October is when your skincare routine starts showing its limits. The moisturiser that was perfectly fine a few weeks ago suddenly isn’t cutting it, your lips are cracking, and you’re wondering whether your hair really needs washing or whether dry shampoo can buy you another day. This month’s beauty launches offer a few compelling reasons to refresh your line-up, from a richer moisturiser for dry skin to clever formulas that make everyday maintenance a little less of a chore.

Here are our picks for the month, all newly launched.

Thank You Farmer Rice Pure Barrier Cream Mist

Thank You Farmer’s Rice Pure Barrier Cream Mist is two-faced in the best possible way: a nourishing cream layer and a light essence sit apart in the bottle until a shake unites them in a fine, creamy spray. The brand says the result hydrates and reinforces the skin’s barrier without feeling heavy or greasy. Rice extract leads the formula, with niacinamide, panthenol, peptides and collagen extract in support.

Hold the bottle 20 to 30cm from your face, close your eyes, mist evenly over clean skin and pat it in. It can stand in as a hydrating toner step after cleansing, refresh skin over make-up, or top up moisture whenever skin feels dry or tight, and the brand says it is suitable morning and evening. We like how many places it fits into a routine. It costs £20 for 100ml at Cult Beauty.

Green People Scent Free Ultra-Calm Serum

Skin that reacts to everything deserves a serum that asks for nothing in return, and Green People’s new Scent Free Ultra-Calm Serum arrives with its promises kept short and its perfume left out. Made for ultra-sensitive skin that is easily overwhelmed, this fragrance-free formula is billed as a way to bring comfort to stressed skin and calm redness, which will appeal to anyone whose complexion flares up at the mere sight of a new bottle.

The brand has spent more than 25 years on fragrance-free formulas, and the serum is made without ethyl alcohol, parabens or silicones. Green People also describes it as eczema-friendly, and its Scent Free range avoids essential oils and artificial fragrance alike, which makes this a considered choice for skin that is easily thrown off course. A calming serum should be gentle, and we like that this one puts that first. It costs £30 for 50ml at greenpeople.co.uk, a calm price to match.

Nanogen Strengthening Leave-In Treatment

The British hair-thickening brand, best known for its keratin hair fibres, has created its new Strengthening Leave-In Treatment for fine and thinning hair after shampooing. It promises deep conditioning without the heavy feel of a traditional rinse-out formula, which suits strands that tend to flatten under the weight of richer products.

Its hair-thickening claims come from the brand’s Hair Growth Factors, a blend of actives and peptides that Nanogen says helps combat the thinning of individual strands and improves hair health, density and anchoring, so that hair looks and feels thicker. Alongside that, glycerin holds moisture in the hair and sunflower seed extract smooths the cuticle to tackle brittleness. Rosemary oil is there to fortify strands from root to tip, and rice protein brings amino acids to repair fragile lengths and add volume. The result is hair that looks fuller, feels healthier and is easier to manage.

A spritz is all it takes (onto damp hair, from the mid-lengths to the ends). It costs £15.95 for 150ml at nanogen.com.

Living proof Perfect hair Day Advanced Clean Dry Shampoo in Frosted Fig

Living proof’s Perfect hair Day Advanced Clean Dry Shampoo, which the brand says sells every 10 seconds globally, has come back in a limited edition scent for anyone who couldn’t give a fig about wash day. Frosted Fig taps into the fig fragrance trend, opening on creamy fig with a touch of sweet coconut before drying down to blonde wood and amber with vanilla cream underneath, a warm, cosy scent that suits the colder months.

Living proof says it cleans and cares for hair as well as a rinse-out shampoo, and it balances the scalp’s sebum levels while it does. It also adds softness and shine and leaves no visible or textured residue, so a skipped wash doesn’t have to look like one. You can find it here.

Paula’s Choice Pro-Collagen Peptide Plumping Intensive Moisturiser

Autumn has a gift for turning supple skin scratchy, and Paula’s Choice has answered with a very pink jar. Its new Pro-Collagen Peptide Plumping Intensive Moisturiser follows the brand’s bestselling peptide gel-cream, which is powered by the clinically proven 3X Pro-Collagen Peptide Complex, and swaps the gel for a richer cream made for dry, very dry and stressed skin. The brand’s promise is hydration that lasts days and we’re glad to see a moisturiser that takes the long road.

The hydration comes in layers. Its Moisture-Locking Lipid Tech helps skin hold on to water for longer. Red Micro-Algae Extract traps water within the skin’s surface layers to build what the brand calls a moisture reserve. The cream is cushiony and melts quickly into the skin without a heavy or greasy finish, which is a welcome balance for anyone whose skin wants comfort but not a coat of grease. A stellar all-rounder, this is our new go-to cream for the seasonal changes. It costs £49 for 50ml at paulaschoice.co.uk.

NIVEA FACE+ Moisturising Pots

That first few weeks of properly cold weather bring the same problem every year: skin that feels tight the second you step outside, and a moisturiser that suddenly isn’t up to the job. NIVEA’s answer is FACE+, four new 100ml pots that each hand the starring role to one familiar ingredient, with up to 72 hours of moisture promised across the range. We like how clear it is, because each label tells you exactly what’s doing the work, so you can pick the pot that matches whatever your skin is grumbling about.

• Hyaluronic Acid Plumping Hydro Gel is an oil-free gel that sinks in quickly for hydrated, smoother-looking skin, and the brand says it won’t clog pores.
• Panthenol Barrier Cream is the pick for skin that winter wind has left feeling battered, as panthenol helps support and strengthen the barrier.
• Vitamin C Radiance Gel Cream goes after dull, tired-looking skin in a lightweight gel texture that works morning or evening
• Niacinamide Mattifying Cream is for anyone whose face turns shiny by lunchtime, with niacinamide for shine control.

Thank You Farmer Pure Glow Collagen Hydrogel Mask

Thank You Farmer’s Pure Glow Collagen Hydrogel Mask comes with its own timer: the gel turns transparent as it absorbs, so you know exactly when to peel. The Korean brand has filled each mask with rice extract from Ganghwa Gyodong, rice bran, lotus flower powder and plant-derived collagen, and says the hydrogel responds to your skin’s temperature, dryness and pH to deliver hydration and nutrients where they are needed. The soft gel sheet is made to contour to every part of the face, including the tricky corners, for a smooth, plump and luminous finish.

Each mask comes in two pieces, with the upper half going over the eyes and forehead and the lower half around the mouth, and the pieces can be moved to any area that wants extra attention. It goes on after the rest of your skincare routine and stays on for 20 to 30 minutes, or until the gel turns transparent, and the brand says it also works as an overnight sleeping pack to help skin hold on to moisture. A pack of four costs £19, which works out at £4.75 a mask, and it’s available at Cult Beauty.

S3 Sensitivity Science Toothpaste

Anyone with sensitive teeth has long been asked to pick between relief and resilience, and S3 Sensitivity Science takes a bite out of that compromise. The new British toothpaste was created by Mick Cox, the former global head of Sensodyne, and Majedeh Mazraei, a former GSK formulating chemist, with more than 20 practising dentists backing it with their own money.

Its patent-pending S3 Repair Technology starts with 5% potassium nitrate, which calms the nerves that react to sensitive triggers. Alongside it, 10% nano-hydroxyapatite blocks the dentine tubules, the tiny channels that cause pain once exposed, and biomimetic hydroxyapatite forms an acid-resistant barrier around the tooth surface that guards against everyday wear. It costs £19.99 at s3sensitivity.com.

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