171 - What I'm Reading: Week of November 15th.
McKinsey X BoF's State of Fashion Report, pH based skincare, brands taking on duping, private labels are picking up, Lemme's biotin free gummy, ChatGPT as your derm, and much more...
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
Fast Company: A tale of two dupes: How Beautyblender and Lululemon are fighting back against copycats. Dupe culture is here to stay—but how established brands handle their dupers is up for debate.
MIT Technology Review: Science and technology stories in the age of Trump. Rather than analyzing the news this week, I thought I’d lift the hood a bit on how we make it.
Just for fun:
🍎 Because it is that time of the year - a site that ranks all apple types.
TechCrunch: This USB-C mouthpiece turns your phone into a musical instrument.
AP: New DNA evidence rewrites long-told stories of people in ancient Pompeii.
Washington Post: Should you play Check-in Chicken? TikTok boarding hack really works. Better seats open up if you wait until departure time, but don’t get too close.
Mental Floss: 11 rare old words for the heinous and villainous. Use these obscure terms to describe (or diss) the bad guy in your life.
NBC News: Lake Como in a can? 'Air' from tourist destination on sale for $11 in Italy. Tourists visiting the picturesque and upscale Italian resort area can now take home a unique souvenir — canned air.
The Athetlic: The incredible Uncrustable — how a frozen PB&J won over the NFL ~80,000 a year.
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
🍬 Field Trip Kids - personal care products for body & hair focused on kids [Instagram].
Zoe - ‘Skincare for the girlies’ - launching in winter starting with anti-chafe cream [Instagram].
⭐️ Sel:Ph Beauty - a new skincare brand based around pH and skin - with cool packaging that often offer two products in one package. It is hard to tell who is behind it, it appears to be Leon F(allas). It recently launched and has tapped some pretty big influencers, like Hyram, there is a strangely corporate feel even though I am not convinced it is [Instagram].
Alexander - a new line of luxury skincare focused on men [Instagram].
Dottir Skincare - a suncare brand founded by Helga Hermannsdottir, Annie Thorisdottir, and Katrín Tanja Davíðsdóttir [Instagram].
Bowie - a microneedling kit - offering a serum, cleaning spray and micro-needling roller to plump up your skin [Instagram].
Nouveau Anima — a skincare brand offering goat milk soap & a line of products with white truffle [Instagram].
🏳️🌈 Serve Labs - skincare for anyone - with a side of sass, their Insta is serving [Instagram].
Surface Skin Co. it is launching on 11/23 a line called Urban Armor focused on natural ingredients. The brand feels very 2000s…[Instagram].
The Kira Kira Group - creating ‘safe-to-use skincare until it's accessible to everyone’. There hero product is a body butter [Instagram].
Vogue Business: Gen Z is using ChatGPT as a dermatologist. What does it mean for brands? Scores of young people are turning to the generative artificial intelligence platform to ask for advice on skin concerns. For brands, there’s risks and rewards.
👃 Fragrance:
Claire’s is getting in on fragrance [Glossy].
💊 Supplements:
Lemme, by Kourtney Kardashian launched a hair health supplement without biotin [Instagram].
Noon, originally launched in 2021 with skincare and has since expanded into supplements, their new gummies are very cool looking [Instagram].
👩🔬 Femtech:
⭐️ a16z - AI X Parenting thesis by Justine Moore.
LUWI (Let Us Wear It), a new female condom in the new category of ‘finer liners’ (I googled that term and got garbage bag liners). A non-hormonal, non-latex, thin material to be used for female contraception. There is little information about it, and it is yet to receive FDA approval [Instagram].
The New York Times: Even exercise has a gender gap. Women have less time to work out than men. And their health pays the price.
CNN Health: Morning-after pill sales surge online, telehealth companies say, as women prepare for second Trump term.
Business Insider: Women are demanding better menopause care. Online platforms are heeding the call.
The Washington Post: Perimenopausal women are ‘enraged’ — and no longer keeping quiet. The time leading up to menopause has recently entered pop culture with the ferocity of a hot flash.
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
Om Home - curation of South Asian beauty brands in one place [Beauty Independent; Instagram].
eMarketer: Boomers show more brand loyalty than younger generations.
CNBC: Amazon debuts discount store with everything under $20 to take on Temu and Shein.
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
🚰 Morning Brew: What do we know about fluoridated water? An incoming Trump Administration might push for the mineral to be removed from local tap water…more on the MAHA movement origins and what is says about wellness here.
⭐️ Business Insider: Longevity doctors are scrambling to get patients to stop taking flashy, expensive supplements.
Bloomberg: Apple tests blood-sugar app in sign of its health ambitions. Company explores products that can counter diabetes epidemic. Work comes as Apple makes progress on no-prick technology.
The Verge: Amazon reportedly working on Echo Frames for delivery drivers.
Fast Company: Your back was only the start. Inside Therabody’s plan to massage (almost) every part of your body. With a new eye mask, Therabody—the maker of Theragun—is on a mission to calm our nervous system.
Business Insider: Inside Forward's failed attempt to revolutionize the doctor's office. The healthcare startup went all in on its AI doc-in-a-box. 12 months after raising $100 million, it's shutting down.
TechCrunch: Amazon’s telehealth platform adds low-cost plans for hair loss, skin care, and more.
🗣 Social Media: News about TikTok, Meta, BeReal, Snapchat, X...
Business Insider: How Reddit went mainstream. Once a niche site for internet obsessives, it's become everyone's favorite digital hangout.
♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable Design💧 Fast Company: The water bubble is about to burst. Water quality and scarcity issues are on the rise, but we can help turn back the tide
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
Fashion Network: L'Oréal acquires Ushuaïa brand from French TV channel TF1.
🔬RESEARCH
👁️ Nature: World-first stem-cell treatment restores vision in people. The treatment, given to four people with damaged corneas, seems safe but needs to be tested in larger trials.
⭐️ MIT engineers found that exercise benefits neurons by helping them grow and function better. When muscles contract during exercise, they release chemicals called myokines, which stimulate neuron growth, and the physical stretching of neurons during movement also promotes growth—both effects that could lead to new treatments for nerve damage and neurodegenerative diseases [MIT News; Advanced Healthcare Materials].
🍅 Now we can make tomatoes sweeter due to CRISPR…[Nature].
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ BoF X McKinsey: The State of Fashion 2025; summary.
⭐️ McKinsey: A turning point for private brands: How retailers can seize the opportunity.
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne