December 2018 closed the year on a particular kind of beauty satisfaction. The post-Fenty industry had completed its second full year of structural change. The Pat McGrath Mothership lineage had delivered its third entry. Glossier had matured into a real makeup brand. The active-ingredient era had stabilized into the prestige skincare default. The cushion compact had earned its place. The drugstore had built permanent strength. And on December 21, the news landed that Raf Simons was leaving Calvin Klein — the most consequential American fashion exit of 2018, and a story we will be writing about for months. The bathroom counter ended the year refined to its smallest version. The year-end list was confident. We had more reasons to be optimistic about beauty than we had at the start of the year.
The year-end best-of, top six
Our internal best-of-2018 list, distilled to six: Pat McGrath Mothership III Subversive (the prestige eye palette of the year), Drunk Elephant Protini Polypeptide Cream (the prestige moisturizer of the year), Glossier Lash Slick (the breakout mascara, prestige or otherwise), Fenty Beauty Stunna Lip Paint (the universal red that earned its slot through the year), Glow Recipe Watermelon Glow Sleeping Mask (the K-beauty crossover product of the year), and the Wildling Empress Stone gua sha (the prestige tool of the year). Five out of six were from female-founded brands. The story of beauty in 2018 was the maturing of the brands that had taken new ground in 2017.
Raf Simons leaves Calvin Klein
On December 21, news broke that Raf Simons had ended his tenure at Calvin Klein after four collections. The press releases were brief. The trade-press explanation focused on commercial pressure — the editorial reach of the 205W39NYC label had been enormous, but the actual retail business had not converted at the pace the parent company needed. The departure marked the end of the most-watched American fashion experiment of the decade and reframed the spring 2019 retail floor that had not yet shipped. We will be watching the Calvin Klein news through 2019 to see what direction the brand takes next. The five-year cycle of American fashion that Calvin Klein had quietly led was about to be closed.
The simplified NYE look, year two
NYE 2018 fell on a Monday, and the look we landed on was the same simplified version we had built in 2017. The Fenty Pro Filt’r foundation, a single dab of Killawatt Freestyle highlighter on the cheekbones, the Mothership III Subversive in the deepest plum across the lid, a flick of black liquid liner, and the Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk lipstick. Total time: twelve minutes. The full-glam NYE looks that had defined the early-2010s were fully retired. The look that delivered for our actual evening — dinner with friends, a quiet midnight toast, a walk home in the cold — was the look we wore. We had also bought a single bottle of Veuve Clicquot for the toast and called it a complete plan.
The active-ingredient era reaches maturity
The active-ingredient skincare conversation that had emerged in 2017 had matured by the end of 2018 into the prestige default. Drunk Elephant had become the most-recommended prestige skincare brand on the planet. Sunday Riley‘s Good Genes had earned permanent residence on every editor’s shelf. The Ordinary had become the most-distributed beauty brand at the indie-prestige tier, despite the year of corporate drama at parent company Deciem. The conversation among informed consumers had shifted permanently from “what does this do” to “at what percentage and pH.” The era was real, and 2019 was going to push it further.
The Sephora points game, finalized
December was the month every beauty editor cashed in their Sephora Beauty Insider points, and the rewards game in 2018 had reached the same level of complexity as 2017 with one important refinement — Sephora had improved the Rouge tier rewards to include more limited-edition prestige products. We redeemed a 500-point reward for an early-access Pat McGrath Mothership IV preorder slot (the launch was tentatively planned for early 2019). The point-arbitrage game continued to be the secondary game of the year. We were loyal to Sephora primarily because the rare-product access still mattered more than the dollars off.
Closing
2018 ends with a bathroom counter that we are happy about, a closet full of gift sets we will work through in January, the Raf Simons news still settling in. January 2019 will arrive with the post-holiday quiet, the new year skincare resolutions, the post-Calvin Klein American fashion conversation, and the early signs of which 2018 launches will define 2019. The Fenty effect will keep playing out. The Glossier expansion will accelerate. The drugstore will keep gaining market share. We will see you on the first Tuesday of January, and on the third Tuesday of December for the final winter jewellery roundup of 2018.