Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and some intel on Taylor Swift’s influence on lipstick sales … and on the stock market.
Included in today’s issue: Barbie, Byredo, Credo, Ellis Brooklyn, Evereden, Fenty Beauty, Flamingo Estate, Glow Recipe, Gopure, Grande (not Ariana) Cosmetics, Isle of Paradise, Jennifer Behr, Laura Mercier, Luna Bronze, Lush, Mario Badescu, Nécessaire, Neuraé, Olive & June, Pamela Anderson, Refy, Savor Beauty, Shades by Shan, Sidia, Simihaze Beauty, Soft Services, Stripes, Wonder Valley and pickles.
But first…
When I started college, I was scared of being alone while everyone else went to great parties. Today’s students have a different fear: water, specifically “dorm water.” According to search engine analytics, the phrase is like Chappell Roan at Coachella in 2024 — came out of nowhere to become one of the internet’s biggest talking points. (See also: “Best shampoo for dorm water,” a breakout search this month on Google Trends.)
“Dorm water” is regular water, but there’s an assumption that because it’s shared, it must somehow be inferior, loaded with hard minerals or even toxic. There is no science to back this up, but gosh, there are a lot of TikToks. Many popular ones feature blondes leaving the shower with green-tinged hair, directing voyeurs — sorry, viewers — to a series of “shower-safe” affiliate links to shampoo and conditioner. (By the way, when is that TikTok ban coming down?)
Avoiding this H20 horror show is big business. Amazon has an entire vertical called “Shower Heads for College Dorms,” Teen Vogue and Cosmo have affiliate links to showerheads and detoxing shampoos for coeds hoping their water is as soft as their Uggs. Sephora and Ulta Beauty have Ouai detox shampoo stocked in their college town locations; Free People now carries mini-packs of Act + Acre Clarifying Hard Water Scalp Treatment. And while shower head water filters are still nascent in terms of revenue — $600 million in 2024, with an expected $50 million bump by the end of 2025, according to the Mumbai-based tracking firm BRI — college students tell me the stealth installation of Jolie shower filters into their shared dorm bathrooms is increasingly common. “I’m an engineering student, so everyone makes me do theirs,” said Gillian, 20, who did four separate installations on her Arizona campus. “All the sorority houses have them too, obviously.” Jolie reports it’s on track for $50 million in revenue this year; a 40 percent increase from 2024. TikTok currently has 55.3 million videos related to college shower filter installation, according to Keywords Everywhere.
There’s a drop of MAHA in this aquaphobia. In April, Health Secretary RFK Jr. insinuated that fluoride in tap water might be harmful to childhood development and championed states like Utah that ban it. Meanwhile, the oft-parroted (but tricky!) statistic that New York City’s drinking water comes from lead pipes has moved into PGP territory. (That’s “pretty girl podcasts,” the most elusive of genres.) And of course, most kids entering college now were just 12–14 years old during the Covid-19 lockdowns of 2025, making them young enough to internalize thoughts like “the air might be poison and the adults don’t care.” After that, ideas about water contamination, and the constant purification of one’s environment, seem a lot easier to gulp down.
There’s also the continued dominance of the Everything Shower with Gen-Z and Gen Alpha. When you’re spending $250 on body scrubs alone, you don’t want to throw your babe potential out with the bathwater. Especially not — all together now — in this economy!
What else is new…
Skincare
Mario Badescu made a sheet mask meant for extra moisture and summer skin recovery. It’s called the Advanced Collagen Hydrogel Mask with Peptides and launched on Aug. 10 at Ulta Beauty. The mask starts off white, but turns translucent when its ingredients have been fully absorbed into the skin; not quite stunt beauty, but a nice touch.
Summerween arrived at Lush on Aug. 10, with delightfully slimy octopus and alien “jelly soap” along with a pumpkin enzyme face mask that uses the entire gourd — including the seeds, fruit pulp and skin — in its formula. Yes, there are also glittery bath bombs shaped like zombie mad scientists because: Lush.
It took two years and over 40 trials before Neuraé was ready to release its Harmonie Sleeping Mask, an overnight moisturiser with babassu oil and shea butter that claims to restore vital nutrients back into the skin barrier. On Aug. 11, the Sisley Group label was finally ready to release the $140 formula.
Wonder Valley has expanded its Wild Garden fragrance into hand and body wash, which means if you love organic olive oil and expensive hippies, you can get very excited right now.
Even my Ukrainian grandma would not designate pickles as a beauty product, but I’m gonna throw them in here anyway, because Pamela Anderson is making them with Flamingo Estate. Pickles are loaded with antioxidants and probiotics, anyway, and if you’re stocking up on Amaganset-approved tomato soap, you might as well add some snacks to your cart. (Or you can wait until November, when a popular American fragrance brand will be releasing their own pickle scent, sans irony.)
On Aug. 12, Skinceuticals introduced A.G.E. Interrupter, a serum that’s been “clinically tested on GLP-1 users” to help reduce the skull-ification effect that comes from the drug. It’s $185.
Welcome to Credo Beauty, Naomi Watts! On Aug. 12, the actress rolled her menopause-forward wellness line, Stripes, into 15 Credo stores. It’s the first time the “clean beauty” hub has centered a dedicated menopause brand, with plans to include educational programming in-stores this fall. Cool.
Savor Beauty’s Wild Strawberry Multi-Acid Peel hit shelves on August 12. It’s a three-minute lactic acid treatment that’s the colour of pink jello. But nobody is paying $80 for pink jello … except maybe in Montauk.
Speaking of pink, Barbie is going back where she belongs: To children. On Aug. 12, the tween skincare brand Evereden announced a partnership with Mattel’s most famous doll including face wash and moisturiser in peppy pink bottles. Adorbs!
Gopure’s Tighten & Smooth Belly Cream hit shelves on Aug. 14, and I regret to inform you it uses the “e” word — empowering — to describe looking skinnier thanks to green microalgae extract and copper tripeptide-1. You can just say “being thin has systemic advantages so do everything you can while fighting that system.” People will still pay the cash for body cream.
Save the snails! Glow Recipe’s new Prickly Pear Peptide Mucin is a $32 hydrating serum that uses cactus ooze instead of mollusk slime to hydrate and protect the complexion. It’s in a bright pink bottle that Marcel the Shell might enjoy.
It’s a dessert battle! On Aug. 15, Fenty Skin debuted its Salted Caramel Collection, including body butter, lip recovery mask and hydrating body milk. The same day at Soft Services, an Affogato L’Orange-scented exfoliating Buffing Bar dropped with notes of coffee, coconut, citrus and vanilla. Heaven, all of it.
When it launched in July, the indie Aussie brand Luna Bronze sold out of its self-tanning jelly in less than an hour (how?!). It restocked on Aug. 15 with a “waiting list” of over 10,000 shoppers. I’m generally bearish on the whole “waitlist” thing since it implies vague interest, not hard sales. Still, capturing 10,000 email addresses for a $34 tube of tanning goo is interesting.
Makeup
Isle of Paradise debuted its tinted Sunny Serum in champagne, a milky golden shimmer, on Aug. 7. It’s a Sephora exclusive.
Shades by Shan introduced its first mascara, a $24 formula called Lash Resurrection, on Aug. 10. The brand is sold at J.C. Penney stores and claims to donate some proceeds to “the Mamaberries Foundation,” which is owned and operated by the same people who own and operate Shades by Shan. In 2023, ProPublica reported that the foundation was operating at a net loss of about $5,000 … or 208 tubes of this mascara.
Laura Mercier’s Translucent Hydrating Setting Spray hit Ulta on Aug. 12; it’s a $40 version of the brand’s best-selling setting powder.
On Aug. 12, Grande Cosmetics introduced Grandelash-Sensitive, a “lash enhancing” serum that claims to make lashes appear thicker and longer. It’s a $48 formula with peptides and biotin.
“Let’s circle back” is a loathed work phrase, but it’s pretty cute as a nail polish colour. Olive & June is using it for its fall collection, out Aug. 14. Other shades include Power Suit (navy blue) and Goal Getter (brown shimmer). Meanwhile, Let’s Circle Back is red — as in, red flag.
Refy’s Brown Lash Sculpt hit shelves on Aug. 14; it’s the latest in a brown mascara surge that’s included offerings from Tarte, Kylie Cosmetics, and Lisa Eldridge. This one is $26 and available at Sephora.
Big fan of Simihaze Beauty’s Super Slick Balm. On Aug. 15, it dropped in new colours — Sunset, a bright, burnt orange, and Sierra, a deep plum brown. The formula’s pretty buildable, but the pigment lasts nicely.
Hair Care
Nécessaire is joining the scalp serum game. On Aug. 8, the California-based brand debuted its $52 formula on Sephora shelves. It’s got Capixyl, a patented hair-growth juice, along with 70 percent rosemary extracts.
Jennifer Behr’s new line of hair accessories with German influencer Leonie Hahn launched on Aug. 12. It features bejeweled claw clips, braided leather and gold earrings-slash-hair brooches, and a flawless approximation of Jody Sawyer’s pink bow at the beginning of Center Stage.
If you like hairbrush-dryer hybrids, get excited: Wavytalk’s Blowout Boost Grande hit shelves on Aug. 15. It looks like a regular round thermal brush with a cord attached, and promises “big, bouncy blowouts on five heat settings.”
Fragrance
Real question: Is the dairy industry suing perfumes that use “milk” in the name, or just people who make oat milk lattes? Asking for Commodity, the indie fragrance brand that dropped Orchid Milk on Aug. 11 in partnership with the Tiktok account @Perfumerism. The new scent has fig and macadamia milk, along with notes of “warm cotton.”
Do you want to smell like dessert? Sales numbers say hell yes and so does Ellis Brooklyn. On Aug. 12, the New York scent label debuted Queens Caramel, a fragrance with maple sugar, vanilla and white chocolate notes.
Byredo has a new scent, Alto Astra, created by Jérome Epinette with notes of salted amber, coconut and jasmine. Byredo says the perfume is really “a shared cultural frequency,” which is pretty lofty and dramatic — and since it dropped on Aug. 14, that makes the fragrance a Leo, which totally tracks.
Braless is a viral scent by Sidia that smells like black pepper, violet and leather. On Aug. 15, the fragrance brand floated it out in a body mist, which I suppose you could spray below your boobs — you know, where the underwire would normally be.
On Aug. 15, Penhaligon’s launched The Cut, which is a fragrance and not a website with questionably real sex diaries. Notes include lavender, clary sage and vetiver.
And finally …
On Aug. 12, Taylor Swift revealed her tangerine-tinged Life of a Showgirl album while wearing Nars Morocco, a spicy orange-brown shade. In the next 24 hours, over 15,000 people checked out the lipstick on Nars.com and over 1,300 people bought it from the brand’s DTC site, according to the site’s internal data tracker. Nars’ parent company, Shiseido, got a small stock bump on the very same day.
Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Aug. 15 2025 to clarify that Jolie’s projected revenue is $50 million for the year, not $40 million.
Sign up to The Business of Beauty newsletter, your complimentary, must-read source for the day’s most important beauty and wellness news and analysis.