Despite the questionable swimsuit competitions, Pollyanna personas, and clichéd vows to end world hunger, beauty pageants are undoubtedly alluring. What is it about them that gives us such pleasure—such guilty, guilty pleasure? Perhaps it’s that they permit us to be girlie and blissfully shallow just for a bit. Or maybe it’s the sheer rivalry, the anticipation, the solitary crown. It’s hard to say, though we get a similar thrill from holding our own annual contest—the Healthy Beauty Awards. Every year, top dermatologists rate a throng of beauty products that promise to give you that winning look. And so, without further ado, we introduce to you our 2007 Healthy Beauty Award winners.

Meet Our Panel of Skin-Savvy Judges
Lisa M. Donofrio, MD, associate clin-ical professor of dermatology at Yale University School of Medicine, specializes in facial aging and injectibles. She was impressed with some of the latest over-the-counter ingredients. “We’re starting to see more-advanced delivery systems,” she says. Donofrio has judged all nine of our Healthy Beauty Awards contests.

Grace H. Pak, MD, is a board-certified cosmetic dermatologist with a private practice in New York City. When ana-lyzing the latest creams, she separated function from fluff: “I look for simple, elegant formulas with ingredients that have genuine merit.”

Sandra S. Tsao, MD, is a dermatological surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital and associate program director for procedural derm-atology at Harvard Medical School. Her forte: Correcting sun sins. “By including SPF in moisturizers and making natural-looking self-tanners, companies help women fix and prevent sun damage,” she says.

By Jolene Edgar | Photos by Francesco Mosto