June arrived with the kind of heat that reorganizes a beauty routine without asking. Foundations went into the back of the drawer. The cushion compact came out, the SPF sat at the front of the shelf, and we started reaching for a tinted lip balm in the morning instead of anything more committed. The first week of June handed us the Tony Awards on the 11th — Bette Midler’s Hello, Dolly! sweep gave us an excuse to read backstage beauty notes — and the rest of the month broke into projects we had been quietly anticipating since May. The travel makeup bag got a real audit. The summer skincare cocktails finally had time to test themselves in actual humidity. And the whole industry moved into pre-Fenty stillness — the foundation conversation in beauty press through June was strangely subdued, as if everyone was waiting for a thing they did not yet know was coming.
The travel makeup audit, finally honest
We had spent April and May talking about the travel makeup bag in the abstract. June was the month we finally pulled it out, dumped the contents on the bed, and put back only what we were going to actually use on a five-day trip. The list, after the audit: a single tinted moisturizer (we used Laura Mercier Tinted Moisturizer SPF 30 — a formula we have used and re-bought for years), a cream blush stick, a brow gel, the smallest Pat McGrath palette in the case (Sublime had earned the spot), and one lipstick in a wearable pink. Everything else was a nice-to-have we never reached for. The most useful thing about a travel audit is the lesson it teaches about your daily routine — most of what we put on for an everyday face turned out to be optional too. June was the month we started carrying a smaller makeup bag full-time. Laura Mercier’s Tinted Moisturizer was the unsung hero of the experiment.
Cushion compacts had quietly grown up
The cushion compact category that Lancôme first imported to the US in 2014, that Dior followed up in 2015 and YSL in late 2015 — by June 2017 the formula had matured into the most-recommended summer face product across every beauty editor we read. The current generation of the Lancôme Miracle Cushion delivered better coverage than the original, the Dior Forever Perfect Cushion had earned a permanent spot in our beach bag, and the new generation of K-beauty cushions — Amorepacific‘s Color Control Cushion in particular — were now widely distributed at Sephora rather than reserved for K-beauty specialty retailers. The cushion’s value proposition for summer is simple: SPF in the formula, a sponge that does not pick up dirt, a closed compact that fits in a clutch. We were using one most days.
The acid-and-retinol routine, in full humidity
By the second week of June we had been on the acid-and-retinol routine that Mother’s Day had cemented for a full month, and the product list stabilized around three things: Sunday Riley Good Genes (the lactic acid serum we used four nights a week), Drunk Elephant T.L.C. Framboos (a glycolic-acid serum used on the alternate two nights), and a low-percentage retinol from SkinCeuticals. The challenge in June was the humidity — the routine that worked in a dry March suddenly felt heavy, and we cut the retinol to twice a week and the acids to alternating nights. The skincare conversation in beauty editorial throughout June was about whether you should pause actives in summer at all, or whether you should simply scale them down. We landed on scale-down as the right answer for our skin. By July we were wearing less makeup and noticing actual skin underneath.
Hair, in the humidity
June is the month every hair routine breaks in a different way, and ours broke around frizz. We had been using the basic Olaplex No. 3 once a week since the previous summer, but in June we added an Oribe Anti-Humidity Spray that became the only spray we actually finished. The other product that earned its place was a Bumble and Bumble Surf Spray, used on second-day hair in a way the brand probably did not intend. By the end of the month our hair routine was the smallest of any month all year — a wash, a leave-in, the surf spray, the anti-humidity spray for events. The new conversation in hair through June was bond-building treatments — Olaplex was no longer alone in the category, with several professional-line brands launching consumer follow-ups. We are watching this space.
Drugstore lipgloss had a real comeback
The single most surprising product we bought in June was a $4 lipgloss from Maybelline that ended up in our bag for the next six months. Lipgloss as a category had spent the previous five years quietly out of fashion, replaced by liquid lipsticks and matte lip kits. By June 2017 the category was visibly returning — Pat McGrath’s LUST line had relaunched the prestige conversation, Glossier was about to drop a clear gloss into Phase Two, and the drugstore had quietly stocked dozens of new options. The Maybelline Color Sensational Vivid Hot Lacquer in a clear-pink shade was almost embarrassing to admit to, but it photographed beautifully in summer light, did not feel sticky, and cost less than a sandwich. We bought three. Sometimes the lipstick of the year is the cheap one.
Closing
By the end of June the makeup bag was officially summer — the Laura Mercier tinted moisturizer in the front pouch, two Pat McGrath glosses, the Maybelline gloss for the days we did not feel like commitment, an Oribe spray in the larger tote. Skincare was scaled down, sun protection was scaled up, and the bathroom counter felt almost minimalist. July is going to bring the Independence Day weekend and the festival of beach trips, the tan-conversation that always defines mid-summer beauty, and another round of summer launches we have been watching. We will see you on the first Tuesday of July, and on the third Tuesday for the summer jewellery roundup.