January 2022 felt like a quieter, more cautious version of every January we had ever spent. Omicron was peaking through the first weeks of the month, plans kept getting postponed, and we spent the cold mornings reading through everyone’s “what I am leaving in 2021” lists with a cup of black coffee in hand. Beauty did what beauty always does in a hard winter: it leaned into skincare, into restorative routines, into the quiet pleasure of a good face mask before bed. The conversation on TikTok had shifted from Y2K eyeshadow to occlusive moisturisers; the conversation in our group chats had shifted from new launches to “what is actually working through this dry weather.” Here is what we kept reaching for through the first month of the year, and what was on our list to try.
Slugging finally went mainstream
The K-beauty technique of sealing the face with a thin layer of petrolatum overnight had been quietly recommended by dermatologists for years, but January 2022 was the moment slugging crossed over from skincare-Reddit deep cuts to mainstream TikTok. The before-and-after videos were everywhere — a budget tub of plain Vaseline applied as the last step of an evening routine, dewy unbothered skin in the morning. The accessible version was just Vaseline Original Healing Jelly; the slightly fancier upgrade was Aquaphor Healing Ointment. For people who wanted something a little less heavy, CeraVe‘s Healing Ointment hit the same brief at drugstore price. The lesson of the slugging boom was, frankly, that the most viral skincare technique of early 2022 cost three dollars and was already in a lot of medicine cabinets.
The cream blush field got crowded
Rare Beauty‘s Soft Pinch Liquid Blush had not slowed down since it went viral in 2021, and by January it was a foundational TikTok recommendation rather than a new launch. The interesting part of January was the wave of follow-on cream blushes that arrived in its slipstream. Saie‘s Dew Blush hit a slightly different note — a sheerer, more diffused finish on a smaller stick — and was on the bathroom counters of half the editors we follow. Westman Atelier‘s Baby Cheeks Blush Stick took the prestige end of the conversation, with Gucci Westman’s cult-status finishes turning up in every “best blush” list we read. The category had genuinely expanded — we had three excellent cream blushes at three different price points to recommend, and that had not been true the previous January.
Naturium and the new affordable prestige
Naturium had been on our radar through most of 2021 — Susan Yara’s brand felt like a natural successor to the Inkey List and The Ordinary’s “good ingredients at a fair price” pitch, but with a slightly more polished aesthetic. By January 2022 the Multi-Peptide Serum and the Niacinamide Cream were in regular rotation in our routines, and the brand had locked in distribution at Target that made it stupidly easy to pick up alongside a grocery run. The category Naturium was helping define — clinical-grade, single-ingredient-led skincare in nice packaging at twenty to thirty dollars — felt like the most interesting place in beauty at the start of the year. We were also keeping an eye on Bubble Skincare for the same reason, although that one was aimed at the Gen Z customer rather than us.
At-home hair gloss earned its place
Salon visits had been intermittent for two winters by this point, and the at-home hair gloss had quietly become a whole category. dpHUE‘s Gloss+ in-shower deposit treatment made the transition from “salon dropout solution” to “thing I actually prefer” for a lot of the people we knew, and the new shade range covered enough territory that you could pick something close to your natural tone. Kristin Ess‘s Signature Hair Gloss, available at Target, did something similar at a more accessible price. The promise of both products was the same — a five-minute treatment in the shower that revived shine, deepened tone, and bought you another month between salon appointments. Through a January that mostly felt like everyone postponing things, that small win carried more weight than it should have.
Body skincare grew up
The “skinification of body care” had been a 2021 talking point, but by January 2022 it had real product depth. Nécessaire‘s Body Serum and Body Lotion remained the reference points — actually-functional active formulas in beautifully designed bottles — and the brand had built out enough range that you could put together a full body routine without leaving the line. Dove had launched its own niacinamide-led body care line, which read as the mass-market mirror of what Nécessaire was doing at thirty-five dollars a tube. Even Aveeno had shown up at the active-ingredient party with a clinical body cream pitched on barrier repair. The body-care aisle, unbeloved for years, was suddenly worth a slow walk through.
Closing
By the last Sunday of January we were thawing out from a cold snap with a slugged face, a freshly glossed-at-home head of hair, and a body lotion routine that finally felt like skincare rather than maintenance. The whole month had a quiet, sensible quality to it — fewer big launches, more emphasis on the products that actually performed. We did not mind. February will be the makeup-conversation month with awards-season looks beginning to circulate, and we will see what is actually breaking through. For now we are off to refill on Vaseline and start the next chapter. We will see you on the first Tuesday of February.
Shop the edit
- CeraVe Hydrating Facial Cleanser — the gentle cleanse to start the reset.
- La Roche-Posay Toleriane Double Repair Moisturizer — a no-drama daily moisturizer.
- The Ordinary Granactive Retinoid — an approachable retinoid for the new year.
- TruSkin Vitamin C Serum — a brightening vitamin C step.
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