The Business of Beauty Haul of Fame: Beauty and the Book Club

Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and a wild HR update.

Included in today’s issue: Act+ Acre, Charlotte Tilbury, Féria, Glossier, Kylie Skin, Loops, Lys Beauty, MAC, Morphe, Oribe, Ouai, QiQi, RMS, The Hair Shop, and Kate Beckinsale’s stealth beauty influence.

But first…

I’ve been judging books by their covers. (Oops.) It’s partly because I’m shallow, and partly because on a recent romp through Barnes & Noble, I spotted multiple new releases that looked more like TikTok beauty campaigns than book-club fodder. Chief among them is “Lady Macbeth,” the bestseller by Ava Reid that reimagines Shakespeare’s murder babe as… actually, no, she’s still a murder babe.

On the cover, Reid’s anti-heroine stares down her audience with matte skin, taupe eyeshadow, dagger-sharp lashes, feathery brown brows and a lip so defined and glossy, it begs the question: Did Tarte’s Maracuja line exist in mediaeval Scotland?

It’s clear from the cover that Anya Taylor-Joy should play this character in a movie. It’s also evident that fictional heroines can no longer just be archetypes or vessels for reader imagination. Now, they need to be beauty icons, too.

More examples: “Where Are You, Echo Blue?” the Hayley Krischer thriller about a missing celebrity who appears on the cover with perfectly-shaggy blonde hair straight out of an R+Co. campaign. “Sleep Like Death,” the Snow White rewrite by Kalynn Bayron, has a cover vixen with rose-red lips and glimmering, Cécred-adjacent curls. “We Love the Nightlife,” a vampire revenge comedy, has glossy pouts begging for recreation on makeup artist Val Garland’s reality show, “Glow Up.” Perhaps most endearing: The young heroine of “Kween,” Vichet Chum’s radiant coming-of-age novel about a Cambodian-American teen, boasts a perfect cat-eye, glossy nude lips, and a scarlet scrunchie topping her half-ponytail like a crown.

“I thought the girl from ‘Kween’ was a TikTok influencer, not a fictional character!” said Jazzi McGilbert, the founder of Rep Club, a bookstore and community space in Los Angeles devoted to amplifying the Black experience, when I asked about the book-cover-to-beauty-shoot trend. “It’s definitely something that makes you stop and stare.”

McGilbert is an expert in stop-and-stare literature. Before founding Rep Club, she was a fashion editor and celebrity stylist who was part of Teen Vogue’s original (read: luxury-forward) masthead. And she was early to book-beauty crossover trend: she sometimes stocks her favourite beauty products at the store, in case shoppers want to buy an indie scent or lip balm along with the latest Kiley Reid novel.

“Book covers have historically taken cues from, or even outright copied, fashion editorials,” McGilbert explained. But lately, she says, they’ve embraced beauty campaigns and influencer vibes instead, because as women’s aspirations change, so do cultural aesthetics. The goofy illustrated skirt suit on the original “Devil Wears Prada” cover looks dated, not iconic. The peekaboo doe-eyes on “Valley of the Dolls” are camp, but not exactly coveted. By contrast, these new books aren’t trying to sell a story with their covers—they’re trying to sell a character as someone you want to be. That begins and ends with beauty.

It also means as women clutch new releases like “Lady Macbeth,” they’re also lugging around the pink lips and spider lashes that will, eventually, seep into their brains. Which means — all together now — there’s a major opportunity being ignored on the market, and it’s the blank space between publishing houses and beauty brands. As McGilbert plainly put it, “People like to recreate book covers on BookTok.” (In fact, almost 40 million TikTok posts exist in that space.) “So if Pat McGrath Labs sponsored the lipstick for some iconic cover, it would absolutely drive sales and awareness.”

It just has to be the right story. Do we need a “Handmaid’s Tale” hand cream? We do not. A six-shadow smoky eye palette for the Fleetwood Mac-inspired “Daisy Jones and the Six,” however, is a different story.

What Else Is New

Skincare

Glossier’s Crème de You body lotion hit stores on Aug. 28. It’s a dense, moisture-loaded formula infused with their signature scent. The product, with 100 percent recyclable packaging, costs $45.

Should you launch a sun-care product at the end of summer? Sales numbers will tell, but I say absolutely — sun damage is a year-round thing. RMS seems to agree. The label by makeup artist Rose-Marie Swift debuted its SunCoverUp tinted SPF 50 on Aug. 27. It’s available in 13 shades.

Makeup

Westman Aterlier’s Vital Skincare Concealer debuted on Aug. 27. It contains high-coverage pigment, plus antioxidants and peptides to treat tired under eyes.

On Aug. 28, Charlotte Tilbury unveiled Exagger-Eyes Volume Mascara, a tubing formula that costs $29 and promises a 94 percent approval rating for all-day wear. Readers, I wore it all day, and it made my lashes look so long and defined. It also smeared a bit on my under-eye area after I rode the subway. I recommend a lower-lash blot before heading out!

Lys Beauty spun its best-selling bronzer sticks into a new foundation formula. On Aug. 27, the brand introduced Triple Fix Skin Tint Blurring Foundation Stick, an “all-in-one serum, primer and foundation” that “enhances your natural beauty.” It comes in 22 shades and costs $25, but don’t worry — your “natural” beauty is still priceless!

Kylie Skin has three new dessert-inspired lip oils out Aug. 27 in a trio of beige and wine shades that scream ‘off-duty cool girl.’ Bloomeffects launched a similar tinted lip oil at Credo on Aug. 28. It skews more ‘pretty-girl pink’ and also has SPF 40.

Morphe’s $15 eyeshadow stick, called Mixed Signals, came out on Aug. 29. It comes in six shades of K-Pop (baby shimmer pink, iridescent ice blue, etc.) and, like all Morphe products, boasts an extremely satisfying colour payoff. Still, you’ve gotta be a glitter girl to enjoy these.

Celine Beauté’s global pre-launch is happening via a pop-up at the Exhibition Windows in Harrods, where products will be displayed alongside the womenswear winter 2024 collection. It opens Aug. 30 and will run through Sept. 2.

Hair Care

The Hair Shop, a wig and extension company, announced that it’s “sponsoring” some of Jenna Ortega’s press tour looks for “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.” Ortega will look flawless and stylist Bobby Eliot will nail every angle. They’re both absolute stars with massive campaign potential — Ortega may even have Zendaya-level fashion appeal. So I wonder how their A-list teams are reacting to a mass email about “sponsored” hair extensions — especially since Dior would never call Ortega’s red carpet finery a “sponsored” endeavour, despite their commercial alignment.

Kate Beckinsale is pink! Dimitris Giannetos did the colour, which he’s calling “Strawberry Whipped Cream,” using Féria Permanent Hair Color.

More proof that hair fragrance is the new body mist: On Aug. 26, Ouai dropped a limited-edition hair oil infused with a super-popular St. Barts scent. It costs $30 and smells like summer.

Also on Aug. 26, Oribe launched its Mirror Rinse Glass Hair Treatment, a cuticle-smoothing formula that helps eliminate frizz and protect against breakage. It’s interesting how many of these serums are taking the place of anti-frizz masks—Ouai and Amika have similar formulas, too. They’re certainly easier to use in the shower, because they take just a minute or two to activate.

On Aug. 19, Act+Acre’s Daily Hydro serum became available. It promises to relieve dry, itchy scalps while promoting hair strength, and leans into the “scalp care is skincare” messaging with its hyaluronic acid.

QiQi’s Hydration Fixation Conditioner hit shelves on Aug. 31. It’s a super-smoothing formula in a very kooky bottle—silver and space-y—that costs $42.

And finally…

Some interesting staffing news happening—and not just for Willa! At MAC Cosmetics, Emily Bromfield is the new SVP of global marketing. She comes from long stints at Charlotte Tilbury and Dr. Barbara Sturm, which might give us a hint at MAC’s pop-culture and prestige goals in the future.

Meanwhile, Loops has hired Atlanta de Cadenet Taylor as their head of brand marketing. If you were an OG Indie Sleaze kid, you likely remember Taylor from her It Girl days, modelling for Juicy Couture and Net-a-Porter. Now Taylor is something of a triple threat — an absolute gem of a human, a hard-working and smart entrepreneur who has worked with buzzy labels like womenswear seller Miaou and athleisure company Girlfriend Collective, and — yes — a nepo baby whose father, John Taylor, is in Duran Duran. Loops is lucky to have her, but also, that brand is taking off and she’s joining at the right time. Wins all around.