Award · Marie Claire UK Hair Awards 2026
Best Multi-Tasker for Curls. 🏆
The Curl Jar Style + Treat Curl Activator, chosen by an expert panel of hairstylists and beauty editors.
Quick answer
Curl Jar's Style + Treat Curl Activator won Best Multi-Tasker for Curls at the Marie Claire UK Hair Awards 2026, chosen by a judging panel of hairstylists and beauty editors. The award recognises it as a cream-gel hybrid that defines curls while also hydrating, controlling frizz and adding shine, doing the work of several products in one jar.
Every year, Marie Claire UK puts dozens of styling products in front of a panel of working hairstylists and beauty editors and asks a simple question: which ones actually earn a place in a kit? For 2026, in the Best Multi-Tasker for Curls category, the answer was the Curl Jar Curl Activator.
The multi-tasker
Three jobs. One jar.
Rather than needing a separate cream, a separate gel and a separate shine product, one jar does all three.
Curl cream
Curl gel
Shine product
The award
What the Marie Claire UK Hair Awards are
The Marie Claire UK Hair Awards judge submissions across categories from best styling mousse to best heat protector, with Best Multi-Tasker for Curls singling out the product that does the most for curl styling in a single step. Every product is put through its paces by an expert panel, so it's judged on performance, not marketing.
On the panel
The verdict
Why the judges picked it
"A nourishing cream-gel hybrid."
Marie Claire UK
In its write-up, Marie Claire described the Curl Activator as expertly designed to enhance your natural curl pattern, delivering:
It's a straight echo of how Curl Jar has always talked about the Curl Activator: built to simplify a routine rather than add steps to it, which made it a natural fit for a category built around exactly that idea.
On the night
Marie Claire UK Hair Awards 2026
What this means for us
Curl care shouldn't need a ten-step routine.Now the experts agree.
A win like this carries weight beyond the trophy. It's an independent panel of hairstylists, not Curl Jar, deciding the product does what it claims, tested against dozens of competitors in the same category. Having that judged and confirmed by people who style hair for a living is the kind of validation that's hard to manufacture.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Did Curl Jar win a Marie Claire award?
Yes. Curl Jar's Style + Treat Curl Activator won Best Multi-Tasker for Curls at the Marie Claire UK Hair Awards 2026.
What does "Best Multi-Tasker for Curls" mean?
It's a category judged by Marie Claire UK's expert panel, recognising the curl product that does the most in one step, defining, hydrating, controlling frizz and adding shine, rather than requiring several separate products.
Who judges the Marie Claire UK Hair Awards?
The panel includes hairstylists Sam McKnight, Samantha Cusick, Luke Hersheson and Adam Reed, alongside journalists, content creators and other hair specialists, with every product put through its paces.
Try the award winner.
Best Multi-Tasker for Curls, Marie Claire UK Hair Awards 2026.
Shop Curl Activator Read Marie Claire's write-up
