Black Friday’s Latest Boom: Plastic Surgery Clinics

Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and a cryo-therapy chamber for the Met Gala.

Included in today’s issue: Colourpop, E.l.f. Beauty, Eos, Gemi, Glow Recipe, Goody, Happier Grocery, IGK, Irene Forte Skincare, La Bonne Brosse, Lionel Messi, Loewe, Luar, Medicube, NuFace, Parfums de Marly, Peripera, Primally Pure, Skims, Slip, Sol de Janeiro, Squishmallows, Tana Mongeau, Tarte, Taith, The Mark Hotel, Tilt Beauty, Tressemé, and handbag hair clips.

But first…

My Black Friday emails feel like the jumbled bazaar in Aladdin. One subject line crows about lip gloss discounts. Another has buy-one-get-one Japanese denim. Everyone’s got a great deal — even, it seems, the medspas and plastic surgery clinics on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

A place called the Cleavage Clinic says I can get a “lunch break breast augmentation” for 20 percent off if I book it by Tuesday. Ditto the cellulite removal services at Sy Aestheticsv. Here is a butt lift that vows to nix both excess fat and 60 percent of the regular price. At Ever/Body, where uptown politicians and West Village actors alike get plumped up, it’s $200 off Juvéderm when you buy over 50 units of Botox. (Its rival, Ject, prefers to keep things more discrete, offering a promotion of $50 off a $250 service without naming the various jabs in its clinic.) Aladdin no longer needs the Genie to turn him into a different dude — he can just use Klarna and get a BBL for half off.

We’ve long crossed the threshold where plastic surgery is a social media brag instead of a please-don’t-tell procedure. Kris Jenner and Kylie Jenner and Marc Jacobs and Ariana Grande and Bella Hadid have confirmed dalliances with the knife. (According to the National Institute of Health, nearly 20 percent of US Millennials have, too!) But this is the first year that invasive, involved procedures have been hawked like Dead Sea Tupperware en masse. “I wouldn’t give Botox as a gift to someone else!” joked my Russian esthetician at Ever/Body last winter. “But so many people use the Black Friday deals for themselves. It has become a major event for bookings.” Then she pulled a tiny needle out of my face and wished me a merry Christmas.

According to Google Trends, we’re seeing an unprecedented spike — like 400 percent — in searches for “Black Friday Lip Filler” this month. It’s even higher (550 percent ) for “Allē Black Friday,” which refers to Botox and Juvéderm owner Abbvie’s aesthetics loyalty program that treats Coolsculpting sessions and breast implant procedures like Starbucks Coffee Card points. (Allē’s social media engagement shot up nearly 370 percent when it mentioned its annual buy-one-get-one deal season on Instagram this week.)

I know things like the fat freeze discount — “sculpt two areas, get one free!” — on offer at Airsculpt today should feel dystopian and icky. But a spokesperson for the American Society of Plastic Surgeons said the winter holidays are “the most popular time of year for holiday procedures” due to time spent indoors, cocooning clothing and time off from work. And like everyone else this holiday retail season, plastic surgery clinics are simply getting laser focused on their customer’s wants and budgets, with little room for sentimentality about what “should” feel right, and more clarity on what does feel real. Right now, face and body augmentation are safer and more popular than ever before. For a few days, consumers are hoping they’ll be cheaper, too.

What else is new…

Skincare

Irene Forte Skincare has paired with designer Olympia Le Tan on — what else? — a hand-embroidered clutch, which comes with an Irene Forte Bio-Peptide Lip Treatment. The bag has Sicilian lemons on the front; the peptide has Sicilian lemon extract in the formula; it’s way cute.

Glow Recipe has partnered with NuFace, which feels a little like The O.C.’s Marissa Cooper hanging out with Kim Kardashian…? On Nov. 24, the brands introduced a $190 Smooth & Glow Kit, which includes Glow Recipe’s Watermelon Toner, Dew Drops, and Pink Juice Moisturizer plus NuFace’s Microwand and Line Smoothing Serum.

Gemi is a K-beauty sanitiser that smells like a sorority body mist but actually does moisturise chapped hands with its serum-y formula. On Nov. 25, it hit Amazon for US customers.

Eos introduced a stuffed animal on Nov. 25 that looks like a big, puffy version of its vanilla lotion — only with tiny eyes, a big smile, and squishy legs and feet. Naturally, Target has the exclusive, as well as the replacement stuffie you’ll inevitably have to buy after your dog adopts this little guy as a holiday chew toy.

It is apparently not too early to book a Mark Hotel suite for May’s Met Gala, and I hear the penthouse is already a hot commodity for fashion’s Party of the Year. That might have something to do with its new terrace cold plunge, which could help with skin firmness and brightness before hitting the famed red carpet. (Or whatever carpet Anna wants this time around.) The Mark is also opening a spa in 2026, so cryo junkies might still get their icy kicks without a rooftop view. (There’s also the time-honoured OG combo of an ice machine, a bathtub and a nice, cleansing scream before getting zipped into your couture. Just saying.)

Primally Pure has paired with Happier Grocery — an Erewhon step-sibling located in downtown Manhattan — on a honey latte that includes Cowboy Colostrum vanilla protein powder. It’s about $8 and admittedly delicious; it also comes with a free “surprise!” Cocoa Lip balm, which the baristas had fun unveiling after I placed my order at the counter last weekend. A low-key collab done right.

Makeup

Boba tea eyeshadow? Sure, cool. On Nov. 20, Colourpop debuted Sweet Sips, a trio of drink-inspired shimmer shades with matcha, milk tea and cream soda colourways. They’re $18 each.

Instagram is currently obsessed with E.l.f.’s “You Butter Work” makeup pouch, a zip-up bag that looks just like a random stick of Land O Lakes, complete with those red tablespoon measuring marks. It hit the brand’s website on Nov. 25, along with Candied Cranberry, a new shade of E.l.f.’s $9 Glow Reviver lip balm.

Tarte re-partnered with influencer Tana Mongeau on Nov. 25 on some lip kits with liner, glossy balm, and a mascara or concealer. Also, they come in leopard-print boxes, which are fun.

The brave folks at Medicube are launching a new SPF on Black Friday. It’s called No Cast Just Glow and includes collagen and niacinamide in the formula.

Tilt Beauty introduced The Steddie on Nov. 29. It’s an accessible makeup case with an easy-tilt mirror and a padded elbow stabiliser to help those with shaky hands or mobility issues get a little more comfortable during makeup application. Each case is a soft shade of pink and costs $99, though it’s free with a $120 purchase through Cyber Monday.

This one’s for the stunt beauty girls: Peripera’s viral peel-off lip inks hit Target’s website on Nov. 25. You can’t get them in stores yet (sad!) but if you need a little TikTok dopamine hit, it’s a $12 buy online.

Haircare

IGK launched Root and Scalp Touch-Up Spray on Nov. 20, with the $24 formula available in five shades. This is the first time I’ve seen a root spray also claim to address thinning hair, which is a smart idea considering 40 percent of American women report some form of hair shedding by age 50, according to the National Institute of Health.

It’s okay to swoon for Tressemé’s collab with Luar, which comes in the form of a handbag-shaped hair clip and hit fashion girls’ desks on Nov. 20. (It’s also okay to wonder when Telfar is gonna make its Brooklyn Birkin into some type of press-on nail situation. We’d pounce for sure.)

Skims and Slip made scrunchies together! They are mocha beige or cocoa brown and retail for $42 to $66 per pack. You can also get them as part of a set with a puffy eye mask and pillowcase. Instagram users are complaining about the cost, which feels performative, because if you’re on a Skims-branded page, you understand the cost of being Calabasas-adjacent.

Like many of us this Thanksgiving, Goody wants to sit at the grown-ups table. On Nov. 25, the brand that made our bubble hair ties debuted a new category called Goody Luxe, which promises “a taste of luxury” in the form of marbled pink brushes, cloud-blue mini clips, and iridescent hair claws meant to rival — or at least mimic — Emi Jay.

Rather stick with standard luxe? La Bonne Brosse made a black colourway for Black Friday, so if your $150 hair brush needs to match your eyeliner, come and get it starting Nov. 29.

Fragrance

Ulta Beauty reports that a Squishmallow Fragrance is sold every seven seconds in the store, which means by the time you finish one Great British Bake-Off holiday episode, the brand will have made over $28,800 in perfume revenue. (Yes, I did the math instead of letting Google Gemini do the math for me. Please clap.)

Congrats to Sol de Janeiro, for dropping a Cheirosa “67” fragrance with notes of amber, mango and the uncontained squeals of third graders worldwide. It hit shelves on Nov. 20, and feels like it augurs an inevitable rush of products and specials dropping on 6/7/26 — which is June 7 for Americans and July 6 for everyone with a metric system, right? Look out!

I’ve never wanted to smell like a soccer player, but if that’s your deal, Lionel Messi’s eponymous cologne has a new pillar — Messi Platinum — that hit JCPenney on Nov. 24 with notes of coconut, clary sage, and mineral amber. (What, no dry down with metal cleats?)

Welcome to Rockefeller Center, Loewe Perfumes! The fragrance arm of Jack and Lazaro’s second act opened a pop-up location on Nov. 24 in the heart of Manhattan’s holiday plaza. Lined in moss-green paneling, the store has every Loewe scent, along with its limited-edition holiday capsule collection. Black Sesame candles, here we come.

What happens in Vegas smells like Versailles? On Nov. 26, Perfumes de Marly opened a boutique in Sin City — specifically inside Caesar’s Palace. The store includes a virtual reality tour of Château de Marly, which is an interesting way for a fragrance titan to create a smell-free brand experience.

And finally…

If you were surprised to see Gap’s holiday campaign featuring a cool, precise and, dare we say it, Amy Winehouse-inspired cat eye, thank Lilly Keys. The makeup artist for Tate McCrae and Emma Chamberlain gave singer Sienna Spiro the angled liner, with Sam McKnight handling the gleaming swoop of her hair. It’s a nice departure from Gap’s usual “no makeup-makeup” vibe… though now that Gap Inc. is building its beauty expansion, it’s also a reminder that wide-leg jeans and striped sweaters look great with colour cosmetics, too. Next up: Denim-blue eyeshadow?

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