Beneath the Surface

Sunless Tanners Get Their Moment To Shine
In a beauty industry moving at the speedy pace of micro-trends, the desire for sun-kissed skin is pretty much a perma-trend. The self-tanner and bronzer category is expanding and innovating in response...

The Beauty Industry’s Tariffs-Fueled Transformation Is Already Starting
If President Donald Trump doesn’t change course, his administration’s sweeping tariff policies could radically transform the American beauty industry dependent on Chinese manufacturing and packaging, with beauty brands shifting suppliers, tweaking formulas and components, and reserving...

From Face To Scalp: Serums Grow The Hair Growth Category
In the fast-growing hair growth segment, pharmaceuticals and their non-prescription cousins, supplements, have long been go-to remedies for hair loss. Now, brands are increasingly turning to topical scalp solutions to grow their hair growth sales even...

“We’re Losing Talented People”: As Production Slumps, Hollywood Makeup Artists And Hairstylists Fight For Survival
Over the past five years, Hollywood’s movie and television industry has operated in fits and starts, thanks to COVID shutdowns, strikes by SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America and most recently wildfires, which halted...

The Humble Deodorant Goes Bougie And Bankable
In 2017, as aluminum-free deodorants were transforming personal care for the pits, Unilever and Procter & Gamble moved to capture customers migrating to more natural options by purchasing Native and Schmidt’s, respectively. Now, the deodorant category is...

The Business Of Beauty In The Time Of Trump 2.0
Chronicling the inauguration party thrown by Bari Weiss’s online newspaper The Free Press for her popular Substack Feed Me, Emily Sundberg reported there were “big white smiles,” “incredible tans,” “women with...