September 2023 marked the official transition from summer to fall in beauty. The light shifted, the air cooled, and the industry’s fall launches started landing in earnest. The Spring 2024 fashion shows opened in New York on September 8, kicking off the four-week run through Milan and Paris that defines the annual fashion conversation. Around the runway, the fall-skincare reset began (retinol back in the routine, mineral SPF kept where summer had built tolerance), Glossier closed its first full year at Sephora, and the wider category settled into the deeper-investment mood that always defines September. These are the launches and ideas that bridged summer into autumn.
NYFW Spring 2024 backstage beauty
The New York Fashion Week Spring 2024 shows ran September 8 through 13 and produced the year’s first proper read on where beauty was heading for early 2024. The dominant backstage looks: a returned-to-form clean glowing skin (Pat McGrath continued her Mothership X work across multiple shows), a slick-back ponytail that felt confident rather than transitional, and a renewed appetite for proper graphic eyeliner at brands like Khaite and Proenza Schouler.
The bigger beauty-industry signal from NYFW was that the runway was finally moving past the dewy-clean-girl aesthetic that had dominated for eighteen months. The conversation around Spring 2024 was that makeup was getting more deliberate again — defined eyes, considered lip color, a more “doing makeup” energy that contrasted with the “barely-there” looks that had run through 2022 and most of 2023. Pat McGrath Labs remained the dominant backstage brand. Charlotte Tilbury‘s Pillow Talk range continued its red-carpet dominance.
The fall skincare reset
September is the month we re-introduce retinol after a summer of UV exposure, and the 2023 conversation was the most mature it had been in years. The routine logic that had settled in: build a peptide-and-niacinamide base, slot retinol two or three times a week, layer ceramide-rich moisturizers as the air dries out, keep mineral SPF mandatory in the morning. Shani Darden‘s Retinol Reform stayed at the top of the prestige retinol pile. Sunday Riley‘s A+ High-Dose continued holding its share of the encapsulated category. The Ordinary‘s Retinal 0.2% remained the entry-level entry point.
What had matured was the consumer understanding that the retinol category had its own internal hierarchy — first-time users started with bakuchiol or Retinal 0.2%, intermediate users moved to encapsulated retinol at 0.5-1%, and the prescription-tretinoin conversation had become a normal step in many users’ year-three or year-four progression. The category was sophisticated, and the brands that were winning were the ones that respected the user’s existing knowledge.
Glossier — one year at Sephora
Glossier‘s first full year at Sephora had played out roughly the way the brand hoped. The launch had driven a real lift in Sephora’s beauty traffic, the SKU-level sell-through on Boy Brow and Cloud Paint had been strong, and the broader skincare line had picked up new customers who had never engaged with the direct-to-consumer site. Most importantly for the brand, Glossier had successfully repositioned itself from “the millennial-pink direct-to-consumer originator” to “a credible prestige beauty brand at Sephora” — a much more sustainable mid-term identity.
The next strategic question — international rollout, deeper product launches, possibly a return to limited physical stores — was now what the brand’s CEO Kyle Leahy had to answer. Early signals through September pointed toward international Sephora rollout in 2024, additional fragrance launches, and a quieter return to the kind of cult brand storytelling that had built Glossier in the first place. The wider story: Glossier had successfully escaped the direct-to-consumer trap that had crippled so many of its peers, and was now operating from a strong retail position.
Sabato De Sarno’s Gucci debut
September 22 was Sabato De Sarno’s first show as creative director of Gucci — the most-watched fashion debut of the year. The collection delivered a sharply restrained vision that contrasted dramatically with Alessandro Michele’s maximalist run: sharp tailoring, a controlled palette of red-orange-and-rust, slim-leg trousers, brushed leather and quiet luxury throughout. The fashion press was split on whether the result was a courageous reset or a too-cautious retreat from Michele’s signature.
For the beauty industry, the Gucci shift mattered because Gucci’s beauty business (run via Coty since 2014) had been very much tied to Michele’s maximalist visual language — bold lip color, painted-eye drama, the kind of beauty product story that worked with Michele’s clothes. With De Sarno’s quieter direction, Gucci Beauty’s positioning was going to need a corresponding evolution. We expected the brand to gradually reposition through 2024 toward a more pared-back beauty vocabulary aligned with the new house aesthetic.
The new prestige skincare launches
September always brings a wave of fall-positioned skincare launches. Augustinus Bader expanded its core collection with a refreshed Rich Cream formula. Tatcha‘s seasonal Indigo Cream got fresh editorial attention. Drunk Elephant — despite the August “Sephora teen” headwind — released a thoughtful fall launch with the B-Hydra Hydrating Serum reformulation. Tower 28 kept growing the SOS Daily Rescue Facial Spray cult.
The wider pattern was that fall 2023’s prestige-skincare launches were quieter than spring’s — fewer big-pageant rollouts, more reformulations and line extensions. The brands had read the room: the consumer was over-stimulated after a year of constant launches, and the brands that were winning were the ones doing fewer, better updates rather than chasing the next viral moment.
September gave us a clear bridge from summer to fall. NYFW had set the Spring 2024 visual mood. Retinol was back in the rotation. Glossier had completed its successful first year at Sephora. De Sarno had quietly reset Gucci. And the prestige skincare market had moved from “more launches” to “better launches.” 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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