129 - What I'm Reading: Week of January 26th
Tweens take on Sephora, Target doubles down on wellness, a new diaper rash brand, Lip Smackers for Gen Z, a 'butt wellness company', the semen microbiome & fertility, stress & the microbiome, & more
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
💭 Since the beginning of the year there has been a lot of discussion spurred by TikTok by the number of tweens taking over Sephora & Ulta. Some people have even suggested there should be an age minimum for kids at these stores. Beauty Independent wrote an article about the popularity of Drunk Elephant amongst teens that received a ton of attention. Overall these articles and the online response to this trend has been very strong, with many people voicing concerns about the dangers of using anti-aging products on perfectly healthy young skin. When I have spoken to friends/colleagues about this trend there have been a few consistent topics brought up with social media usually at the backbone. One thought is kids are trying to stave off aging, and are intentionally creating routines for health. The other is centered more around aspiration. As in, I see influencers / people I look up to have these cool looking products they put on their face, they have a skincare routine, therefore I should have one.
I tend to think the trend is largely around the cool factor of having a routine, and using the ‘cool’ products seen repeatedly in TikToks / Reels/ Youtube. So many videos on social media have someone applying a lip product, or putting on products - regardless of what the content is actually about, which makes ANY person watching want and/or think about those products. I also gawked the first time I saw Penelope Disick showing off a full GRWM (get ready with me) for school videos. The trend has less to do with a concern around skin health. A lot of the beauty products and their ingredients are buzzy, does an eleven year old really know what a retinol is…probably not (but does a 30 year old either…kind of 🤷)…same for hyaluronic acid. Although I am concerned about where this trend could go and have heard my fair share of concerning stories, I do find it promising that more teens are using sunscreen than ever and some kind of skincare - which is a great habit.
Just a few years ago - when acids and high percentage skincare were at their peak, many adults were dealing with severely damaged barriers (and still are). The uproar is more about the behavior teens are exhibiting in stores and the cost of many of these products, which are not cheap…and some could be damaging if used regularly. (I am not ignoring how damaging it can be for an 11 year old to use retinol…that is probably pretty bad down the road). I cannot get out of my head how every generation has some form of this. I remember being a tween and everyone having some form of Victoria’s Secret push-up bras to push up itty bitty barely there boobs, which no-doubt contributed to body image issues down the line. Right now, I would be more concerned the number of videos alluding to tanning bed usage and casual/cool cigarette smoking as more damaging down the road than crazed tweens taking over Sephoras.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
Jing Daily: Honey badgers and iPad kids - Experts weigh in on Gen Alpha.
The Verge: Google shapes everything on the web.
Fear not, it is not looking like your job will be taken by AI anytime soon [Quartz].
Alphabet’s Moonshot, known for supporting big ideas is rolling back and focusing on a model that will roll-out startups faster [Bloomberg].
Just for fun:
Smithsonian Magazine: A brief history of the United States’ accents and dialects.
Babycenter: Baby names at risk of going extinct.
👩🎤 Celebrity Brands:
Pamela Anderson is now a co-founder of Sonsie - an American vegan & cruelty free skincare brand.
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
⭐️ 👶 Buddle - a line of products specifically for diaper rash [Instagram].
Dr. Julius Few, a plastic surgeon, is launching a premium skincare line based on ‘clinically clean’ formulas. The line promotes ‘stacking’ products - for an optimal routine. In terms of ‘clinical’ - it is fine to report a percentage of the active ingredient, but tests, data…something should really be there…I do appreciate the dark bottles and pumps/caps to protect formulas from degradation [Instagram].
⭐️ 🍑 Asset ‘The first butt wellness company’ - launched their Hole Serum…this isn’t traditional skincare, but a cool brand and definitely creating an updated product versus what you find in the traditional drugstore aisle [Instagram].
⭐️ 🇮🇳 GABIT - an all-in one health & wellness platform from the former founder of Zomato - combining skincare, fitness, & nutrition [Instagram].
Sun Singles - single use sun lotion from a company called Brotion.
⭐️ Space Camp - Gen-Z lipsmackers [Instagram].
⭐️ 🇦🇺 Ultra Violette, the Australian sun-care company, raised $15M AUD to further expansion into North America - starting with Canada first. This is truly one of my favorite brands. No joke, when I traveled to Australia last year, one of the only things I bought were the Ultra Violette products to bring back with me.
👩🦱 Haircare:
BoF: Hair and scalp line Jupiter secures $3 Million funding round - giving dandruff a new look.
Basic Principle - a brand founded by Jasmine Burnside (a NYC based hair stylist) offering a three-in-one product for hair, scalp, and skin [Instagram].
👃 Fragrance:
💊 Supplements:
Stella McCartney Beauty enters into supplements with Alter Care - a supplement meant to deliver skincare from the inside out for plum/radiant skin [Instagram].
The Atlantic: Gummy vitamins are just candy. Not a super new take on the popular format.
👩🔬 Femtech:
🧲 3 Daughters raised $2M to create a better IUD based on magnets…cool but what happens if you need a MRI (thank you BW).
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
Axios: Sephora tweens are spending big on beauty products; Morning Brew: Tweens take over Sephora
Boomers and Gen X are Temu’s heaviest users [Bloomberg].
🇨🇳 The Conversation: The US invented shopping malls, but China is writing their next chapter - this article looks into how mall spaces are being repurposed as play spaces, experiential destinations, and more.
Retail Dive: Target to add 1K wellness products to offering.
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
Axios: United States of Ozempic - where anti-obesity drugs are taking off.
🇨🇲 Cameroon just rolled-out the world’s first malaria vaccine program…this is big [Wired].
👂 NYT: Gene therapy allows an 11-year-old boy to hear for the first time.
Bloomberg: Samsung races Apple to develop blood sugar monitor that doesn’t break skin.
Proto.Life: Can psychedelics slow dementia?
🗣 Social Media: News about TikTok, Meta, BeReal, Snapchat, X...
♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable Design
⭐️ Well that is just terrifying - scientists are monitoring diseases resulting from ancient micro-organisms that have been trapped in in Arctic permafrost that have the potential to be released due to global warming [The Guardian].
🚰 AP: Artificial intelligence technology behind ChatGPT was built in Iowa — with a lot of water - approx 500mL per 5-50 prompts.
Bain & Co: Consumers in fast-growing markets worry more about the environment.
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
🪦 Neighborhood Goods shutters for good [Beauty Independent].
Chapstick is acquired by Yellow Wood Partners for $430M.
Roc is acquired by Bridgepoint.
🔬RESEARCH
⭐️ Just like vaginal microbiome is a thing, semen microbiome is thought to play a role in male fertility [Nature Scientific Reports].
⭐️ Nature: How does chronic stress harm the gut? New clues emerge.
Nature: Can autoimmune diseases be cured? Scientists see hope at last.
Syphilis its been around forever…like 10,000 years, the modern strain being about 3000 years old [Nature].
⭐️ 👁️ New research out of UCSF points to visual symptoms as a potential early sign of Alzheimers: “judging distances, distinguishing between moving and stationary objects and completing tasks like writing and retrieving a dropped item despite a normal eye exam”, this is linked to posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) [UCSF].
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ BeautyMatter: Amazon Q4 2023 - Top 25 Beauty & Personal Care Products.
Marigold: 2024 Consumer Index.
⭐️ McKinsey: How could Panama Canal restrictions affect supply chains?
Traackr: Top Beauty Influencers to Watch in 2024.
⭐️ 🇮🇳 Bain & Co: How India Shops Online 2023. An insight into the e-retail landscape and the emerging trends shaping the market
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne