160 - What I'm Reading: Week of August 30th.
The 'medical' skincare myth, haircare for 'de-pigmented' tresses, Queen V closes, mosquitoes sense through infrared radiation, where our brains process love, why being a teen today is so hard, & more.
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
Vox: The staggering death toll of scientific lies. Scientific fraud kills people. Should it be illegal? In summary - if you publish a paper with false data - that has serious consequences on lives - should you be held accountable.
A look at Red Antler’s venture arm Habitat Partners.
Just for fun:
👾 If you want to play some retro arcade games - they might be here.
Maybe not fun - but useful to know - roach sprays don’t work.
Pew Research Center: 32% of Americans have a tattoo, including 22% who have more than one.
Chanel launched a watch headphone hybrid - if you feel the need to flex some wired headphones…
🍊 If you’ve ever wondered why oranges are sold in red-net bags.
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
Terns a new skincare brand built around sun after care. There are two products one for daily after sun use, and the other for ‘over exposure’ [Beauty Independent; Instagram].
🇰🇷 LG Household launched a bodycare line in Korea called b.clinix with ingredients used in facial care products.
⭐️ Dazed: Don’t fall for ‘clinically proven’ beauty products. A great piece on how the terminology around clinical or medical skincare is really just marketing with no proven efficacy, and potentially is ‘science washing’. I’ve seen an increasing number of aestheticians and skinfluencers…even derms on Tiktok saying how they would never not use medical grade skincare, and each time I hear them say this I cringe. In my corporate days we did have standards for the brand when we used the term clinical versus perception study, but this had to do more with self regulation.
There is rising consumer interest in bacne spray according to Exploding Topics.
Estee Lauder’s Origins launched a skincare line targeted at Gen Z called Youthtopia. I do not think this is going to save them.
👩🦱 Haircare:
👩🦳 Silverist - a new line of haircare targeted at women aged 40-60 with de-pigmented hair...because all grey hair is not grey [Beauty Independent; Instagram].
👃 Fragrance:
Wallpaper: How Diptyque used synaesthesia to create its poetic new perfume collection. Diptyque’s new perfume collection, ‘Les Essences de Diptyque’, captures the scent of coral and mother of pearl. Ahead of its launch, the maison’s noses tell Wallpaper* how this was done.
A look at Osmo - The startup teaching your computer how to smell [Hustle].
BoF: To restart growth, Molton Brown bets on fine fragrance. The British bath and body brand has been trying to grow its fragrance credentials since 2019. This week, it’s rolling out a brand refresh and new collection called Artists of Note.
💊 Supplements:
ZBiotics is launching a second product after raising a $12M series A. This product is focused more on gut microbial diversity. Their first product targeted hangover prevention.
👩🔬 Femtech:
Elinzanetant, a new non-hormonal drug from Bayer currently in testing, has been found to significantly reduce the frequency and intensity of hot flashes.
Women’s Tabloid: BoobyBiome secures £1.6M grant from Innovate UK to advance breast milk synbiotic research
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
NYT: How Costco hacked the American shopping psyche. More than 100 million people visit the retailer for their groceries — and gas and TVs and gold bars and pet coffins — but saving money may not be the only motive.
Walmart is getting more serious about premium beauty.
Retail Brew: Turns out Gen Z is pretty loyal to brands. Per survey, 61% identify as “forever customers.”
CNBC: The two-day or less shipping Americans have come to expect faces a climate change threat
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
Inverse: The microbiome’s forgotten cousin could be key to solving America’s gut issues - the phagosome.
Human innards are teeming with viruses that infect bacteria. What are they up to?
MIT Technology Review: A new system lets robots sense human touch without artificial skin. It could help make interactions between robots and humans smoother and more intuitive.
WYSS Institute: Alzheimer’s drug may someday help save lives by inducing a state of “suspended animation”. For all the controversy behind these drugs - in terms of the small measurable improvements versus sheer cost of the drug - this is one really interesting application.
🚽 Andrea shared Throne with me - a startup with a toilet attachment that analyzes urine and poop for wellness markers along with your regular food intake. Urine analysis has been an area on the rise Throne uses visual images and AI to offer health suggestions (it is not sophisticated enough to tell you if you have a parasite). It is more along the lines of monitoring your hydration through urine color. This also reminded me of a an article in The Atlantic this week about how the US is monitoring sewage more than ever - we already know it is how the CDC is able to measure an uptick in COVID - it is also how they are able to predict overdoses.
♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable DesignAt least one company is sticking to its sustainability initiatives - Lego is planning to shift to renewable plastic.
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
⭐️ Beauty Independent: Reckitt quietly shutters intimate care brand Queen V.
BoF: Report: Unilever mulls sale of Kate Somerville and Ren Clean Skincare. Unilever is looking to dispose of the two prestige skincare brands, and has retained PWC to explore a sale, per Sky News.
🔬RESEARCH
🦟 With concerns about West Nile Virus & Sloth Fever - a new paper published in Nature, suggests that disease carrying mosquitoes use infrared radiation (heat) through their antennae to detect humans in addition to carbon dioxide and other compounds…so on top of scent perhaps skin-temperature changing clothes are on the list.
Inverse: Microplastics can cross the blood-brain barrier, a new study suggests — here’s why that matters.
This research doesn’t come without some controversy.
♥️ A new paper shows where different types of love are processed in our brains - The study identifies that different types of love activate specific brain regions. The paper examines six different types of love and the changes in brain activity associated with each type [Cerebral Cortex].
Someone published a paper on paper cuts - and the types of paper most likely to cut the skin. I had to read it to make sure they tested this on some other model aside from humans…they used a gelatin skin (the way I squirmed). According to the research paper that is ultra thin does not cause cuts because it ‘buckles’ while thick paper does not either. Post-it notes, magazines, and newspapers which can be more angled are more likely to cut the skin.
🧐 REPORTS
LTK: CPG Study 2024.
⭐️ Pew Research Center: Why Many Parents and Teens Think It’s Harder Being a Teen Today. It is no surprise social media adds pressure but also provides more resources and opportunities for connection.
⭐️ Traackr: Hair Care and Fragrance Trends Q1 2024 Creator Content Analysis.
Rock Health: Investing in the Future — Opportunities to Support Digital Innovations in Youth Mental Health.
McKinsey: An update on US consumer sentiment — Consumer optimism rebounds—but for how long?
Sifted: 11 medtech startups to watch, according to VCs. VCs at 415 Capital, Sofinnova Partners, MIG Capital and SHS Capital share their picks.
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne