Good looks are overrated. You don’t need to be handsomest guy in the room to be the life of the party—or, barring that, at least a fun guy at a party of some kind. But, you do need to smell good, feel clean, and not have greasy hands. These are the central tenets of looking and feeling your best. And you're going to need some new grooming products to get yourself there—products a notch above the standard soaps and hand creams you've been using since college.

Every one of the these five upgrades is a GQ Grooming Awards winner for 2016. That means it was culled from a vast pile of similar products and tested exhaustively by GQ staff.

1: Anthony Exfoliating + Cleansing Bar, $17This triple-threat soap cleans the face and body, buffs away dead skin cells (unclogging pores and making way for the lively ones), and nourishes the skin, all at once. Plus, if you read the ingredient list aloud it will sound like you're repeating a New Age mantra, which is always a good sign: “Jojoba, cucumber, squalene, shea butter, coconut.”

2: Dollar Shave Club Good Shake Hand Cream, $6Nothing is as awkward as apologizing for a slippery handshake. Miraculously, Big Cloud’s hand cream hydrates your skin but dries itself on contact. Be remembered for your firm grip, not your moist mitts.

3: Recipe for Men Super Smooth Body Cream, $24Like a shot of espresso for your skin, this stuff goes on tingly. Guarana and grapefruit extract pack in the energy, giving you an all-over alertness as you ready to carpe the damn diem.

4: Fig + Yarrow — Alpine Pumice Foot Treatment, $28Nobody wants the dry, scaly callouses that accumulate around the soles of the feet. (Except for hobbits, who rely on these callouses because they don't have shoes.) Buff away all the grime and calloused skin with Fig + Yarrow’s exfoliant, and make your hooves smooth again.

5: Dove Men+Care Clean Comfort Dry Spray Antiperspirant, $5.49Whether you’re saving face in the heat of summer or caught in a weekend-long bender, layer on this antiperspirant to smell fresher than you feel.

Adam Hurly has been covering men's grooming since 2013 (and for GQ since 2016). He is also a travel writer. In Fall 2024, Adam is launching Blue Print by Adam Hurly, a men's grooming platform. Adam resides in Lisbon (previously Berlin, NYC, and San Francisco). He is a Sioux Falls, SD, native... Read moreWriterInstagramRelated Stories for GQGrooming Awards