July 2015 was, like every July, the slow-launch month and the loud-test month. The bathroom counter on the first Tuesday had nothing new on it that had not been there in June, the heat dome that settled across most of the East Coast in the second week of the month tested every product we had committed to in the spring, and the absence of new launches meant every magazine column pivoted to summer-survival routines. By the end of the first week we had three favorites that had earned a permanent spot in the rotation through humid commute conditions, a small graveyard of products that had failed the same test, and a Glossier Stretch Concealer that had finally arrived after the back-order. Below, what we kept reaching for.
Glossier Stretch Concealer arrived
Glossier’s Stretch Concealer launched in July 2015 as the brand’s most ambitious product to date. The format was a small stick concealer with a fluid, almost silicone-like texture that promised to flex with skin movement rather than crack or settle into fine lines. The shade range at launch was twelve, addressing the most common complaint of the brand’s earlier launches; the price was eighteen dollars, deliberately positioned as accessible.
The launch sold through immediately. The brand’s back-order list ran into the tens of thousands within the first two weeks, the reviews coming back from editors who had committed to the product for two weeks were uniformly positive, and the launch effectively confirmed that the Glossier model was sustainable beyond the launch novelty. The eighteen-dollar concealer became one of the most-restocked products of the brand’s second year.
The hot-weather makeup edit consolidated
By July, the makeup-bag conversation had ruthlessly trimmed itself. Foundation was almost entirely out — at most a tinted moisturizer or a CC cream, more often just a sheer skin tint with the new Stretch Concealer applied where actually needed. Laura Mercier’s Tinted Moisturizer kept its position at the top of the category; It Cosmetics’s CC+ Cream picked up market share among anyone who wanted slightly more coverage at the same price.
The cheek-tint conversation in July was strongest at the prestige tier. Becca’s Beach Tint kept its popular reference position; Benefit’s Benetint and Posietint kept the drugstore-friendly tier well-stocked.
Hair masks crossed into the once-a-week routine
The hair-mask conversation we documented a year earlier had become firmly weekly-routine territory by July 2015. The advice in every column ran the same direction: a rich mask once a week on the towel-dried mid-lengths and ends, never the scalp, never more than thirty minutes. Olaplex’s No. 3 — the consumer launch that had landed in mid-June — was already the editor-recommended weekly add-on for anyone with chemically treated hair. Kérastase’s Masquintense kept the prestige slot for non-Olaplex users; L’Oréal Paris’s Total Repair Damage-Erasing Balm was the under-fifteen-dollar workhorse.
Drunk Elephant continued building
Drunk Elephant’s Sephora momentum continued building through July 2015. The C-Firma Day Serum was getting genuine cult-status reviews; the T.L.C. Framboos Glycolic Resurfacing Night Serum had emerged as the brand’s evening counterpart. The brand’s positioning around “biocompatible” ingredients had created a real category conversation, and other brands were openly responding in their July marketing materials.
Beach hair moved past the salt spray
The beach-hair conversation continued its 2014 pivot away from straight salt spray and toward texture-spray-style products that gave the same lift without the crunchy finish. Oribe’s Dry Texturizing Spray kept its prestige reference position; Bumble and bumble’s Surf Spray kept its editor-default beach slot. The drugstore tier had genuinely caught up — TRESemmé’s Beach Waves spray was the best under-ten-dollar approximation in the category.
What we’re watching for August
August 2015 brings the back-to-school launches, the second half of the cushion-compact rollout (the YSL launch is now confirmed for early fall), and what was rumored to be the launch of Kylie Jenner’s lipstick line — the cosmetics venture had been quietly building since spring. We will see you on the first Tuesday of August.