Welcome to Face Value, Highsnobiety’s monthly guide to the best new beauty products and the brands behind them.
In addition to May flowers, April brought a slew of new beauty products. Highsnobiety is fortunate enough to test out the latest from our favorite skincare, hair care, fragrance, and makeup brands. Each month, we take on the difficult task of narrowing the industry's bevy of fresh offerings down to just five standout products (it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it).
From Augustinus Bader's retinol serum to The Unseen's color-changing eye paint, read on for the April beauty launches worth adding to cart.
Augustinus Bader - The Retinol Serum
Adding a retinol to your skincare routine can be an intimidating prospect — use too much, too often, at too strong a formula, and your skin is liable to peel and break out. Retinol newbies are in good hands with Augustinus Bader, the skincare brand beloved for its gentle yet effective creams and cleansers.
The Retinol Serum contains 0.06 percent retinol (a form of vitamin A that helps tackle acne, pores, and fine lines), a proportion less likely to trigger peeling and irritation than more potent alternatives. As is the case with all retinols, go slow — start by applying every other day, working your way up to once a day (always at night!). In just a few weeks, you'll notice brighter, glowier skin.
Byredo - Remembrance Eyeshadow Palette
In 12 earthy shades, Byredo's Remembrance palette translates the passage of time into color. "It's very much about looking at the way that colors blend and intertwine into one another, like a memory," Lucia Pica, Byredo's creative image and makeup partner, told Highsnobiety earlier this month.
"[Remembrance] can be a happy memory. It can be about the past, it can be about the future," Pica says. "It's really about that internal world... how we connect to things that are personal to us."
Aesop - Gloam
Florals? For spring? The concept might not be groundbreaking, but Aesop's Gloam adds an unexpected hit of spice to a mimosa and iris-forward formula. The scent starts out as a fresh floral, eventually drying down to a powdery, woody base with hints of cumin that fans of Aesop's Eidesis will appreciate.
The Unseen - Colour Alchemy Eye System
Consider The Unseen's heat-activated eye paint a sort of makeup mood ring. The British beauty brand, which made waves when it launched a matte eyeliner that turns reflective under camera flash, ups the ante with "Thermaleyes," cream eye color that changes color — shifting through shades of green, purple, blue, red, and white — according to your body temperature. The result is a mesmerizing holographic effect that morphs when exposed to sunlight and shade.
Santa Maria Novella - Acqua di Rose Cream
Santa Maria Novella, one of the world's oldest pharmacies, launched a skincare line drawing from its iconic Acqua di Rose, a rose water formulated in 1381 (it's still a best-seller to this very day).
Its recently launched cream counterpart, aptly named the Acqua di Rose Cream, is a lightweight moisturizer with a subtly rosy scent. The first ingredient in the cream is, of course, Santa Maria Novella's famous rose water — meaning you can expect all the oil-absorbing, anti-inflammatory benefits of the age-old product along with a boost of hydration.
