Good Housekeeping Awards

Good Housekeeping recognizes excellence and innovation across a number of industries and consumer product categories with our celebrated and influential awards programs. Each year, thousands of companies enter for the chance to be vetted by our judges and earn the prestigious distinction of winning a GH award – an honor guaranteed to help your product stand out from the competition and boost retail.

For over 12 years, the scientists, analysts and experts in the GH Institute have delighted consumers with winning picks from our annual Beauty, Toy and Family Car Awards. We’ve recently expanded our awards lineup to include additional categories in which consumers are looking for more winning recommendations from a source they know they can trust. We’re now pleased to offer the following awards programs:

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Why and How to Enter to Win a GH Award

Benefits of Entry

All entries are assessed by the experts and scientists in the Good Housekeeping Institute, so this is a perfect opportunity to get your product in front of our experts and editors, whether you win or not. For winners, the value of editorial coverage is unparalleled. Good Housekeeping currently has an audience of 58+ million consumers across our print, digital and social channels – and that audience is growing constantly. We can’t wait to share the winners with our audience, who visit our website regularly for expert advice, shopping tips and trusted product recommendations. Each awards program is also featured prominently in the GH newsletter. Winners have the opportunity to license the use of the Awards emblem, as well as additional assets including words, images, quotes, etc., to promote the news of the win. Winners are often featured in other relevant high-traffic product stories on our site – and many of our awards programs turn into segments on prominent national TV shows.

How to Enter

1. Complete submission form.
2. Complete payment form.
3. Send samples as directed.

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GH Awards FAQs

Is the process the same for each awards program? All our awards programs follow the same process. First, you must complete one submission form per product. Please fill in as much detail as you can, including basic product information (MSRP, imagery, description, etc.) as well as product highlights and notable features/key differentiators. Please remember that one submission form per product entry is required. Next, complete the payment form. The entry fee is $495 per product. If you have more than one product to submit, please fill out a separate submission and payment form for each. Please note that samples are not required at the time of submission, but can be requested for further review at a later date. Note: Entry fees are waived for products that are active Good Housekeeping Seal holders or Good Housekeeping Nutritionist Approved Emblem partners in good standing; submission forms must still be completed.

Do you require product samples? Most awards require at least one to two samples. In some cases, additional samples may be requested based on testing protocols or for consumer testing. We will reach out to brands individually to request product samples and/or clinical efficacy data. For professional and app-based services or products, we will notify brands directly about specific requirements.

How are the winners chosen? Each awards program has a dedicated group of expert judges that evaluate all entries. Every submission is thoroughly reviewed by the editors and product experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute, along with third-party experts in some cases. While criteria vary by program, the main judging criteria for our awards are quality, performance, innovation, ease of use and assembly and value. The judges examine each submission as well as marketing claims made by the brand. Samples and/or supporting materials may be requested for further evaluation.

Which products are eligible to apply? Products must be approved for consumer use and available for purchase in the U.S. They can be new or existing items; however, they must be available for purchase when the award is announced.

Is there a limit to the number of products I may submit? No, you may submit as many products as you like. Just note that you must fill out a new submission form and pay a separate $495 entry fee for each product submitted.

Are there any discounts on the submission fee? Current and active Good Housekeeping Seal holders and Good Housekeeping Nutritionist Approved Emblem partners in good standing are exempt from paying a submission fee (submission forms must still be completed). There are no other discounts offered.

My product has already been tested and/or featured in Good Housekeeping. Do I still need to apply? Yes, you will need to submit an application regardless of whether your product has previously been reviewed by Good Housekeeping. Our awards programs are independent of prior coverage and previous awards programs.

How can I make my application stand out? Focus on what makes the product special and unique, whether it’s an easy shopping experience, if it has sustainability features, or anything else that’s interesting and noteworthy. Let us know tangible takeaways as opposed to generic claims – e.g., instead of saying “It’s extremely comfortable,” tell us what specifically makes it comfortable. This is also a great opportunity for us to review products that can be used in additional content, including search-related product roundups.

If our product wins, how can we promote the honor? Good Housekeeping encourages you to promote the honor to your network. Winners often issue a press release or send a dedicated email to their contacts. Winners may also post the news of their win on their own social media channels. When sharing the news, winners must follow the Good Housekeeping PR requirements, outlined in the next question. Winners also have the opportunity to work with Wright's Media to license the use of the Awards emblem, as well as additional assets including words, images, quotes, etc., to make the news of the honor a more impactful part of their own marketing and promotional plans.

If our product wins and we want to issue a press release, are there any special requirements? Yes. All press releases must be approved by the Good Housekeeping PR team, and in certain cases may need to vetted by Wright’s Media based on what language is used. You will be directed to Wright’s Media for questions about using a quote attributed to a member of the Good Housekeeping Institute in your release. No announcements can be made publicly prior to the award program’s embargo or announcement dates. No exceptions can be made to this timing.

If our product wins, will it be featured on Good Housekeeping’s official social channels? All organic social posts on Good Housekeeping's official channels are at the discretion of our editors and not necessarily a winner benefit.

If our product wins, will we receive hi-res images, PDFs or the awards emblem for our own use? You will be directed to Wright’s Media for questions and pricing related to asset usage, including PDFs of the magazine, the official awards emblem, images, text from the magazine or quotes attributed to the experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute.

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More About Each Program

Fitness Awards

The GH Wellness Lab opened in 2017 to meet growing demand for trusted health, wellness and fitness advice and product recommendations from a trusted source. The team judging this category combine backgrounds in nutrition and dietetics, certified personal training, certified Pilates instruction, fiber science and mechanical engineering. In addition to our expert judges, we use consumer testers to ensure that products are easy to set up and use, are ergonomically designed and offer motivating and efficient workouts. For fitness streaming services alone we collected nearly 2,000 surveys and analyzed thousands of data points to find our winners. For larger pieces of equipment, we home in on construction quality, ergonomics, exercise variety and accuracy.

Important Dates and Details:

• Submission Deadline: August 27, 2021.
• Winners Announced: January 2022.

Check out the 2021 winners!

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Storage Awards

It’s no secret that a more organized home improves the wellbeing of everyone who lives there. And in today’s busy world when time is at a premium, cleaning out and organizing closets, drawers, and other cluttered spaces has — out of necessity — often become an alternative to deeper cleaning. That’s why organizing tips, ideas and inspiration stories are among Good Housekeeping’s most popular. That’s why we set out to find and recognize the best, most useful, most innovative, and most well-designed organizing products, tools, and devices for this . To do so, we bring together the product scientists from our GH Home Appliances and Cleaning Lab, GH Kitchen Technology Lab, GH Media & Tech Lab, and even our GH senior home editors with incredible design expertise to serve as judges. We sort, stack and sift through the world of organizing products to assess performance, durability, flexibility, versatility, ease of use, aesthetics, size and more. We consider organizers both big and small — for closets, garages, home office, kids’ toys, shoes, spices, the kitchen junk drawer, and beyond. With over 40 combined years of testing experience and organizing know-how, we can spot a great organizer when we see it!

Important Dates and Details:

• Submissions for the 2021 GH Storage Awards are now closed.
• Submissions for the 2022 GH Storage Awards will open in the fall of 2021.

Check out the 2021 winners!

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Best Beauty Awards

There are thousands of beauty products already on the market and new ones launching every day. Since 2010, Good Housekeeping’s annual beauty awards have been guiding our audience on what products are worth their time and money in this overcrowded market space. With our Good Housekeeping Beauty Awards, the Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab strives to highlight the best-performing skincare, haircare, and makeup products as well as the best beauty tools, professional treatments, and beauty tech on the market. Men's grooming products, supplements, health-related products, and non-beauty products are not eligible for submission. The Good Housekeeping Institute Beauty Lab evaluates the originality of the product’s technology, delivery form and packaging along with major product claims behind each submission. In the next stage, the products with the highest potential are assessed for efficacy and performance using consumer and/or Lab testing with state-of-the-art scientific instruments and/or by reviewing clinical, consumer, and technical data provided by the brand.

Important Dates and Details:

• The 2022 GH Beauty Awards are now open for submission. You need to submit both an entry form and a payment form for each product to be considered.
• The entry form has the details on the requirements for product samples and additional information.
• Winners will be announced in April 2022.
• Please contact GHBeautyAwards@hearst.com with any additional questions.
  

Check out the 2021 winners!

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Best Family Car Awards

The Good Housekeeping Institute has been testing cars and honoring the best sedans, SUVs, wagons, minivans and electric innovations for over 10 years. Each year, our team of experts — composed of GH's engineers, media & tech experts, automotive analysts and specialized consumer testers — team up with the auto pros at Car and Driver (another Hearst-owned brand) to determine the winners. Assessing vehicles involves driving the year’s new vehicles on over 5,000 miles of city roads, highways, and test tracks to narrow it down the top makes and models. Using industry standards and our proprietary protocols, we rate cars on performance, design, safety, handling, mileage, onboard technology, interior space, value and more. Then our experts zero in on all the little things people really care about, like how easy it is to fold down the seats, intuitiveness and modernity of the infotainment system, how much cargo space there is in the trunk and how well car seats fit in the second and third rows and whether or not they’re a struggle to install—along with any standout extras that we just love. We also look closely at the interior: the amount of headroom and legroom, storage space for front- and rear-seat passengers, overall comfort and how easy the infotainment system is to use without reading the manual. Last but not least, we give points for innovative and useful features like a hands-free liftgate, well-placed lighting, and anything else that improves the driving experience.

Important Dates and Details:

• Submission Deadline: April 1, 2021.
• Winners Announced: April 27, 2021.

Check out the 2020 winners!

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Best Bedding Awards

The Good Housekeeping Institute Textiles Lab is run by fiber scientists who regularly test the latest and greatest fabric-based products on the market. Bedding is one of the Lab’s highest-engaging areas of content, and the team spends much of their time finding the top-performing products to help readers sleep their best. For this program, the team joins forces with Good Housekeeping’s home editor to evaluate submissions based on criteria like quality, innovation, convenience and value. We then review the products in the Lab, our homes and the bedrooms of over 100 real consumer testers to get feedback on comfort, support, fit, appearance and more. In the Lab, bed sheets and pillowcases are durability-tested for factors like fabric strength, pilling resistance and washability, while pillows are measured for how well they keep their shape after pressure is applied. To find the best mattresses, we research the specifications and send them to home with real users for extensive feedback—plus, we survey our consumer tester panel to get data on the mattresses they already own. Additional categories we look at for Bedding Awards include comforters and blankets, mattress pads, toppers and protectors, pajamas and other accessories like sleep masks and decorative items.

Important Dates and Details:

• Submissions for the 2021 Bedding Awards are now closed.
• Winners Announced: May 25, 2021.

Check out the 2021 winners!

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Healthy Snack Awards

The snack aisle seems to change every time you go to the supermarket. With an abundance of new snacks and health claims arriving on shelves every day, figuring out what to add to your grocery cart can sometimes feel overwhelming. How do you know which snacks are actually healthy and worth your money? Enter the Good Housekeeping Nutrition Lab and our Healthy Snack Awards. For this program, our registered dietitian and other experts in the Good Housekeeping Institute rigorously analyze ingredient lists, nutrition fact labels, packaging claims and flavor profiles to find the best of the best. Consumers testers weigh in on taste and provide additional real-life analysis. Our choices focus on innovative snacks in the food space that meet our nutritional criteria (including caps on per-serving calories, sugar and sodium).

Important Dates and Details:

• Submissions for the 2021 Healthy Snack Awards are now closed.
• Winners Announced: June 29, 2021.

Check out the 2021 winners!

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Parenting Awards

Parenting can be overwhelming enough, but throw in all the products you're told you need to buy and you may find yourself going down a rabbit hole. Fortunately, the experts at the Good Housekeeping Institute are here to evaluate the top parenting items on the market to find the ones that actually work and are worth buying. We review applications across all product categories designed for babies, toddlers, kids of all ages and their caregivers. Our team of experts — scientists, engineers, editors and more — vets each submission on criteria involving innovation, problem-solving capabilities and value, then evaluates the top contenders in person. These winners include hot new innovations that have just hit the market along with tried-and-true products that have stood the test of time.

Important Dates and Details:

• Submission Deadline: April 13, 2021.
• Winners Announced: August 17, 2021.

Check out the 2021 winners!

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Cleaning Awards

From its very beginning, Good Housekeeping has been with our readers every step of the way, providing cleaning advice and product testing recommendations to help keep their homes running smoothly and families safe. And while the type and number of products we test and the advice we offer in the Good Housekeeping Institute Home Appliances and Cleaning Products Lab have certainly changed through the years, what hasn’t changed is that we are still as incredibly trusted a resource as we always were. Our Cleaning Lab uses industry standard and in-house developed protocols to scientifically evaluate, for example, how well laundry detergents remove stains, how thoroughly washing machines clean fabrics and dishwashers clean dishes, flatware, glassware, and cookware. Different flooring surfaces built into the lab allow us to test floor cleaners and tools on wood, tile, laminate, and vinyl floors. We measure how much dirt and pet hair vacuum cleaners remove from carpeting and bare floors and we look at every product through the eyes of a consumer to assess how easy it is to use. With so many cleaning products to choose from, we established our Cleaning Awards to recognize the truly innovative and outstanding products that make caring for a home so much easier. Our time-pressed readers just want to know what’s best and we tell them. All cleaning categories are eligible for the awards. We’re looking for products that perform well, are easy to use, and are standouts in their categories. The judging is conducted by our expert consumer and product scientists in our Home Appliances and Cleaning Product Lab, Kitchen Technology Lab, and any other GH Institute Lab where the expertise may be relevant. Consumer testing may also be conducted in actual in-home environments.

Important Dates and Details:

• Submission Deadline: April 9, 2021.
• Winners Announced: August 17, 2021.

Check out the 2020 winners!

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Sustainable Innovation Awards

This program began as the Sustainable Packaging Awards, but expanded in 2020 to include a broader look at sustainable innovations and practices. We launched this program because the Good Housekeeping Institute tests thousands of consumer products each year, and the majority of consumer products are overpackaged. The judging criteria aims to assess whether products have a minimalistic approach to product packaging as well as to determine utilization of any recycled, recyclable, or compostable materials. When assessing brand/company initiatives, we rate entries on key pillars of sustainability, including people, planet and purpose. Judges for this program include directors from all GH Labs combined with leading experts in the field. The judges review submissions by examining measurable criteria, including material type and origin, product to packaging weight ratio, recyclability, compliance with model legislation and innovation. For initiative submissions, supporting data for all environmental claims and stats must be included.

Important Dates and Details:

• Submission Deadline: May 14, 2021
• Winners Announced: October 16, 2021.
• Contact GHSustainabilityAwards@hearst.com with questions.

Check out the 2020 winners!

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Best Toy Awards

There are thousands of toys in the marketplace. This long-standing program honors the best toys of the year — toys that are safe, well-designed and well–constructed; inspire a child's imagination and creativity; foster problem-solving skills; encourage social play; build skills (whether fine motor, gross motor, math, science, artistic or other); and are just plain fun. We look at toys suited for kids under 13 years old. To be considered, toys must adhere to the latest guidelines set forth by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). We will verify compliance of such by requesting conformance to ASTM testing standards. After the lab assesses safety, durability/construction and play value, the real testers give the final verdict as many children play with the toys, assessing the fun factor!

Important Dates and Details:

• Submissions for the 2021 Toy Awards are now closed.
• Winners Announced: October 16, 2021.
• Contact GHToyAwards@hearst.com with questions.

Check out the 2020 winners!

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Kitchen Gear Awards

The Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Technology Lab is run by culinary product experts with backgrounds in professional kitchens, product development and recipe development. The team is constantly testing the latest innovations in cookware, appliances and other cooking-related gear and gadgets. For this program, the Lab joins forces with the team in Good Housekeeping’s iconic Test Kitchen, including professional chefs, recipe creators and developers, food editors and more. GH's chief technologist has also developed specific criteria for kitchen appliances and products in the smart home category. Together they evaluate submissions based on criteria like quality, innovation, ease of use, performance, convenience and value. They put submissions to the test in the GH Lab and Test Kitchen, working with real food and recipes to grade results. Products are also used in real-world kitchen, including those of consumer testers to get additional feedback from home cooks of all levels.

Important Dates and Details:

• We are currently accepting submissions.
• Submission Deadline: July 12, 2021 (updated).
• Winners Announced: November 26, 2021.
• Contact Nicole.Papantoniou@hearst.com with questions.