The Business of Beauty Haul of Fame: Can a Facialist Make You More Famous?

Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas, and vampire perfume.

Included in today’s issue: Armani Beauty, Charlotte Tilbury, Corpus, Devachan, Dieux, Dior Beauty, Glossier, Heretic Parfum, Huda Beauty, Kiehl’s, Kopari, Lana del Rey, L’Oréal, Le Monde Gourmand, Marlowe, Native, Naturium, RoC, Skkn by Kim, The Rootist, Vitamasques, and more.

But first…

Eight blocks from the Met steps where Serena Van Der Woodson and Blair Waldorf once bared their fangs, Georgia Louise is telling me to relax. The celebrity facialist is lathering her new products — including a lactic acid cream cleanser and vitamin A serum, which launch today on Amazon Beauty, along with her best-selling balm made with chamomile and mango butter — onto my skin in slaps and swipes. “Sandy said this part helps her skin look smooth in photos without any touch-ups,” said Louise, a UK native. She means Sandra Bullock. Louise also tends to Jennifer Aniston, Emily Blunt, and Linda Evangelista, whom Louise tells me was the guinea pig for her new product formulas. “She tested everything. There were lots of notes.”

Louise has been a Hollywood beauty insider for nearly 20 years thanks to Evangelista, who first hired Louise to fix the model’s at-home facial laser. (“I was basically her handyman, then she realised I knew how to optimise the results!”) In London, Louise had a cult following of models and aristocrats; now in New York, she serves a steady stream of celebrities and 1 percenters. But though she met Evangelista while working on machinery, Louise’s current clients don’t want it. “They’ll be like, ‘I can’t do a microcurrent. It’s too overstimulating. Please just use your hands,’ “That way, I can feel texture points and help speed up the lymphatic system and blood circulation.”

Louise says those texture points are like a secret language for an expert facialist — one that gives ‘manual labour’ a new context. “You know, before Amy Schumer realised she had Cushing syndrome,” a condition that inflames the body with the stress hormone cortisol, “I said, ‘This lymph node is swollen. Something is up.’ Maybe one day a robot will do that, but not yet. Now, your facialists do.”

Just before the CFDA Fashion Awards on Monday night, Dr. Barbara Sturm agreed that her famous clientele (such as Mrs. Hailey Rhode Baldwin Bieber, etc) were most excited about skincare rituals that involved hawkishly supervised ingredients and expert massage techniques. “Technology is amazing but you cannot replace real, human expertise guiding that technology,” Sturm said. A large scale language model, after all, does not know how it feels to glow.

Fashion tide pools favoured by the super-wealthy, like knitwear label & Daughter and Melissa Ventosa Martin’s made-to-order Old Stone Trade, tout their small-batch drops and handmade Cowichan sweaters as central to their brand’s appeal and value. Likewise, elite celebrity facialists are charging over $800 for their services — not because high-tech machinery and medical-grade procedures are happening, but precisely because they aren’t.

“The women in Hollywood and in these ultra-rich circles who come to me, they don’t want injectables,” said Louise. “Even people on Ozempic, who have lost a lot of fatty tissue in their face. Nobody is coming to me anymore saying, ‘I want to look 20 years younger.’ They’re saying, ‘I want to look ageless.’ Sure, you can get a facelift around 50; some people do. But until then, no lasers. No shots. People are really trying to keep it simple.”

Hollywood studio executives approve of her advice, which is why they’ll contract her to care for famous faces before and after film shoots. ”If you have great skin going into a shoot, there’s a lot less you need to spend on retouching and post-production costs,” she explained. “And no executive producer wants to wait another two days for somebody’s skin to calm down from a laser treatment or an extra shot of Botox. That’s $100,000 down the drain.”

What Else Is New

Skincare

RoC Skincare dropped a Hydration+ duo of moisturiser and serum on Oct. 24. Each product is $33, which feels high for a drugstore brand, but maybe perfect for women who refuse to spend over $60 on a moisturiser knowing that the $15 off-label formula from Ocean State Job Lots might not work.

Kompari’s first-ever self tanners, a $32 face serum and $36 body mousse, launched Oct. 25. The Hawaiian-born brand is known for its viral scented hair mists, which it spun off into scented, shimmery sunscreen this summer. Will they replace Sol de Janeiro? At this point, it doesn’t feel like anything will. But they’re playing in the same space, which we know has lots of shoppers, and not everyone wants to smell like Cheirosa 62.

Uma’s Wellness Magnesium Oil Sprays hit shelves on Oct. 28. They come in two $60 scents — Pure Calm with vetiver and chamomile and Pure Rest with ashwagandha — and one promise to harness magnesium’s muscle relaxing properties.

Willie Norris Hive rise up! On Oct. 29, the designer and downtown babe announced her partnership with Dieux, which minted bright red eye masks that blare the text “Promote Homosexuality” and deliver hydration benefits. The patches are $25, and 100 percent of proceeds go to the trans advocacy group G.L.I.T.S. As Dieux navigates some Reddit drama thanks to the departure of their co-founder (and fellow downtown babe) Marta Mae Freedman, the partnership is a wise PR move by the brand to get us talking about something else. It’s also a good test of Norris, who is certainly glam enough for beauty brands to start testing her conversion rates in bigger ways.

Symbiome’s Essence Rejuvenating Mist hit stores on Oct. 29. The $50 spritz claims to “eliminate acne causing bacteria, protect against sun-related skin damage, and provide instant purification and pH balance.” Symbiome’s “creative advisor” is Kate Hudson, and I will do anything to look like her, so let me spray this on my face all week and report back to you.

Evolvetogether and Goop have partnered on a $20 exfoliating soap bar duo with biodegradable packaging that dissolves in water to reduce waste. (Yay!) It debuted Oct. 29.

Bonjou Beauty made a turmeric soap ($25) and turmeric clay mask ($20) for its holiday skincare drop. Available Oct. 29, the products go hard on the “antibacterial” messaging. The orange herb is also an anti-inflammatory, and I know some of this weekend’s marathon runners have been pounding turmeric shots every morning as part of their training. (Good luck, Upper West Side Run Club!)

On Oct. 30, Glossier introduced a solid stick version of Futuredew, their “targeted glow serum” that brings a little gleam to cheekbones and lids. It’s $26.

Marlowe’s Santal Deodorant dropped on Oct. 30 for $14, joining similar products by Aesop, Salt & Stone, and Saltair. Santal vibes were climbing in popularity before Taylor Swift revealed her love for Tom Ford’s Santal Blush perfume last month, but the fragrance co-sign will keep the category buoyed through 2025.

Also in deodorant land, Corpus debuted deodorant sprays on Oct. 30 in four of their signature scents, including Third Rose, which counts violet and cedar root as base notes. Intriguing (and $26).

Naturium’s $25 skincare product, Multi-Rich Peptide Cream, hits their website today. The E.l.f.-owned brand has mastered the balance of excellent formulas at reasonable prices; let’s see if a slightly more expensive formula can keep their shoppers hooked.

Kiehl’s will open a new boutique in New York’s Moynihan Train Hall, the gleaming new Amtrak hub at Penn Station, on Nov. 1. Its holiday pop-up store will feature free gift-wrapping and lots of mini sizes.

On Nov. 2, Native is testing a pop-up “beauty truck” model at the Third Street Promenade in Los Angeles. The truck will have Native’s Fall Market collection — honeycrisp moisturisers, apple strudel body butters — with free samples available to those who tag the brand on social media or leave product reviews. Smart, if a little cloying.

Cosmetics

Did you have Armani Beauty x Blake Lively on your CFDA bingo card? The actress and her makeup artist, Carolina Gonzalez, paired with the L’Oréal-owned brand for the Oct. 28 event. Lively even did a detailed Instagram story about her matte pink lipstick. Despite recent Twitter tantrums surrounding the actress, I’ve heard from multiple brands that when Lively drops a brand name, sales and social media spikes follow. We don’t yet know if she can sustain a full brand — Target insiders tell me her hair care line, Blake Brown, is selling nicely, if not with the same constant thrum as Lemme — but for a one-and-done product hit, she’s a proven cash win.

CLE Cosmetics, known for its upscale branding and clean formulas, dropped its Color and Shine Set on Oct. 28, with four shimmery lip shades and a clear glaze. It’s $48.

Skkn by Kim’s Silk Matte Lip Color hit stores on Oct. 29 with 10 hues and a smooth, deep colour payoff. They’re $29 each and you can layer them under RMS Beauty’s legendary lip oils, which also debuted on Oct. 29 and come in eight glossy shades. The tagline is “high-impact shine, low-maintenance lip colour.” Nice.

Some campaign news: Chicken Shop host Amelia Dimoldenberg is the new face of Charlotte Tilbury’s holiday campaign, which debuted Oct. 29. She joins Kate Moss and Kylie Minogue. Yes, this is a big deal. Also cool: Urban Decay unveiled their newest face, WNBA star Cameron Brink, on Oct. 30. She plays for the Los Angeles Sparks and like U.D., she seems to really dig smudged-in eyeliner.

Huda Beauty’s Icy Nude palette hit Sephora on Oct. 30. It’s got 18 shades, and joins other Icy Nude items — a “face gloss,” two bronze-toned liquid blushes, and a lip gloss — to give your holiday glimmer a jump start.

Vitamasques $5 Lip Butter Balm hit Target on Oct. 30. It’s in a slim pink tube the same shape and shade as Rhode’s Strawberry Glaze Peptide Lip Tint, but skews a tiny bit deeper (Valentino Pink instead of Barbie Pink) out of the tube.

Welcome to New York, Dior Beauty! On Oct. 30, the French luxury brand opened its first standalone boutique for makeup, skincare, and scent on Greene Street in SoHo, next to its mens and womens apparel stores. It’s got a gold Christmas tree in the centre that’s ringed with every Dior fragrance. Impressive.

Hair Care

Celebrity hair guru Tracey Cunningham is now the US creative director of colour and technique at Schwarzkopf Professional. Cunningham is behind Lana Del Rey’s dark brown strands, which might be the 2024 version of Mary-Kate Olsen’s “almost plain brown, but cooler because it’s expensive” shade of the early aughts.

The Rootist hired Whitney Port to hype their Densify Collection in an Instagram video on Oct. 8. Since then, searches for the brand have creeped up 40 percent, according to Google Trends data, which is a tidy conversion rate for someone who hasn’t been a TV regular in almost 15 years. I thought it was interesting that Port slid into the Marina McManus show at New York Fashion Week — quiet, cool-girl luxury at its most sincere — and now I’m hearing some Real Housewives murmurs around the 39-year-old. Let’s keep an eye on a a possible TV return … and see what kind of brand she’ll try to launch in tandem.

Fragrance

You knew it was coming: Le Monde Gourmand has finally unveiled their candy cherry scent, called Cerise Riche Eau de Parfum. It’s $25, premiered on Oct. 25, and comes with a very fun launch party: The brand is hosting a screening of “Death Becomes Her” next week. Meanwhile, the Broadway musical version has made marketing materials based on ‘80s fragrance ads, because what’s more luxurious than being undead?

Speaking of the undead, Heretic Parfum launched a collaboration with Focus Features pegged to the Dracula movie “Nosferatu” on Halloween. It smells “cold, pale and pellucid” (really it smells like violet and petrichor, the earthy after-rain scent, but okay?) and is called Eau de Macabre.

BDK Parfum’s Rouge Smoking Extrait hit Neiman Marcus for $305 on Oct. 28. It’s got cherry, almond, and bergamot, and says it’s inspired by Pigalle, the Parisian district that used to be seedy and now serves oat milk lattes for 10 euro.

Kenneth Cole’s Hyper Violet perfume dropped on Oct. 30. This is great because there are no violet notes in the fragrance! It’s got plum, tangerine, and sandalwood, though, and comes in a sleek purple bottle for $45.

And Finally

Do we need to do a beauty podcast roundup? After L’Oréal dropped “This Is Not a Beauty Podcast” — which is, in fact, a beauty podcast — on Sept. 29, Devacurl founder Lorraine Massey debuted her own, called If Your Curls Could Talk, on Oct. 21. To me, it’s weird keeping beauty, an aesthetic practice, in an audio space. But if “Top Chef” can make an entire TV franchise based on watching, not tasting, new recipes, certainly we can listen to people talk about pretty privilege without viewing it.

I assume that’s what we’re discussing on a podcast about aesthetic power. We’re not going down an ‘inner beauty’ rabbit hole while shilling products … right?