What’s behind the sale of Laura Mercier and Bare Minerals? Will Marc Jacobs Beauty be going out of business? When will Hermès’ new nail polish line launch? Will the UK really start animal testing again? What happened with Dr. Bronner’s and anti-vaxxers?! Questions that need answering in the following beauty news in August!
Beauty News
Shiseido sold Laura Mercier, Buxom, and Bare Minerals to Private Equity firm Advent. (My take on this is that they’re offloading not profitable brands after their big acquisition of Drunk Elephant last year.) Advent, on the other hand, will try to boost those three to make them profitable again to sell them in 8 to 10 years. (CosmeticsBusiness)
Why did I just find out that Marc Jacobs Beauty is in for a serious relaunch/overhaul at the end of the year when their licensing agreement with Kendo will end?!?!? (That’s why their products are on sale everywhere!) (Fashion.ie)
Douglas Germany carries Madara now – super cool, “natural” indie makeup brand.
Hermès will launch nail polish on October 15th. (Elle)
The UK wants to start to test cosmetics on animals again. I MEAN WTF WHAT ARE YOU DOING /speechless (The Guardian)
Beauty Stories
There’s a scary overlap of the wellness/clean/QAnon/anti-vaxx world, and brand Dr. Bronner’s realized that when they offered employees a $1000 incentive if they would get the covid vaccine and all hell broke loose. (Glossy.co)
David Yi is a bit of an overachiever: he not only launched a beauty brand (Good Light), writes a skincare blog (Very Good Light), supported the Biden campaign last year – no, he also wrote a book. Pretty Boys takes a look at the (Western) gendered approach to makeup and beauty, and unearthed a lot of interesting facts – did you know that Neanderthals used makeup?! (The Cut)
Jonathan von Ness of Queer Eye fame launched a haircare line and not only has he awesome hair on the show, he’s always such a sweetheart and that really comes through in this portrait. (InStyle)
Sunscreen has been EVERYWHERE this summer. The New York Times rightly calls it its “glow up” (get it???!??!) and gives a few pointers for the proper usage of new forms of SPF like powders, sprays and drops.
Sustainability
Cotton totes are a problem. This isn’t really a surprise when you think about it. (New York Times)
Life, Love and Everything Else
Thrifting, Halston, mothers and sons, and Drag Queens. Or, how to find your personal style. (Town and Country)
Debutantes. Not something that’s really relevant to my life, and still, after having read a lot of regency novels (Georgette Heyer rules!1), I stumbled upon this talk between Anne Helen Petersen and author Kristen Richardson (“The Season: A social history of the Debutante”) I found that I actually hadn’t a clue about debutantes. There’s a vast system of power, socio-economic purposes, and whiteness at play here, and the interview alone made me buy the book.
Why we don’t get shit done, and why productivity apps don’t help. With this kinda surprising pivot: “Every to-do list is, ultimately, about death.” Huh. (Wired)
On the Blog
Summery fragrances, but on a budget! Also, after sun skincare: the myths and the marketing. And then I dipped my toes into Drunk Elephant, and was – whelmed. And another episode in my “what happened to” series was about the Hourglass Mineral Veil Primer that I now can properly appreciate.
If you haven’t noticed it yet, but this summer Astrid and I made it our mission to review as many sunscreens as possible and also figure out some rating and checklist system (check it out!!!): new ones we tested this month were Ultra Violette’s Extreme Screen Hand & Body, Ultra Violette Supreme Screen, Heliocare 360 Water Gel and Paula’s Choice Lipscreen.
