172 - What I'm Reading: Week of November 22nd.
The news via influencers, vitamin delivery through air?, why we can't quite Diet Coke, malaria vaccines delivered through bug bites?, the top tech trends in 2025 according to CB Insights, & much more.
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
⭐️ ~37% of Americans get their news from influencers [Pew Research Center].
WSJ: $500,000 pay, predictable hours — how dermatology became the ‘it’ job in medicine. Americans’ newfound obsession with skin care has medical students flocking to this specialty
BeautyMatter: UN mandates beauty industry to compensate for profits from nature's genetic data.
rest of world: New data shows the number of new mobile internet users is stalling. What happened to the “next billion” internet users? They’re already online.
Just for fun:
😐 Upworthy: Why didn't people smile in old photographs? It wasn't just about the long exposure times. People blame these serious expressions on how long they had to sit for a photo, but that's not the whole picture.
Apple’s most popular podcasts of 2024.
👩🎤 Celebrity Brands:
Paris Hilton announced she is launching a beauty division under 11:11 media, with skincare products launching in 2025.
IM8, David Beckham’s longevity supplement venture announced back in April, launched [Instagram].
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
AHYUN — a super pretty lip syrup with ‘ingredients rooted in Asian heritage’ [Instagram].
🇦🇺 Par Kie - an Australian skincare brand playing into Japanese skincare with a fermented collagen ‘dew’ [Instagram].
⭐️ Yoé - a beautifully designed skincare brand using a blend of vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, ceramides, pantheno, chebula seed extract, diosmin; red algae, squalane, and a vegan epidermal growth factor at the core of its products [Instagram].
Emmeline Skin - founded by Alex Vergara and Sydney Kofron, selling a collagen cream and ‘dew spray’ based on European skincare [Instagram].
BeautyMatter: How Haut.AI plans to revolutionize beauty tech by putting consumer privacy first.
⭐️ BoF: Why the dire state of Black Beauty threatens the entire industry. A decade-plus of explosive gains for Black-owned brands has given way to a slowdown in everything from funding to retail expansion — and the implications for beauty are far worse than loss of representation alone.
BeautyMatter: 6 underrated beauty hubs winning it big right now; TLDR: Riyadh, Sao Paolo, Istanbul, Melbourne, Warsaw, and Lagos….I would also add Bangkok and Mexico City.
Axios: Apothékary grabs Shiseido investment, launches at Ulta.com.
BoF: Clean Skin Club’s face towel raises $32 Million. The investment will help the brand make an aggressive retail push, as well as develop new versions of its hero product.
👩🦱 Haircare:
Crown Affair closes $9 Million series B round led by investment firm True Beauty Ventures.
💊 Supplements:
⭐️ The Conversation: Air is an overlooked source of nutrients – evidence shows we can inhale some vitamins.
😳 iBlush - a supplement startup focused on reducing alcohol flush recently released a gel format that is sold out [Instagram].
👩🔬 Femtech:
⭐️ CNBC: Amazon shuts down secret project to develop fertility tracker.
The Markup — An abortion privacy guide for every state.
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
Profitero: Amazon leads as lowest-priced retailer; Target gains ground ahead of holidays.
WWD: Prestige beauty continues to outpace mass in Circana’s nine-month 2024 results.
CNN Business: As Americans bargain shop, six-figure earners flock to Walmart.
🇨🇳 Jing Daily: What’s behind China’s beauty retail boom? The country’s beauty sector is thriving offline, with brands targeting lower-tier cities and embracing hybrid retail to captivate diverse consumers.
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
⭐️ NOWDiagnostics launched a first of its kind at-home rapid at-home Syphillis diagnostic, using a drop of blood.
Fast Company: Tech can help you take care of your aging parents. Start with these 5 devices. From fall detection devices to cameras, here’s what you need to care for your older loved ones.
⭐️ Human.Health - an app that helps track symptoms and treatments for patients to be better advocates for themselves [Instagram].
Crunchbase: Genetic testing delivers startup hits and misses.
QZ: The Oura ring will soon help you monitor your blood sugar. Oura is partnering with Dexcom, which recently released a continuous glucose monitor
⭐️ 🕵️♀️ The MIT Press Reader: Surveillance and the secret history of 19th-century wearable tech. From jealous spouses to paranoid bosses, 19th-century pedometers quantified suspicion and reshaped the dynamics of surveillance.
Healthcare Brew: This AI tool detects more cases of long Covid. Mass General Brigham researchers created an AI tool that can help detect cases of long Covid.
👁️ WSJ: A $12,000 surgery to change eye color is surging in popularity. Keratopigmentation could be dangerous, doctors warn. Patients say it’s worth the risks.
🗣 Social Media: News about TikTok, Meta, BeReal, Snapchat, X...
MIT Technology Review: The rise of Bluesky, and the splintering of social. Welcome to The Debrief with Mat Honan, your weekly take on the tech news that really matters, links to stories we love, and the occasional recommendation.
TechCrunch: Instagram will soon let you reset your recommendation algorithm.
♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable Design⭐️ Fast Company: These beauty products dissolve—but are they the future of the industry or just more greenwashing? A new generation of products is designed to curb single-use waste, but experts aren’t sure if it’s a long-term solution.
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
🔬RESEARCH
Nature: Fat cells have a ‘memory’ of obesity — hinting at why it’s hard to keep weight off. Long-lasting changes to the cells’ epigenome are linked to a decline in their function.
⭐️ 🦟 💉 Nature: This malaria vaccine is delivered by a mosquito bite. Bites from insects infected with modified malaria parasites boosted immunity and stopped people from contracting the disease.
🤝 Nature: Your friends shape your microbiome — and so do their friends. Analysis of nearly 2,000 people living in remote villages in Honduras reveals who’s spreading gut microorganisms to whom.
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ CB Insights: 2025 Tech Trends.
Atomico: State of European Tech keynote; TLDR.
American Express: 2024 Shop Small Impact Study.
*90% of Gen Z and Millennials say they found a new business through ‘discovery’ by walking through a town or city.
80% of Millennials & Gen Z attributed new business discoveries to social media in the past year.
The New Consumer: Shopping never ends — Consumer spending is looking good heading into the holiday rush, and online grocery is growing again. The latest Consumer Trends Highlights. ***
Bain & Company: Global luxury spending to land near €1.5 trillion in 2024, remaining relatively flat as consumers prioritize experiences over products amid uncertainty.
dcdx: From Digital Natives to Digital Captives - The Great Awakening.
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne