019 - Midweek Mini-Byte: Tuesday, August 5th.

Re-nurturing, fibermaxxing, Martha Stewart's new skincare ventures, a new form of alopecia in menopausal women, Youthforia shutters, a new Ayurvedic daily powder, McKinsey on the rural opportunity.

👋 Hello everyone.

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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.

🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS

• 🇨🇳 Jing Daily: What China’s viral phrases of 2025 say about Gen Z. From ‘sex recession’ to ‘re-nurturing yourself,’ China’s youth are rewriting the rules of relationships, work, and identity.

• ⭐️ The Guardian: Let them, creatine and fibermaxxing: the biggest wellness trends of 2025 (so far). On fibermaxxing…clearly Gen Zs did experience the 90s Kashi era to its fullest…and I am still recovering.

• Time: The world’s richest woman has opened a medical school.

  • Just for fun:

    • NPR: Dude, the history behind the word dude is wild.

👩‍🎤 Celebrity Brands: 

• Elm Biosciences - Martha Stewart’s new skin care line [WSJ; Instagram].

🧴 Skin / Personal Care:

• The 2nd - a new marketplace for men’s skincare products [Beauty Independent; Instagram].

• Biim Suncare - a SPF foundation stick - available in 5 shades [Instagram].

  biim_suncare

  

  A post shared by @biim_suncare

• 🦶 R Cubed (R^3) - a new foot care company [Instagram].

• 🇮🇳 Organic Petals - an interesting holistic Ayurvedic approach with skincare and haircare along with teas [Instagram].

• Sveda - clean beauty tallow based skincare [Instagram].

• Dove launched ‘Women’s Wellness Range’ - a line of products to address hormonal shifts [PR Newswire].

• 🇨🇳 Jing Daily: The white coat effect - C-beauty’s pharmacy power play. Chinese beauty brands are transforming 700,000 pharmacies into retail engines — blending clinical credibility with tech-driven convenience.

👩‍🦱 Haircare:

• ⭐️ Allure: A new form of Alopecia is affecting menopausal women. Experts are calling it an “emerging epidemic.”…thank you for making me aware of something else to stress about.

• 🇯🇵 Automaton: To battle the “smell problem” of TCG tournaments, a Japanese company is trying to crowdfund a specialized shampoo for card gamers.

  A Japanese company recently launched a crowdfunding campaign for a specialized shampoo for TCG players in order to help battle "the smell."

👃 Fragrance:

• Sundae shared a look at its new body mists:

  sundaebody

  

  A post shared by @sundaebody

😅 Deodorant:

• Well well well…I posted about this very topic back in September of 2024.

  • BoF: Can Deodorant Be a Luxury Product? Deodorant makers like Salt and Stone or Papatui are infusing their formulas with high-quality scents to elevate their offering amid a greater perfume boom — and a looming sense of fine fragrance fatigue.

💊 Supplements:

• ⭐️ Jiggies - a newly daily Ayurvedic inspired powder (with electrolytes & caffeine). I actually really like the concept of taking Ayurvedic principles and repackaging with a modern twist [Instagram].

• 🇦🇺 Gutly - a low FODMOP gut-friendly protein powder [Instagram].

• 😴 Ritual launches a sleep powder [Instagram].

• Fitt/Insider: Creatine’s boom exposes quality concerns.

🐕 Pet Care:

• Wuffes - a rapidly growing joint supplement for dogs - identified by Exploding Topics…as mentioned by Exploding Topics the space of senolytics for pets is a very large opportunity [Instagram].

👩‍🔬 Femtech:

• Sifted: Flo Health settles multi-billion dollar Meta data privacy lawsuit. A lack of evidence posed an 'insurmountable' problem for the plaintiffs

🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...

• eMarketer: As consumers cut spending, health and wellness takes the smallest hit.

🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...

• ⭐️ 💉 A cancer vaccine could be coming…

• The New Yorker: How to live forever and get rich doing it. As researchers work to make death optional, investors see a chance for huge returns. But has the human body already reached its limits?

• Fierce Biotech: Cardiosense scores FDA clearance for wearable sensor that monitors heart function.

• ⭐️ The New York Times: New implant offers hope for easing rheumatoid arthritis. The device stimulates the vagus nerve, signaling the body to tamp down the inflammation that contributes to the disease.

• ⭐️ Yahoo Finance: 63 million adults are moonlighting as caregivers, with little support. AARP's report chronicles how caregivers are taking on debt, raiding their savings, and suffering career setbacks.

🗣 Social Media: News about TikTok, Meta, BeReal, Snapchat, X...

• The Verge: Reddit wants to be a search engine now. CEO Steve Huffman says the company is focused on making the platform a ‘go-to search engine.’

💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...

• ⭐️ Another Indie beauty brand closes…and I fear that there are a number of well-known beauty brands that are zombies (some of which I know have declared bankruptcy or are insolvent - but have not announced publicly) and it is only a matter of time before they officially say they are closed.

  • Youthforia announced it’s shuttering, and I’m sure there will be plenty of commentary. Personally, I find it really sad. Before the color-shade scandal, Youthforia felt like a standout Gen Z brand playful, original, and with products that truly delivered.

    • What struck me is this: if Youthforia had been under a major CPG, it’s possible they could’ve weathered the backlash -deep pockets, legal teams, and a strategic reset can buy a second chance. But that’s a privilege small brands don’t have. One misstep can snowball into stalled sales, lost trust, and a dried-up fundraising pipeline. Big CPG brands have misstepped and recovered - but it is not without a major financial penalty & time…both of which an early stage startup does not have.

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🔬RESEARCH

• Even when both follow national dietary guidelines, minimally processed diets led to significantly greater weight and fat loss than ultraprocessed ones underscoring that how food is processed matters, not just what’s in it [Nature Medicine].

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🧐 REPORTS

• Cosmetics Design X NutraIngredients : Beauty From Within - What’s Trending.

• 🇨🇳 Daxue Consulting: Bottled wellness: How healthy drinks in China became a leading category.

• McKinsey: Small towns, massive opportunity - Unlocking rural America’s potential.

💡 Enjoy,

-Anne