August 2018 was the month that always reorganizes the bathroom counter for fall. The Glossier Phase Three launch landed on August 7 with the Lidstar liquid eyeshadow line — six shades of buildable shimmer in a doe-foot wand, $18 each. The back-to-school drugstore push delivered the strongest cosmetics value of the year. The late-summer skincare pivot moved retinol back to three nights a week and added a second oil to the evening routine. And the prestige beauty conversation moved into its annual pre-NYFW quiet — every brand was holding launches for September, the trade press had stopped breaking news, and the rest of us were watching the second-year Fenty momentum continue without surprises.
Glossier Lidstar lands
Glossier launched Lidstar on August 7 — six shades of liquid eyeshadow with a soft wash of shimmer, designed to go on with a doe-foot applicator and to layer or blend with fingers. We bought two — Slip (a pearl pink) and Cub (a soft taupe) — and tested them through the rest of the month. The texture was the brand’s signature minimal-makeup story translated into the eye category — sheer enough to look like skin with a wash of light, pigmented enough to be visible. The launch confirmed that Glossier was now a real makeup brand with a coherent product range. The Lash Slick + Lidstar + Cloud Paint trio defined the brand’s no-makeup makeup proposition. We were committed to all of it.
The back-to-school drugstore haul, 2018 edition
August 2018 at the drugstore was as strong as the previous year. Maybelline‘s SuperStay Matte Ink continued to dominate the long-wear lipstick category. The L’Oréal Voluminous Lash Paradise mascara remained the universal drugstore mascara recommendation. e.l.f. Cosmetics had quietly built one of the strongest dupes-for-prestige lineups at the drugstore — a $6 brow cream that read as identical to a $24 Anastasia Beverly Hills equivalent, a $5 mattifying primer that performed within 90 percent of the Smashbox Photo Finish. We loaded up on backups for fall, spent under $50 in total, and noted again that the drugstore was where the actual value lived in beauty. The prestige tier had to keep finding new dimensions to compete on; price was no longer one of them.
The late-summer skincare pivot, year three
By the last week of August the skincare routine had pivoted back to fall — heavier moisturizers, retinol three nights a week, an oil added to the evening routine. The product that did the most work this year was Drunk Elephant‘s Virgin Marula Oil — a single-ingredient face oil we had been using since spring and which earned a permanent slot in the evening rotation. Sunday Riley‘s Luna Sleeping Night Oil — the brand’s retinol-and-blue-tansy oil — earned the alternate-night slot. The Tatcha Camellia oil cleanser remained the first step. The active-ingredient routine was the most stable it had been in three years. The bathroom counter was the best-organized it had been all year.
The NYFW Spring 2019 buildup
By the third week of August the editorial preview content for September’s NYFW Spring 2019 shows had started landing. Calvin Klein’s fourth Raf Simons collection was the most anticipated. The first whispers about Marc Jacobs’s spring 2019 direction had begun. Tom Ford was holding his New York staging steady. The Tory Burch and Coach 1941 lineups were locked. The fashion calendar in late August always promises the next year’s defining moments, and 2019 was looking like a year of consolidation rather than disruption — designers settling further into points of view rather than chasing trend cycles. We were planning our September outfit budget accordingly.
The Fenty second-year momentum
Fenty Beauty‘s second-year strategy had crystallized by August into a regular cadence of small-collection launches anchored by the Pro Filt’r foundation expansion — the brand had added shades through the year and was approaching fifty by August. The Beach Please summer collection had performed well. The Mattemoiselle line had restocked shades. The brand was now a permanent prestige fixture rather than a launch story; the structural impact on the rest of the prestige market continued to play out. Every prestige foundation brand had publicly expanded its shade range. The bar had moved permanently. The conversation had matured.
Closing
By the last week of August the makeup bag had pivoted back to fall — the new Lidstar shades in the front pouch, a darker drugstore lipstick at hand, the heavier moisturizer settling in for fall, the Marula Oil bottle on the counter. September will bring the NYFW Spring 2019 shows, the Fenty one-year-anniversary moment, and the start of the long fall fragrance launch parade. We will see you on the first Tuesday of September.