Beneath the Surface

Department Stores Are Turning To Indie Beauty Brands, But Should Indie Beauty Brands Turn To Them?
In the late nineties and early aughts as department store beauty sections grappled with declining store traffic and competition from Sephora’s open-sell concept, retailers such as Bloomingdale’s and Macy’s squeezed in then indie brands Smashbox, Urban Decay and...

The New Nail Salon Is A Zen Refuge For The Frazzled Working Woman And Mom
Like a blowout or bikini wax, a professional manicure is a combination of routine maintenance and brief respite from the daily grind, a small form of pampering disguised as primping. But a new class of salons is changing...

Gray Hair, Don’t Care: How Women Ditching Dye Could Uproot The Hair Care Industry
Last July, right before her 44th birthday, an upcoming hair-color appointment filled Osmia Organics founder Sarah Villafranco with angst. She’d been dying her hair religiously every three to four weeks for years to cover grays and hit...

Podcasts, Publications And More: Beauty Brands Are Becoming Mini Media Companies
Milk Makeup could have easily given devoted fans major highs just by unveiling its cannabis oil-infused Kush Mascara on 4/20. A buzzy ingredient, gimmicky product name and release on the unofficial holiday of stoners sound like the stuff...

Why A Growing Number Of Skincare Brands Questions Skin Types
Dermatologist Harold Lancer’s practice has reached 35,000 patients and, amazingly, almost all of them report to have a single skin type: sensitive. He isn’t convinced by their self-identification. “I spend much of my time consulting them to...

Zero Waste Is The Beauty Industry’s New Green Crusade
Waste not, want not is a phrase our mothers favored when attempting to convince us to consume our veggies. It’s also the new battle cry of the green beauty revolution as zero waste becomes the cause célèbre of...