Every September, fashion allows itself a small collective ritual: starting over. Fashion week opens its doors, beauty brands launch their autumn collections, and amid all this excitement there’s a common thread that has returned punctually for a few seasons now: the desire for minimalism. It’s no coincidence that, backstage at the shows, references to the ’90s are multiplying: that era when “no-makeup makeup” wasn’t yet a hashtag trend but simply a way of doing makeup, made up of luminous skin, a clean gaze, and few products. An aesthetic we now view through the nostalgic filter of polaroids and photo collages, but one that hides a rule that’s anything but trivial: doing “less” makeup paradoxically requires more technique.
September, as we know, is the month of returning, and standing in front of the mirror we wonder whether our own beauty look also needs a “back to school.” And that’s exactly where the urge to return to the essentials comes in: clean skin, defined eyes, lip tint, and done. Minimalism, sure, but be careful.
Minimalism is not synonymous with laziness: it’s a precise selection of what really matters.
The perfect quartet for fresh skin (that lasts all day)
Four products, one goal: a clean, luminous look that holds up from morning to night, in the spirit of those “no-makeup makeup” faces seen so often backstage in recent seasons.
It starts with the skin, with Augustinus Bader The Cream Rich, by now an absolute icon of skincare – you could call it the supermodel of your beauty routine. The brand, born from Professor Augustinus Bader‘s research in regenerative medicine, has built its identity around the TFC8® complex, a blend of amino acids, vitamins, and molecules designed to support the skin’s natural regeneration processes: the result is a cream that’s rich but absorbs well, made for skin that needs deep nourishment.
Then comes to the rescue the Plump + Juicy Spray by Kosas, a collagen serum-spray that brings skincare directly into the daily routine. Its light texture and misted format make it particularly pleasant to use throughout the day, when skin needs an extra dose of hydration and that plumping effect that instantly makes the face look fresher and more luminous. It’s exactly the kind of product that perfectly embodies the new minimalism: not covering, but preparing and maintaining the skin at its best, letting the complexion itself do most of the work.
On the cheeks come the new blushes by Fenty Beauty: a liquid yet surprisingly unique texture that never dries out the skin. The lighter shades give a soft, natural flush, while the darker shades allow for a “very blushed” effect, almost like a faux tan, perfect on eyes, cheeks, and lips.
Closing out the quartet, the new Airbrush Blur Loose Powder by Charlotte Tilbury. A little anecdote: the brand was literally born backstage at fashion shows and on red carpets, where Charlotte Tilbury did makeup for models and celebrities before it became a global name. Her first product, the Magic Cream, was born from exactly that need – to create something glamorous but also high-performing, able to hold up under lights for hours. The new powder follows the same philosophy: it lasts all day and works well even on dry skin, thanks to a formula that hydrates rather than drying it out.
When skincare alone is enough
Sometimes the best makeup is the kind you can’t see. In this chapter, the watchword is skin, skin, and more skin.
The stars are The Essence by Tatcha and the Parsley Seed Cleansing Mask by Aesop, both designed to brighten and even out skin texture with gentle yet effective botanical ingredients. Alongside them, the Glow Mist by Pixi Beauty and the Face Gelée by Clinique, a gel-cream that gives a natural sun-kissed color without any actual sun: the perfect option for anyone who wants to stay truly minimal and rely only on their own skin.
For those who want to add a special touch to their lips while staying in the same spirit, there are the lip glosses by Overskin by Veralab, super shiny and “glazed,” or the Pixi Lip Tone, with the same natural yet luminous spirit. Two different ways to reach the same result: lips that look like their own, just prettier.
Aesop’s minimalist skincare
Few brands have turned minimalism into a true visual and aesthetic language quite like Aesop. Amber bottles, essential packaging, formulas that speak of botany and research: it’s a brand you recognize at a glance, even just sitting on a shelf.
Among its most surprising products, the Lucent Facial Concentrate – the one with the dropper – is one of our absolute favorites: a lightweight serum designed to give immediate luminosity to the skin, to be used alone or under a cream.
Alongside “bottle” skincare, technology enters the scene: under studio lights, amid blue light and continuous artificial lighting, skin needs protection as much as active care. Hence the use of the UFO device by Foreo with LED technology, which uses red light and blue light to work on skin regeneration and purification respectively: a small tech ritual to pair with more traditional skincare.
Merit: ’90s minimalism par excellence
If we had to choose one brand that best represents the “clean” and effortless aesthetic of ’90s looks, it would be Merit. A brand that knows its formulas and has just expanded its range with the Clean Volume Mascara, the house’s second mascara release after Clean Lash.
Its strength is the brush: small, almost tiny compared to industry standards, designed to catch every single lash without weighing it down. The result is a natural yet fully buildable effect: a few coats for a clean look, a few more to add volume without ever tipping into excess. A tubing formula, designed not to smudge and to come off with just warm water.
Alongside the mascara, the eyeshadow, lip balm, and blush combo (The Essential Eyeshadow Stick, Futurist HydraPlump Tinted Lip Balm, Futurist Blushmaker) by Estée Lauder remain among the most beloved for their creamy, sheer texture, which blends into the skin as if nothing were there at all: the very essence of “minimalism that knows what it’s doing.”
The bronzer that (almost) does it all on its own
If minimalism is also measured by the number of products in your makeup bag, then the Sun Stalk’r Instant Warmth Bronzer by Fenty Beauty deserves a special mention. Packaging aside – genuinely wild – it’s probably the product that best sums up the idea of makeup done with the bare minimum: a concealer, a bronzer, and you’re done.
The formula, an extremely fine powder that’s incredibly easy to blend, lends itself to a thousand uses: as a classic bronzer on the face, as an eyeshadow base on the lids, as a product for contouring and shading under the eye. One single pack, infinite applications: every minimalist’s dream.
Lancôme, for the woman always on the move
There’s a type of product designed for the “on the go” woman, the one who always carries the essentials in her bag and has no time for endless layering. For her, the choice falls on the blush and highlighter Teint Idole Ultra Wear by Lancôme: convenient, versatile, perfect for a last-minute touch-up that restores color and glow in seconds.
Rare Beauty: the lip tint oil of the moment
Among the most interesting recent lip releases is the lip tint oil by Rare Beauty: a thin, extremely light, very hydrating formula that leaves a delicate tint rather than full coverage. Among the available shades, our favorite remains Affection (the one that leans toward a deep violet, almost black), a shade perfect for a ’90s-mood makeup look. The comfort on the lips is among the most surprising we’ve tried recently.
The season’s most anticipated relaunch: Lip Contour Stain and Liquid Matte Mousse by Huda Beauty
There’s a brand that in recent years has made launch speed and listening to its community two true pillars of its identity. After gathering feedback from those who complained about certain limitations of the first version, Huda Beauty decided to relaunch its Lip Contour Stain, presenting it alongside a brand-new product: the Liquid Matte Mousse, a soft texture that promises comfort within its matte formula, going against the grain of the stiffness we’re used to from matte mousses.
The new rule for autumn-winter seems to be exactly this: matte, but soft. For our look we chose the Lip Contour Stain in the shade Cinnamon paired with a Liquid Matte Mousse in Mocha Mauve, for a defined-but-not-too-defined lip contrast, perfect for the cold season.
Too Faced: two eyeshadow sticks, endless effects
With their all-pink holographic packaging – impossible not to spot on a shelf – we can’t stop thinking about the Quickie Queen eyeshadow sticks by Too Faced, available in a range of shades spanning from the softest pinks to the most intense, sparkling browns. An extremely creamy formula, super simple application even without brushes, a shimmering effect on the eye.
The most interesting thing is their versatility: with the same product you can get a smudged, rock-and-roll effect, or a cleaner, more luminous finish – just by changing your application technique.
Armani: the world’s simplest smokey eye
There are products that become iconic almost by definition. The Eye Tint by Armani Beauty is one of them: a liquid-cream formula that turns into the fastest tool for achieving a smokey eye with virtually no effort. If minimalism also applies to the effort required, not just the number of products, this is probably the most efficient solution.
For our look we chose two shades: a warm brown (36 M) and an intense black (99M), layered to create depth without any technical fuss. To complete the lips, one of the latest releases from Armani‘s Prisma Flash gloss/lipstick range, in Lilac Flash.
Valentino and Prada: when maximalism focuses on the lips
You can be minimalist even while staying true to a more maximalist aesthetic – you just need to concentrate the effort on a single point of the face. In this case, the lips.
The new Lip Crayon pencils by Valentino are soft, long-lasting, and let you go for a nude instead of the classic red or fuchsia, for a natural makeup look that still draws all the attention to the mouth. Alongside them, the Spike Valentino lipsticks – creamy and long-wearing – complete the picture with a few well-chosen nude shades.
Joining these is Reflection Gloss, the new liquid gloss-effect balm by Prada, with a shiny, colored finish that translates into an almost sculptural effect on the face. For us, this combination captures well what “essential editorial makeup” means today.
Clinique Chubby Stick: an icon turning almost thirty
Few products embody the concept of quick, minimal makeup quite like a stick. And the Chubby Sticks by Clinique are probably the ultimate emblem of this: launched in 1997, they’re a product rooted right at the turn between the ’90s and the early 2000s – exactly the era many of this season’s looks draw from.
Alongside the lip sticks, the illuminating blush and bronzer from the same line confirm the same philosophy: soft formula, mirror-free application, natural result in seconds.
Packaging that’s almost a work of design
With Ellis Faas, minimalism takes a much more graphic direction. The sculptural packaging shapes and the format designed for precise application meet a highly pigmented formula, available in various shades, that turns even the simplest gesture – a line on the lips, a touch of color – into something extremely defined.
It’s an approach to makeup we love precisely because it doesn’t confuse minimalism with restraint: here, one product and a single gesture are enough, but the result can be intense. The lips thus become the focal point of the face, while everything else can remain deliberately essential. Once again, fewer products doesn’t necessarily mean less impact.
When minimalism becomes editorial
If there’s a brand that shows how minimalism can turn into something surprisingly editorial, it’s Espressoh. The starting idea is simple, intuitive makeup, made of products that are easy to use and carry around, but just by changing how we apply them we get a completely different result. A texture, a color, a precise gesture can become a graphic line, a shadow, an unexpected accent on the face. This is exactly where minimalism interests us most: not when it forces us to use less, but when it lets us do more with what we have.
Kosas: the most multitasking blush of the year
We round out the skincare-makeup chapter with the new blushes by Kosas, the Impressionist Multisticks, among the products that won us over most this year. We chose three nude-toned shades (Intuition, Vital, and Nuance), and the reason we call them “the most multitasking product we’ve ever tried” is simple: rarely does a product designed for multiple areas of the face maintain the same performance and longevity on cheeks, eyelids, and lips, which have very different movements and characteristics. These blushes, however, perform well absolutely everywhere.
Behind the scenes
Not all beauty is about products to apply: sometimes it’s about moments. Like the one, often photographed backstage, of a model reading a book while her hair is being dried with the Dyson Supersonic Travel, the compact hairdryer designed specifically to be taken on trips without sacrificing performance or drying speed.
Tatcha, The Water Cream: the temptation to overdo it (just this once)
There’s a cream capable of making even the most dedicated “less is more” devotee waver: The Water Cream by Tatcha. An extremely lightweight, super hydrating formula with an almost gel-like texture that dissolves into a real burst of water on contact with the skin, made with Japanese botanical ingredients designed to give the skin a “water” effect – so pleasant to apply that you almost want to use it like a mask, spreading it generously over your face (although, to be clear, you don’t actually need to do that).
e.l.f.: minimalism without compromise
Still on the theme of multi-use sticks, come the Soft Glam Blush by e.l.f. Cosmetics: extremely creamy, long-lasting, available in countless shades, and designed to be used on cheeks, lips, and eyes. Like the Chubby Stick by Clinique, these too perfectly embody the idea of the “lifesaver” product to always keep in your bag – simplicity done well, with no compromise on results.
Benefit: the trio that closes things out beautifully
To close our selection, three Benefit products that alone could make up an entire lifetime’s beauty routine (which, to be clear, we would never actually do). The Fluff Up Brow Wax for combed, defined brows; the new double-ended lip tint, Benetint Pocket Pal, instantly recognizable for its dual format – gloss on one end, tint on the other – in the shade Original Rose; and the range’s new mascara, Fan Fest, which promises 24 hours of volume and a “fanned-out” lash effect, with the same care for formula that has made Benefit one of the most beloved names in the industry. Three products that, taken individually or together, capture the spirit of this whole editorial well: doing a lot, with little.
With this selection we close our journey into this season’s minimalist beauty: skin as the protagonist, color used sparingly, and the awareness that, sometimes, less really is more.
Photos by Johnny Carrano.
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