012 - Midweek Mini-Byte: Tuesday, June 17th.
EU consumers stay price focused, Coty & Kenvue explore sell-offs, the Hembrow sisters new supplements, the UTI challenge, a blood test for newborn immunity, nasal breathing as a biometric, and more.
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🧑💻 What to discover in this issue:
🔮 China’s wealthy swap handbags for biohacking and home gyms — health becomes the new status symbol.
🧪 MIT develops a 15-minute newborn immune test from just one drop of blood.
💄 AI-powered skincare launches + cycle-synced serums show beauty’s next wave of hyper-targeted personalization.
♻️ Scientists create “sweating” paint that can cool buildings by up to 40%, climate tech meets materials science.
💰 Coty, Phlur, and Kenvue enter the M&A chat as beauty deal-making heats up.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
🇨🇳 Jing Daily: Health as the ultimate status symbol for China’s HNWIs. China’s wealthy are swapping status symbols for self-care, embracing wellness retreats, home gyms, and smart fitness tech.
🇨🇳 Jing Daily: 618 emerges as beauty’s mid-year strategy test. Simplified discounts, cross-platform integrations, AI tools drive conversion rates higher this shopping festival while international beauty giants reclaim dominance through strategic inventory management and localization.
The big beauty industry news - Leonard Lauder passed away on Saturday (the 14th). His impact on beauty, and most notably coined the term ‘the lipstick index’ I did meet him once - in an elevator (end of story).
Just for fun:
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
⭐️ All and Sundae - a beautiful new body oil brand [Instagram].
Zen Dew — Gentle skincare based around snail mucin [Instagram].
⭐️ Banu - founded by Roz Samim - a new skincare brand focused on acne, part of the Sephora 2024 Accelerate cohort [Beauty Independent; Instagram].
⭐️ 🇰🇷 Percent Science — biotech based skincare developed by Celltem Pharmaceutical, offering skincare for acne & anti-aging using AI to generate formulas [Instagram].
🇬🇧 Skn to Skn — skincare designed to be safe for pregnant women [Instagram].
Muhza - cycle synced skincare - selling an oil cleanser and serums for specific phases of the menstrual cycle [Instagram].
O Positive Health - is launching its first cleanser - a probiotic intimate wash [Instagram].
👩🦱 Haircare:
💊 Supplements:
🇦🇺 Selfish Supps - a new supplement company from the Hembrow sisters (Tammy, Emilee, & Amy all big influencers in Australia) offering a number of powders across energy, hydration, gut health, & protein [Instagram].
👩🔬 Femtech:
⭐️ The Cut: Why UTIs are getting so much harder to treat. It’s not just you — the infections are becoming more common and harder to get rid of.
TLDR; UTIs are becoming harder to treat as antibiotic resistance rises, bacteria hide inside bladder walls, and disrupted microbiomes fuel recurrent infections — driving new research into vaccines, targeted therapies, and smarter treatment strategies.
The New York Times: The real fertility crisis? Financial security, a U.N. report says. Policymakers in many countries assume that birthrates have fallen because people want fewer children, but a global study says financial insecurity is driving those decisions.
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
Don’t be surprised if Amazon Prime Day if the deals are not as sweet as usual…blame tariff uncertainty [Retail Brew].
🍼 The price of baby gear is on the rise [CNBC].
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
WSJ: Anne Wojcicki wins bidding for 23andMe. Regeneron is backing away from buying the DNA-testing company after a nonprofit controlled by co-founder Wojcicki made a higher bid.
⭐️ Wired: Dyson has killed its bizarre zone air-purifying headphones — “One of the things we’ve learned is people really do care about what it looks like when it’s on your head.” This definitely felt like a product that came about that in theory could have made sense but in execution fell very flat…seems like they could have used a CPO or the services of Emergn [teaser for something next week 😉].
🇮🇳 YourStory: Beyond the wrist — From rings to AI pendants, next-gen wearables signal a rebirth for the segment. As smartwatches lose relevance amid slowing upgrades and demand, startups are now betting on premium, solution-led wearables in a tough, price sensitive market.
⭐️ 👶 🩸 MIT and Singaporean researchers have developed a first-of-its-kind device called BLIPI (Biophysical Immune Profiling for Infants) that can quickly analyze a newborn's immune system using just a single drop of blood. This portable tool delivers results in under 15 minutes, helping doctors detect serious, potentially fatal conditions like sepsis and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) much earlier than current methods, which require larger blood samples and much longer lab processing times
♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable DesignScientists developed a new "sweating" paint that keeps buildings cool by combining sunlight reflection and evaporative cooling, cutting air conditioning use by up to 40% even in hot, humid climates [ScienceNews; Science].
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
👀 Axios is reporting, the hot fragrance brand Phlur is looking for a buyer.
WWD is reporting that Coty is rumored to be for sale: “a number [of sources] have told WWD that Coty, jointly listed in New York and Paris, is exploring a potential sell-off in two parts. That would involve its Luxury division, counting brands such as Gucci, Burberry, Jil Sander and Hugo Boss, and its Consumer division, with mass brands including Covergirl, Max Factor and Rimmel London”.
BoF: Coty shares surge on report company looking to sell off units. The American cosmetics giant’s share price surged 13 percent following a report in Women’s Wear Daily that the company is considering selling its luxury and consumer divisions as separate units.
Reuters: Kenvue mulls sale of some skin health and beauty brands, sources say.
“Zeroing in on smaller brands in the unit to sell such as Clean & Clear, Maui Moisture, Neostrata, its German baby care brand Bebe, and Japanese brand Dr.Ci:Labo, the sources said”.
🔬RESEARCH
Researchers have discovered that each person has a unique "nasal respiratory fingerprint", a 24-hour pattern of nasal airflow that can identify individuals with 96% accuracy and even predict traits like BMI, anxiety, depression, and cognition [Current Biology].
🧐 REPORTS
Bain & Co.: Consumer Products Pulse Check — Tracking the Sector’s Performance.
“Personal care and household showed mixed performance, with only limited signs of volume recovery.”
Bain & Co.: The Future of Retail — Six Disruptions That Could Shape the Next Decade. Imagining tomorrow’s challenges and opportunities—from AI shopping agents to cross-border M&A.
Private label is surging: 50%+ of US/EU consumers actively buy private label.
In some markets (Europe), private label could reach 70% share by 2035.
BCG: European Consumers Brace for More Uncertainty.
54% of Europeans are pessimistic about their country’s economy (up +7 pts vs. last year). Economic anxiety remains highly elevated.
75% of consumers actively hunt for deals across categories, with "value for money" named the top purchasing factor (59%).
Sustainability interest is rising (45% consider it when purchasing), but only 17% are willing to pay extra. The "green premium" remains under real pressure.
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne