April 2018 was the month two of the most-anticipated launches of the year landed within ten days of each other — Pat McGrath’s Mothership III: Subversive on the 5th and Drunk Elephant’s Protini Polypeptide Cream on the 12th. Both products had been talked about in beauty editorial since January, both delivered on the promise, and both reinforced the year’s emerging story: the prestige beauty market in 2018 had reached a maturity where launches needed to be technically excellent, not just well-marketed. We had pre-cleared a Saturday afternoon for the Mothership pre-order and a Thursday morning for the Protini sample. The bathroom counter ended the month two products heavier than it had started, both of them earning their slots, and Coachella weekend one had come and gone with a quieter beauty look than any festival of the previous three years.
Pat McGrath Mothership III Subversive lands
The third Mothership palette from Pat McGrath Labs arrived on April 5 with the deepest, coolest tonal range of the three. The six shades — inky black, deep teal, oxidized copper, blackened plum, midnight blue, and a single icy silver-white — read as a single editorial study in cool dramatics. We did three weeks of looks out of it: a daytime cool taupe, a smoked-out blackened-plum lid for evening, the icy silver-white pressed into the inner corner for events. The product texture was, as with both predecessors, the most uniform of any prestige palette we had used in the year. The Mothership lineage is now arguably the most influential prestige eye product of the decade. We are already saving for whatever comes fourth.
Drunk Elephant Protini delivers
On April 12, Drunk Elephant launched Protini Polypeptide Cream — a moisturizer built around peptide complexes designed to deliver firming and anti-aging effects without the irritation of retinol. The launch had been quietly teased through Q1 and the press tier had been talking about it since January. The product arrived, the formula performed as promised — a thick, white cream with a feather-light feel after blending — and the brand had effectively built another category cornerstone. Protini joined the C-Firma + T.L.C. Framboos pair as the third Drunk Elephant product earning a permanent slot in our routine. The brand was now the dominant prestige skincare house of the decade. The price was $68 for a 50ml jar, which is exactly where the prestige skincare conversation had landed for serious moisturizers.
Coachella, the beauty look cooled
The first weekend of Coachella ran April 13–15 and the second the weekend after, and the festival makeup looks of 2018 were the quietest we had seen in five years. The full-glitter looks that had defined 2015–2017 had effectively retired; the dominant aesthetic was a glossy lid in a soft pearl, a single graphic eyeliner moment, a glossy lip in a wearable color. The conversation in beauty press through the festival was about the rise of “minimal Coachella” and what that meant for the editorial cycle that depends on the festival to set the year’s color trends. The answer turned out to be that the year’s trends were going to be set by the prestige launches — Pat McGrath, Fenty, Glossier — and Coachella was returning to its place as a single week of context rather than a year-defining event. We were grateful.
The Glossier Lash Slick launch
April was the month Glossier launched Lash Slick — the brand’s first mascara, $16 a tube, with a tiny rubber-bristle brush and a long-wear flake-resistant formula. The launch had been teased since January, and the product delivered exactly what was promised: clean, natural-looking lashes without clumping or smudging. The brand’s particular gift continued to be the “no-makeup makeup” story, and Lash Slick was the natural next product in the lineup. We bought one. The mascara conversation in 2018 was crowded — L’Oréal Voluminous Lash Paradise still owned the drugstore tier, but Lash Slick had quietly carved out the prestige-minimal slot, and the prestige tier was about to face real questions about what they were charging for.
The Met Gala buildup begins
By the last week of April the Met Gala buildup had begun in earnest — the May 7 event would be themed “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” with Rihanna co-chairing the night. The beauty preview content had started showing up — speculative Pat McGrath palette previews, lipstick predictions, hair predictions. The Met Gala in 2018 was going to be one of the most beauty-coded carpets of the decade because the theme invited theatrical interpretation. We were watching for the looks the morning after. We were also lining up our own May Day plans which were considerably more modest.
Closing
By the last week of April the bathroom counter had three new permanent residents — the Mothership III palette, the Protini moisturizer jar, the Lash Slick tube. The Coachella beauty conversation had cooled. The active-ingredient routine was stable. May will bring the Met Gala on the 7th, the Royal Wedding on the 19th (Meghan Markle and Prince Harry, set to be the most-watched beauty moment of the year), Mother’s Day on the 13th, and the long stretch of warm-weather product testing that defines the months ahead. We will see you on the first Tuesday of May.