation is valuable. The problem is that “independent” and “validation” are both questionable in many award programmes.

The logo provides marketing value regardless of the award’s rigour. That’s why brands pursue awards from programmes consumers have never heard of: the logo works even if the award is meaningless.

A More Skeptical Approach

Don’t Weight Awards Heavily

Treat awards as one signal among many, not as definitive endorsement.

Research the Award Programme

Is this a respected publication? A recognised industry body? Or an unknown entity giving out logos?

Look at What Actually Matters

Ingredient list, concentration, formulation quality, user reviews, your own experience — these matter more than awards.

Recognise the Commercial Context

Beauty awards exist within commercial relationships. Complete independence is rare.

The Realistic View

Some beauty awards reflect genuine recognition of quality products. Magazine editors do sometimes identify excellent products. Consumer voting can surface popular favourites. Industry awards can highlight innovation.

But “award-winning” is also routinely used to imply validation that doesn’t exist, or to leverage minor recognitions into major marketing claims.

The only way to know is to look beyond the logo at what the award actually represents.

The Bottom Line

“Award-winning” is a marketing claim, not a quality guarantee. The credibility of the award depends on who gave it, how they judged it, and what commercial relationships influenced the process.

Some awards mean something. Many don’t. Most consumers never investigate which is which — they just see the logo and assume quality.

That assumption is exactly what makes award claims valuable to brands, regardless of what the awards actually represent.

Before being impressed by “award-winning,” ask: winning what, from whom, and judged how? The answers might not be as impressive as the claim suggests.