In the grander scheme of things, without knocking off the cult or the cool (or what industry insiders would call emerging brands), only 43% of beauty brands launched in 2015 are still in the market today. This analysis of attrition by the fintech group CircleUp is based on value for money, packaging, and interestingly, consistency.

It means that while a product can rely on its internet hype (self-sustained or not), the analysis proves it is a given that customers are still shopping the way they do since the dawn of time (so have Chantecaille’s customers with the Oil Free Balancing Moisturiser’s anti-ageing powerhouse blend of botanical extracts, marine postbiotics, and plant stem cell extracts). They simply want products that work.

It is reported that at least five to eight products, regardless of skincare, makeup, body care or fragrance, are launched globally daily. Although the pantheon of products brings a deluge of the new, the purpose of the ones here is to glorify them in an empirical way that suggests them as the magnum opus of a brand.

Defined as “a work of art, music, or literature that is regarded as the most important or best work that an artist, composer, or writer has produced”, what they do is that they either address the nitty-gritty things we require of skincare (the L’occitane Divine Youth Oil is a non- sensitising retinol alternative) or changed the way we see skincare (Augustinus Bader The Cream might be the talk of tinsel town and the internet but for a good reason; it repairs, soothes, and reverses signs of ageing faster than one can click “like”).

Not in a sensorial or perfunctory way but in a make that suggests that the timeline of a product’s efficacy can be shrunken down thanks to science (time can be shortened with the Elemis Pro-Collagen Cleansing Balm that softens, cleanses and nourishes if one is in a hurry).

Take, for example, the Kiehl’s Retinol Fast Release Wrinkle-Reducing Night Serum, powered as a fast-acting 0.3% concentrate that penetrates up to 15 surface layers into the skin. It might seem straightforward and, perhaps, slight in formula (other brands now have percentages of 1% or higher), but the genius is that the American brand has pioneered the encapsulation of retinol itself. One has to “combine” a powder and serum to ensure that what he is using is the fresh version of the formula possible.

To talk about a delivery system too would be to mention how the Infinity Kosé Unlimited Key Serum, the latest launch from the 76-year-old Japanese powerhouse, thinks beyond what a skincare product can do (plump, firm, and smooth), starting with how it does it.

The serum is a blend of nano-sized releasing and oil capsules that burst upon impact for the full freshness of its formula, one that provides deep moisture to the stratum corneum as its ingredients are similar to the one the skin produces.

If one wants the holy grail of skincare products, the swan-song of skincare that is a medley of all that is good, then the CL 1870 Laser FocusTM Complex in the Clinique Smart Clinical Repair Wrinkle Correcting Serum is a good place to start. Ingredients such as Acetyl Hexapeptide-8, caffeine, and algae extract combine to help increase natural collagen production, soothe and repair, and alleviate blemishes, itchiness and redness.

Once you’re done with this story, click here to catch up with our November 2022 issue!