128 - What I'm Reading: Week of January 19th

Jan 19, 2024

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⭐️ = What excites me most this week.

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👩‍🎤 Celebrity Brands:

The artist Marina Abramovic has a skincare and supplement line called Marina Abramovic Longevity Method - the line is based around longevity…I do not know why it feels like a SNL paraody [Instagram].
The Absorption Company, co-founded by Ian Somerhalder & Nikki Reed, is offering four different supplements with higher bio-availability for better efficacy. All four products are powders. The launch strategy is heavily focused on the founders celebrity…[Instagram].
BoF: Kim Kardashian teases return of makeup and fragrance…SKKN by Kim is launching with makeup first - check it out here.

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🧴 Skin / Personal Care:

WYLYS - (when you love your skin) offering skincare made in France & Korea offers high end skincare with vetted ingredients. The two founders have deep knowledge in Korean skincare and are using a high end French skincare manufacturer to produce the products marrying both worlds. Products are topicals and tools [Instagram; Beauty Independent].
⭐️ Deinde - a new skincare brand focused on ‘inflammaging’ to reduce aging, offering a serum, face stick, and cleanser with the ingredient Naringenin. This ingredient, being compared to Niacinamide, made by the biotech company Debut. L’Oreal’s BOLD fund invested over $70M in the Debut [Instagram: Deinde; Debut; Beauty Independent].
⭐️ Regeily - A skincare routine for your body [Instagram].
BAUDE - scent centric body care - offering ‘high concept’ scents that deliver on pleasure [Instagram].
🇦🇺 Poet’s Atelier - a skincare brand based on the microbiome & bio fermented skincare out of Australia [Instagram].
SMOOSH - a shower tool combining a silicone scrubber with a bar soap fit in the middle. The soap part is refillable. I could see someone buying the brush and using their own bar cleanser of choice…[Instagram].
⭐️ BoF: L’Oréal bets on longevity biotech company timeline - the longevity company offering skincare & supplements. They recently raised a $66M Series D round led by BOLD (L’Oreal’s VC arm) & Nestle.
🇨🇳 Jing Daily: C-beauty exports to South Korea surge: Is K-beauty over?

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👩‍🦱 Haircare:

Jing Botanics is bringing TCM principles to enhance scalp & hair health [Instagram; Beauty Independent].
Hessona, a Korean perfume hairspray [Instagram].

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👃 Fragrance:

⭐️ Super interesting line of taste enhancing products shared with me by the epic Andrea. Why this line of products makes me excited - as the article points out reduced taste perception is common in COVID-19 patients and cancer patients, but the even bigger opportunity is the aging population, where the senses decrease overall. I hope to see more in this space, for many the solution is more salt…which only works for so long without other consequences.
MSCHF is at it again, this time with a cologne that smells like ‘Fabuloso’ [Instagram].

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😅 Deodorant:

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👩‍🔬 Femtech:

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🛍 Retail: DTC, Brick + Mortar, Social Commerce, and more...

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🩺 Digital Health: Wearables, Smart Devices, and more...

The big news this week, General Catalyst a VC firm acquired Summa Health. This is a first for VC, not for private equity…which has a less than stellar rep in the space. General Catalyst is hoping to be able to bring in proven later stage start-ups into the fold, potentially creating a larger proving ground for digital health and AI initiatives [Axios].
The Guardian: New app can reduce debilitating impact of tinnitus, say researchers.
The Verge: Apple Watch drops blood oxygen features to dodge the import ban.
Engadget - Apple Vision Pro reviews are in.
⭐️ Vox: Ultraviolet light can kill almost all the viruses in a room. Why isn’t it everywhere? Can special lightbulbs end the next pandemic before it starts?

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♻️ Sustainability: Sustainable Design

The Hill: Plastics pollution led to $250 billion in disease over one year.
🇬🇧 BOOP, a beauty platform offering beauty & wellness products a second chance for de-listed products, overstock, or reformulated premium goods [Instagram].
BoF: EU bans ‘misleading’ environmental claims that rely on offsetting.
⭐️ 👁️ Just Better Bottles: Sustainable packaging designed with the vision-imparired in mind - starting with haircare [Instagram].

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💸 M&A, IPOs, SPACs, Bankruptcies, Closings...

Compass Diversified acquired a majority stake in The Honey Pot Company - known for their better for your feminine care products.

⭐️ A new study conducted by UCSD & L’Oreal, found biomarkers identified with aging and the microbiome, linking specific microbiome diversity to crow’s feat and TEWL. These biomarkers were different from those associated with chronological aging [Frontiers in Aging].
Nature: Google AI has better bedside manner than human doctors — and makes better diagnoses.
Ingested carbon monoxide may aid cancer therapy treatments by helping to modulate, autophagy, a cellular process of self-recycling. A study of cancer patients treated with hydroxychloroquine, an autophagy inhibitor, showed that smokers, who have elevated levels of carbon monoxide (CO) in their blood, responded more positively to the treatment. Supplemental CO could enhance the effectiveness of autophagy inhibitors. The study showed that orally administered CO, using novel gas-entrapping materials (GeMs), significantly increased the efficacy of these inhibitors in treating various cancer types, suggesting a promising new approach in cancer treatment [Advanced Science].
Simnotrelvir, a new oral antiviral, significantly speeds up recovery from mild to moderate COVID-19 by about 1.5 days, showing promise for broader use in standard-risk populations. It is already available in China, and it is affordable - although drawbacks include taste & drug interactions [Nature].

💡 Enjoy,

-Anne

The Juicy Byte