June produced one of the year’s most-discussed product launches: Hailey Bieber’s Rhode finally introduced the phone case with a built-in lip gloss holder that the brand had been teasing for months. The launch was the kind of viral moment that comes around twice a year if a brand is doing its job — and Rhode kept doing its job. June also brought Pride Month campaigns, the official kickoff of the “tomato girl” summer aesthetic that Pinterest had been forecasting since spring, and a fresh set of post-festival, pre-vacation skincare conversations. We spent the month testing summer launches and following the conversations that were going to define beauty’s warm-weather season, and these are the launches and ideas that landed.
Rhode’s lip case launches
Rhode‘s phone case-with-lip-gloss-holder — released for both iPhone 13 and iPhone 14 sizes on June 27 at $35 — was the kind of accessory launch that got the entire industry talking. The product was, mechanically, a soft silicone phone case with a slot at the back to hold a Rhode Peptide Lip Treatment, and the marketing rollout was Hailey Bieber and her stylist friends carrying the case at every public appearance for two weeks before the on-sale date. The product sold out within hours of launch.
The cultural significance of the launch was that Rhode had crossed a line from skincare-brand to lifestyle-brand. The case was, technically, a phone case — but it functioned as a vehicle for keeping the actual cult-status Peptide Lip Treatment visible on every Instagram-and-TikTok hand. The launch was beauty’s clearest example of accessory-as-distribution-channel, and we expected at least three other celebrity beauty brands to copy the format by year-end.
Pride Month: the authentic versus the performative
Pride Month produced its annual flood of rainbow-themed beauty campaigns, and the conversation in 2023 was sharper than usual about which brands were authentically supportive versus which were participating in optics-only marketing. Fluide, the queer-founded prestige makeup brand, kept its credibility through the season. MAC‘s Viva Glam program (running since 1994) remained the gold-standard ongoing-program example. Glossier kept its Pride campaign quieter, donating to The Trevor Project rather than launching a rainbow-coded collection.
The wider conversation around Pride and corporate beauty in 2023 was sharpened by the Bud Light controversy that was running through the same months — the cultural climate around brand-ally activism had shifted toward more cautious, more durable commitments rather than rainbow-coded one-offs. Beauty brands generally got the message; the more intelligent campaigns were the ones that highlighted ongoing programs and donations rather than just rainbow packaging.
“Tomato girl” summer arrives
Pinterest’s predicted “tomato girl” aesthetic — sun-kissed cheeks, a slightly-flushed-from-the-heat look, terracotta-toned blush, undone hair — fully arrived in June. The look was a Mediterranean-inflected version of the year’s wider warm-glam vocabulary. Charlotte Tilbury‘s Beautiful Skin Sun-Kissed Glow Bronzer carried the bronzer category. Rare Beauty‘s Soft Pinch Liquid Blush in warmer terracotta-leaning shades kept selling through. Merit‘s Flush Balm in the warmer apricot-brown tones became the everyday entry point.
The styling logic underneath “tomato girl” was the same as the spring’s “soft girl” and “balletcore” looks but with a warmer and more sun-coded palette. The same dewy-skin, brushed-up-brow, flushed-cheek vocabulary just shifted from cool-pink to warm-terracotta. Both were minimal, both were calibrated for the front camera, and both were going to keep selling cream blush through the rest of the year.
Father’s Day grooming gift sets
The Father’s Day grooming-gift calendar produced a respectable batch of giftable bundles. Aesop‘s shaving-and-skincare set was the prestige choice. Malin+Goetz‘s travel kit was the workhorse-quality entry point. Harry’s Truman shave set kept its slot as the under-$30 reliable answer.
The men’s-grooming category was, in 2023, finally showing up to the prestige-skincare conversation. The same body-skincare rituals (dual-cleanser, hyaluronic acid serum, mineral SPF) that had been cresting for women for several years were now arriving for men, and the gifting calendar was the wedge driving early adoption. We expected the category to keep growing through 2024.
Post-festival, pre-vacation skincare
After Coachella in April and ahead of the big summer-vacation calendar, June was the month to do the sustained skincare reset that summer required. The protocol we settled into: gentle exfoliation twice a week (The Ordinary‘s AHA 30% + BHA 2% Peeling Solution remained the entry-level pick), a vitamin C in the morning, mineral SPF every day without exception, and a serious hyaluronic acid serum to combat the air-conditioning dry-out. Glow Recipe‘s Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops kept their everyday slot.
For body, the priority shifted from active treatments to humidity-management: Necessaire‘s body lotion stayed; the heavier body butters got benched until autumn; and a self-tan that didn’t break a sweat (Tan-Towel, again) became the pre-event default. The bigger summer-skincare insight was that the season asked us to subtract products, not add them.
June closed beauty’s first half of the year with a clear summer thesis: the products that kept selling were the ones that delivered visible results without adding routine complexity. Rhode’s lip case had pioneered accessory-as-distribution. Pride campaigns were finally maturing into ongoing programs rather than one-off packaging plays. The “tomato girl” warm-glam vocabulary was set to dominate through the rest of the summer. We will see you on the first Tuesday of July.
Shop the edit
- e.l.f. Stay All Night Setting Spray — keeps summer makeup in place through the heat.
- Supergoop! Glow Stick SPF 50 — easy on-the-go SPF reapplication.
- Color Wow Dream Coat — anti-humidity protection for summer hair.
- Sol de Janeiro Cheirosa 62 Mist — a warm-weather scent layer.
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