The iconic beauty essentials that we loved this August

Give your beauty shelf the chic edit it deserves with fresh launches spanning skin, makeup, body care, and fragrance. Each product offers something distinctive, whether it’s essentials like hand creams that turn into a considered ritual, or makeup that looks as opulent as it feels.

Melyon Body Lotion With Shea Butter, Moringa Oil And Almond Scent, ₹4,579 approx.        

Rooted in the beauty traditions of West Africa and created by Swedish luxury label Melyon, the products keep inclusivity at their core. The Renaissance de Moringa lotion approaches body care with an appreciation for both richness and restraint, bringing a thoughtful sense of heritage to an otherwise thoroughly modern body-care formula. 

The formulation combines shea butter and moringa oil in a deeply nourishing lotion that spreads generously across the skin, then settles into a soft, velvety finish. Designed to provide up to 48 hours of hydration, it leaves the body feeling thoroughly moisturised without the sticky after-feel associated with heavier body creams. The final touch is its delicate almond scent: a warm, softly sweet note that remains close to the skin. 

Yves Saint Laurent Lovenude Lip Blusher Soft Blurring Matte Lipstick - Shade 44 Nude Lavalliere, ₹4,600         

YSL’s Lovenude Lip Blusher takes the idea of the perfected nude and makes it decidedly more glamorous. In Nude Lavalliere, the creamy balm glides over the lips in a sheer, buildable veil of colour, softening their appearance rather than drawing attention to the edges. The finish is velvety and diffused, giving lips that coveted just-better version of their natural tone.

Hyaluronic acid and squalane bring a moisturising quality to the formula, keeping the texture comfortable and supple throughout the day. Wear it as a barely-there yet perceptible appeal, or layer it for greater definition, making it a tasteful addition to your everyday ensemble. Think polished lips without the fuss.

Laura Mercier Bonne Glow Cream Face Palette - Bisou, ₹6,000          

Laura Mercier’s Bonne Glow Cream Face Palette in Bisou is designed around one of holiday ambitions: recreating the way skin looks after a little sun, a little colour, and a particularly good day. Its creamy balm-to-powder formula lets bronzer, blush, and highlighter melt into one another, creating warmth and dimension without obvious lines or patches. 

Squalane and vitamin E give the formula a smooth, skin-friendly feel, while its 16-hour wear and resistance to water, sweat, humidity, and transfer make it particularly suited to long days. Use the bronzer to add definition, the blush to add a touch of natural colour to the cheeks, and the highlighter to pick up light across the high points of the face. The shades can also be swept onto the eyes for a cohesive wash of sun-warmed colour. 

Forest Essentials Moisturising Hand Cream Basil & Tangerine, ₹1,950        

A hand cream may be one of the smallest luxuries in a beauty cabinet, but Forest Essentials gives it an elevated treatment. The Basil & Tangerine Moisturising Hand Cream has a rich, velvety consistency that melts into the hands without leaving behind a cumbersome film, leaving skin smooth, supple, and comfortably nourished.

Botanical oils and butters help replenish moisture, making it particularly welcome after repeated cleansing, and the clean fragrance brings its own pleasure to the experience. Tangerine lends the formula a bright, juicy freshness, leaving a discreet citrus trace on the skin, ensuring that it deserves a permanent place beside your bedside table. 

Byredo Eau de Parfum Future Memories, ₹27,065 approx.          

Future Memories is Byredo at its most contemplative: a fragrance built around the strange, intimate relationship between the present and the memories it might one day become. It opens with the green intensity of galbanum and the juicy brightness of blackcurrant, lifted by aldehydes that give the composition an almost illuminated quality. The heart becomes softer and more textured, with powdery iris, warm labdanum, and orange blossom creating an intriguing contrast. In the dry-down, Madagascar vanilla and a vanilla liquor accord bring warmth, while musks and Ambrofix leave a lingering, skin-close trail. 

Green, ambery and with signature nuance, it resists fitting neatly into one olfactory category. Instead, it evolves gradually, revealing different facets as it settles: an intimate fragrance that feels personal, almost conversational. 

LA PRAIRIE  PROTECTION VEIL SUNSCREEN, ₹21,900           

La Prairie gives the most functional step in a skincare routine an unmistakably refined treatment with Protection Veil SPF 50. Designed to be applied as the final layer over serum and moisturiser, the lightweight cream provides broad-spectrum UVA and UVB protection while helping defend the complexion against environmental stressors. 

Antioxidants and La Prairie’s Cellular Complex™ complement the UV filters, along with long-lasting hydration to keep your skin feeling comfortable throughout the day. Applied each morning generously, it leaves the complexion protected and hydrated.

Chantecaille Luminescent Eye Shade - Martii (Limited Edition), ₹5,523 approx.          

Chantecaille’s limited-edition Luminescent Eye Shade in Martii introduces drama to your shelf. The deep-chocolate shade is infused with finely milled pearlescent particles that catch the light with a multidimensional shimmer, shifting subtly as the eyes move. Its uniquely sheer gel-powder texture allows the colour to be built gradually, from a soft wash across the lids to a richer, more defined smoky effect, while blending remains remarkably effortless. 

Particularly appealing is the depth that the shimmer creates, instead of an overt glitter-effect. Sweep it across the lid for an understated gleam or concentrate the deeper pigment through the crease and outer corner for added definition. The shade also forms part of Chantecaille’s wildlife-inspired collection, with the brand connecting its beauty offerings to conservation efforts across Africa.

Lead image: Featured brands 

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