August 2022 in Beauty: Olaplex No. 9, SKKN by Kim, and Cream Bronzer

August 2022 was the month the year’s launch calendar finally caught up with us. Olaplex pushed out a long-awaited new product, Kim Kardashian’s nine-step skincare line debuted on its own e-commerce site, and the cream-bronzer category had a meaningful arrival of formulas worth talking about. The VMAs at the very end of the month closed out the summer red-carpet schedule, beach vacations were still rolling, and the pre-fall hair-conditioning conversation was already starting to reset the routines we had let drift through July’s heat. Here is what we kept reaching for, what arrived, and what was on our list to try.

Olaplex No. 9 quietly arrived

Olaplex released the Bond Protector Nourishing Hair Serum, the No. 9 in the line’s numbered system, in early August, and it quickly slotted into the rotation between the No. 8 mask and the at-home leave-in spray. The pitch was a lightweight, leave-in serum with a kakadu plum complex meant to seal in moisture, fight pollution, and add shine without weighing the hair down. The texture was lighter than the brand’s previous products, which made it suitable for the fine-hair end of the spectrum where the No. 8 had been borderline too rich. We had been using it daily for a couple of weeks by the end of the month, and the cumulative shine was real. The brand had been navigating a rocky public conversation in 2022 around its IPO and a class-action filing, but the products kept performing.

SKKN by Kim launched on August 17

Kim Kardashian’s SKKN by Kim debuted on August 17 with a nine-step skincare line that had been in development for years and benefitted from a partnership with Coty. The packaging was the now-familiar minimal taupe-and-beige aesthetic, the price point was firmly prestige, and the hero product was a vitamin-C-led serum that arrived with very serious editorial coverage. The reaction across the beauty press was mixed — some of the formulations read as solid but unremarkable, the price felt steep for what was effectively a routine many in-the-know brands had been delivering at half the cost — but the range was undeniably professional. We tried the cleanser, the toner, and the vitamin C, kept the cleanser, returned the rest, and went back to our existing routine. Worth the look, in our case not worth the swap.

Cream bronzer finally became a category

The cream-bronzer field, which had been a single-product conversation for years, suddenly had real depth in August. Saie‘s Sun Melt cream bronzer in a stick took the gateway position, with a sheer warmth that worked on every skin tone we tried it on. Rare Beauty‘s Warm Wishes liquid bronzer scaled the same idea to the under-twenty-five customer who had built the brand’s TikTok presence. Westman Atelier‘s Face Trace, a contour stick rather than strictly a bronzer, took the prestige editorial lane for any conversation about sculpting cheekbones with a single product. The whole category had matured by the end of the month — three excellent options at three different prices, plus the Charlotte Tilbury Beautiful Skin Bronzer for any holdouts.

Vacation skin recovery had a routine

August was peak post-vacation skin chaos — too much sun, too much salt water, possibly too much hot tub, and a face that had not been on its usual routine for two weeks. The recovery routine had a real shape by 2022. Avène‘s Cicalfate+ Restorative Protective Cream was the dermatologist-recommended barrier-repair step we had on hand for any heat rash or sun-damaged skin. K18‘s Leave-In Molecular Repair Mask did the same for hair after pool exposure, and the four-minute application time made it a realistic ritual to fold into a Sunday wash. Drunk Elephant‘s C-Firma Day Serum was the antioxidant we slotted back in once the sun damage felt under control. The whole reset took ten days; by end of August the skin had usually caught up.

Multi-tasking sticks earned permanent slots

The travel-friendly stick format had been growing for a few years, and August was when our makeup bag was almost entirely sticks. Tower 28‘s SuperDew Highlighter, a clear gel stick with the smallest possible shimmer, was the universal recommendation we kept making to anyone wanting subtle glow on cheekbones, brow bones, and tops of shoulders. Merit‘s Bronze Balm cream stick stayed in the warm-weather rotation. Kosas‘s Concealer-meets-Treatment Revealer was the spot-cover product we already raved about in July. The economics had become obvious: a single stick replaced two or three products, weighed less than a phone, and survived TSA security in any carry-on. The future of summer makeup looked exactly like this.

Closing

August closed with a new Olaplex serum on the bathroom counter, a Saie cream bronzer in everyday rotation, a SKKN cleanser left over from a brief experiment, and a recovery routine in place after one too-tan beach weekend. September will bring the New York Fashion Week Spring 2023 calendar, the post-Labor Day office reset, and a small pivot in the makeup conversation back toward defined eyes and proper foundation. 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.

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