October is the month the fall routine settles in. The Spring 2020 runway euphoria has receded, the Allure Best of Beauty list dropped at the start of the month, and the Sephora Beauty Insider holiday sale calendar is starting to materialize. We pulled the most useful October moments — Drunk Elephant officially Shiseido’s, the first Halloween makeup conversation, and the Olaplex No. 7 launch — into one digestible read so you can shop the back half of the year with intention.
Drunk Elephant officially joins Shiseido
The Shiseido acquisition of Drunk Elephant closed this month at the price tag we had heard whispered all summer. For now, nothing changes for the consumer — the Protini Polypeptide Cream still costs sixty-eight dollars at Sephora, T.L.C. Framboos still arrives in its bright yellow tube, and Tiffany Masterson is staying on as president. What we expect to see in 2020 is a richer launch cadence and broader international distribution — Drunk Elephant has been notoriously slow to add product, and Shiseido’s machinery is going to change that.
Olaplex No. 7 Bonding Oil launches
Olaplex released No. 7 Bonding Oil, a leave-in heat protectant and frizz tamer, this month and it is already moving fast at salons. The brand’s strategy of releasing one bonding-tier product per year has been rewarded — every previous No. has held its place in the lineup. No. 7 is positioned as a final-step oil, lighter than No. 6, with the same focus on protecting the disulfide bonds that color and heat damage break. If you have invested in No. 0 through No. 6, this completes the family.
Allure Best of Beauty 2019: the picks worth knowing
The Allure Best of Beauty list landed at the start of October. The headline winners across the categories worth caring about: Maybelline Sky High Mascara dominated the drugstore eye category, Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk lipstick continued to be the best sellable lipstick in prestige, and Drunk Elephant Protini took the moisturizer category for the second year. The list has become predictable in a comforting way — these are products that have earned their second and third year of recommendation rather than launching new and disappearing.
Halloween makeup gets less elaborate, more wearable
The big Halloween conversation this year is the pivot from the elaborate face paint of 2014 through 2017 toward looks that are heavily makeup-driven but wearable past the actual party. The “pretty witch” look — graphic black liner, smoky purple shadow, dark wine lip — is what every makeup artist on Instagram is teaching this week. Urban Decay Naked Cherry palette is the right starting point if you do not own one already. The benefit is that the makeup is fully usable on a regular Friday night.
Estée Lauder buying Dr. Jart+ is the rumor of the month
The persistent rumor in the prestige skincare world this October is that Estée Lauder is closing in on an acquisition of Korean skincare brand Dr. Jart+. If the deal goes through (and the betting is strongly that it will, by November), it would be the most significant K-beauty acquisition by a Western conglomerate to date. Dr. Jart+ Cicapair, Ceramidin, and Dermask sheet masks have been the brand’s core lineup, and their distribution has lagged behind their cult status. Estée Lauder ownership would change that overnight.
The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream is October’s hero product
If we had to name the single product that defined October at Sephora, it would be the The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream. At a sub-ten-dollar price point, against eye creams that retail for seventy and ninety, the brand has produced a fluid that genuinely depuffs and hydrates without the heavy occlusive feeling of older luxury formulas. It is selling out as fast as Sephora can restock it. We have been alternating it with the Hyaluronic Acid serum from the same line, also under fifteen dollars.
What we are buying in October
Our cart this month is heavy on autumn skin reset. The Inkey List Caffeine Eye Cream, Olaplex No. 7 Bonding Oil, a tube of Charlotte Tilbury Pillow Talk Original (the new Intense will follow before holidays), and the Urban Decay Naked Cherry palette for Halloween that we will keep using through the end of the year. We will see you on the first Tuesday of November.