April 2022 was the first month in a long time that felt like it had its own social calendar. Coachella ran across both weekends in the middle of the month, the second since 2019, and the Indio sand was suddenly full of celebrity sets, brand activations, and a beauty conversation that had been dormant since before the pandemic. Bold colour eyeshadow was back, lip oils were the new lip glosses, and the new cohort of indie makeup brands had matured enough to take over the kit table. We spent the month watching festival photography on every social feed and quietly building a getting-ready playlist for the spring weddings ahead. Here are the products and trends that defined the first proper warm-weather month of the year.
Coachella set the colour palette
Festival makeup returned in April with a different energy than the 2014 era — less flower-crown, more bold-eye-and-bare-skin. Half Magic Beauty, the new line from Euphoria makeup artist Donni Davy that launched in early 2022, was the brand we kept seeing on Coachella looks: fluorescent eye shadows, glitter pigments, the kind of pale fuchsia rhinestone application that worked on a runway and at a desert festival. Urban Decay‘s 24/7 eyeliner was back in steady rotation in the editorial conversation; Pat McGrath Labs‘s Eye Shadow Palettes from the Mothership series were the prestige reference for the same effect. The thread tying everything together was that the eye was again where the makeup conversation was happening, after two years of mask-driven attention to it.
Lip oils replaced lip glosses
The 2000s lip gloss revival of the past two years had quietly evolved into the lip oil moment by April. Dior‘s Lip Glow Oil had been the prestige reference since its 2019 launch, but April was when it became the universal answer to “what is on your lips” — the rosé tint, the cherry tint, the strawberry tint were each impossible to find at Sephora for half the month. Tower 28‘s ShineOn Lip Jelly took the more accessible route. Ami Colé‘s Lip Treatment Oil rounded out the range with a slightly higher shine and richer colour, and it was the brand we kept recommending to anyone looking for something that worked beautifully on deeper skin tones. The unifying brief was a balm-gloss-tint hybrid that hydrated rather than just sat on the lip.
Cream blush moved into coral
The cream blush boom we wrote about in January carried into spring with a colour shift, away from the soft pinks of winter and into corals, peaches, and sunburned-cheek bronzes. Rare Beauty‘s Soft Pinch Liquid Blush in Bliss and Hope had been the gateway products, and now both of them were on every “best for spring” list. Merit‘s Flush Balm in Cheeky took a more buttery, sheer route in a cleaner-looking compact, and it was the cream blush we had been picking up the most often. Westman Atelier‘s Baby Cheeks in the warmer corals kept the prestige version of the conversation going. The look was fresh, sun-kissed, slightly flushed — the cosmetic equivalent of having spent the weekend outside.
The hair growth supplement got serious
The pandemic-era hair shedding everyone had quietly experienced was finally getting addressed, and the conversation had shifted from topical serums to oral supplements. Nutrafol‘s Women capsule, dermatologist-recommended for several years, was finally breaking through to the editorial conversation thanks to a wave of dermatology TikTok creators recommending it. Vegamour kept the topical lane and added an oral product to the line. The honest takeaway was that both took three to six months of daily use before any visible change, and the right combination depended on the underlying cause. We had heard enough hairstylist endorsements that we put the Nutrafol on the list to start through April.
Body care leaned into firming
With weddings, beach trips, and visible-skin clothes coming back into the calendar, the body care conversation in April pivoted from hydration to firming. Nécessaire‘s Body Serum was reformulated and repositioned around peptide-led firming, and we had been using it daily on the backs of our arms and the tops of our thighs for a month. Sol de Janeiro‘s Brazilian Bum Bum Cream had become a cultural reference rather than a niche import, with the fragrance alone driving sell-through. Augustinus Bader‘s The Body Cream was the prestige outlier — far above what most of us would normally spend, but the only product anyone we knew used it on the décolletage. The pitch was no longer just moisture; it was active-ingredient body care for visible weeks ahead.
Closing
April closed with festival photos still circulating, two new lip oils on the dresser, a coral cream blush in the makeup bag, and a six-month commitment to a hair supplement just begun. The spring conversation had landed on a clear thesis: bold eyes, bare skin, glossy lips, body care that pulled some weight. May will bring Met Gala looks at the very start of the month and a wedding-season acceleration through the rest of it, which means we expect formula and finish to take a small step back toward classic in the way a wedding always asks for. We will see you on the first Tuesday of May.
Shop the edit
- e.l.f. Power Grip Primer — a gripping primer to keep festival makeup put.
- La Roche-Posay Anthelios SPF 60 — the melt-in daily sunscreen.
- The Ordinary Niacinamide 10% + Zinc — an indie clean-active mainstay.
- Maybelline Sky High Mascara — festival-ready lengthening lashes.
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