September’s beauty playlist is all about getting back into routine The moods of the month, told through Earth, Wind & Fire, Ex-Otago, David Guetta, Rareș, will.i.am, Nicki Minaj and Ornella Vanoni

September is probably the real New Year. January arrives while we’re still distracted by the holidays, whereas September finds us much more prepared to promise ourselves that, this time, we’ll really change everything. We buy new planners, go back to the gym, fill the fridge with good intentions and suddenly decide that we’ll follow our skincare routine morning and night without skipping a single step. There’s something irresistible about September 1: it gives us the illusion that we can start all over again. Except we never really start from scratch. We come back from vacation with the same life, the same messages waiting for replies, a few habits we’d like to leave behind and others that, instead, would be nice to keep. Maybe that’s exactly where September gets interesting. Not in the desire to turn ourselves into version 2.0 by the end of the month, but in the chance to figure out what we actually want to take with us. Our beauty routine changes too: products we had put aside come back into rotation, textures become richer and more comforting, hair treatments damaged by sun and sea get their moment, and the makeup we had reduced to a minimum during summer slowly returns. But not everything has to go back to exactly how it was. September’s Beauty Playlist is about new beginnings that are never entirely new: six songs to soundtrack the return without rushing to become someone else.

How to use the september beauty playlist

In September, our beauty routine gets some structure again, but that doesn’t necessarily mean bringing back all the rules we had before summer. To create your September Beauty Playlist:

1. Pick up the habits that made you feel good, not necessarily all the ones you had before.
2. See what your skin and hair actually need after summer before completely overhauling your routine.
3. Add a new product only if you genuinely feel like using it.
4. Keep at least one of the simple habits you picked up while on vacation.
5. Choose a song that makes you want to start again, without expecting yourself to already know where you’re going.

September isn’t asking you to become a new person. It can simply be the month when you start taking a little more care of the person you already are.

One song for every beauty moment

The day we decide everything is starting again

There are September mornings when we wake up convinced that the time has finally come. We tidy our desk, open a still-pristine planner and mentally start making a list of all the things we’re going to do better from now on. It’s naive, but beautiful, so why deprive ourselves of it? We can enjoy the excitement of those first few days without immediately turning it into an obligation to stick to every good intention until December.

Track: September – Earth, Wind & Fire

Mood: optimistic, bright, impossible to listen to without moving

Beauty vibe: fresh, hydrated skin ready for a new start

Products perfect for this mood:

• Notino Hydrating Bio-Cellulose Face Mask with Ceramides: a biocellulose face mask with ceramides, perfect when the first post-vacation goal is to restore hydration and comfort to the skin. The kind of step to add to your routine when you want to start September with a face that, at least, looks rested.
• SKIN1004 Madagascar Centella Hyalu-Cica Cloudy Mist: a hydrating and soothing face mist to spritz whenever your skin needs an extra dose of freshness. The mist format also makes it one of those easy products to keep on your desk when your days suddenly start being measured in hours spent in front of a computer.
• PDRN Pink Collagen – Brightening & Hydrating Capsule Cream: a moisturising cream to add to your daily routine and bring your attention back to the skin barrier after weeks of sun, heat and air conditioning.

Why it works: because there’s no September without the illusion that, from today, we’ll become completely new people. So we might as well start by dancing to a song.

The routine we’ll actually stick to this time

Every September comes with at least one new habit we’re convinced will change our lives. Drinking more water, going to bed earlier, doing our skincare every night. Some will probably survive and others won’t, but maybe consistency doesn’t come from the most elaborate routines. It comes from the ones that are simple enough to follow even on a Wednesday morning when we’re tired and would rather just go back to sleep.

Track: Ci vuole molto coraggio – Ex-Otago

Mood: clear-headed, encouraging, everyday

Beauty vibe: a few targeted steps and zero guilt

Products perfect for this mood:

• The Ordinary Lacto-PDRN 4% + B9 Eye Cream: an eye treatment combining Lacto-PDRN and vitamin B9, designed to target hydration, radiance and the appearance of fine lines. A single step to add to your routine without turning it into a long-term project.
• Nuxe Zinc Power Spot Corrector: a targeted treatment from the Zinc Power line designed to address blemishes. Use it where you need it, when you need it: probably the most sensible beauty philosophy to take into the back-to-work season.
• Vamp Pupa: a couple of swipes with the brush of this volumising and conditioning mascara are enough to perfectly define the lashes, add volume and intensify the gaze. Thanks to its conditioning ingredients, it also helps improve the quality of the lashes without weighing them down.

Why it works: because in September, it takes much more courage to choose three things we’ll actually manage to do than to write a list of twenty resolutions.

What we’re not ready to leave behind from summer

The calendar says September, but we don’t have to believe it straight away. We can keep going out with bare legs for as long as the temperature allows, order something over ice and wear that perfume we now associate with summer nights. Going back doesn’t have to mean a clean break: some things can follow us for a little longer.

Track: Without You – David Guetta feat. Usher

Mood: nostalgic, euphoric, early 2010s

Beauty vibe: glowing skin, gourmand scents and the last traces of summer

Products perfect for this mood:

• Sol de Janeiro Body Badalada Daily Glow Lotion: a daily illuminating body lotion to keep skin hydrated and glowing even as your tan slowly starts to fade.
• Dyson Omega Hydrating Hair Oil: a lightweight oil to apply to the lengths to finish styling, add shine and accompany that moment when we want our hair to look put-together again without necessarily doing anything drastic.
• Jo Malone London Peony & Blush Suede Cologne: peony, red apple and a soft suede base create a floral fragrance that sits perfectly between the brightness we’re not ready to give up and the desire for something a little more enveloping. It also comes in a 9 ml format, perfect for returning to life outside the house.

Why it works: because going back doesn’t mean leaving everything behind. Some things from summer can easily take up space in September too.

Putting the pieces back together, hair included

We often realise summer is really over while standing in front of the mirror. Our tan starts to change, freckles become less visible and our hair presents the bill for sun, sea, chlorine, hair ties and questionable blow-dries. That doesn’t necessarily mean we need a new haircut or colour. Sometimes the smartest new beginning is simply repairing what we already have.

Track: Robina – Rareș

Mood: soft, contemporary, slightly suspended

Beauty vibe: repair mode, soft hair and a gradual return to routine

Products perfect for this mood:

• Revlon Professional Eksperience Longevity 24/7 Leave-In Repair Treatment: a leave-in treatment designed for fragile and damaged hair that can be used both day and night. The formula works on the hair fibre and scalp, helping hydrate and protect the hair from breakage: basically, the post-summer treatment we can use while doing something else.
• Kérastase 8H Night Serum: an overnight hair serum to apply before going to bed, perfect for bringing nourishment back into the lengths without adding another appointment to the day.
• Paula’s Choice Resist Advanced Replenishing Cream: this product contains a powerful blend of five ceramides to restore the skin barrier. It supports the skin’s natural ceramide hydration so that the barrier can continue to function effectively.

Why it works: because not everything that looks tired at the end of summer needs to be replaced. Sometimes it simply needs to be treated better.

Looking in the mirror before going out again

During summer, we learned that we can live perfectly well with less makeup. Then September arrives, bringing back appointments, events, dinners and that strange desire to stand in front of the mirror again, not because we need to “look presentable”, but because makeup starts being fun again. The difference is that maybe we no longer need to automatically bring back every step we had eliminated.

Track: Check It Out – will.i.am feat. Nicki Minaj

Mood: bold, energetic, decidedly extra

Beauty vibe: smooth-looking skin, statement cheeks and gourmand lips

Products perfect for this mood:

• Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless Blur Loose Powder: the new loose powder from the Airbrush Flawless family, designed to set makeup and create a visibly smooth, soft-focus effect without going for heavy coverage.
• Rare Beauty Soft Pinch Liquid Blush: a few drops of liquid blush to bring colour back to the centre of the face without building an overly elaborate base. One of those products that lets us return to makeup while keeping some of summer’s lightness.
• KAYALI Yum Marshmallow Kiss Lip Balm: a lip balm that brings the gourmand world of the Yum Marshmallow fragrance into makeup too. The perfect detail when we want cared-for, glossy lips without immediately going back to the immaculate lipstick of city days.

Why it works: because we can start wearing makeup again without necessarily wearing makeup the way we used to. Even makeup can pick up where we felt good.

The version of ourselves worth taking with us

By the end of September, we’ll probably have already abandoned at least one of the resolutions we wrote down at the beginning of the month. And that’s where Canta Canta comes in. Ornella Vanoni recorded the song in 1975, an Italian adaptation of Canta canta, minha gente by Martinho da Vila: a song that moves through moments, joy, sadness and memories, and seems almost made to remind us that life doesn’t really move forward in perfectly separate chapters.

Track: Canta Canta – Ornella Vanoni

Mood: lively, self-aware, elegantly nostalgic

Beauty vibe: comfort, sensory rituals and products we use mostly because they make us feel good

Products perfect for this mood:

• NYX Ultimate Utopia Eyeshadow Palette: colourful eyeshadows to choose the shade that feels right depending on the moment.
• Chanel The Illuminating Base: a base that prepares the skin for foundation application while giving it an instant glow. The water-rich formula provides an immediate feeling of freshness. Enriched with hyaluronic acid, it visibly plumps the skin and provides intense hydration throughout the day.
• Yepoda The Gloss Boss: a lip oil to apply without overthinking it, somewhere between treatment and makeup. Because not every new beginning needs a completely new product: some work better with something we’ve always used, just like a gloss.

Why it works: because maybe growing up means exactly this: stopping ourselves from thinking that every new phase has to erase the one that came before it.

Maybe we don’t have to start from scratch

Every year, September sells us the same fantasy: a blank page. The new planner, the new routine, the new season and, ideally, a new version of ourselves. It’s a seductive idea because it makes us think that changing the month is enough to fix everything we left unfinished in the months before. But completely blank pages rarely exist in real life. We arrive in September carrying summer with us, along with habits we want to change and others we discovered precisely when we stopped trying to control everything. Maybe the point isn’t to start over, but to choose what to continue. The same goes for beauty. We can pick up the cream we had forgotten about, take care of our hair, discover a new fragrance, return to makeup or keep wearing very little of it. Without turning every gesture into the symbol of some imaginary better version of ourselves. Maybe September isn’t about becoming a new person, but about remembering who we were before we started running so fast. And this time, trying to take that person with us at least until the next Beauty Playlist.