September 2014 was the year’s biggest beauty month. The September issues hit every newsstand the first week, NYFW Spring 2015 ran the second week, the long-rumored Lancôme Miracle Cushion launched at US prestige in the second half of the month, the Charlotte Tilbury US arrival was finally confirmed for October at Bergdorf Goodman, and the Glossier launch a few weeks out was the most-discussed pre-launch story in beauty publishing. By the first Tuesday of September the calendar was so dense the editorial inboxes were a mess. Below, what we kept reaching for in the most launch-heavy month of the year.
Lancôme Miracle Cushion finally arrived at US prestige
The cushion-compact watch we had been running since January 2013 finally produced an actual US launch in September 2014. Lancôme’s Miracle Cushion debuted at Sephora and at Lancôme department-store counters in the second half of the month, and the format that had been a Korean obsession since 2008 was finally available at the prestige tier in the United States. The early reviews were strong: a sheer dewy finish, easy daytime application, a refillable cushion that meant the format had a long-term cost case rather than a single-use one.
The shade range was the launch’s weak point — twelve shades, with a noticeable thinness at both the very fair and the deeper end — but the format itself was genuinely well-executed. By the end of the month, three of the major Western prestige houses had publicly confirmed cushion launches of their own for 2015 and 2016. The category had crossed.
NYFW Spring 2015: a glossy lid and a half-up half-down
The Spring 2015 shows in New York were the cleanest spring-into-summer beauty conversation in a few seasons. The runway through-line was a glossy lid — clear lip balm or wet-look gel applied directly to the eyelid for a high-shine, almost wet finish — paired with a half-up half-down hairstyle that read polished but slightly undone. The brand most often credited backstage was M·A·C, sponsoring the majority of shows; the makeup-artist whose name kept coming up was Diane Kendal at Marc Jacobs and Pat McGrath at the Calvin Klein and Versace shows.
The look would translate at retail through the next six months. The glossy-lid moment landed harder than expected — most home users had not been wearing eye gloss since the late 90s — and the half-up half-down was an immediate office-friendly hairstyle that did not require advanced skill to recreate.
Charlotte Tilbury confirmed her US arrival
The launch publishing had been waiting on for a year was confirmed in early September: Charlotte Tilbury would open her US distribution at Bergdorf Goodman, Nordstrom, and Saks Fifth Avenue starting in October 2014. The retail rollout would include all the brand’s headline products — the Filmstar Bronze & Glow palette, the Magic Cream, the K.I.S.S.I.N.G. and Matte Revolution lipsticks — at the same prestige price point the brand had carried in the UK.
By mid-September the brand’s Pillow Talk lipstick — the soft warm-pink nude that had been the most-photographed lipstick in UK beauty editorial since the brand’s launch — was already being passed around the US editor circuit through small unofficial pre-launch shipments. The lipstick would become the most-sold lipstick of the prestige tier in 2015 and one of the most-photographed beauty products of the decade.
Glossier’s pre-launch energy peaked
The Glossier launch — confirmed for October 14 — drove a level of pre-launch editorial coverage no DTC beauty brand had received before. The first product set, dubbed the Phase 1 collection, included Balm Dotcom (a multipurpose balm), the Milky Jelly Cleanser, the Soothing Face Mist, and the Priming Moisturizer. The packaging was unmistakable: pale pink, minimalist, with the signature pink bubble-wrap shipping pouch that would become a status item to photograph on your bathroom counter.
What was new about the launch positioning was the customer-as-marketer strategy. Glossier had been seeded extensively to its Into the Gloss audience well before launch, and the first-week launch coverage on Instagram was driven heavily by users posting their own photos rather than by brand-paid placements. The model would be widely studied and copied through the second half of the decade.
Allure Best of Beauty held the late-year purchase list
The October Allure issue — the annual Best of Beauty rundown — landed in mid-September with a heavier prestige slant than the previous year and a meaningfully expanded skincare section. The 2014 winners that mattered most for late-year buying were Becca’s Shimmering Skin Perfector, the new NARS Audacious lipstick line, and the previously-quietly-cult Bioderma Sensibio H2O which had finally made the awards page.
What we’re watching for October
October 2014 will be the loudest launch month of the year — Glossier’s actual public launch, the Charlotte Tilbury US debut at Bergdorf, the holiday gift-set landings at every retailer, the Halloween-makeup conversation, and the deep-fragrance Q4 push. We will see you on the first Tuesday of October.