August was the calmer counterweight to July’s sprint. The Paris Olympics closed on August 11, leaving a sustained gleam on French beauty houses through the rest of the month. Back-to-school season rolled out the under-25 essentials conversation — what does an actual reasonable skincare routine look like for a teenager, what should they not be using, what should the parents in their lives buy them. And TikTok produced its summer dose of beauty pseudoscience, with the “morning shed” trend — a baroque overnight regimen of jaw straps, mouth tape, undereye patches, hair plops, and silicone neck patches — finally getting the corrective coverage from dermatologists it deserved. Through all of it, the heat held; mattifying products stayed at the top of the shelf; and the entire beauty press began previewing September Fashion Month.
The Olympic afterglow extended through August
The closing ceremony on August 11 — Tom Cruise’s stunt, the H.E.R. and Phoenix performances — gave the French luxury beauty houses two more weeks of editorial halo. Byredo ran heavy summer-coda campaigns; Sephora’s Olympic-tied edits stayed in heavy rotation; the simmer of “European beauty is back” continued into August features. The takeaway: a global event in the right market is a months-long press tailwind, not a two-week pop, and the brands that built sustained content into the back half of the year captured more of the residual.
Back-to-school skincare started the under-25 reset
August is when beauty editors run their annual under-25 routine pieces, and 2024’s version was sharper than usual — partly because of the spring conversation about tweens at Sephora, partly because the dermatologist community had gotten more vocal about social-media-driven over-routining. The honest picture: a gentle cleanser, a moisturizer, an SPF, and one (one) active product chosen for an actual concern. The Inkey List‘s simple ingredient-first lineup continued to be the most-recommended entry into actives. Naturium‘s ceramide complex moisturizer was the back-to-school sleeper at Target. ILIA‘s Super Serum Skin Tint covered the “I want to wear something but not foundation” tier. The takeaway: simplicity sold this season; the regimen with five products was the regimen that lasted.
Morning shed got the corrective coverage it deserved
The “morning shed” trend — sleep in a fortress of jaw straps, mouth tape, silicone face masks, and various adhesive patches; remove the entire apparatus dramatically in the morning — had been growing through summer. In August it crossed into the kind of mainstream coverage where dermatologists were finally interviewed at length. The consensus: most of it was inert at best and counterproductive at worst, with mouth tape getting the heaviest pushback from sleep medicine. The trend itself didn’t die — TikTok trends rarely do — but the framing shifted from aspiration to entertainment. The takeaway: viral skincare needs a corrective expert layer, and the brands that resisted joining the trend protected their long-term credibility.
Lip-plumping launches stacked up for fall
The pre-fall lip launch cycle ran heavy through August. Charlotte Tilbury‘s Pillow Talk Big Lip Plumpgasm continued its summer momentum. Rare Beauty‘s Soft Pinch Tinted Lip Oil added shades. Hourglass launched the Phantom Volumizing Glossy Balm with a buzzy enough TikTok push to break through the noise. The takeaway: the lip category had multiplied into at least five distinct sub-formulas — gloss, oil, plumper, balm, stain — and the customer was happily collecting across the entire range.
Self-tan turned mainstream by way of Bondi Sands
Self-tan in 2024 was finally past the orange-stain era — high-performing formulas at every price point, gradual options that didn’t require the bedtime-Saran-wrap commitment of the old self-tan world. Bondi Sands‘s Pure self-tanning collection and its tinted body lotions had become the dominant volume brand at Ulta. Drunk Elephant’s D-Bronzi Bronzing Drops continued the face conversation. ILIA‘s Bronzer Stick brought a clean-beauty alternative. The takeaway: the self-tan category was finally credible enough that “looking sunkissed in August” wasn’t a confession, it was a routine.
What we are watching in September
September Fashion Month spans NYFW, LFW, MFW, and PFW back to back through almost a full month — which means a deluge of backstage beauty content, runway-launched brand activations, and a real preview of Spring 2025 makeup. We’re watching Sabato De Sarno’s third Gucci show with the closest attention. We’re watching the Drunk Elephant nine-months-after-the-tween-conversation reset. And we’re watching the US Open (running through early September) for tennis-coded beauty (Coco Gauff, Iga ÅšwiÄ…tek, Aryna Sabalenka) and whether any of those athletes lands a meaningful brand deal. We will see you on the first Tuesday of September.
Shop the edit
- Maybelline Instant Age Rewind Concealer — a drugstore concealer staple.
- Black Girl Sunscreen SPF 30 — a no-white-cast daily sunscreen.
- CeraVe Foaming Facial Cleanser — a back-to-routine cleanse.
- e.l.f. Instant Lift Brow Pencil — an easy everyday brow.
As an Amazon Associate, Tried & Tested Beauty earns from qualifying purchases. The links above are affiliate links.