203 - What I'm Reading: Week of July 4th.
Sunscreen vs tanning for Gen Z, Reliance is making big movies, Strands is shuttering, goth makeup from the Prince of Darkness, campfire therapy, a new way to track aging, & a longevity thesis....
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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.
🎆 Happy Fourth of July Weekend to those who celebrate…here is some beauty and science news as a distraction…or potential conversation starter. Enjoy this complimentary issue.
🗞 NEWS & PRODUCTS
BoF: Why sunscreen launches keep missing the inclusivity mark. Sunscreen is the latest product to attract consumer ire, with numerous brands releasing so-called ‘universal’ offerings that, in practice, often don’t work on darker skin tones. Fixing formulations, however, isn’t easy.
TLDR; Many “universal” mineral sunscreens still leave a visible white cast on darker skin tones, exposing industry-wide formulation challenges and highlighting how clean beauty marketing often overrides true inclusivity.
Sula Labs Report: Sunscreen State of the Union + TED Talk. For more on the above - and a deeper dive into what is happening with sunscreen check this out
always does a great job breaking it down.“Unlike clinical testing, there is no regulatory mandate to do consumer perception testing on sunscreen formulations. That’s fine. However, if a brand plans to launch a mineral sunscreen and make claims around the user experience, let this be our resounding reminder that inclusivity-centered consumer perception testing is vital. Had there been a testing panel of people with my skin tone, who applied the product at the necessary amount for the SPF claim, this should have been picked up and noted before the product was launched.”
Vogue Business: Gen Z wants to tan safely this summer. Should brands tap in? As sun worshipping returns via ’90s nostalgia and viral tanning trends, beauty brands are innovating new ways to tan smarter…let them cook…errr tan…
Just for fun:
😴 A Dutch design firm is capturing your dreams and playing them back to you.
👩🎤 Celebrity Brands:
🇬🇧 Ozzy Osbourne announced a new makeup partnership with Jolie Beauty.
🧴 Skin / Personal Care:
🇫🇷 Mimetique Skincare - ‘dermacosmetics 3.0’ products that imitate the skin with high efficacy [Instagram].
🇬🇧 NecessaryGood - moisturizer and SPF for a simplified ticket [Instagram].
🇰🇷 WKLY Beauty - skincare, body care, and fragrance - the line is minimalist and built around florals [Instagram].
Jidai Beauty - launching with a Quench & Roll a castor oil based product [Instagram].
CERENE - skin care as a ritual and moment of self-care [Instagram].
🇦🇺 Dillon - plant powered natural skincare from Australia [Instagram].
The new Loopha body line by Deciem has launched - the body serum is described as having “a signature scent Biomimetic: skin like musk notes that adapt to you or layer perfectly with the other LOoPHA fragrances.”
🇨🇳 Jing Daily: C-beauty fakes flood Douyin. Platform’s explosive growth prioritized profits over protection, allowing counterfeit beauty networks to flourish and undermine legitimate Chinese cosmetics brands.
🇮🇳 BoF: Reliance retail invests in facial chain Facegym. The partnership will bring Facegym’s signature treatments to the Indian market through both standalone studios and spaces within its Tira beauty stores.
L’Oréal Paris has launched Beauty Genius, an AI-powered personal beauty assistant that provides 24/7 personalized product recommendations and routine guidance based on user selfies, goals, and over 750 brand SKUs. Using generative AI, AR, and color science, it promises expert-level diagnostics via phone while also offering discreet answers to sensitive beauty questions. While the tech stack is advanced, the core concept—AI beauty advice—has been done before, making this a polished but incremental evolution rather than a category-defining innovation [The Industry Beauty].
👩🦱 Haircare:
🇦🇺 REN. Haircare - high quality brushes…so REN the skincare company may be shuttering…I still think that is an interesting name choice [Instagram].
😅 Deodorant:
Winds of Change - a new natural deodorant spray [Instagram].
🧺 Homecare:
Retail Dive: Parachute to close 19 stores this year, shift away from ‘massive storefronts’. The home linens brand plans to focus on partnerships with major retailers, including Target, though it will maintain seven storefronts.
🐕 Pet Care:
👩🔬 Femtech:
Lilli Health launched The Lilli App, the first and ONLY evidence-based, comprehensive resource for PCOS and insulin resistance—priced at just $14.99/month, making it one of the most accessible tools available. A full year of Lilli costs less than a single hour with a dietitian [Instagram].
🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...
Reliance is carving out its CPG brands—including beauty lines like Velvette and Tira—into a new entity, signaling a bold play to scale in beauty and mass FMCG ahead of a major IPO [Times of India].
🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...
🔥 Axios: Rise of campfire therapy… if an emerging form of eco-therapy that uses the calming, communal power of sitting around a fire to help veterans, teens, and others process trauma, foster vulnerability, and promote healing through shared storytelling in nature…so I guess just touch grass?
Bloomberg: Apple should sell a smart ring to expand its fitness tracker lineup.
Mail-in sperm freezing is booming as startups like Legacy and Fellow turn male fertility into a $4B convenience-driven wellness category, signaling a cultural shift in reproductive health [Bloomberg].
Wired: Insurers aren’t saying whether they’ll cover vaccines for kids if government stops recommending them. RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisory board could stop recommending some routine childhood immunizations, leaving insurers to decide whether to still cover them. For now, most are remaining tight-lipped.
🗣 Social Media: News about TikTok, Meta, BeReal, Snapchat, X...
🇧🇷 rest of world: Brazil rules that social media platforms are responsible for users’ posts. A new regulation from the Supreme Court holds Meta, X, and other online platforms accountable for content and user safety, setting Brazil on a collision course with the Trump administration.
TechCrunch: Everything you need to know about Flashes, the Bluesky-based Instagram alternative.
♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable DesignThe U.S. is cutting critical hurricane forecasting tools including high-resolution satellite imagery from the SSMIS sensor and expert staff just as climate change drives more intense, fast-developing storms, severely undermining the country’s ability to predict and prepare for disasters [The Atlantic].
Lego-like floating homes by LifeArk offer a low-cost, disaster-resilient housing solution for flood-prone areas, blending climate adaptation with modular design innovation [Fast Company].
💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...
🔬RESEARCH
We are learning more about how the body reacts to Dengue and there appears to be an ancestral link [PNAS].
⭐️ New research suggests "inflammaging" the chronic, low-grade inflammation linked to aging—may not be universal, but rather a byproduct of industrialized lifestyles, with little evidence of it in indigenous populations like the Tsimane and Orang Asli [Nature Aging].
⭐️ The Yanomami, an un-contacted Indigenous group in the Amazon, have skin microbiomes far more diverse and genetically rich than those of people in industrialized societies. Their skin hosts unique microbes and biosynthetic genes linked to immune function and protection—many of which are absent in modern populations. These findings challenge Western ideals of “clean” skin and suggest that biodiversity, not sterility, may be the real marker of skin health [Nature Communications].
⭐️ A non-invasive AI tool called DunedinPACNI can now estimate your brain’s biological aging speed from a single MRI, offering a powerful new way to track how fast you're aging without waiting decades or drawing blood [Nature Aging].
🧐 REPORTS
⭐️ LS:N: New Codes of Luxury.
Luxury brands are using digital twins and spatial simulations to design, pitch, and emotionally test flagship stores, residences, and campaigns before anything is built making “feeling before foundations” the new creative standard.
Storytelling is shifting from one-off campaigns to immersive ecosystems that consumers can explore and even co-create deepening emotional resonance and expanding the luxury experience across physical and digital spaces.
From AR try-ons to digital product passports, stores are evolving into dynamic, data-driven theatres with brands like Valentino and Moncler turning retail into an immersive, adaptive storytelling platform.
Censhership: Censorship Revealed in partnership with The Case for Her.
73% of femtech companies surveyed reported having ads rejected or accounts suspended by major platforms—primarily Meta.
50%+ of brands said censorship directly hindered their ability to raise funding or meet growth targets.
90% of femtech founders believe current advertising policies are biased against women’s health and wellness content.
⭐️ Second Opinion: How healthcare VC firms are thinking about longevity. 7wire shared their thesis and market map with us that it created for its own LPs.
⭐️ Fitt/Insider: The Wellness 2.0 Playbook. A manifesto for the current moment.
Bain & Co.: Understanding the five types of AI consumers. While many still hesitate over trust and security, early adopters are already shaping the future of AI engagement.
💡 Enjoy,
-Anne