Rooibos cosmetics

Behind every great in-person beauty or wellness event is an invisible team of insiders that has engineered the gathering for maximum impact.  Bilal Kaiser, the founder and principal of Agency Guacamole, is one of those insiders. Kaiser and his team have produced events for leading retailers and brands like Olive Young, NYX, Therabody, Matrix, Redken, Ole Henriksen, Evereden and many more.  Kaiser is a former L’Oréal Group executive and marketing instructor at UCLA and NYC’s General Assembly. He launched Agency Guacamole in 2016, a boutique communications agency based in Los Angeles and New York City that provides experiential, media communications, and influencer marketing services to the beauty and lifestyle industries.  For today’s episode, host Lexy Lebsack challenged Kaiser to break down the ins and outs of eventing in 2026. More specifically, he was asked to break down the nuances behind a successful event made for different age groups, including Gen Alpha, Gen Z, millennials and Gen X, and industry demographics, like press, influencers and consumers. Kaiser also fielded questions about event budgets, timelines, the future of eventing, and the optics to consider when planning luxury events or brand trips.

Have you ever wondered how awards show beauty partnerships come together to create big, splashy red carpet moments that seem to reverberate across social media for weeks or months? Award season partnerships are big business for everyone involved: the celebrity, who may be fulfilling, or courting, a spokesperson deal; beauty and lifestyle brands, which are often promoting a new product or simply seeking brand awareness; and professional artists, who are oftentimes the glue that holds it all together. In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, host Lexy Lebsack interviews beauty industry agents Marissa Alfe and Lauren FitzGerald. The duo opened their full-service Los Angeles talent agency, Prtnrs Mgnt, in 2020. They currently represent 18 standout hair, makeup and nail artists including Patrick Ta, Ariel Tejada and Laura Polko. Together, their artists work with stars like Gigi Hadid, Rosalia, Kylie Jenner, Olivia Munn and Alix Earle, while Alfe and FitzGerald have brokered deals for their clients with brands like La Mer, Chanel, Morphe and Redken. Alfe and FitzGerald are longtime friends and former colleagues at competing agency Cloutier Remix Agency. Alfe’s CV also includes Burberry and founder of Greyscale Management, while FitzGerald has held roles at InStyler and Digital Brand Products, the licensing and products division to Digital Brand Architects.

As competition in the beauty industry heats up, leaders are looking for new ways to stand out.  “I've worked in beauty for 24 years now, and I don't think I've ever seen it more competitive than it is right now,” Amy Liu, CEO and founder of Tower28, told Glossy. “Maybe in five more years, I'll say that again. Who knows, right? But it feels like we are at a real peak right now, and a bubble of sorts.”  In a lot of ways, the industry is moving away from speaking at consumers and leaning into a two-way dialogue — but what does that look like for out-of-home advertising?  In June, Tower28 gave the industry one of its best examples: The company debuted a custom-made NYC billboard with a large button that spritzed passersby with its hero SOS Daily Skin Rescue Spray. The billboard was up for two weeks in June, located on Canal Street in SoHo. Developed with outdoor advertising agency MilkMoney, the billboard was a first-of-its-kind endeavor. “[The billboard] was very bespoke — and, actually, there were a lot of problems that ensued, which is normal anytime you do something that has never been done before,” Liu said.  This included space limitations, technical challenges in the actual mister and storage of the product, and a liability issue that caused a last-minute location change. Luckily, Tower28 got lucky: The weather was hot and sticky – making a refreshing face mist especially alluring — and the city was busy and buzzing from its Knicks Championship win.  The primary ingredient in Tower28’s SOS Daily Skin Rescue Spray is hypochlorous acid, an increasingly popular ingredient in the skin-care space because it’s safe and gentle, yet helps prevent acne, especially after sweating or working out. It's also great for conditions like eczema because it helps to reduce inflammation.  Tower28’s SOS spray is a darling in the category and has been a hero for the brand since it launched in 2020. The brand sells various sizes of the popular mist, including a mini for $12, a 4-ounce bottle for $28 and a refill jug for $68.  Overall, Liu estimates that Tower28 spent around $200,000 on the billboard investment — $150,000 to MilkMoney and another $50,000 on promotion, staffing and ancillary campaign. The billboard garnered industry attention and spritzed more than 188,000 New Yorkers during the two-week run.  Liu sat down with Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack to unpack the experience and investment, and discuss — knowing what she knows now — if she would do it again. 

The beauty industry disruptor that brought clean beauty into the mainstream is back with a shiny new brand concept.  Gregg Renfrew, the entrepreneur behind Beautycounter and Counter, is launching her third beauty brand on September 1 in an effort to reach consumers ages 14 to 30.   The brand is called Beecee and, in a lot of ways, is an iteration of now-defunct Beautycounter. The line will launch direct-to-consumer with lip gloss, skin balm and face mist at premium price points. The company is currently in the midst of a community meet-up tour — hosting events with Renfrew in Nashville, New York, Chicago and Charleston, among other cities — to recruit and mobilize excited young brand advocates who can earn a commission on sales.  But do young people care about clean beauty? “The answer is unequivocally yes,” Renfrew told Glossy. “I've actually been really surprised by how many of the young women with whom we've been interacting have said that this really matters to them.”  In 2013, Renfrew launched Beautycounter, a first-of-its-kind beauty business built off ingredient transparency, independent sellers and ‘boots on the ground' industry advocacy in Washington, D.C. The concept struck a nerve and forever shifted the beauty industry toward better transparency.  But Renfrew was very early to the "clean beauty" wave — something that, today, is very much table stakes for new brands. This has presented its own challenges for Renfrew’s ongoing success.  “It's both a blessing and a curse to be the leader and the disruptor in any industry at any moment in time,” she said. “In some ways, I have the luxury now of coming back in through Counter and Beecee to see all the things I did well and all the things I didn't do well, of which there were many, and iterate on those models to do them better than I did before.” Beautycounter officially shuttered in 2024, giving Renfrew the opportunity to buy back her IP from the VC firm The Carlyle Group. Renfrew then parlayed her bestselling formulas and clean beauty mission into Counter, her brand launched DTC in 2025 to serve women 35 and older.  Glossy Beauty podcast host Lexy Lebsack sat down with Renfrew to discuss Beecee, the future of clean beauty, how to best reach Gen Z and why the best days of specialty beauty retail are behind us. 

Cindy Gustafson has checked off a laundry list of accomplishments during her first 18 months as CEO of Nutrafol.  This includes an app launch designed to improve retention and a product release tailored to reach one of its smallest customer demographics in men over 50. These rollouts happened while she led the team toward double-digit growth during 2025, her first full year as CEO, on a path to soon reach $1 billion in annual sales.  “You need a real commitment to delivering on something someone actually needs [in order to win this category],” Gustafson told host Lexy Lebsack. “We actually have quite a small portfolio of products, [unlike our competitor] brands that have hundreds and hundreds of SKUs. We are not that kind of a brand. We are not that kind of a business.” Instead, Gustafson has stayed hyper-focused on delivering on its main promise of improved hair growth. “We have been so fixated on really delivering against what a customer needs and what a customer is looking for, and staying very, very grounded in that,” she said.  Gustafson is a veteran exec whose CV includes Weight Watchers, Bark, Mindshare and Unilever. She spent 18 months as chief marketing officer of Nutrafol before taking over the CEO role from Nutrafol’s co-founder Giorgos Tsetis after its Unilever acquisition. In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Gustafson unpacks her secret sauce for growth, how the supplement consumer has evolved and much more.  

How are beauty and wellness business leaders actually using AI today?  That was the question posed to three longtime industry executives on stage during Glossy’s annual E-Commerce Summit in Miami Beach earlier this month — and the answers may surprise you.  For example, Jenna Manula Linares, vp of digital marketing and TikTok Shop at Tarte Cosmetics, has recently added 15-minute team check-ins at the end of each weekly meeting that require staffers to share how they used AI that week and whether or not it was successful.  “We're creating a culture of experimentation,” she said. “So, what I challenge my teams to do each week is to use AI in a new or different way.” The team then tracks these challenges and results using Tarte’s internal AI program.  Meanwhile, David Baker, chief revenue officer of the skin-care brand Beekman 1802, has found success in identifying early AI adopters within the brand and empowering them to learn new skills and own tentpole projects. “First and foremost, it's finding the people who have an interest in it, and giving them the room and space to play,” he said.  Baker is teaching his team to think of AI as a colleague that works while the rest of the team is off the clock. “Finding and sourcing creators gets really hard, so we've built an agentic staffer. Her name is Zoe, and Zoe is designed to source [creators] and draft personalized outreach, so that we can find people who fit our ethos and fit our brand voice really, really well at scale, while we sleep,” he said.  “AI has permeated every team and workflow we have at Tarte,” Linares said. “I'm constantly telling my team, if it takes you longer than 15 minutes to do something, there's a faster way, and you should learn and try to figure it out via AI.” Then there is Ulta Beauty, which rolled out one of the largest AI partnerships within beauty retail last month, with Google Gemini. The team has spent the past few weeks learning how its consumers actually use the new AI-powered features, which include an on-site and in-app chatbot.  “We continue to find new data sets that we need to put into [the chatbot’s knowledge base, like] store locations, store hours — a lot of those things where customers are just asking generic questions,” said Josh Friedman, svp of digital and e-commerce at Ulta Beauty. “They're asking lots of questions about the brand, and we're seeing some really good use cases with our customer care agent, as well.”  In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, host Lexy Lebsack takes listeners live on stage with Ulta Beauty’s Josh Friedman, Tarte’s Jenna Manula Linares and Beekman1802’s David Baker to learn about the actual impact of AI today. 

On Sunday, Amazon wrapped up its fourth-annual Summer Beauty Event. Over two weeks, Amazon tempted shoppers with discounts of up to 50% on everything from makeup to vitamins. Even prior to the sale, the retailer did not seem to have trouble courting the beauty consumer. According to data from e-commerce agency Front Row, Amazon cleared $8 billion in U.S. beauty revenue in the first quarter of 2026. But Amazon wants more than just a place to snag beauty at a discount; it wants to be known as a premium beauty destination. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, hosts Lexy Lebsack and Sara Spruch-Feiner are joined by senior beauty reporter Emily Jensen to discuss the strategy around the e-commerce giant's beauty sales and assortment, and how it's attempting to position itself as a prestige beauty retailer on par with the likes of Sephora and Ulta Beauty. For Amazon, that means not only upping its brand assortment, which has grown to include everything from K-beauty favorites like Medicube to Puig-owned Charlotte Tilbury in recent months, but also encouraging consumers to use its AI-powered shopping assistants in lieu of in-person sales associates. According to Amazon, 300 million customers used its AI shopping assistant Rufus in 2025. On Wednesday, after the recording of this episode, Amazon announced it would replace the Rufus AI assistant with Alexa for Shopping.

What is PDRN? You've probably seen the four letters on serum bottles, sheet masks and even lip balms — or heard them on TikTok. PDRN stands for polydeoxyribonucleotide and typically refers to a DNA fragment that's often, but not always, derived from salmon sperm and most commonly found in K-Beauty. Of course, on social media, PDRN has an obvious shock value to it, which has led to an onslaught of posts in which lines like, "I just got salmon sperm injected into my face," provide perfect hooks to start videos. In this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner explores what PDRN is, what it purports to do for the skin, how it got so popular and how it is expanding beyond Korean beauty. To explore the topic, Spruch-Feiner speaks with New York City-based dermatologist Dr. David Kim; the former editor-in-chief of Allure magazine and fractional CMO for K-Beauty distributor Landing International, Michelle Lee; and the founder of Rodial, Maria Hatzistefanis.

L’Oréal Paris is betting on “The Devil Wears Prada 2” through an official partnership that spans TV ads, OOH advertising, social campaigns, consumer eventing and product placement in the film. L’Oréal officially announced the partnership in March through a commercial that debuted during the Oscars, which drew more than 17 million viewers this year. “It was a huge, huge success and [created] huge buzz,” Branik said. “We also dropped it on social [media] that night, and we had more than 7 billion impressions in one night.” The commercial starred L’Oréal Paris spokespeople Kendall Jenner and Simone Ashley, set in the movie’s fictional “Runway” magazine offices. Similar commercials were released in the subsequent weeks starring L’Oréal spokesperson Isabella Rossellini and actress Pauline Chalamet, who joined the franchise for the sequel alongside Ashley. “It’s the first time we’re doing something so big,” Branik said. “We have done product integrations before, but this is a whole new level for us.” Branik sat down with podcast host Lexy Lebsack to walk through all of the details of the campaign, ways its success may lead to similar investments for L’Oréal Groupe and best practices for navigating product placement. Read Glossy Beauty's coverage: Exclusive: Swan Beauty CEO on the @acquiredstyle bachelorette party that broke the internet

As the beauty industry moves past the direct-to-consumer boom of the 2010s, some of its most influential brands are being forced to redefine what success looks like. One of the most closely watched is Glossier, which recently appointed a new CEO, Colin Walsh, who joined from Ouai.  On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner is joined by senior beauty reporter Emily Jensen to discuss the staple millennial brand — which famously helped pioneer the modern "clean girl" aesthetic — and what its next chapter may hold.  In recent months, the company has undergone several changes. Since Walsh’s appointment, they've included layoffs affecting roughly a third of its workforce, a pullback on physical retail, and a renewed focus on hero products and fragrance, a category now driving significant growth. Headlines about the brand have often forecasted inevitable doom, but this episode explores Glossier’s current moment beyond a foregone conclusion, examining what it takes for a beauty brand to achieve longevity in an increasingly crowded market, the balance between newness and attention paid to hero products, and the challenge of maintaining relevance across generations.

As beauty and wellness industry insiders are well aware, the supplement space has exploded in size and scope over the past decade.  Stiff competition has driven new ways for brands, retailers and adjacent tech companies to stand out, from third-party certification to award programs, and more recently, the advent of AI-powered wellness chatbots. Last year, Thorne became a first-mover with the launch of Taia, a first-of-its-kind generative AI advisor that lives on Thorne’s homepage. “In the first six months, [Taia has fielded] over 200,000 messages and more than 350,000 product and lifestyle recommendations,” said Nathan Price, PhD., chief science officer of Thorne. “We get about 8% higher average order value for those who use Taia versus those who just visit Thorne’s [website].”  Thorne is a supplement category leader launched in 1984 and acquired by L Catterton equity group in 2023 for approximately $680 million. The brand has more than 300 SKUs but no hero product, which is one reason Taia exists. “My primary thesis is that the No. 1 thing we can do to help Thorne as a company is to help the Thorne customer,” Dr. Price said. “If Taia and personalization can meaningfully make it so that the person gets the health outcome they were looking for, we think [Taia is] going to have a very big ROI.”  Dr. Price oversaw the creation of Taia, which is trained on Thorne’s internal knowledge database, powered by a team of researchers and doctors, and AI foundational knowledge of health and wellness. For example, Taia can provide insights into common queries around things like gut health, itchy skin or exhaustion. It then provides personalized supplement recommendations, and lifestyle and nutrition tips, and helps users locate informational blog posts or product information on Thorne’s site.  While the practical uses of Taia are somewhat obvious, Dr. Price is also a thought leader on the future of AI-powered health and wellness. He believes that every wellness brand should begin investing now or be left in the dust in the next two years.  “It's like deciding not to have a website and be plugged into the Internet when that started becoming a thing in the late 90s,” Dr. Price told Glossy. “It’s absolutely table stakes [because] this is how most people are getting information, and in the future, it's going to radically [increase].”  Dr. Price’s career sits at the forefront of where longevity and healthspan research intersects with evolving technologies like AI and AI companions.  He is the author of the 2023 bestselling book “The Age of Scientific Wellness,” has published over 200 scientific papers, and is a professor and co-director of the Center for Human Healthspan at the Buck Institute for Research on Aging, a California-based research institute focused solely on aging. He’s also been the CSO at Thorne for more than four years. In today’s episode, Dr. Price sat down with host Lexy Lebsack to break down the strategy, implementation and future of generative wellness chatbots like Taia, as well as big picture thoughts on the future of AI and wellness, and how brands must future-proof their businesses in the fast-moving AI revolution.

On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner sits down with Kim van Haaster, founder of Bloomeffects, to discuss the brand’s seven-year journey to Ulta Beauty. Bloomeffects officially launched at the retailer in February, but the journey was years in the making — and included multiple rejections, a brand redesign and, perhaps most compellingly, a social post that transparently documented the whole process, including those rejections. On this episode, van Haaster candidly shares how Bloomeffects reworked its packaging and assortment to turn Ulta's no into a yes, what the brand changed to get into retail (including lowering some prices) and why Ulta was so worth fighting for for Bloomeffects.

Oura Health, the Finnish wearables company that has sold more than 5 million health tracker rings, is betting on women’s health with the launch of its first-ever proprietary large language model designed specifically for women.  “We know historically that women have been underrepresented when it comes to a lot of [medical and pharmaceutical] research,” Tanvi Jayaraman, MD, clinical lead of health AI at Oura, told Glossy. “We want to change that narrative when it comes to women's health.” LLMs are the brains behind AI chatbots, including Oura’s in-app Advisor chat where users can ask general wellness questions, specifics about their personal health data or in-depth medical questions.  “Women have been searching for answers [about our health and bodies on the internet] for just as long as the research has been done,” she said. “The answers that [women are] looking for are really disparate and scattered. They're on a niche Reddit forum, or they're kind of word-of-mouth, so a lot of [what we learn online is] hypothesis-driven, data-gathering one-offs.” Starting last year, Dr. Jayaraman’s team of board-certified clinicians began “training” Oura’s new LLM with only the best data and studies available. This is juxtaposed against many other LLMs, which are trained on the internet at large, which can result in hearsay and causality connections being learned as fact, Dr. Jayaraman said.   “[When we’re able to] pick and choose the right training data, the right sources, the right guidelines for women's health, then you can start to push away some of that noise [from the internet],” she said. “Of course, we have a long way to go when it comes to the actual research, but you have to start somewhere.”  Dr. Jayaraman represents a new type of physician who bridges medicine, artificial intelligence and product strategy.  After medical school at Stanford, she worked on AI strategy projects at Bain & Company, working for global diagnostics and pharmaceutical companies, then on Apple’s clinical team, where she worked on next-gen digital health tools. She joined Oura last year.  Dr. Jayaraman joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss Oura’s new women-focused LLM, the future of AI-powered wellness chatbots and more.

As influencer marketing evolves beyond one-off paid posts, brands are finding new ways to build relationships that last and go deeper than a hashtag-sponsored post. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Pop editor Sara Spruch-Feiner is joined by Kimberly Ho, founder and CEO of Evereden, to discuss why her $100 million Gen Alpha–focused skin-care brand is giving equity — not just transactional deals — to three teenage creators. The initiative, called Generation E, launches in tandem with the brand's nationwide Sephora expansion and reflects Ho’s belief that the next phase of brand-building means inviting the next generation inside the company, not just in front of the camera. Though it is not unheard of for brands to give equity to creators — for example, Alix Earle had equity in Poppi when it sold to Pepsi for nearly $2 billion — Evereden may be the first to give ownership to a 14-, 15- and 17-year-old. The discussion explores why Evereden chose to give these three creators equity, even though, as Ho said, "We can fully afford a broad paid influencer program." Ho also shares how the young girls will be brought inside the brand and how this model reflects what Gen Alpha wants from the brands it chooses to endorse.

There’s a new chapter in President Donald Trump's ongoing tariff rollercoaster.   In April of 2025, President Trump unveiled his reciprocal tariff plan, which stacked new tariffs onto existing duties to raise overall import taxes as high as 145% for certain countries. The “Liberation Day” announcement left the beauty, fashion and wellness industries struggling to properly plan for 2025 and beyond.  These tariffs have been a major source of revenue for the Federal government. In January, the U.S. collected more than $30 billion in duties, more than double the amount generated in January of 2025.  Last week, in a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court struck down these tariffs on the grounds that they were ordered under the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act. The SCOTUS ruling doesn’t say that Trump cannot enact tariffs, just that IEEPA doesn't explicitly give the president that power.  This rollback has caused ripples throughout our focus industries, with brand leaders wondering what happens next and whether businesses can expect refunds on the tariffs struck down by SCOTUS. On Tuesday, House Democrats announced plans to unveil a bill on March 2 outlining how businesses can recoup these illegal tariffs. The Senate Committee on Finance estimates that the government collected about $175 billion in tariffs under IEEPA since April 2025.  Immediately after the SCOTUS ruling, President Trump signed an executive order imposing a blanket 10% percent tariff on imported goods. On Saturday, he said he would raise it to 15%, but as of Wednesday, at the time this podcast was recorded, U.S. Custom and Border Protection had replaced Trump’s IEEPA tariffs with a 10% global import charge. It’s unclear if it will be changed to 15% soon.  On Tuesday, during the State of the Union address, President Trump called the SCOTUS ruling “unfortunate” and said that the “type of money we’re taking in is saving our country.” He said the U.S. would soon have to “make a new deal that could be far worse” for companies and countries as the administration is “testing alternative legal statutes” which are “a little more complex but probably a little bit better” than IEEPA. He added that “congressional action would not be necessary” to reinstate similar tariffs.  In the meantime, brands have been left to navigate a quickly changing landscape. In today’s episode, Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack is joined by senior fashion reporter Danny Parisi and senior beauty reporter Emily Jensen to unpack the latest tariff news and share how brands are responding. Both Parisi and Jensen covered the tariff rollback earlier this week for Glossy’s beauty and fashion verticals. 

On this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Pop editor Sara Spruch-Feiner is joined by Catherine D’Aragon, CEO of First Aid Beauty, to discuss the brand’s recent rebrand — its first in its near-20-year lifespan — and its decision to partner with Team USA ahead of the Winter Olympics. The conversation comes at a time when beauty brands are increasingly showing up at the Olympics — from athlete partnerships and product seeding (First Aid gifted all Team USA members) to behind-the-scenes content and performance-focused skin care. Brands including Fenty Beauty, L'Oréal Paris and Glossier have previously activated around the Olympics, as has First Aid Beauty's parent company, Procter & Gamble. Procter & Gamble also owns Gillette Venus, which is sponsoring U.S. Figure Skating athletes Alysa Liu,  Isabeau Levito, and Starr Andrews. The discussion also explores why beauty brands are increasingly turning to athletes, how First Aid Beauty is positioning itself around simplicity and skin "support" in a crowded skin-care market, and how the brand plans to translate a global sporting moment into long-term relevance.

Injectable peptide therapy, a controversial wellness trend that caught fire online in 2025, shows no signs of slowing down in 2026 despite an overwhelming lack of safety data. Peptides, especially “research peptides” like BPC-157 and TB-500, have been hailed by famous podcasters, biohackers, and longevity gurus as a miracle cure for just about anything that ails you, from torn ligaments and gut issues to curbing wrinkles and dull skin. There are several well-studied, FDA-approved peptides available today, such as insulin and GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy, but that’s just a sliver of the peptide pie. There are thousands more with glowing online reviews, but scant scientific data, that can be procured online or through longevity clinics. Mixes of various peptides, called “peptide stacks,” often come with clever names like the ‘'wolverine stack’ or ‘glow protocol’, while others have earned names like ‘Barbie peptide’ for their ability to tan the skin without the sun. These popular stacks are not FDA-approved, so they’re distributed online as 'research peptides' that are meant for in-lab research, not human use — a workaround for their gray market status. To find out more, host Lexy Lebsack sat down with two experts on the topic. First up was NYT’s David Dodge (8:42), who walked us through the rise of peptide therapy online. He published an article for NYT in November titled “The internet loves peptide therapy. Is it really a miracle cure?” Lebsack also interviews McGill’s Jonathan Jarry (29:35), who wrote an article in late 2023 — well ahead of a rush of online articles — called “The human lab rats injecting themselves with peptides.” Jarry walks us through the hard science, and lack thereof, of many popular stacks, ahead.

With the new year, changes are afoot at TikTok. On January 22, the U.S. version of the app sold for approximately $14 billion to an investor group that includes Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and investment firm MGX. It's yet to be seen how these changes will impact TikTok Shop, which has become an e-commerce behemoth. In December 2025, Wired reported that the social commerce platform had grown to rival eBay in scale, estimating that it sold $19 billion worth of products globally between July and September of last year. Even before these most recent changes, as TikTok Shop has matured, brands have been rethinking how they work with creators. In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, hosted by Pop editor Sara Spruch-Feiner, Glossy reporter Zofia Zwieglinska unpacks her recent story exploring what’s currently driving sales on TikTok Shop — from replicable video formats to product bundles to AI — and how those shifts are redefining influencer marketing.

The latest Glossy Beauty Podcast episode features board-certified dermatologist Dr. Marnie Nussbaum and beauty industry veteran Jodi Kaplan — the founder and CEO, respectively, of the Dr. Marnie skin-care brand. Dr. Nussbaum gained popularity while catering to dermatology clients in New York City’s Upper East Side before launching the brand, which was called Lines before rebranding in November. For her part, Kaplan built her industry prowess through roles at brands including Droplette, Dr. Barbara Sturm and Augustinus Bader.  Dermatologist-founded brands continue to resonate with beauty consumers, who are seeking credibility, education and expertise in an oversaturated market. On the podcast, Glossy Pop editor Sara Spruch-Feiner asks Dr. Nussbaum and Kaplan why they chose to lose “Lines,” what a founder’s name on a product line signifies and what’s in store for derm-led skin care in the years to come.

What will 2026 mean for the beauty and wellness industries?  In today’s special episode, hosts Lexy Lebsack, Emily Jensen and Sara Spruch-Feiner share their 2026 industry predictions.  This includes a slowdown of the "no-makeup makeup" aesthetic in favor of bolder color cosmetics trends, the rise of experimental peptide therapy among wellness consumers and an uptick in budget-conscious beauty shoppers. The hosts also made specific predictions, such as an increase in savory scents in fragrance and more clean, value-priced body care in big-box stores. The trio also muses about the bubbles that could burst in 2026, and so much more. 

As 2025 comes to a close, the Glossy Beauty team — Sara Spruch-Feiner, Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen — came together on the Glossy Beauty Podcast to reflect on some of the defining themes that shaped the beauty industry this year, and their own reporting. Spruch-Feiner unpacks the continued rise of Gen Alpha as a beauty consumer, the brands emerging to meet that demand and the retailers adapting to deliver for this younger demographic. Jensen examines a challenging year for color cosmetics, where lip care and lip liner emerged as bright spots. And Lebsack points to longevity as a key growth area in wellness, highlighting momentum in categories like fitness trackers and strength-training equipment. She also notes that, in skin care, clinical, results-driven products are igniting consumer interest.  Tune in for a look back at the biggest moments and themes across beauty and wellness in 2025 — and what they could signal for the industry in 2026.

In January, Kecia Steelman became one of the most powerful executives in beauty.  After more than a decade at Ulta Beauty in positions like COO and head of international, she stepped into the president and CEO role with an uphill battle ahead of her.  That’s because sales at Ulta tumbled during the 2020 pandemic, and despite an uptick in 2021, year-over-year sales had been steadily falling for nearly three years. She took over as CEO in January, and by March, she unveiled her Ulta Beauty Unleashed comeback plan — and in just 11 months, her strategy has paid off.  As part of her vision, Steelman expanded Ulta’s e-commerce and product assortment with a new online marketplace, led the acquisition of U.K. specialty beauty retailer SpaceNK, expanded internationally into Mexico and the Middle East, and shepherded a shop-in-shop breakup with Target, all while dramatically improving revenue. Sales at Ulta Beauty have been on a continuous upward swing since Steelman took over as CEO in January. In May, the retailer reported 4.5% net sales growth. This doubled to a 9.3% net sales spike, reported in August, and the company nearly tripled that growth in last month’s earnings report.  Host Lexy Lebsack sat down with Steelman to unpack her first year in charge and look ahead to 2026 (16:50). But today’s episode also celebrates Glossy 50, our annual award list honoring business leaders, changemakers and insiders behind the beauty, wellness and fashion industries. Steelman’s interview is a special Glossy50 preview with the full list publishing next week.  But first, Lebsack is joined by co-host Emily Jensen to break down the news of the week. This includes the novel launch of a new "bedtime fragrance" from the U.K. sleep-solution company This Works. The brand is known for its pillow spray and body oil, which include ingredients such as lavender and magnesium, but this week it expanded into fine fragrance designed to be applied before bed to improve sleep. Lebsack and Jensen also discuss the newest spokesperson for Estée Lauder-owned M.A.C. Cosmetics, pop star Chappell Roan, and the mixed response from her fans online. In addition, they analyze an unexpected collaboration between The Gap and beauty brand Summer Fridays, which includes clothing but not beauty. And finally, the duo discusses the latest moves in the supplement space, including Sephora’s rollback of the category from its selection, and a buzzy new launch from the co-founder and former CEO of Allbirds.

On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, we're exploring what teens are hoping to receive for the holidays. To do so, Sara Spruch-Feiner speaks to 13-year-old Indy (whose last name is omitted for privacy), based in Los Angeles, who shares her full wishlist with us, as well as the picks of members of her volleyball team. But to get a broader look at the gifting landscape in 2025, Spruch-Feiner also interviewed Anna Andreeva, managing director of footwear, beauty and brands at Piper Sandler. Piper Sandler, a financial services company, is well-known for its biannual teen survey, which, this fall, tapped 11,000 teens, most of whom were 15-18 years old and had an average household income of about $70,000. But first, a look at some of this week’s headlines, including results of this year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending, the FDA's decision to withdraw a proposed rule that would have required beauty brands to test talc-based cosmetics for asbestos contamination, and, finally, the news that LVMH Ventures Fund has invested in the niche perfume brand BDK Parfums.

How can shoppers, brands and retailers win Black Friday?  In this week’s special holiday crossover episode, Glossy Beauty Podcast host Lexy Lebsack is joined by Danny Parisi, host of the Glossy Podcast, and Gabi Barkho, host of the Modern Retail podcast, to unpack all things Black Friday.  The three reporters start by sharing their own experiences and plans for navigating Black Friday as a shopper, then unpack some of the buzziest activations and sales strategies today. This includes both discounting and non-discounting strategies, value-focused sales, bundles and collaborations, among other tactics. The trio also walks through emerging and reemerging trends, like catalogs, gift guides and fragrance-focused experiential events. 

Few beauty executives currently compete in a category they created, but that’s the case for Dr. Julie Chung and Kent Yu, the married co-founders behind T3 hair tools (19:00).  The duo created the luxury hair tool category back in 2004 when they launched T3 with the first lightweight, sleek and quiet blowdryer that delivered smoother, faster results. T3’s Featherweight model was the first luxury dryer on the market and the most expensive at the time, priced at $200. Dr. Chung and Yu quickly found a consumer, and before long, T3 was the first hair tool sold in stores like Sephora.  Fast forward 21 years, and they still own and operate 100% of their Los Angeles-based business. The success of T3 created a runway for a category now filled with brands like Dyson and Shark Beauty.  So what is it like to compete in a category you created? Host Lexy Lebsack sat down with Dr. Chung and Yu to learn about their journey to becoming beauty founders, including making time for Dr. Chung’s first career as an eye doctor. They also discuss how they're navigating their biggest challenges, balancing retail and DTC, maintaining NPD standards in a faster-is-better world, and competing within the category.  But first, Lebsack is joined by co-host Emily Jensen to break down the news of the week. This includes the controversial launch of Rini, a line of skin-care products made for kids aged 2-12 and sold DTC. The line was launched earlier this month by actress Shay Mitchell, boyfriend Matte Babel and Esther Song, and received immediate backlash.  Lebsack and Jensen also discuss the launch of Dua by AB, a diffusion line from skin-care founder Augustinus Bader and fronted by singer Dua Lipa. Unfortunately, diffusion lines — defined as secondary, lower-priced product lines from a higher-end brand — rarely find success in the beauty industry. Finally, the duo discusses L’Oréal Group’s new investment in Chinese mass clean beauty brand Lan and Estée Lauder Companies’ investment in Mexican niche fragrance brand Xinú. 

Reuben Carranza knows a good brand when he sees it.  Bansk Beauty, where he serves as executive chairman, made headlines in September after acquiring the buzzy, clinical skin-care brand Byoma. It’s part of the late-stage private investment firm’s growing beauty roster, which includes Amika, Eva NYC and Ethique.  “No. 1, they're on a tear, right? They're growing rapidly. But I think what we loved about them was the story,” he told Glossy on stage at this week’s annual Glossy Beauty and Wellness Summit about its Byoma acquisition. “It's the story: they've de-complicated complicated skin-care routines.”  Carranza kicked off the Summit with a special live podcast recording, where he shared insights into the firm’s investment philosophy and growth plans for its brands. He also shared career advice from his stacked CV, which includes more than two decades at P&G and leadership roles at R+Co Hair, Kate Somerville skin care, and more.  This special session is ahead, but first, hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen share highlights from the Summit and dig into the news of the week.  First up, the hosts break down the latest from Tylenol- and Neutrogena-owner Kenvue. Kimberly-Clark Corp. will acquire Kenvue Inc. in a deal valued at $48.7 billion. Kimberly-Clark's portfolio includes consumer brands like Huggies, Kleenex and Cottonelle. Next up, a look at Skims’s buzzy new hire. Diarrha N’Diaye was named evp, beauty and fragrance of Kim Kardashian’s upcoming Skims Beauty. N’Diaye has worked in marketing and branding for the likes of Glossier and L’Oréal, and was most recently the founder of Ami Colé, which shuttered in July. She will lead product development, innovation and brand strategy for Skims's upcoming beauty launch.  Finally, an analysis of a hefty investment in Blueprint, the supplement company from American entrepreneur and biohacker Bryan Johnson. The company has taken on $60 million in funding from investors like Kim Kardashian, Ari Emanuel, Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and many more big names. Johnson is best known for documenting his quest to age in reverse on YouTube and through the Netflix film “Don’t Die.” Blueprint currently offers a variety of products DTC, including drink mixes, supplements and skin care. 

Allison Kent-Gunn knows good beauty packaging when she sees it.  The Los Angeles-based aesthetician-turned-packaging consultant has become one of the leading voices in beauty packaging on social media thanks to her "hot takes" on packaging wins and misses. She’s a former cosmetic packaging instructor at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising, and outside of her social media, where she goes by @AllisonTurquoise, her insights can be seen in an upcoming Cosmetic Science Textbook used in packaging courses.  Today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast —  a special episode dedicated to the best, and worst, beauty packaging — concludes our three-part, deep-dive series on the world of beauty and wellness packaging. Kent-Gunn provides an in-depth hall of fame and shame for several packaging categories, including sustainability, accessibility, celebrity brands' packaging and more.  But first, Lexy Lebsack is joined by Emily Jensen to run down the beauty and wellness news of the week.  First up is a look at the growing wellness data economy, including a look at the value of data collection and aneb analysis of Rebook’s new health tracker ring. The hosts also discuss fragrance news from Unilever-owned Dove. The mass body-care brand is launching its first-ever body mists as part of a limited-edition holiday collection released with the Rockettes. The iconic New York dancers recently partnered with Sephora, as well. Next up are details about POV Beauty’s foray into color cosmetics. POV is the buzzy new line from influencer and TikTok star Mikayla Nogueira. The line launched this spring with skin prep products and, in news announced this week, will expand into lip products with a November 4 launch. 

The Glossy Beauty Podcast is back with its second of three deep dives into beauty packaging. Today, our guest is Helen Steed, a veteran in the field, whose resume includes a 10-year stint leading creative at Bumble & Bumble, and a gig as Glossier's founding creative director before striking out on her own. Now, she helms Steed & Friends, which has worked with brands including Rhode, Lore, Sakara and Ursa Major. On today's episode, she takes listeners through mini case studies, examining her work on products like Rhode's iconic phone case, Glossier's first foray into body care and Merit's logo. But first, a look at some of this week’s headlines, including the news of L’Oréal's biggest acquisition ever, which broke on Sunday — it is purchasing all of Kering's beauty holdings for $4.6 billion. Kering owns brands like Creed, and the deal will grant L’Oréal 50-year exclusive licenses for Gucci, Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga's beauty ranges.

What does it take for a beauty campaign or brand to cut through the noise in 2025?  Our second-annual Glossy Pop Awards is one place where our team recognizes the best and most culturally relevant beauty and fashion campaigns, people, products, and brands.  In today’s episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, we welcome three esteemed beauty executives to discuss the secret sauce behind their Glossy Pop Award-winning campaigns.  These winning campaigns drove audience engagement, generated buzz and successfully met their set business goals.  To start, host Lexy Lebsack welcomes Leslie Ann Hall, founder and CEO of Iced Media (18:50). She and her team partnered with hair-care brand Moroccanoil to launch the brand’s first fine fragrance. The teams at Iced Media and Moroccanoil executed a campaign that levered social media for awareness and sales. They took home the Glossy Pop Award for "Best Use of TikTok." Next, Lebsack sits down with Dana Paolucci, head of PR and influencer at Unilever-owned Dove North America (30:02). Paolucci and her team worked with communications firm Edelman to take home two Glossy Pop Awards for its Dove x Crumbl cookies body-care collaboration. They won "Best Product Launch Campaign" and "Best Community Engagement Strategy." In our final mini interview, Lebsack welcomes Nilofer Vahora, Amika’s CMO, to discuss the hair-care brand’s "Best Use of Video" award win for its Superfruit Star Lightweight Hairstyling Oil launch with marketing company January Digital (40:03).  But first, Lebsack is joined by host Emily Jensen to discuss this week’s top beauty and wellness news.  Squishmallows, the TikTok-famous plush toy brand launched in 2017, made headlines this week for its foray into fine fragrance. Squishmallows parent company Jazwares, a Florida-based toymaker that was purchased by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway in 2022, has tapped longtime beauty executive Joel Ronkin, current founder and CEO of Jennifer Aniston’s LolaVie hair care, to lead the project. The scents launched at Ulta Beauty this week in two sizes, priced $38 and $58.  Lebsack and Jensen also discuss rumors that beauty conglomerate Coty is looking to sell heritage mass color cosmetics brands CoverGirl, Rimmel and Max Factor.  Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop is also in the news this week for the closure of its 2-year-old mass beauty experiment, Good Clean Goop, which sells under-$40 skin care through Target and Amazon. The duo discusses the closure and what it means for masstige skincare.  Finally, the hosts walk through Amazon’s new ambitions in K-Beauty with this week’s launch of a dedicated storefront. It's a smart move considering the rise in popularity of K-Beauty products and the stunning sales on the channel. To wit: K-Beauty is growing three times faster than Amazon’s average beauty category. 

Executive coach Angela Bennett knows a thing or two about the unique needs of beauty and wellness industry leaders. She spent more than two decades working across L’Oréal and Estee Lauder brands like La Roche-Posay, Maybelline and Clinique in roles like vice president, general manager and svp of talent acquisition. "The subjective nature of [the beauty industry] requires an art of balancing data points, intuition and conviction [while] becoming your own leader to navigate the decisions that need to be made on a daily basis," Bennett said. But today, Bennett is part of a growing number of certified professional executive coaches who help individuals and organizations to build stronger teams. She also works one-on-one with executives who need help getting to the next level in their careers.  This often entails a rigorous strategy that includes reflection, learning and planning in an effort to become a better leader with more long-term career direction. Much of this process starts with developing communication skills to suit the workplace environment and culture. “Communication coaching is really going to be about developing the skills to be clear, concise, convincing and motivating, and to really master the art of what we call ‘influencing for results’,” she said. “[That means] influencing others, influencing management toward making decisions on specific strategies that, as a leader, you are recommending and wanting to push through.”  In today’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Bennett introduces us to the world of executive coaching and shares her top three universal tips for executives.  But first, hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen discuss the biggest beauty news of the week.  First up is wellness investment news from Oura Health Oy, the makers of Oura, the wearable health tracking ring that launched in 2015. The Finnish company is reportedly closing in on a $875 million Series E investment round that will undoubtedly impact the industry. The company could soon be valued at around $11 billion.  The hosts also break down the latest influx of celebrity endorsement deals including Kris Jenner for Estée Lauder-owned MAC, Leighton Meester for indie darling skin-care brand Bubble, singer Ciara as the new face of Thorne’s Creatine products, Miley Cyrus for Maybelline, and Dua Lipa’s new deal with pilates reformer company Frame Fitness.  Lebsack and Jensen also unpack Hailey Bieber’s splashy Rhode launch with Sephora, which brought in $10 million in sales in just two days, according to Yipit, an alternative data provider and analytics firm that utilizes web and in-store receipt data.  Finally, the duo discuss the closure of Kim Kardashian’s 3-year-old skincare line, SKKN by Kim, including Coty’s $71.1 milliones loss from its 2021 investment in the now-shuttered brand. 

After starting as a brick-and-mortar nail salon in Los Angeles in 2013, Olive & June closed up shop in 2020, with founder and CEO Sarah Gibson Tuttle pivoting her focus to DIY manis. By November 2024, Helen of Troy had acquired the brand for $225 million in cash and a $15 million earnout subject to performance over three years. Helen of Troy's beauty portfolio also includes Drybar, Curlsmith and Hot Tools, among others. But Gibson Tuttle was intent on remaining involved in her brand's operations — operating essentially as it did prior to the acquisition, but with greater support. Now, nearly a year post-acquisition, Gibson Tuttle joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss life after selling her brand, why an obsession with the customer can almost guarantee product success and how the nail category differs from other beauty categories. But first, co-hosts Sara Spruch-Feiner and Emily Jensen discuss industry news, including Sephora's announcement that it will launch its own affiliate platform, the recent acquisitions of Nudestix, Byoma and Cos Bar, and Gap's increased investment and new hires as it looks to grow its beauty offerings.

What does it take to successfully reinvent a heritage beauty brand? Industry veteran Dawn Hilarczyk is on a mission to completely transform Borghese, the 68-year-old heritage brand famous for its Italian skin care and Fango mud masks — and it’s working.  In today’s episode, Hilarczyk dives into the nitty-gritty of her brand turnaround efforts. She breaks down her strategy in great detail, from cleaning up the brand’s Amazon presence and expanding into Ulta Beauty, to reestablishing a social presence and reducing the brand's SKU count from 87 to 27.  But first, host Lexy Lebsack is joined by Glossy senior reporter Emily Jensen to walk through the biggest news stories of the week.  First up is specialty beauty retailer Violet Grey’s acquisition of clean beauty retailer The Detox Market. The deal was reportedly quietly closed earlier this year. Founder Cassanda Grey purchased Violet Grey in September of 2024 from Farfetch alongside private-equity investor Sherif Guirgis, who later transitioned into its CEO.  Lebsack and Jensen also discuss the latest GLP-1 news, including a possible new pill form of the drug and the rumored connection between the rise of GLP-1s and gourmand fragrances.  Finally, the duo discuss changes at Estée Lauder Companies-owned Tom Ford, including new spokesperson Tilda Swinton and new creative director Haider Ackermann, and what it all means for luxury fragrance. 

The beauty industry had an eventful summer marked by changing retailer strategies, stark revenue tumbles and a flurry of pricey acquisitions.  In this special episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, reporters Lexy Lebsack, Emily Jensen and Sara Spruch-Feiner walk through the stories that defined the season.  This includes strategy shifts within retailers like Sephora, Ulta Beauty and Target, plus a look at disappointing revenue at conglomerates Shiseido and Estée Lauder Companies. The team also discusses the biggest acquisitions of the season — including Rhode, Dr. Squatch, Space NK and Touchland — and the tariff-related topics we’re watching as fall approaches.  To start, Glossy’s beauty team digs into the industry’s biggest summer investments, led by E.l.f. Beauty’s May purchase of Hailey Bieber’s Rhode for $1 billion. The team also walks through CPG company Church & Dwight’s $700 million purchase of trendy hand sanitizer brand Touchland in May and Unilever’s June purchase of digitally-native men’s care brand Dr. Squatch for $1.5 billion.   Beauty’s top specialty retailers also had big summers. Sephora is leaning deeper into a tried-and-true brand launch playbook: the celebrity artist. In the past few weeks, the retailer has rolled out new lines from celebrity makeup artists Hung Vanngo and Mary Phillips, plus hairstylist Chris McMillian.  Meanwhile, Ulta Beauty had a whirlwind summer as new CEO Kecia Steelman executed her “Ulta Unleashed” comeback plan. Steelman, who was appointed CEO in January after more than a decade with the company, announced her plan in March as a response to the company’s 1.9% year-over-year holiday sales tumble. Glossy’s team unpacks all the changes, including the acquisition of U.K. retailer Space NK, international expansion into Mexico and the Middle East, and the end of Ulta’s shop-in-shop with Target.  Finally, Glossy’s team walks through can’t-miss beauty conglomerate news: LVMH’s splashy Louis Vuitton Beauté launch and Shiseido’s sales tumble caused by Drunk Elephant’s poor performance, plus turbulence at Waldencast and Estée Lauder Companies. Finally, team Glossy ends with a few autumn tariff predictions. 

Host Lexy Lebsack is joined by reporter Melissa Daniels from Glossy’s sister publication Modern Retail and co-host of the Modern Retail Podcast, to walk through this week’s biggest beauty news stories.  This includes a brief analysis of E.l.f. Beauty’s response to consumer outcry over casting controversial comedian Matt Rife in its latest campaign, a topic Lebsack and Glossy reporter Emily Jensen discussed in last week’s episode.  Next, Lebsack and Daniels discuss the likely voluntary recall of mousse sunscreens, which includes offerings from Vacation and Supergoop sold through Sephora, Target, Nordstrom and more retailers. Its part of the FDA’s crackdown on the unapproved sunscreen format. Finally, the two hosts break down the announcement that Target and Ulta Beauty will dissolve their shop-in-shop partnership, which was launched in 2021 but has been far less successful than similar partnerships between Sephora and Kohl's.  Then (23:30), to discuss what makes a successful retail pop-up, Glossy is joined by three powerhouse executives in today’s roundtable episode: Jacquelin Barrett, Patrick Ta Beauty svp of marketing; Matte Projects president Neda Whitney; and Michelle Lee, chief brand officer at Front Row Group, fractional CMO of Landing International and former editor-in-chief of Allure magazine. 

co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen discuss industry news of the week, including changes to beauty brick-and-mortar retail, from Nordstrom's NYC flagship's approach to Mecca's new 40,000-square-foot flagship in Melbourne. They also discuss the controversy immediately surrounding E.l.f. Cosmetics' new ad featuring drag queen Heidi N Closet and comedian Matt Rife, who, in 2023, sparked outrage after he made jokes about domestic violence in his Netflix special. Commenters have flooded the brand's TikTok and Instagram pages, and have also created their own content condemning Rife's casting. Later, co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner sits down with New York City-based plastic surgeon Dr. Thomas Sterry to break down pop culture-plastic surgery moments and how they've impacted his day-to-day work.

Krave Beauty isn’t your average K-Beauty brand. “[Our mission] resonates with a lot of people who are really tired of the beauty industry's narrative of ‘more is more,’” CEO and co-founder Liah Yoo told Glossy.  After getting her start working for Amorepacific in Seoul, South Korea, Yoo joined YouTube to share her own skin challenges. “I was documenting my acne skin struggles in my mid 20s, and I literally tried everything,” she said. “Nothing worked until I pressed reset and simplified my routine, going from a 14-step skin-care routine to a super minimal three-step skin-care routine [with] super gentle, minimal, hydrating ingredients.” In today’s episode, Yoo walks us through the process of sourcing tamanu oil, a main ingredient in Krave’s best-selling $28 Great Barrier Relief Serum. But first, Lexy Lebsack is joined by senior reporter Emily Jensen to discuss the news of the week. This includes Rare Beauty’s foray into fragrance with Rare Eau de Parfum, a $75 fragrance created with famous nose Jerome Epinette. It launches at Sephora on August 7. Lebsack and Jensen also discuss a lineup of new C-suite appointments, including new execs at Herbivore and Saltair. Finally, they discuss L’Oréal’s latest earnings and a shift happening within the in-office injectable marketplace.

In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, board-certified dermatologist and Mohs surgeon Dr. Jane Yoo, and the Melanoma Research Foundation's director of advocacy, Kim Wezik, MPH, chat with Glossy podcast co-host Sara Spruch-Feiner about how the U.S. wound up so far behind the rest of the world when it comes to sunscreen, how the Melanoma Research Foundation is working with congress to try to make progress in the field, and what's at stake (20:00). But first, co-hosts Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen discuss some of the week’s biggest beauty news, including TSG Group's acquisition of Chriselle Lim's Phlur, which was relaunched by Ben Bennett's incubator, The Center, in 2022. They also discuss a recent controversy surrounding the introduction of an AI fragrance influencer "launched" by another incubator, Slate Brands. The influencer's profile has since been deleted. And finally, they discuss recent layoffs at Shiseido — the parent company of Drunk Elephant, Dr. Dennis Gross Skincare, Nars, and several fragrance licenses including Tory Burch and Narciso Rodriguez — as well as at Walmart.

Beauty dupes have never been more popular. But is mimicking a competitor a sound business decision?   “This might surprise people, [but] dupes may not be illegal on their own," brand protection attorney Elizabeth Milian told Glossy. The word “dupe” is shorthand for “duplicate” and often denotes a product that is inspired by a higher-priced luxury offering. A dupe is different from a counterfeit product that presents itself as the original.  It's very common for duped brands to regularly bring lawsuits against the companies allegedly infringing on their trade dress, or IP, such as packaging, branding, logos or any other unique asset. While the majority of these lawsuits pop up then quickly disappear, Milian told Glossy they’re a vital action for long-term brand IP protection.  Most cases quickly settle out of court and so there is little legal precedent, yet most are based upon the same thing: Is consumer confusion happening? To better understand this growing issue, and how it impacts beauty business on both sides, Milian breaks down four recent cases. Beauty dupes have never been more popular. But is mimicking a competitor a sound business decision?   “This might surprise people, [but] dupes may not be illegal on their own," brand protection attorney Elizabeth Milian told Glossy. The word “dupe” is shorthand for “duplicate” and often denotes a product that is inspired by a higher-priced luxury offering. A dupe is different from a counterfeit product that presents itself as the original.  It's very common for duped brands to regularly bring lawsuits against the companies allegedly infringing on their trade dress, or IP, such as packaging, branding, logos or any other unique asset. While the majority of these lawsuits pop up then quickly disappear, Milian told Glossy they’re a vital action for long-term brand IP protection.  Most cases quickly settle out of court and so there is little legal precedent, yet most are based upon the same thing: Is consumer confusion happening? To better understand this growing issue, and how it impacts beauty business on both sides, Milian breaks down four recent cases.