Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and a fun red thread between Andrew Rosen and Rihanna.
Included in today’s issue: Avène, Billie, Covergirl, Cosmette, Doré, Dr. Whitney Bowe Beauty, Diane Kendal, Dick Page, Dwell212, Each & Every, Emi Jay, Fable & Mane, Fenty, Glossier, Hairtamin, Kiehl’s, Laura Mercier, LeBron James, Lys Beauty, Musely, Naturium, Odele, Patchology, Peach & Lily, Phlur, Raw Sugar Living, Revolution Beauty, Rhode Skin, Saltair, Sara Happ, Tonymoly, Vacation, Versed, Voesh, Wander Beauty, Watch & Sea Beauty, and that me espresso.
But first…
In 1995, the singer Joan Osbourne asked the Billboard pop charts, “What if god was one of us?”
Thirty years later, beauty brands have an answer: If god was one of us, she’d use a lot of moisturiser.
That’s the gist, anyway, according to a series of new product launches that are both catholic (the SAT word) and a little Catholic, too, with language surrounding salvation, enlightenment, divinity, and holiness.
We saw it backstage at Khaite in New York City, where esthetician Athena Hewett prepped models like Abbey Lee and Selena Forrest with her product line Monastery, which ties skincare to religious devotion and uses the herb clary sage, mentioned in the New Testament as a “sacred herb” and traditionally associated with the infant Christ.
More: On Feb. 11, Naturelab Tokyo introduced a hair oil infused with “sacred incense” meant to evoke a wooded shinto shrine like the Meiji Jingu. Three days later, Le Labo released new press language calling their candles “a sanctuary of scent” created by “smoke, wood and herbal clarity.” Cyklar’s latest body cream is called Sacred Santal; the scent also comes in a perfume oil. And in late January, Dior dropped a cologne created by Francis Kurkdjian called Bois Talisman, which they’ve translated to “sacred wood, sweet wood.” Mon dieu! Speaking of, Dieux Skin posted an Instagram graphic of a “Skin Bible” on Feb. 18 with sensible meditations on foaming cleanser and SPF.
Aligning soap with heaven isn’t new. “Cleanliness is next to godliness” was a mantra for John Wesley, one of the founders of the Methodist sect, way back in the 18th century, and the “Ivory” in Ivory Bar Soap references a psalm. But Wesley didn’t make his own TikTok videos insisting that divinity begins with a $285 Sacred Water spray from Bergdorf Goodman — and he lived in a time when faith-based doctrines and government laws were intertwined. Today, over 30 percent of Americans don’t affiliate with any religion, according to the Pew Research Center, which also found that the number of US atheists has doubled since 1999. For those who don’t practice regular religious rituals, a mindful and repetitive act like cleansing one’s face (instead of one’s soul) might help reduce anxiety and reinforce organisational skills and focus, at least according to a 2020 study.
Are people replacing church with laser facials? Not exactly. 20 percent of Americans still attend church at least once a month; numbers are the same or higher for practicing Muslims and Jews in the US. But as we confront our modern relationship to faith, and reconstruct what ritual means in the 21st century, beauty brands are increasingly aligning themselves with virtue instead of glamour. “Quiet luxury” is, after all, the whole vibe of the papal fan fiction movie “Conclave.” And spending money on mindfulness instead of “looking hot” is a pretty good justification for buying a $159 serum or a bottle of myrrh essence, once name-checked in Matthew 2:11 and now reimagined by Tom Ford.
This light subversion of faith is heightened by the new season of “The White Lotus,” which began on Feb. 16 and centres the super-fun oxymoron of spiritual tourism. We’re just one episode in and we’ve already heard about karma, gurus, mantras, meditation and a cycle of rebirth that turns Natasha Rothwell’s Belinda from a hotel employee into a spa guest. Wellness brands have embraced the show’s hype, too, with Supergoop creating a sun-care package hyping the show and candle brand Nest New York releasing a White Lotus wick ($98) made with cucumber and sage extracts. Nest describes the aroma as “a wellness fragrance that helps create the sense of calm and renewal found at Thailand’s most luxurious spa resort.” This sounds decadent and exciting. It’s also a riot because, as Nest is clever enough to know, nobody finds salvation at a White Lotus hotel! They just find dead bodies and some sick one-liners about book stylists.
But the pursuit of true enlightenment isn’t what beauty consumers are going for when they buy spiritually-adjacent skincare or fragrance. Everybody knows that a $200 moisturiser can’t move the gates of heaven, even if its brand story is rooted in devotional practice. No product will save one’s soul — but if it can save $1,000 a year on Botox and make you look more virtuous, well, that’s when a cult following begins to form.
What Esse Is New
Skincare
On Feb. 12, Dr. Whitney Bowe Beauty launched its first lip treatment, Tri-Liptide Peptide. A week later, the brand reports one $34 tube has sold every 30 seconds, which means they’ve banked over $685,000 in just one week. If true, this is major… but I’m still waiting for the brand to confirm my math.
Saltair’s Multi-Lipid Body Butter hit shelves on Feb. 12. It’s available in four of the brand’s signature scents, including the reigning sorority house aroma Santal Bloom, and costs $20.
Prince Edward Island has Anne of Green Gables; Nova Scotia has Cosmette — also with an “e” ! — the indie beauty line with a new $29 cleanser that uses olive oil and rice bran in its formula.
Avène entered 1,388 Target stores on Feb. 13, and announced the launch of their “Dermfluencer Council” (um…?), which includes four dermatologists who will “serve as trusted retail partners for consumer education” for Walgreens and Ulta Beauty.
20 years ago, Harry Slatkin turned Bath & Body Works into a billion-dollar business. On Feb. 13, he ventured out on his own with Dwell212, a line of $8 to $13 soaps and lotions in straightforward scents like citrus and lavender. The products are available at Walmart, and if you were confronted with a Times Square billboard flashing “Choose Your Vibe” this week, it wasn’t Scientology — it was this brand launch.
Vacation’s latest drop: Crystal SPF 50 Face Gel, an “invisible” formula that doubles as a makeup primer and retails for $26.
Musely’s Cell Repair Serum debuted on Feb. 15 with “Nobel Prize-winning technology” that promises to deeply repair and revive the skin cells responsible for elasticity and endurance. Interestingly, Musely is one of the only beauty brands right now using TikTok to target Gen X.
Raw Sugar Living sounds like a bad diet craze. Thankfully, it’s actually a small beauty brand with a shampoo and conditioner range called The Sensitive One that aims to reduce scalp irritation with aloe vera, meadowfoam, and coconut oil. They’re $15 each and hit stores on Feb. 18.
Voesh introduced a lavender heel repair balm on Feb. 18 with squalane and olive oil. It’s $14 and comes in a roll-up tube so you can swipe it directly onto your feet. If you prefer something with less plastic post-pedicure, Birkenstock’s $25 nourishing foot cream comes in a recyclable metal tube and includes willow bark extract and pomegranate enzymes.
One advantage to freezing weather? You can wear a skincare mask on your neck and hide it with a scarf. Patchology’s newest — Firm Believer Neck & Décolleté Treatment — costs $12 and comes with adenosine, a cellular compound also used in cardiovascular medicine to make your heart beat more regularly. Science, whoa.
Kiehl’s dropped its $29 Ultra Facial Barrier-Hydrating Cleanser on Feb. 19 with “micro-foam that delivers 1,000 micro-bubbles per square inch.” You can test out this goofy, charming claim via Sephora.com, where the soap debuted as an exclusive item. (Just for a few days, though — this morning, it became available on Kiehls.com, too.)
Tonymoly’s Green Tea sunscreen arrived at Ulta Beauty on Feb. 19, marking the Korean skincare brand’s first foray into SPF territory. This one costs $20.
On Feb. 20, Each & Every hit Ulta Beauty. The natural deodorant brand claims to help build a “fragrance wardrobe” with its scented body products; the deodorants retail for $22.
The Shop was created by LeBron James in 2024 to make quality grooming products at accessible prices… and ostensibly, to test the basketball legend’s potential in the personal care arena. CVS was impressed enough with the brand’s early numbers to make a big investment. On Feb. 21, the $10 range of shaving lotions and cleansers rolls into 1,400 of their stores — about 15 percent of their total doors — and onto CVS.com, too.
Peach & Lily’s $43 eye cream hit the brand’s website on Feb. 21, with caffeine in the formula and the mantra “illuminate + depuff” written right on the jar. This is clear, smart branding, and it speaks to why the K-beauty brand has taken off stateside. Just tell us what the formula does!
You might have to wait a tiny bit longer for Billie’s new Exfoliate and Revive body washes to arrive at Amazon. They’ll be there in early March, but until then, each bottle is $8 at the brand’s DTC website.
Makeup
Attention, font nerds: Covergirl’s Clean Fresh Yummy Blur lipstick launched on Feb. 16 with puffy Comic Sans lettering on its $12 tubes. The effect is pretty cute; some of the shade names — “Blur the Lines” and “I Can’t Remem-Blur” — are a little dicey, though, right?
Sara Happ’s Glow Balm debuted on Feb. 17 with “K-beauty gel oil” to keep lips slick. It’s $32 and plays into the glass skin trend, but keeps the shine pout-centreed.
On Feb. 18, Glossier made its Futuredew serum available as a solid, swipe-on stick. The brand tested the concept as a limited-edition holiday item, then promoted it to a main character a few months later.
You can now get Versed makeup at Target; it hit shelves on Feb. 18 with 15 total products, including foundation, mascara and something called “lip blush” that costs $11 and seems way more promising than the tattoo trend with the same name. (Ouch!)
Something is happening at Laura Mercier. After getting callouts on Billie Eilish and Bella Hadid’s GRWM videos, which the brand says were “organic” placements instead of spon-con, the 29-year-old label debuted on Amazon’s Premium Beauty store on Feb. 18, with special access for Prime members.
Wander Beauty’s Mile High Club mascara added a brown shade called Espresso on Feb. 18. Currently, Sephora has 48 “espresso” makeup shades for sale; Target has 189. The Sabrina Carpenter effect continues…
Ilia Beauty’s new shadow crayon, called the Eye Stylus, premiered backstage at the Collina Strada fashion show, where models like Hari Nef and Jessica Stam wore the product. It hit Sephora on Feb. 19 with 20 (!) shades, including nine different takes on basic brown, because we love to be precise.
Those in Los Angeles can grab Rhode’s Peptide Lip Tint in Sugar Cookie — a Barbie-pink shimmer glaze — from Feb. 19 until the 25 at the brand’s Melrose pop-up. The rest of us can hit “reload” on Instagram until the product finally hits RhodeSkin.com 😉
On Feb. 19, Revolution Beauty dropped its $9 Superfix Grip Primer at Amazon, Target, Ulta and Walmart. It’s $9 and promises to “achieve a smooth, hydrated base that won’t budge.” The brand is trying to build on the TikTok success of its $15 Superfix setting spray, which is understandable. Still, it’s odd to think you’d want to buy one setting product for your base and another for your blush, eyeshadow, etc. Customers are so attuned to value props right now and this feels like a push to buy more stuff instead.
Lys Beauty’s Speak Love is a glossy, tinted balm that claims to be “a smoothie for your lips.” The $19 tube has avocado and carrot extracts, and comes in seven shades including CEO, a mauve rose. Meanwhile, ESW Beauty has a similar product called the Lip Smoothie Treatment dropping on Feb. 20 in shades like Cherry Tart and Raspberry Acai. They are $12 each — so, cheaper than most actual smoothies.
Let’s get sparkly! Naturium’s tinted lip balms now come in six shimmer shades named for celestial events like Eclipse (hot pink) and Galaxy (deep brown). Should they have named their nearly clear shade Milky Way instead of Stardust? Maybe, but the $12 formula is super-pretty either way. It’s available starting Feb. 21.
Hair Care
The supplement-to-topical pipeline just got a little wider. On Feb. 12, Hairtamin debuted a $30 dry shampoo with biotin, kaolin clay and rosemary oil.
Starting Feb. 13, shoppers can get Emi Jay’s cutie pie hair clips at Sephora, along with a hair mist called Aura ($24) and a “smoothing stick” ($38) for flyaways.
Odele launched a quartet of recovery-based hair products at Ulta Beauty on Feb. 14, including Thickening Shampoo and Conditioner, a volumising foam, and a scalp recovery serum. Everything’s under $13.
Fable & Mane’s chai-scented hair mask hit the brand’s website on Feb. 18 with a shine-enhancing formula including hibiscus flower extracts and fermented black tea. It retails for $36 and will be available at Sephora starting Feb. 28.
Watch & Sea Beauty debuted a $16 hair oil at Target on Feb. 19. Its formula includes fenugreek, a bitter herb used to help boost breast milk levels (really!) along with kelp and seaweed extracts.
Fragrance
Phlur’s Father Figure fragrance is now a $20 deodorant, with notes of water lily, jasmine, and sandalwood along with arrowroot powder and zinc.
And Finally
It was pretty exciting to watch the legendary makeup artist Dick Page in action last week. He was on call at Theory’s Fall 2025 presentation, which let guests roam “backstage” at a brand photo shoot styled by Tonne Goodman. Page was using a mix of red pigments backstage at the show, which he pressed into the models’ lips using a cotton swab. “I like Fenty’s a lot,” he told me, which is a neat indication of how the brand is doing among true professionals. Among shoppers? Still hitting, and product extending, too: This week, Fenty dropped six new shades of its Gloss Bomb with shimmer infusions.
