2025 Beauty Year-in-Review: Best (and Worst!) Products, Viral Celeb Moments and the Creator Wars Taking Over the Group Chat
Breaking Beauty Podcast
Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins
4.7 • 954 Ratings
🗓️ 17 December 2025
⏱️ 53 minutes
🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In our 2025 Beauty Year in Review, we’re getting "spicy" about the industry’s biggest wins and flops. Listen in to hear all about the viral Guadalajara facelift taking over TikTok, the rise of cosmetic surgery transparency and the slice of good news impacting young women in beauty (finally!).
As beauty conglomerates shift their focus, we break down why integrity is the new authenticity and how the "glam squad" is officially outshining the A-list celebrity brand. Plus, we celebrate Gen X beauty finally having its main character moment, all thanks to Carlene (we kid, we kid).
You’ll hear about:
- Kylie Jenner’s momentous silicone implant reveal, Simone Biles’ blepharoplasty and why everyone is talking about the Guadalajara facelift lady in the "year of the Hollywood facelift."
- How the over-40 demographic is reclaiming the spotlight, both at retail and with a new wave of beauty creators.
- Why 2025 saw a shift toward expert-led lines like Hung Vanngo and Chris McMillan, and why hiring Diarrha N’Diaye-Mbaye (formerly of Ami Colé) was a genius credibility play for Skims Beauty.
- Product Placement on blast: Why "Nobody Wants This" & "All’s Fair" peeved off so many viewers in so little time.
- A candid look at the public call-outs taking over our group chats
- The "Integrity Deficit"- unpacking DEI backpedalling and what it means for Big Beauty.
Get social with us and let us know what you think of the episode! Find us on Instagram, Tiktok,X, Threads. Join our private Facebook group. Or give us a call and leave us a voicemail at 1-844-227-0302. Sign up for our Substack here. Subscribe to our YouTube Channel to watch our episodes!
Related episodes like this:
- Lisa Eldridge Shares All Her Makeup Secrets!
- Jennifer Aniston's Hairstylist Chris McMillan: "The Rachel" Haircut, Best Hair Tips & His NEW Line
- Why Blepharoplasty is Everywhere Right Now With Oculoplastic Surgeon Dr Babak Maleki
For any products or links mentioned in this episode, check out our website: https://breakingbeautypodcast.com/episode-recaps/
PROMO CODES: When you support our sponsors, you support the creation of Breaking Beauty Podcast!
Quince
Find gifts so good you'll want to keep them with Quince. Go to Quince.com/BREAKINGBEAUTY for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. Now available in Canada, too!
Seed
Get ahead of the New Year with a routine that helps you now by going to Seed.com/BEAUTY and use code BEAUTY to get 20% off your first month of Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic.
Curology
Breaking Beauty listeners get an exclusive link to Curology’s limited-time holiday offer: a personalized prescription FREE with your subscription—all you pay is $5.45 shipping and handling! To claim your first bottle free, go to curology.com/beauty to take their skin quiz. Share your concerns and upload a few photos for a licensed dermatology provider, who will create a custom treatment plan tailored to your unique goals. Restrictions apply; see website for full details and safety information.
Canopy
Go to getcanopy.co to save $25 on your Canopy Humidifier purchase today with Canopy’s filter subscription. And look for other Canopy products such as the Canopy Bath and Shower Filter. Even better, use code BEAUTY at checkout to save an additional 10% off your Canopy purchase. Your skin will thank you!
*Disclaimer: Unless otherwise stated, all products reviewed are gratis media samples submitted for editorial consideration.*
Hosts: Carlene Higgins and Jill Dunn
Theme song, used with permission: Cherry Bomb by Saya

Produced by Dear Media Studio
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following podcast is a dear media production. |
| 0:08.2 | Welcome to Breaking Beauty, the podcast, all about the breakthrough people, products, and moments in beauty. |
| 0:14.0 | We're your host, Jill Dunn and Carleen Higgins. |
| 0:29.7 | Welcome back to Breaking Beauty podcast, everyone. I'm one of your co-host, Jill Dunn, and I'm here alongside Carleen Higgins in studio. Hey, Carlene. |
| 0:38.4 | Hi, Jill. Hi, everyone. And of course, we are two longtime magazine beauty editors turned beauty podcasters. And we are doing a solo episode today, everybody. |
| 0:42.0 | You know, we're always bringing you the breakthrough, people, products, and moments in beauty. |
| 0:47.4 | And we talked to so many amazing people this year, Carleen. Like, how many incredible guests. Lisa Eldridge was like a bucket list. Yes. A person to have on our podcast, the fact that we |
| 0:53.0 | finally got her on. Like, high five. She was just, yes, she was incredible. We still get so much traction. Bobby Brown. About that. I mean, people say they hate my voice on our YouTube with Lisa, but they love her. And I'm okay with that because I still got to share couch time with Lisa. And I know I'm annoying compared to her. And we landed her, okay? We landed her on a North American Beauty podcast in the year 2025 after she launched her line. So give us some credit, all right? |
| 1:18.7 | I know, I know. I know I'm more annoying than Lisa. Okay. She has the most incredible voice on the planet and the sweetest face. And Bobby Brown was incredible. Chris |
| 1:27.7 | McMillan was incredible. Ash Kay Holm. Carolyn Bedino. We have a killer year. My goodness. Yeah. And, you know, |
| 1:34.8 | we're just we're going into year nine next year and we still have people on our bucket list that we |
| 1:39.2 | want to chat with. And of course, you know, as beauty editors, we always, we're always kind of assessing the market, |
| 1:46.4 | the landscape and beauty. |
| 1:47.9 | There's never a shortage of things to talk about. |
| 1:50.1 | And that's why we love doing this podcast because there's, we could do a daily episode, |
| 1:55.1 | honestly. |
| 1:55.7 | Yeah, absolutely. |
| 1:56.4 | With the amount of beauty news that's out there and product news and celebrity news, |
| 2:00.2 | just the pace. |
| 2:01.6 | Yes, absolutely. But what we're doing today is we're going to look back at the year. |
| 2:07.1 | We're going to talk about the highs and lows and beauty. Yes. We're just pausing for a minute from doing the interviewing, from reviewing products. |
| 2:14.9 | And we're just going to chat and we're going to get kind of spicy, I think, today. Carlene, I'm so glad that we get to sit together in studio. You know, I love being in New York when we have the Today Show lights in here. Oh, I tell me about it. Oh, my gosh. Yes. And we had the best night last night, courtesy of our friends at Pantene, who... We're here for a little press trip. Yeah, we're here for a little press trip. And it was really fun. We're going to talk about it more in an upcoming episode, but we got to meet Abby Young in person. I had met her once before, but I can say one year later, her hair is just as good and glossy. Yes, exactly. So she was on a panel, and Abby Young |
... |
Transcript will be available on the free plan in 22 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Dear Media, Jill Dunn and Carlene Higgins and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.