At the CFDA Awards, Recession Beauty Hacks Get Real

Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and toothpaste smoothies. (Yikes!)

Included in today’s issue: Albion, Bath & Body Works, Blissy, Boka, Cyklar, D.S. & Durga, E.l.f. Skin, Erewhon, La Bonne Brosse, Foxly, Jenny Patinkin, Lemme, Jimmy Choo, Lisa Eldridge, Maria Nila, Moroccanoil, Necessaire, Nette, Oneskin, The Outset, Phlur, Remedy Skin, Rini, Saltair, Simihaze Beauty, Slip, Starface, Sunplus, Vaseline, Victoria Beckham Beauty, Violet Grey, the Whitney Museum, Yse Beauty and 30 pounds of Polar Express perfume.

But first…

If you set off a glitter bomb inside the CFDA Awards, you’d see shimmering footprints across the pop culture prairies for months. Once an insular event with its own private jokes (Seth Meyers dressed like Marc Jacobs that one time he wore a dress! A humble chicken pot pie served to millionaires!), the event has transformed post-pandemic into a milestone red carpet for emerging pop stars and ingenues, and an annual tour of duty for style-forward Oscar winners. At this week’s event held at New York’s Museum of Natural History, Jennifer Lawrence and Rihanna posed beneath a dinosaur skeleton while Ariana DeBose and Michelle Williams hit their marks against a glass-walled display of arctic polar bears. Rawr.

You’d think the CFDA red carpet would command similar high-maintenance beauty routines to other fashion events — a demi-Met Gala, if you will. But for the first time, organisers and beauty veterans said they were receiving reports of designers and celebrities alike embracing the type of DIY treatments — drugstore exfoliators, at-home face masks and Amazon-bought glow serums. “You don’t even know,” said Kim Shui, a 2025 CFDA AAPI grant finalist who arrived in a curly half-ponytail straight out of Teen Witch, along with a candy-pink dress of her own design with body cut-outs at the abs and back. “I really needed to see a glow with the dress. So I put my skin through its own Saturn Return and scrubbed the hell out of it in the tub.”

“Glowy skin” was the only thing that WNBA bombshell Angel Reese kept from her Victoria’s Secret beauty routine. (The 23-year-old walked the brand’s much-hyped show on Oct. 15.) “To be honest, I got so sick after that show,” Reese said. “I was just like, ‘Get all this off of me. No nails. No lashes. Nothing.’ I’m nervous because this is the first time I’m going with my natural lashes on the red carpet. But it’s ‘clean girl beauty’ and it feels great, because I can use a little highlighter and gloss.” Makeup artist Laticia Chancey went with coral blush for the look; Reese popped into the press-on nail salon Kettykiss by Washington Square Park for a last-minute manicure. “I want them on and then right after this event, I want them off!” she said, waving her nude shimmer acrylics in the air.

To ensure an over-the-counter glow in photos, Dove Cameron traded her usual matte lipstick for MACs satin-finish Alone Time “so you get that pop of light, which feels more soft and glamorous right now,” which matched her Carolina Herrera gown, a gilded corset dress à la Grace Kelly in To Catch a Thief.

Also wearing MAC was pink-haired pop comet Adela Jergova, the Katseye castoff turned solo redemption star. She now works with Charli XCX’s well-loved stylist Chris Horan, who pulled a sculptural 2025 Marc Jacobs gown for the evening. “I wanted a really dewy eye, a really glassy cheek, almost like I’m an alien doll,” she said, grinning. “It’s perfect. And then I wanted my hair to stay a deep, really girly pink. I dye it myself, but I won’t tell you the brand — the brand’s gotta pay me first!” she said. (Memo to L’Oréal Paris Feria: Sign her now.)

Nominee Jennifer Fisher said her “commitment to the glow” even extended into hair. “I want it to gleam the same way my metals do,” said the jewelry designer. “So you do Roz Hair Milk and then IGK Good Behavior and then, this is the trick, you spray the f*** out of it with a giant bottle of $10 Elnett. It locks the shine in, I swear.”

Addison Rae admitted her addiction to luminous makeup was partly a defense mechanism for a neverending tour-and-party schedule. “I was exhausted before I got here. My makeup artist, Jenna [Kuchera], is miraculous. I begged her to use Pat McGrath’s pink Divine blush. Begged. And she’s like, ‘We can’t use that blush for every look! You shouldn’t always be pink!’ And I’m like, ‘But it makes me look alive.’ Clearly it works,” Rae said. “ And it’s so good. I mean, you can’t even tell I was really hungover today.”

“If you want that really alive, really glowing look, there’s this serum called Marie Veronique Barrier Restore,” said Vogue’s new monarch, Chloe Malle. “It’s all organic and it’s heaven. I keep it in my desk.” At the CFDAs, Malle also wore Westman’s Liquid Super Loaded All-Over Illuminating Highlighter. Also an in-desk favourite? “Not exactly,” Malle admitted. “I made an appointment at the Gucci Westmann counter at Nordstrom. They’re fantastic, and logistically, it meant I only had to take a cab for 10 blocks uptown to get here.”

What else is new…

Skincare

Excia Clinicias sounds like a gladiator hospital, but it’s actually a sheet mask from Albion that includes peptides, enzymes and fermented rice extracts that target signs of aging and fatigue. It’s $210 for a box of 28 masks, or $7.50 per pack.

It’s a Kardashian Kollab! On Nov. 4, Kourtney Kardashian Barker and Kim Kardashian announced the first Lemme product in liquid format. It’s called Lemme Colostrum Liposomal Liquid, meant to “strengthen the gut barrier” for clearer skin; it’s $25 and tastes like vanilla. Kim stars in the ad campaign with her sister, and yes, there’s also a $30 Lemme Colostrum Gummy in case you still want vitamin candy.

It’s the great skincare patch, Charlie Brown! On Nov. 4, Starface dropped a Snoopy collab with zit stickers in the shape of America’s goofiest Beagle. The heart sings.

Saltair took a little nap, but the brand from influencer Iskra Lawrence is back to releasing products every time we blink. This week’s is Retinol Revive Overnight Body Lotion, a fragrance-free formula with encapsulated retinol and a lighter, melt-into-skin texture. It’s $23 per tube.

White Fox is a status hoodie company that makes lip gloss. Arctic Fox is a hair dye company that makes cool girls pink. And Foxly? That’s a just-born brand (it launched Nov. 5) from Pacha Soap Co. that’s built for Gen Z and loaded with fruit-scented deodorants, along with sugar scrub, body lotion and deodorant. Here’s why this could be a big deal: Foxly is rolling into 500 Whole Foods stores, marking the first time the supermarket is carrying a skincare line specifically targeted to college-aged shoppers.

Booze-inspired Vaseline? Sure, let’s go with it. On Nov. 4, the brand we all smeared on our eyelids before playing Christmas Pageant angels debuted a few holiday “flavours,” including Pink Bubbly and Pomegranate Spritz, along with marshmallow, mint and sugar cookie. Cheers!

Speaking of nonstop drop brands, Cyklar released a Mandelic Acid Brightening Deodorant on Nov. 5. It’s pretty silly to promote more radiant underarms, but the $20 formula also claims to help with ingrown hairs, which is a solid concern.

On Nov. 5, Remedy Skin unveiled Derm Dissolve, a cleansing balm that emulsifies into a milky wash on the skin. It’s $18 and comes from TikTok’s favourite derm, Dr. Muneeb Shah.

If you’ve ever wanted a sheet mask that makes you look like an Instagram panda filter, get very excited for Rini. The “youth friendly” skincare line was created by power couple Shay Mitchell and Matte Babel, along with entrepreneur Esther Song, to create safe and fun skin masks for kids. The thing is, the masks — especially the $7-ish hydrogel one — are an easy sell for adult skin, too. The brand made its official DTC debut on Nov. 6.

E.l.f. Skin launched Bright + Brew-tiful Eye Cream on Nov. 6. It’s a $13 formula that includes 5 percent caffeine, along with vitamin C and a “banana coloured powder” meant to zing up the eye area. I used it after weeping over a guy last week and it felt very soothing!

Makeup

“Poison, power, and pigment.” That’s the tagline for Lisa Eldridge’s new documentary, Make-Up: A Glamorous History, which hit YouTube on Nov. 1. It explores Georgian, Victorian and 1920s aesthetics, and beams straight to Eldridge’s 2.5 million YouTube followers, which is a staggering number. (By contrast, MAC has about 700,000.)

I have this theory that one reason Rhode Peptide Lip Treatments are so popular is because the tubes match the individual shades. There’s no guesswork, just the grab-and-go ease of jJelly bBean pink or eEspresso brown. On Nov. 1, Simihaze Beauty announced a Red Collection with Velvet Blur lipstick and Super Slick gloss-balm, both in cherry-coloured tubes. So satisfying.

This summer, Jenny Patinkin caught some TikTok heat for her beauty bag charm, a pink pebbled-leather pouch that dangled from her handbag and held four mini makeup brushes. On Nov. 3, the makeup artist launched a double-ended lash and brow comb designed to “fluff, shape and refine,” plus a slanted rose gold tweezer. The duo costs $22.

After soft-launching in a limited-edition smoky eye kit, Victoria Beckham’s Cocoa Pavé Satin Kajal Liner entered the brand’s permanent collection on Nov. 4. It’s a $34 pencil in a deep, cool brown with silver sparkles and phenomenal pigment payoff. Also, I wore it while crying and it stayed put. (Thanks VB!)

Haircare

Designer Nicole Miller’s hair usually has a wavy Stevie Nicks thing going on, but for fans with sleek blowouts and extensions, the famed 1990s redhead just dropped protective silk scrunchies and pillowcases with Blissy.

In other scrunchie-pillowcase news, Slip partnered with Oneskin on an Ultimate Dream Team Kit, which includes face, eye and body creams, plus a silk scrunchie and pillowcase. The whole pack is $199 and cracks the door open for a bigger narrative around bedding and skincare, which could become another “you need a skincare showerhead” situation.

Maria Nila’s Gloss Coat spray hit shelves Nov. 3. The formula has “heat-smoothing technology” that claims to protect strands during blowouts and flat irons, while locking a shinier finish into the hair. I’ve been using the $28 formula for two weeks and haven’t noticed a huge difference yet, but I’ll keep you posted!

La Bonne Brosse released a pine green colorway of its famous(ly expensive) brushes on Nov. 4. They’re saying it’s a holiday exclusive, but it’s also the right shade for a Wicked product round-up. Smart.

Moroccanoil is making a red carpet play. On Nov. 4, the brand announced five new professional ambassadors — Bridget Brager, Owen Gould, Travis Ogletree, Ursula Stephen and Justin Toves-Vincilione — that count clients like Kaia Gerber, Kirsten Dunst, and Zendaya among them. Look out.

Fragrance

Welcome to the world, L’Epoque! The fragrance brain child of beauty consultant Rachel Green is quietly arriving on influencer feeds this November. The indie scent brand has two initial launches — Dopamine Rose, a raspberry marshmallow and cashmere extrait, and Delusions of Grandeur, an EDP with apricot and tobacco. Both are $100, which makes these guys the Sézane of French fragrance, non?

Cashmere Skin is Phlur’s latest hair and body mist, with an almond-scented base plus ambrette, vanilla and cyclamen, the hot pink flower used by ancient Greeks in love elixirs. (Fittingly, the heart-shaped petals are also toxic when eaten…) The ad campaign arrived Nov. 4 and features the $38 bottle cradled by a bare chest with muscles and a soft tuft of hair. This kind of makes me want to eat the poison flower, but I’m sure among people with healthy levels of emotional regulation, it tested very well.

Nécessaire is tiptoeing into the pure fragrance space with Olibanum, an eau de parfum with resin, vanilla, fig and cassis that mirrors its body care scents. You could buy it starting Nov. 4 for $60.

If Jimmy Choo made a fragrance that smelled like perfect new stiletto leather boots, women (and men, honestly) would pounce. Until then, the brand is sticking with florals. Its new I Want Choo With Love perfume has notes of orange flower and hibiscus, and comes in a glossy pink bottle. It hit Ulta, Sephora, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s and Amazon on Nov. 4.

The Sephora-stocked clean fragrance label Nette, which launched with candles in 2020 before moving into perfumes, just made its UK debut on Nov. 4 through Space NK. You can smell them in 30 stores across the kingdom.

An SPF brand is launching candles — and it’s not Vacation?! Actually, it’s Sunplus, the SoCal beauty brand known for its omnipresence in luxury hotel lobby shops. On Nov. 4, the brand debuted five candles with scent pairings like Sea Salt and Orchid, plus a limited-edition Holiday White Birch offering. They’re $56 each.

D.S. & Durga made “festive fumes” for the holidays, including its annual Portable Christmas Tree and Portable Fireplace candles (cute) and a special foil-covered version of I Don’t Know What, the brand’s enigmatic “fragrance enhancer” that — for $210 — will heighten its other signature scents. Santa dropped all three products down the chimney on Nov. 5.

Special Wacky Collab Section

The Outset is hitting the slopes. On Nov. 3, Scarlett Johansson’s skincare brand debuted a collab with the Jackson Hole-based clothing brand Midnight Lunch featuring a cobalt-and-white checkered fleece and fuzzy belt bag inspired by the Outset’s Rescue Balm, plus bundle options to buy the all-purpose skin cream with the clothes. It’s an interesting play, since ScarJo’s fans are millennial women while Midnight Lunch hits the same Aviator Nation sweet spot as wealthy-but-chill sorority girls. Let’s see how it lands.

Yse Beauty is testing the edible glow category. On Nov. 3, it introduced a dark chocolate and collagen bar with the gourmet confectioner Compartés.

Erewhon, ere-WTF? On Nov. 4, the most famous grocery store on TikTok dropped a toothpaste-inspired smoothie from the oral care brand Boka. It has mint, green tea, coconut milk, mango, banana and the expression of a mom who’s just walked into the kitchen and found her 7-year-old insisting he’s a chef. (Will I try it? Obviously.)

And finally…

If you never got to ride the Polar Express as a child, Bath & Body Works wants to help. Starting Nov. 3, the foaming soap empire will begin scenting New York’s Grand Central Station with over 30 lbs of Fresh Balsam, its Christmas tree-inspired fragrance. The “scentigration” (oy…) uses four industrial-grade diffusers, and can cover up to 10,000 square feet — or about 17 train platforms — inside the venue.

Want to dive deeper into an insight from this article? Check out The Brain of Fashion, BoF’s new generative AI tool where you can unlock BoF’s beauty archive with a single question.

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