May 2022 opened with the Met Gala on the first Monday of the month — Gilded Glamour was the theme, the looks ran from elaborately corseted to extravagantly draped, and the beauty conversation that came out of the night was the most ambitious it had been in years. Wedding season properly started by the second weekend, Mother’s Day came and went, and Cannes opened in the south of France in the third week with a red carpet that ran in parallel to every wedding-related Pinterest board we were watching. Wedding makeup, evening makeup, and at-home spa treatments dominated our routines through the month. Here is what was on our bathroom counter and our gift list.
Met Gala makeup leaned on glossy hair and statement eyes
The strongest thread across the Met Gala carpet was the return of statement-eye makeup paired with high-gloss hair, a combination that had been quiet for years. Charlotte Tilbury‘s Pillow Talk Smokey Eye palette and Lock-It Liner kept turning up in the artist credits, and the Beautiful Skin Foundation was still the base of choice for any high-coverage red carpet moment. Pat McGrath Labs had its annual co-headliner moment with the artist herself doing makeup for several of the most-watched looks. On the hair side, Color Wow‘s Dream Coat anti-humidity spray was the product behind half the smooth, lit-from-within updos we kept seeing, and we filed it away as the secret weapon for any humid-summer-wedding hair we had ahead.
Wedding-prep skincare went serious
The bridal-skin-prep routine had quietly become a multi-product, multi-week project, and May was the month most of the people we knew got serious about it. Augustinus Bader‘s The Cream remained the prestige reference for any expectant bride; Dr. Barbara Sturm‘s Hyaluronic Serum had a similar quiet authority. SkinCeuticals‘s C E Ferulic was the antioxidant we were religious about every morning, and an in-office Hydrafacial three weeks before the date was the move every makeup artist we asked recommended. The other piece of advice that kept coming up: stop introducing new products in the four weeks before, do not change anything, and trust the routine you already have.
At-home microcurrent finally crossed over
The NuFace Trinity microcurrent device had been a quiet best-seller in dermatology offices for years, but May was when it crossed over fully into the editor and bride conversation. The pitch — five minutes a day for a month before the event, using a conductive gel and a low electrical current — was meant to lift, tone, and define the contour without any clinical intervention. Foreo‘s Bear took a more affordable position in the same category. The honest review, after talking to a few users we trusted, was that NuFace produced visible cumulative results if you actually committed to the daily ritual; do it three times a week and the change was real. We added it to the May list with the caveat that the work was the daily use, not the one big purchase.
Mother’s Day fragrance gifting got thoughtful
The default Mother’s Day gift had migrated decisively from a bouquet to a fragrance, and May was when we kept hearing exactly the same pitch from every retailer in our inboxes — pick the perfume that would actually be worn rather than displayed. Maison Margiela‘s Replica fragrance line, with By the Fireplace, Beach Walk, and Lazy Sunday Morning, was the easiest entry point to gift well; Diptyque‘s Eau Rose and Philosykos kept the more polished, French-apartment direction; and for anyone with a slightly bolder mother, Frédéric Malle‘s Portrait of a Lady or Carnal Flower were the ambitious choice. Our universal Mother’s Day rule was the same as it had always been: smell it before you wrap it.
Body shimmer came back for warm-weather skin
The 2002-era body shimmer was officially back, but in a quieter, more layerable form than the Hard Candy era we remembered. Charlotte Tilbury‘s Supermodel Body had been on shelves for a few years, but it was suddenly impossible to find at Sephora as the wedding calendar opened up. Sol de Janeiro‘s Glowmotions Glow Body Oil rounded out the more accessible end of the conversation, with the cult Cheirosa 62 fragrance baked in. The look was diffused luminescence rather than disco-ball glitter, and it solved the problem of suddenly-bare-armed dresses against pale, indoor-winter skin.
Closing
May closed with two weddings on the calendar, a NuFace device finally in regular weekly rotation, a body shimmer in the bag, and Mother’s Day gifts dispatched to the appropriate parties. The whole month had read as the first proper return-to-events spring since 2019, and the beauty conversation had been the better for it. June will bring full wedding season, summer travel, and — for the calendar nerds among us — the Resort 2023 collections starting to drop online. We will see you on the first Tuesday of June with a midyear list of what we have actually been wearing, used up, and re-bought.
Shop the edit
- e.l.f. Halo Glow Liquid Filter — for a lit-from-within complexion.
- e.l.f. Halo Glow Blush Beauty Wand — an easy soft-petal cheek wash.
- EltaMD UV Clear SPF 46 — the lightweight daily facial sunscreen.
- Olaplex No. 3 Hair Perfector — pre-summer bond repair.
As an Amazon Associate, Tried & Tested Beauty earns from qualifying purchases. The links above are affiliate links.