034 - What I'm Reading: Week of March 11th
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👋 Hello everyone.
🔗 Links in this newsletter route back to my blog or directly to the original content.
⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
💭 This week we look at white spaces related to space, exciting new maternal care solutions, Google’s new patent for skin responsive wearables, new research on aging related to cell rejuvenation & dry eyes, and the exciting European startups coming out of the newest Y-Combinator batch.
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🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
Wired examines the role facial recognition plays in arrests, the technology is far from perfect. Those charged with crimes, are often not made aware of the use of facial recognition.
👩🚀 Wallpaper magazine explores the opportunity for skincare in space travel, discussing waterless solutions, and products designed for cosmic radiation, and lack of gravity. There is still a long way to go.
On the topic of space, researchers are calling for the study of sex in space…anyone up for a Ph.D.?
Amazon launches its version of Clubhouse, an audio app, called AMP. It is being described more as a listening party, since there is access to licensed music.
🕷 ICYMI: What’s black, yellow, and red all over? The Joro Spider, a very large invasive, not harmful to humans, species of spider from Japan. It turns out Joro Spiders, have invaded the east coast of the U.S. and the climate is just right. They were first been reported in Atlanta, Georgia, and now are being spotted in upstate NY. Just.Plain.Terrifying.
👩🎤 Celebrity Brands…
BOF dives into A-Frame, the holding company/platform with a formula for launching celebrity brands, catering to the unheard/unserved.
Bollywood star, Deepika Padukone, is launching a yet to be named lifestyle brand, including a skincare line.
🧴 Skin:
Soho House launches Soho Skin for a 24/7 lifestyle. The line of 11 skincare products is currently being tested by members who stay at Soho House, with a launch slated for May.
Urban Skin Rx announced it is launching a men’s line at Target. Their goal is to be known for in-grown hair solutions and dark spots for men.
Squigs Beauty, a new skin and ‘headcare’ line from a Pop Sugar fashion editor.
Smood Beauty, a skincare line, launching next week, for acne prone & sensitive skin.
Standard^2 Selfcare (Standard Squared), is a skincare line with ‘biactive complex’ launching soon.
⭐️ QT Cosmetics, an Austin based beauty startup, so far they have only launched a cute under eye gels, but their stance on clean & natural is refreshing.
Superzero launched body balms, similar to the solid body moisturizers
‘body stones’ made famous by Kate Mcleod.
Hermes expands its beauty line into color complexion balms, the tinted skin line includes mineral SPF.
👩🦱 Hair:
⭐️ Revieve launches a new hair AI tool, called Hair AI Advisor. It uses selfies and intake questionnaires to analyze hair’s health, hair type, volume, curl type, color, along with concerns and goals to recommend products and styles best for your hair.
The Kardashian’s longtime hairstylist Andrew Fitzsimons’ launched a new haircare line through Maesa, the brand incubator. The launch includes 27 products, at $14 each, including shampoos, conditioners, and styling products.
Bars Over Bottles (B.O.B.), a Brazilian, waterless haircare brand.
Beautiful hair & scalp (Bhs.) a scalp care brand with benefits co-created by Unilever & Walmart.
🦷 Oral Care:
Natean a new botanical and sustainable toothpaste line from GSK at Walmart.
💊 Supplements:
✈️ FlightFud, a functional beverage, offering relief from the effects of flying. The sachet helps to relieve symptoms around: fatigue, dehydration, bloating, circulation, and immunity issues resulting from long flights. Cheers to a future of no more hotboxing on planes…or cankles.
🛍 Retail:
Walmart announced a partnership with British beauty retailer Space NK. The partnership will be both in-store and online, offering a selection of prestige beauty across skincare, hair, makeup, and body making them much more competitive with Target X Ulta and Kohls X Sephora.
This comes nearly two years after Space NK shuttered stores across the U.S. and China.
⭐️ Whole Foods, Amazon, announced it is launching a brand incubator.
👩🔬 Femtech:
⭐️ Zaya Care is developing the first full spectrum maternal care network that is covered by insurance, offering specialty care from preconception through postpartum.
IMMI is a watch designed for low-income communities to track their menstrual cycles.
⭐️ Delfina is a data driven platform helping to predict better outcomes for mom & baby. The startup recently raised $5M to launch a clinical pilot. This comes on the heals of the most recent data released by the CDC on maternal death, where deaths-rates of blacks and non-hispanics are disproportionally higher than any other group in the U.S.
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and More...
⭐️ Allergy Amulet, the smallest and fastest device to rapidly test food for allergens.
👅👃 Gastrograph AI, a B2B sensory perception predictive platform for flavor perception.
♻️ Sustainable Design:
Morning Brew looks at Ithaca’s plan to decarbonize its buildings by 2030.
The Visual Capitalist looks at the who and what is driving the global landfill crisis.
🔬RESEARCH
⭐️ Google filed a patent for wearables that respond to skin gestures.
L’Oreal filed a patent for a foaming cleansing face mask that can be removed as a single sheet without water.
⭐️ Researchers out of the University of Manchester, UK formed a network to study how aging is influenced by skin bacteria.
Aging
⭐️ A new study demonstrated the ability to rejuvenate cells, even turning back the epigenetic clock. The study, conducted on mice, showed reduced gene expression for inflammation and cell death. This is a step forward for aging research and potential disease therapies.
The research is still incredibly early, but is perhaps a glimmer of hope for a future therapy after a week of very gloomy news. A paper published in Nature, found that even for patients who had mild COVID, there were serious changes to brain size & the areas of the brain most closely associated with smell, taste, and memory.
👁 A paper in Nature Aging outlines a treatment for dry-eyes in aging populations, the condition is strongly linked to a drop in sex-hormones. Although having dry eyes is not life-threatening, the condition puts individuals at increased risk for potential eye damage.
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ Sifted: European startups participating in Y-Combinator Winter ‘22 batch, this includes startups in the following sectors: B2B, healthtech, food, fintech, biotech, cybersecurity, e-comm, SaaS, sustainability, and transportation.CB Insights - The Top 50 Blockchain Startups of 2022.
Spate: Sunscreen Mists, Lip Plumping Glosses and Scalp Serums are Driving Search.
CB Insights: The 12 Industries Amazon Could Disrupt.
Whole Foods - the Top 5 Beauty Trends of 2022.
💡Enjoy,
-Anne