August 2017 will be remembered for a few specific things — the total solar eclipse on the 21st (the country split into commemorative-eclipse-glasses small businesses for a week), the late-summer back-to-school drugstore push that always reframes the bathroom counter for fall, and the strange quiet that hung over the prestige beauty world in the run-up to a launch nobody outside the trades had named yet. Rihanna’s Fenty Beauty had been confirmed for September 8 by mid-August, the press images had been distributed to a small group of editors, and the leak that the foundation would launch with forty shades had reframed the entire shade-range conversation overnight. The rest of the industry was still launching its fall foundations as if the news was not coming. We were waiting. In the meantime, August itself delivered exactly what we wanted from the month — a back-to-school spend at the drugstore, the early fall fragrance previews, and the slow quiet shift of the makeup back to a fall palette.
The back-to-school drugstore haul, 2017
August at the drugstore is one of the most reliably interesting beauty events of the year, and the 2017 haul felt particularly strong. Maybelline‘s SuperStay Matte Ink — a long-wear liquid lipstick that had been quietly dominating the drugstore lipstick conversation since launch — finally added the rosewood and burgundy shades we had been waiting for, and we picked up four. The new L’Oréal Paris Voluminous Lash Paradise mascara had become the breakout drugstore product of the second half of 2017 — beauty editors who normally tested $30 mascaras had publicly converted, and the formula was demonstrably as good as the comparison products. NYX had restocked its Soft Matte Lip Cream line with the deeper fall shades. Total spend at CVS for a real haul: under $40. The drugstore in late summer is one of the highest-value places in beauty, and we never miss it.
The late-summer skincare pivot
By the last week of August we had pivoted the skincare routine back into fall mode — heavier moisturizers, retinol back to three nights a week, an oil added to the evening routine. The product that did the most work this year was Tatcha‘s Camellia Cleansing Oil — a thick, double-cleansing first step that made everything that followed work better. We layered it with a glycolic toner from Pixi Beauty (the cult-favorite Glow Tonic that has been on every beauty editor’s shelf for three years), and a heavier serum from Estée Lauder‘s Advanced Night Repair line. The summer minimalism had been a useful reset. By late August the routine was rebuilding, but smarter — fewer products, all of them earning their place, and the heavier formulas reserved for evening only.
The eclipse-week beauty hiatus
For one week in mid-August, the entire country took a quiet break from the beauty conversation to look at the sky. The total solar eclipse on August 21 cut a path of totality from Oregon to South Carolina, and the entire week of editorial content went toward eclipse-glasses safety, eclipse-themed nail polish (a brief but real commercial moment), and a series of slightly silly editorial roundups about “lunar-inspired beauty.” The actual product we used most that week was not a beauty product at all — it was a Ulta-purchased pair of eclipse glasses for ten dollars. But the editorial pause created an unusual and pleasant calm before the Fenty news landed. We took the week off the routine, used a single moisturizer and a single SPF, and did not feel deprived. The lesson — that fewer products is sometimes the answer — has stayed with us into the fall.
The fall fragrance previews start trickling out
The fall fragrance launches typically arrive at retail in early September, and by the last week of August the previews and editor sample boxes had started showing up. The two formulas we are most curious about are a forthcoming oud-and-amber from Jo Malone and the second pillar fragrance from Diptyque‘s expanding Eaux de Parfum line. The shift in fragrance for fall is reliable but always satisfying — the citrus comes off, the deeper resinous notes go on, the bottle rotates on the dresser. We are also testing a new Santa Maria Novella sample we picked up at a friend’s apartment in July; the Florence-made house’s traditional formulas remain the most distinctive of any line we own.
The brand we are watching for September
It feels strange to write a post-August beauty roundup without naming the brand we are most anticipating, but the reality is that Fenty Beauty‘s September 8 launch had not yet happened as we wrote this. The press tier had been briefed, the campaign had been shot, and the rumor mill in beauty trade press had landed on a forty-shade Pro Filt’r Soft Matte Foundation as the centerpiece of the launch. We will write the actual review in next month’s post, but the pre-launch impact has already been seismic — at least two prestige brands we know of had quietly accelerated planned shade-range expansions for fall, and the entire conversation about who foundation is for had reframed without anyone formally announcing it. The September post is going to be the most-anticipated entry of the year.
Closing
By the last week of August the makeup bag was already shifting back to fall — a single drugstore liquid lipstick in a deeper shade, the new mascara, the heavier moisturizer, the Tatcha oil cleanser. The pre-Fenty pause had created a kind of editorial restraint that we appreciated. September will arrive with the usual NYFW spring 2018 backstage looks, the launch we have been pretending not to anticipate, and the start of the long fall slide into the holiday gifting conversation. We will see you on the first Tuesday of September.