The Business of Beauty Haul of Fame: Skincare’s Secret Weapon

Welcome back to Haul of Fame, your must-read beauty roundup for new products, new ideas and a drone-scented fragrance. (Sorry, but yes.)

Included in today’s issue: Atmos, Beverly Nguyen, Dior, Divi, Dr. Few Skincare, ESW Beauty, Face Foundrié, Florence by Mills, Harry Potter, Lele Sedoughi, Literie, Mooncat, Naturium, Nars, Nudestix, Paume, Peter Thomas Roth, RéVive, SheGlam, Sofie Pavitt Face, Willow Smith, Ulta Beauty, and Young Jedi beauty influencers.

But first…

There’s a tiny lab in Orlando, Florida that’s making most of the Extremely Online skincare you see via TikTok and Instagram Reels. It’s called KKT and it creates ingredients for Rhode Skin, Tower28, Goop and the vastly underrated JLo Beauty. (Beso Balm lip jars = magic.)

KKT was founded in 2020 by Dr. Krupa Koestline, a millennial cosmetic chemist and biomedical engineer who, in her own words, thinks most skincare is “bullshit.” Koestline knows this from experience: She “accidentally” supercharged the Clean Beauty movement of the early 2010s when she took charge of the natural skincare brands Nutraceuticals and Aubrey Organics, which made the kind of hippie-happy products that Montecito aunties kept on their vanities next to their Mario Bodescu rose water spray. You get the vibe.

Koestline has also worked in research and development for Neutrogena, Estée Lauder, and the sex care brand Bloomi. In 2020, she turned her time in the “clean beauty” trenches into a seven-figure business that launched a week before Covid was declared a national emergency. What first seemed like a curse became a boon. “Suddenly, everyone was staying home looking for new, ‘healthy’ skincare routines,” Koestline said. “It gave us a feeling of control.”

There are over 4,000 beauty manufacturing hubs in the United States, according to IBISWorld. What sets KKT apart, says Koestline, is the ability to develop products faster and more efficiently than giant conglomerates — “when it comes to innovation, bigger brands can become immovable” — along with something she noticed while working for the largest cosmetics companies in the world: When formulas were developed with storytelling in mind, they sold better.

“If you want to be a good formulator, you have to understand market trends and how the stories are happening on social media and in magazines and newspapers,” she explained. “Everyone wants to talk about ‘AI beauty’ right now. So in our lab, we use AI to isolate the peptides that work best for a given result, whether it’s fuller lips or a brighter complexion.” (Koestline is not able to discuss specific formulations, but surely we know the sold-out lip peptide line and Hollywood peptide serum that might be part of this origin story.)

Robot peptides may have been a stealth trend of 2024, but for next year, Koestline sees “organic technology” as the new “clean beauty,” explaining how labs will harness the chemical reactions that occur daily in nature and amplify them for more intense results. “Fermented ingredients are a great example,” she said, “because that’s basically just biotechnology. Fermentation happens in nature through microorganisms like yeast, bacteria, fungus… If you modify the genetic sequences of that bacteria or fungus, can you guess what happens?”

I guess a zombie apocalypse. She laughs at me.

“No, what happens is precision fermentation. We make better active ingredients for your skin with less energy. You can do it with hyaluronic acid, too, or even growth factors.” “Growth factors” are the compounds in skin that help it rebound from damage and volume loss; controlling and harvesting them for human use is a Holy Grail situation. Koestline says biochemists are now creating these growth factors inside oleosomes, which are protective capsules inside plant cells.

This is, essentially, a “Star Wars” plot that hasn’t happened yet, along with a literal definition of “plant-based” beauty. Koestline. “The formula and its story are aligned to deliver a standout product.” And as “clean beauty” becomes a suspicious label for savvy customers — the “sustainable cotton” of skincare — Koestline knows the credibility of cutting-edge science can help trusted brand names like Goop retain both their credibility and their “nature heals all” philosophies.

One more thing to watch in 2025, according to Koestline: Niche hair care. “There are [new] studies out that people who have had exposure to Covid are suffering from more hair loss than they’ve had before. Anyone who has experienced a loss of smell during their Covid infection is also at a higher risk for hair loss now. It’s a thing.” Shampoos, conditioners, and scalp serums that claim to boost growth continue to be high on her watch list for viral potential. “You could also make an entire menopause hair line,” she said. “It would do great.”

Skincare

Face Foundrié opened its 50th “skin bar” on Dec. 9 in San Francisco. The beauty chain for facials, lashes, and brow treatments was born in Minnesota in 2019; it’s now franchised throughout the US.

Paume debuted hand and body wipes on Dec. 12, which have their bestselling hand sanitizer formula with a scent of citrus, rosemary, lavender, and cedar. They cost $12 per pack

Dr. Few Skincare announced Jessica Fisher as CEO on Dec. 12. She’s worked with Dior and Victoria Beckham Beauty, and her appointment coincides with the brand’s launch on Moda Operandi, which is an excellent place for its $195 “clean retinol.”

Peter Thomas Roth dropped hydrogel patches with peptides, niacinamide, cactus flower, and squalane on Dec. 14. They’re meant to be placed anywhere on the face experiencing dryness or droopiness, and are the same satisfying color and consistency as gummy sharks.

Lele Sedoughi and Révive joined forces on Dec. 14 for a series of artful skincare sets covered in the designer’s delightful illustrations. (She’s painted giant gems all over the box and moisturiser jar.) Get them for $195 – $595… which might be the cost of an actual giant gem right now, at least if it’s lab-grown.

Can you believe Naturium hasn’t done an influencer collab until this week? They’ve paired with 21-year-old esthetician Tiara Willis on a “glow” set packed with niacinamide serum, tranexamic acid and SPF 50. It’s $50 for everything, and so far has about 20k views on Willis’s own TikTok page. FWIW, Naturium’s Vitamin C cleanser is the only thing at Target that I will wait for them to unlock for me…

Here comes Millie Bobby Brown with the tea. No, really: On Dec. 17, her beauty line Florence By Mills introduced its Glow Forward Glaze Drops with Glow Flo Latte at Cha Cha Matcha. The West Hollywood location gave free beauty products out with your drink.

On Dec. 18, ESW Beauty introduced its Lip Trio, featuring “smoothie” tubes of guava mango, vanilla almond butter and white pitaya coconut. They’re $30, so about the price of two Erewhon gulpers.

Dec. 21 is World Orgasm Day, so perhaps test out the new Nars Afterglow lip oil in shade 777, also known as “Orgasm Lip,” and see how it goes?

Makeup

Hot, Smart, and Rich is a media platform that actively talks about investing and startup culture, and also lip gloss. On Dec. 9, it launched a collaboration with Nudestix on a Hydrating Peptide Lip Butter in Red Maple. You can buy it for $20, or take that $20 and get a teeny tiny piece of Bitcoin. (This is not investment advice.)

Bienvenue à Dior, Willow Smith. On Dec. 13, the singer made her brand campaign debut for Dior Addict Lip Glow along with actress Anya Taylor-Joy and Blackpink’s Jisoo. The ads were shot by Dan Beleiu, and have the big-eyed babydoll look of Gemma Ward and Lily Donaldson on the cover of i-D. (Real ones know, etc.)

The force is with Mooncat and its “Star Wars” collaboration, which dropped Dec. 13 with six magnetic shades. The collab lines up with the super-fun new Jedi show “Skeleton Crew” on Disney Plus, which stars Jude Law and future beauty influencers Ryan Kiera Armstrong and Kyriana Krattner, both of whom seem poised for Kiernan Shipka-levels of teen fashion attention.

More of a Hufflepuff than a Wookie? SheGlam’s Harry Potter products also hit shelves Dec. 13, including a Golden Snitch highlighter, a Quidditch-themed lip kit, glitter eyeliner for each house, and a giant Monster Book of Monsters shadow palette that is covered in fuzz. You can buy each product individually or the whole thing for $70.

Ulta Beauty’s tiny beauty toys are apparently landing on lots of kids’ holiday wish lists. On Dec. 18, Bloomberg declared it was shocked (shocked!) that children enjoy messing around with fake tubes of lipstick, as if understanding that aesthetics create power is some kind of moral failing instead of, like, life. Perhaps After School’s Casey Lewis said it best: “Shouldn’t parents be more upset about, I don’t know, toy guns?”

Haircare

Divi introduced a powder Root Touch-Up on Dec. 16. It has a sponge-applicator tip for gentle, precise application, and comes in five colours at $18 each.

Speaking of soft applicators, Briogio’s Style + Treat™ Dry Shampoo Puff debuted on Dec. 18 for $28. It comes in a clear formula or a tinted brunette shade, and boasts a talc-free formula.

Fragrance

That didn’t take long. Mere months after retailer and stylist Beverly Nguyen got her “It Girl” feature in the New York Times, Atmos asked her to make three perfumes based on her favorite childhood memories. They launched Dec. 18 and smell like getting to cut the line at Lucien.

Literie introduced a Drones Over New Jersey scent on Dec. 18 that has “conspiracy and fear,” which is coincidentally what all of my holiday cards say this year, too.

And finally…

Happy Christmas to all who celebrate, and happy “Let’s watch Wicked two more times” to those who don’t! Haul of Fame will return in the new year.

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