157 - What I'm Reading: Week of August 9th.
Butter & internal SPF?, Duette's 360 sun care approach, D&G scent for dogs, addictive intelligence, a smart ring for sleep apnea, Spate's Q2' consumer insights, why?! - a convo app, & more...
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
Retail Dive: Prestige beauty sales continue to outpace mass with 8% growth in the first half of the year. High-end fragrance was a bright spot, rising 12%, but its popularity is also driving sales of mass products and private-label dupes.
📱 eMarketer: Kids are more likely than adults to access most common consumer devices.
🥬 The Guardian: Detoxification is a popular claim in wellness. But it’s just another lie. Time to buy those foot stickers that turn black from your toxins…kidding.
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
Octo, a new skincare brand with a lactobacillus ferment moisturizer [Instagram].
🌞 Duette, a new sun care brand approaching sun care from all angles. The brand sells a supplement, serum, and sun sunscreen to offer sun protection as well as support from sun damage through antioxidants [Beauty Independent; Instagram].
🥩 🧈 On a side note, this article from The Cut - about wellness ‘meatfluencers’ is fascinating/disturbing feels like we are revisiting Atkins/Ketosis. TLDR - girls are eating steaks and sticks of butter on hot girl walks, claiming to have solved their hormone imbalances and no longer needing SPF.
The Ordinary expands into body care, offering Salicylic Acid body serum, a Niacinamide body serum, and body lotion. Below the neck beauty has been growing, and their glycolic acid solution is a popular product that many consumers use for body (underarms) as well. They also recently launched a really cute lip / cuticle product - that feels like it has the potential to go viral [Fashionista].
🧑💻 Glossy: With screen time on the rise, skin care comes for blue light. This trend pops up every few years since around 2018. It is always a controversial one since the blue light exposure most people are experiencing is fairly low, compared to exposure to the sun. Additionally, many of the blue light beauty products on the market tend to be SPF free or free of titanium dioxide or iron oxide - both ingredients which have been shown to have higher efficacy against blue light. Many of the marketed blue light serums are rich in antioxidants - which is great but not highly effective against this spectrum and the benefit is very low. For more watch this [Lab Muffin].
👩🦱 Haircare:
Glory By Us - a haircare line designed to maintain healthy hair and a healthy hairline. The line includes a shampoo bar, pomade, and brush - made with natural ingredients to support hair growth - there is nothing super novel in the formulas [Instagram].
Save Hair - a new hair growth hair care line with a shampoo, conditioner, serum, and tonic. It is based on naturals - with only topical ingredients, and also claims to prevent hair greying…how? [Instagram].
👃 Fragrance:
🐕 Because your dog should smell expensive too…Dolce & Gabbana launch a perfume for dogs. I have not smelled it - considering it is a more affordable price point than some other high end perfumes - I wonder if anyone will just start using on themself. It is also not really advised to use perfumes on your dog - apparently it messes with their vital sense of smell.
😅 Deodorant:
The Washington Post: Do we really need deodorant ‘down there’?
👩🔬 Femtech:
💊 Interest in perimenopause supplements and other products is on the rise - this is not super surprising, given the larger push around marketing and products to 35+ women.
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
Beauty Independent: TikTok Shop is coming for beauty e-commerce. Will it last?
🇨🇳 Jing Daily: How Douyin is propelling beauty brand success in 2024. After a recent market shakeup, emerging beauty brands are seizing new growth opportunities on interest-based e-commerce platforms like Douyin.
Morning Brew: Drug stores locking up toothpaste is good for Amazon.
The Intelligencer: Is Amazon turning into Temu? The e-commerce platforms are converging on the same place — a race to the ultracheap brandless bottom.
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
⭐️ MIT Technology Review: We need to prepare for ‘addictive intelligence’.
The allure of AI companions is hard to resist. Here’s how innovation in regulation can help protect people.
The Verge: Humane’s daily returns are outpacing sales.
⭐️ Caltech: Caltech team develops first noninvasive method to continually measure true blood pressure.
⭐️ With ring wearables on the upswing RingConn introduces Gen 2 Smart Ring - which offers sleep apnea detection.
🫀 A 3D bandage for the heart from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Knowledgeable Magazine: Understanding the sudden rise of type 2 diabetes in children. The metabolic disorder was long known as a disease of adulthood. Now, it’s spiking in kids and teens, with worrisome consequences.
Wired: Wildfire smoke causes long-term health problems— here's how to protect yourself. Smoke from fires is linked to thousands of premature deaths every year, and is a growing health threat as widespread blazes becomes more common.
WSJ - when your sugar turns to fiber - Scientists are experimenting with enzymes that turn sugar to fiber in the gut, microscopic sponges to soak up sugar, and more.
🗣 Social Media: News about TikTok, Meta, BeReal, Snapchat, X...
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
🔬RESEARCH
🩸 Nature: Blood tests could soon predict your risk of Alzheimer’s. Scientists are closing in on biomarkers that reflect the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and could improve treatments.
Nature: Breast-cancer cells enlist nerves to spread throughout the body. Surprising results show that ‘sensory’ nerves, which carry information to the brain, have a direct role in helping tumours to metastasize.
Nature: Gut microbes linked to fatty diet drive tumour growth. Scientists know there is a link between obesity and some cancers. A study in mice and people suggests why that might be.
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ Spate: Consumer Trend Highlights Q2’ 2024.
⭐️ The Conversation: Moms think more about household chores − and this cognitive burden hurts their mental health. The data shows the responsibilities quite literally shouldered by women in relationships.
🇮🇳 BCG: E-Styling India: Decoding Online Fashion and Lifestyle Shopping Trends. Bain’s Shyam Unnikrishnan and Myntra’s Nandita Sinha share our latest insights on India’s e-lifestyle market, shopper journeys, key fashion trends and a playbook for lifestyle brands to scale their online presence.
🌏 BCG: Retail Trends and Transformations in Asia-Pacific. Bain experts Melanie Sanders and Radhika Sridharan discuss the near term challenges facing retailers in Asia-Pacific.
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne