Refinery29 Loves: Our Favorite Fashion & Beauty Buys From May

Reported by Refinery29 Fashion.

Summer has a way of turning even the most disciplined shoppers into impulsive ones — and the editors at Refinery29 are no exception. According to Refinery29 Fashion, the past month's collective order history reads like a love letter to warm weather: breezy wardrobe staples, heat-proof makeup, and a handful of little luxuries that make the season feel genuinely worth dressing for.

What Actually Made the Cut

The standouts this month aren't your average summer refresh. A sneaker-stiletto hybrid — surprisingly chic, apparently polarizing in the best way — earned a permanent spot in more than one editor's rotation. A garden-inspired fragrance from Jo Malone made the list alongside a brow gel that reportedly rewired one editor's entire relationship with tinted formulas. These aren't placeholder picks; they're the things people are actually reaching for.

On the skincare and beauty side, the emphasis landed on performance — moisturizers worth the splurge, makeup that holds up against heat and humidity without feeling like armor. Summer beauty has a short tolerance for anything that slides off by noon, and this edit reflects that impatience. The throughline? Products that do exactly what they promise and look good doing it.

Fashion-wise, the focus stayed on transitional pieces — the kind that move from a flight to a dinner without requiring a full outfit change or an existential crisis. Travel staples made a strong showing, which tracks for a June that has most of us mentally halfway to somewhere else already. The picks skew toward investment buys that earn their keep across multiple contexts, not trend-chasing one-hit wonders.

What this month's edit signals, more broadly, is a shift toward intentional summer dressing — fewer throwaway purchases, more things you'll still be reaching for in August. Impulse buys are fine, obviously, but the ones that stay in your routine are the ones worth paying attention to.

Summer is long; shop like you mean it.

Read the original at Refinery29 Fashion.