Glossy

“Consumers are simultaneously trading up and trading down, when it comes to fragrances,” Jacquelyn Wenskus, fragrance category analyst at market research firm Circana, told Glossy. On one side, “[Shoppers] are gravitating to more approachable, low-price-point alternatives such as body sprays, private label mass scents and prestige mini sizes,” Wenskus said. This includes masstige and dupe scents that are trending on social media, such as offerings from Phlur, Sol de Janeiro and Skylar. Also included are discovery sets, which are especially alluring for shoppers who prefer to own a “fragrance wardrobe.” Read more: https://buff.ly/3yRHKTM

The RealReal opened a pop-up on NYC’s Canal Street on Thursday stocked with 35 styles of luxury handbags, but none of them are for sale. The reason: They’re all fake. Rather than a store, the pop-up is actually an installation. The RealReal partnered with creative agency Mythology to create what is essentially a fake storefront showcasing fake bags. The RealReal is classifying the effort as a marketing investment. The idea is to educate consumers on the difference between real and fake bags, to help them spot the difference, and to showcase The Real Real’s dedication to authenticity.

This week, we recap the big discussions at Glossy’s E-Commerce Summit, which took place in Miami from June 10-12. While breaking down the challenges they’re facing, attending fashion and beauty executives revealed high acquisition costs, unachievable content demands and undesirable wholesale contracts as top industry issues.

To celebrate its 10th anniversary, natural hair-care company Briogeo is entering a new category in hair: styling products. The Style and Treat collection, comprised of four products all priced under $30, officially launched at Briogeo’s stylist partners Salon Centric and CosmoProf on Friday. The four-part collection, which includes an air dry cream, wax stick, sculpting cream and styling foam, will roll out to consumers on June 23. Shoppers will be able to purchase the products on Briogeo’s e-commerce site and at Ulta and Sephora.

ELC first invested in Deciem in 2017, then increased its stake to become majority owner in 2021 before purchasing the remaining interests in Deciem on May 31 for around $860 million. Total investment across three rounds is approximately $1.7 billion, according to The Estée Lauder Companies. “We are incredibly proud of what Deciem is accomplishing,” Fabrizio Freda president and CEO of ELC said in a statement. “In our seven years of partnership, Deciem has achieved impressive growth while continuing its core mission of reimagining effective, high-quality skincare for today’s diverse and sophisticated consumers.” Read more: https://buff.ly/3VzSJtE

Even before the April passing of its iconic namesake founder, Roberto Cavalli, luxury fashion brand Roberto Cavalli had started to undergo a brand transformation. Under the leadership of CEO Sergio Azzolari, who joined the company in March 2023, Roberto Cavalli is making moves to adapt to the modern market and cater to younger consumers.

At Glossy’s E-Commerce Summit in Miami this week, executives discussed the rising costs of doing business on e-commerce. “With #DTC, there are the shipping costs, the logistics costs, the employee costs, retention, acquisition — the list goes on,” said a brand executive during a town hall discussion. #wholesale In this piece by Jill Manoff, we hear from Scott Lux of Esprit.

“With #DTC, there are the shipping costs, the logistics costs, the employee costs, retention, acquisition — the list goes on,” said a brand executive during a town hall discussion at Glossy’s E-Commerce Summit in Miami. While brands are used to seeing higher margins on the direct-to-consumer side of the business, which has so far worked to balance out lower #wholesale margins, that’s no longer the case, according to event attendees. Read more at the link in our comments 👇

In May, Live Tinted turned five years old. The brand was founded by Deepica Mutyala, a veteran of both the corporate beauty space, as a one-time manager at Birchbox, and the creator space — Mutyala has 502,000 followers on Instagram. Live Tinted launched in 2018, four years after Mutyala went viral on YouTube (333,000 followers) for a video about correcting dark circles with red lipstick. That video, which has 10 million views, landed her a segment on “The Today Show,” and led to her quitting her full-time job and focusing full-time on the beauty brand. Today, Live Tinted sells the Huestick All-Over Color Corrector, which is inspired by Mutyala’s viral hack. The brand also doubling down on complexion products. Live Tinted’s Hueguard Skin Tint SPF 50 Mineral Sunscreen Broad Spectrum, which has become a best-seller, was an inflection point for the brand, Mutyala said. She now believes Live Tinted can become known for its complexion category. On this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, Mutyala discusses how she always knew she’d start a beauty brand and what progress has been made since the BLM movement in 2020. She also talks about why the complexion category has been, and will continue to be, a game changer for Live Tinted.

On the heels of its 10th anniversary, Glow Recipe has racked up a pretty extensive brag sheet. For example, in 2022, according to Tribe Dynamics, a CreatorIQ company, the brand ranked No. 1 among skin-care brands in earned media value, at nearly $22 million, thanks to its bestselling products: Watermelon Glow Niacinamide Dew Drops and Strawberry BHA Pore-Smooth Blur Drops. And Despite only hosting its first brand trip in February 2023, Glow Recipe has managed to build a strong community. In this piece by Tatiana Pile, we hear from Sarah Lee.