As told to Victoria Kirby

We like to say that Moda Operandi is the alternative to the endless scroll—people aren’t coming to us for what’s all over their social feed or already at the big beauty retailers. They come to Moda because they want a breath of fresh air. They’re looking for a tight edit of great products, and they want to be surprised. What’s doing well in beauty are discovery brands with limited distribution that have a strong point of view and a real heartbeat. Meaning, brands that don’t feel like they came out of a marketing deck or were created in response to data-driven trends. Rather, they delight you with something out of left field, and there’s usually a founder at the top with a distinct vision. Our clients know and love established brands like Sisley Paris, La Mer, and Augustinus Bader, but it’s exciting to see how well discovery is performing for us.

I want Moda’s beauty curation to feel the way I once felt walking onto the beauty floor at Barneys New York or Colette in Paris, where you would stumble upon brands you’d never seen before. Each brand might have only had a few products, but they intrigued you with their story, and you felt you were getting something special and luxurious that few others knew about. Those brick-and-mortar stores may be gone, but the appetite for curious, interesting beauty brands is stronger than it’s ever been, and we see people coming to Moda in search of those hidden gems that tastemakers are talking about and that will influence future trends.

As with the fashion at Moda, our beauty selection is an edit. We don’t carry the full assortment from most of our brands because our customers want that editorial curation, which is my background. I was the beauty director of Harper’s Bazaar before joining Moda, and I spent 20 years as a beauty editor. I co-founded and co-host the beauty podcast Fat Mascara where we talk with artists, experts, formulators, and CEOs who are on the pulse of where the beauty wind is blowing, and that informs a lot of what I choose for Moda.

What’s unique about our approach is that we merchandise beauty alongside the fashion to create a look and a vibe, because our customers shop by occasion, whether that’s summer in the Hamptons or holiday parties or back to the office. When I came to Moda in May 2022 to launch the beauty section, I predicted skincare would be our biggest category—which it is, but color is hot on its heels to become one of our largest categories, because makeup is part of creating a look. I love that our fashion-obsessed audience can buy a gorgeous lip color from a cool indie brand for $28 and still have that special Moda experience through beauty.

Here are the current top-selling beauty products at Moda Operandi.

Surratt Lid Lacquer

Buy it now ($36)

Eye gloss is hard to get right—if it’s too gloopy-gloppy, it melts right down your lids and into your mascara. This one by Surratt, which comes in a sleek little compact, is the perfect texture and amount of shine. It’s a very different kind of finish than most eye colors, so it has that element of surprise that the Moda customer loves. It creates a sophisticated, editorial-style sheen on the lids and has staying power, but it doesn’t feel sticky or tacky. And the colors are all grown-up neutrals. The top-selling shade is Hadaka, a soft camel.

The Beauty Sandwich SS01 Secret Sauce

Buy it now ($300)

We launched this back in January, and it sold out in two days. Which is incredible for a $300 face product, and it hasn’t let up—we constantly have to restock this item. Iván Pol, the founder of The Beauty Sandwich—which is also his Instagram handle—is a well-known Los Angeles facialist with over 800,000 followers. He describes Secret Sauce as neither a serum nor an oil. It’s a gorgeous, silky, nourishing potion with all kinds of aromatic qualities. While Iván’s powerful platform certainly helped launch his product, it remains a consistent sellout because it’s an exceptionally well-made, multiuse formula that can be applied over moisturizer or in place of it, as a nighttime treatment, mixed with foundation—however you like. Iván worked with the very best formulators and with Annee de Mamiel, a leading holistic skin therapist and the founder of the British beauty brand de Mamiel, which we also carry at Moda. So the Secret Sauce delivers a beautiful sensorial experience—it feels and smells expensive, and it glides on your skin to give you an incredible, post-facial-like glow.

Violette_Fr Bisou Balm

Buy it now ($28)

Violette Serrat, the French makeup artist behind this brand, nails these kinds of one-off, unique products, and it’s why her line does so well with our customers. Like many of the beauty brands we carry, Violette doesn’t follow the old-fashioned franchise approach to beauty where each season, you release a themed collection of makeup that’s all in the same color palette or mood. People don’t shop that way for makeup anymore. They’re looking for curious, interesting, offbeat products in unexpected shades. Bisou Balm creates the perfect, no-big-deal lip stain with plenty of color. It sits between a lipstick and a tinted balm and feels super creamy on your lips. I carry this with me everywhere—you don’t even need a mirror to apply it. The finish reminds me of when models on the runway have those matte, soft-petal lips where you can tell that the color was patted on with a fingertip.

Régime des Fleurs x Chloe Sevigny Little Flower Eau de Parfum

Buy it now ($250 for 75 ml)

This is our best-selling fragrance at the moment, and it’s been a steady customer favorite. Alia Raza, the founder of Régime des Fleurs, was a visual artist before she got into creating perfumes, so she approaches each scent like a mood board. Her fragrances are very personal, and for this one, she collaborated with Chloe Sevigny. The scent is a beautiful, tart, woody rose—not at all powdery. One of the only places that carries Régime des Fleurs in-store is The Row at their boutiques in London, New York, and Los Angeles. So that’s created a lot of buzz in the fragrance community, and Alexa Chung has been talking about their scents recently, too. Moda is the only major online retailer carrying Little Flower, so we’ve benefited from a lot of word of mouth. We’re going to start offering fragrance discovery sets at Moda soon so customers can find and sample new scents before purchasing a full-size bottle.

Crown Affair The Dry Shampoo

Buy it now ($36)

We frequently sell out of this dry shampoo, which I think people love because it’s an elevated version of an everyday functional product. It looks like a luxe face powder, so you don’t mind displaying it on your vanity. You dust the dry shampoo along your part or hairline with the accompanying brush, so it offers a more controlled application. It’s ideal for bangs that can get a little oily. The powder is silky and very fine, and it contains persimmon, a natural deodorizer, so it makes your hair smell really nice.

Westman Atelier Squeaky Clean Lip Balm and Baby Cheeks Blush Stick

Buy the Lip Balm ($38) and the Blush Stick ($48) now

Westman Atelier does amazingly well for us. It’s such a beloved brand—our private client advisors were very excited when we began carrying it at Moda. Our clients are so fashion savvy and know who Gucci Westman is, the famous makeup artist behind Westman Atelier. Gucci epitomizes the Moda lifestyle: she’s effortlessly stylish in every way, from her wardrobe to her home to her beauty look, which is fresh and radiant. Our customers love ease, and Westman Atelier products are fuss-free glam. The top seller from her line is the Squeaky Clean Lip Balm, a gel-oil that goes on sheer, followed by the Baby Cheeks Blush Stick. Blush is having a renaissance, and this stick is creamy and easy to swipe on without a brush. The colors flatter all ages and look great on lips, too.

Ssone Nail Lacquer

Buy it now ($25)

This brand, which is based out of New York, is the only nail polish line that we carry because their colors are very fashion forward. They’re nuanced and unexpected, and the vegan, cruelty-free formula is long-lasting. The rounded caps on the bottles not only look chic, they’re also easier to hold than traditional cylinder caps when painting your nails.

Bienaimé Geisha Ritual Matifying Paper

Buy it now ($23 for 100 sheets)

Bienaimé is a beautiful French line from 1935, but it was shuttered for many decades before being resurrected in 2021 by Cécilia Mergui, a Paris-based entrepreneur. She preserved every element of its Art Deco spirit. The blotting papers are getting a lot of attention on our site and I’m not surprised, as our clients are inspired by design, travel, and products with a unique story.

Isamaya Luckykiss Diamond Lip Glow Lipstick

Buy it now ($50)

Isamaya Ffrench is a major editorial makeup artist and an incredible force in the beauty world right now. She releases beauty collections in the same cadence as fashion—she isn’t married to one brand packaging identity. She reinvents herself with every collection in the spirit of newness, the same way that fashion designers come out with a new point of view each season. For example, she launched an S&M collection last year, followed by a “rhinestone cowgirl” collection. She colors outside the lines and does her own thing, and she’s young and super cool. Her latest collection is fun and kitschy, and our customers are snapping up this lipstick, which is a statement piece in and of itself.

Sangre de Fruta Garden of Earthly Delights Botanical Hand Wash

Buy it now ($48)

I’ve been a huge fan of this brand since I was at Harper’s Bazaar, and I’m so glad that our Moda audience has taken to it as much as I did. The woman who founded the brand, Allison Audrey Weldon, is from an island off Vancouver called Bowen Island where the products are made. She uses all kinds of wonderful botanicals, and the scents are just gorgeous. This hand wash sells like crazy: the fragrance is woody and citrusy but not overpowering, and the formula is gentle on skin. The chic bottle blends with any bathroom décor, and I think our customers prefer a cool, not-well-known hand wash from a smaller discovery brand rather than the familiar prestige hand washes that everyone has their powder room. It also makes a great gift.