Plenty of personal care products—the treatments and gadgets that fill our medicine cabinets, home gyms, and vanities—promise innovation. Yet few actually deliver. Companies that craft cosmetics, supplements, fitness tools, and other wellness aids tend to go hard on buzzwords without putting in the research to make something truly new. That doesn’t mean there aren’t worthwhile, forward-thinking personal care products available, though, and this year brought some notable offerings. From high-tech sleep and activity trackers that make peak performance possible to cutting-edge hair dryers that give your scalp a break from burns, these five beauty and wellness products actually back up their big promises.
(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 37th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2024.)
Grand Award Winner
Oura Ring 4 by Oura: A wellness tracker with a slimmer profile and beefier features
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It takes a lot for an activity tracker to win a Best of What’s New Award and even more for the same brand to win twice. In 2021, we gave the Oura 3 fitness tracker a nod for its forward-thinking approach to incorporating period tracking into its smart ring app. The Oura Ring 4, which launched on October 3, is more than just a refresh. This model is notably more comfortable thanks to flatter sensors within the band. But Oura’s new Smart Sensing algorithm ensures the slimmer band is more capable than ever.
The ring’s sensors—red and infrared LEDs for measuring blood oxygen levels, green and infrared LEDs to track heart rate and respiration, a digital thermometer, and an accelerometer—turn on and off…
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