September 2021 was the first proper return-to-rhythm month the industry had seen in two years. NYFW happened in person, the Met Gala happened in person, kids were back in classrooms, the Olaplex IPO was on the calendar for September 30, and the makeup conversation was suddenly louder than the skincare conversation for the first time since spring 2020. The pivot from soft glow to deliberate face was visible everywhere, from the runway shows to the red carpet to the back-to-the-office dressing experiments people were posting from their bathrooms. September 2021 in beauty felt like the season the industry had been waiting for since March 2020, and brands answered by leaning hard into colour, finish, and personality.
The Met Gala says everything
The Met Gala on September 13, themed “In America: A Lexicon of Fashion,” was the most-watched beauty moment of the season. The looks ran the gamut — from Megan Fox’s deeply matte burgundy lip to Zendaya’s glass-skin sculpting to Lil Nas X’s gilded face — but the through-line was that nobody was going understated. After eighteen months in which the dominant aesthetic had been a barely-there, dewy, you-look-rested face, the carpet served notice that the next phase belonged to deliberate, finished, opinion-having beauty. Pat McGrath dressed an enormous share of the carpet, and her work confirmed her as the working makeup artist of the moment. Brands paid attention.
NYFW backstage, finally in person
New York Fashion Week ran September 8 through 12, the first proper in-person edition since fall 2019. Backstage was where most of the September makeup ideas were getting laid down: deliberate liner from Tom Ford, a deep berry mouth from Marc Jacobs, deeply graphic brows from Christian Cowan. MAC sponsored most of the bigger shows, and the brand’s professional artistry team gave us the season’s first preview of what fall complexion would look like. The conversation had moved from the spring’s “skin-first, then a touch of colour” to “a face that takes sides.” Heavy products were back. Lip oil was still everywhere, but it now sat next to actual lipstick.
Olaplex goes public
September 30 was the date the trade press had been counting down to since spring. Olaplex priced its IPO and opened on Nasdaq under the ticker OLPX, becoming the first major haircare-only brand of the modern era to make the move. The pricing came in at the high end of the range, the stock popped in early trading, and the conversation in beauty industry circles immediately shifted from “will they price well” to “what’s the second one.” Names like K18, Briogeo, and Living Proof were now being mentioned as the next-up haircare moves, and the read-through to skincare and complexion was that 2022 was going to be a deal-and-listing year for brands of that scale. The category had grown up.
Fall fragrance lands
Fall fragrance traditionally lands in September, and 2021’s class included a few notable entries. Byredo‘s Lil Fleur amber was the polished niche pick. At the more accessible end, Glossier‘s You Doux launched, framed as a sleepier evening companion to the original. Maison Margiela’s Replica continued to anchor the prestige fragrance shelf with new amber and tobacco-leaning entries, and the gourmand side of the category was suddenly louder thanks to a TikTok-driven re-discovery of Phlur and the slow build of indie fragrance houses. The fragrance category, more than any other in beauty, had benefited from the past year’s introspective shopping habits, and the September launches were the first visible payoff of that shift.
The skincare news cycle slows
For the first time in over a year, skincare was not the loudest category. Makeup had reclaimed the conversation, and the skincare news cycle moved into its mature-category mode — fewer dramatic launches, more line extensions, more conversation about durable categories like SPF and barrier-repair than about novel actives. Drunk Elephant‘s post-Shiseido cadence settled in, with line extensions to D-Bronzi and the Protini family, and Tatcha‘s reformulated Indigo Overnight Repair launched to good reviews. The sense was that the skincare industry was catching its breath after eighteen months of skincare-as-coping, and that the next big skincare story would arrive when the next active ingredient or delivery technology hit a credible level of maturity.
The fall lip — sealed, deeper, more intentional
The Pat-McGrath-led red carpet didn’t just stay on the carpet. By the end of the month, every counter video we saw had a different deeper-toned lip than it had in August, with brick reds, sealed plums, and a quiet revival of the matte plum lip that had defined late 2010s autumn. MAC‘s permanent line, with Diva and Cyber and Russian Red, was getting cited in shopping videos as the back-to-classics move, and Charlotte Tilbury‘s deeper Pillow Talk Intense was operating as the prestige equivalent. Lip oils didn’t go away, but they moved into a layering role rather than the headline finish — used over a colour, not as the colour. The whole shift telegraphed an intentional makeup season ahead, after a summer that had been intentionally light.
Body care holds, but quiet
The body-care arc that had defined the summer didn’t reverse in September, but it did go quieter. Nécessaire‘s line extensions and the steady churn of new body serums and ceramide lotions kept landing, but the conversation moved from breakout-trend energy to durable-category energy. That’s a healthy sign for the segment — the hype phase had been worth watching, but the maturation phase was where the long-term shoppers stayed. We expected to see a steady cadence of body-care launches through the rest of 2021 without any single one breaking through to viral status, which was itself a kind of vote of confidence in the category’s permanence.
What we are watching for October
October brings the Allure Best of Beauty issue, the early Halloween makeup conversation, and the first wave of holiday gift-set merchandising at Sephora and Ulta. We’re watching the Olaplex stock to see whether the post-IPO conversation moves the parent company in any visible direction, and whether the listing pulls a comparable haircare brand to follow. We’re tracking the post-Met Gala makeup trickle-down, since the bold-colour conversation tends to land in mainstream creator content within four to six weeks of a carpet moment. And we’re watching the new wave of fragrance to see whether the September momentum holds into the holiday gifting cycle. We will see you on the first Tuesday of October.
Shop the edit
- The Ordinary Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 — a hydration step for the fall reset.
- L’Oréal Paris True Match Foundation — a fall-ready everyday foundation.
- Revlon Super Lustrous Lipstick — a classic fall lip.
- K18 Leave-In Molecular Repair Mask — post-summer hair repair.
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