Welcome to Face Value, Highsnobiety’s monthly guide to the best new beauty products and the brands behind them.
As vacation season winds down and work ramps back up, you might be looking for a pick-me-up. Luckily, the beauty industry never sleeps — over the past month, our favorite brands continued to pamper us with new launches that will make getting back to the grind a little more enjoyable.
From Le Labo’s latest City Exclusive to Topicals’ ingredient-packed bar soap, these are the five August beauty drops worth adding to cart.
Topicals – Faded Cleansing Bar
Topicals’ buzzy Faded Serum, a cream that reduces discoloration and dark spots, is now available as a bath bar. Kojic acid, vitamin C, and lactic acid help even skin tone and lock in moisture, wherever you choose to suds up. I’ll be using this all over my legs — aka dark spot central, thanks to the mosquito bites I collected over the summer.
Le Labo – Coriandre 39
Part of Le Labo’s City Exclusive collection, Coriandre 39 is an ode to — you guessed it — Mexico City. Cilantro, a key ingredient in Mexican cuisine, mingles with lime and musk for a subtly zesty scent. If you have the infamous “cilantro gene,” fear not — the fragrance is crisp and fresh, but it doesn’t lean soapy.
Starface – Star Lip Balm
Starface is more than a pimple patch brand. In addition to colorful hydrocolloid stickers, it now offers pocket-sized lip balms in a selection of cheerful flavors. They’re kind of like Lip Smackers for Gen Alpha — and they’re taking off among customers, Kim Kardashian and North West included.
Arquiste Parfumeur – Venice Rococo
Powdery perfumes have a bad rap among young shoppers, who tend to think of them as old-fashioned or “grandmotherly.” But powder notes — which fit perfectly with our interest in all things coquette and demure — are poised for a comeback.
Leading the charge is Venice Rococo, a fragrance inspired by the city’s 18th-century ridottos, or secret apartments for clandestine affairs. Notes of violet, rose, iris, and amber capture the flirtatiousness of Venetian Rococo architecture — and the allure of what took place behind the city’s closed doors.
Dyson – Chitosan Styling Collection
Dyson, the Rolls Royce of vacuums and hair styling tools, launched its first wet line hair care products. The formulas — a pre-styling cream and a post-styling serum — are meant to maximize results from Dyson’s high-tech hair dryers and curling irons. Made with chitosan, a “complex macromolecule” derived from oyster mushrooms, the products reduce frizz and lock in your desired style, without that dreaded crunchy feel.