told you kourtney kardashian would launch an ozempic dupe
it'll probably get her sued
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Sony in talks to buy Pink Floyd music rights for about $500 mln
Could your favorite TV and movie characters afford their homes today?
Is Glossier launching a new fragrance or bringing back Glossier Play? We’ll probably know by Monday.
Huda Beauty, the cosmetics brand founded by influencer Huda Kattan and her sisters, is considering selling all or part of its perfume division. Once valued at $1 billion, Huda Beauty reigned supreme in the days of winged liners and cut-crease eye looks, but has since fallen off my radar. According to Bloomberg, the brand has hired Goldman Sachs to advise on the potential sale of its Kayali fragrance line, which, if successful, will allow the founders to buy out TSG Consumer Partners’ stake in Huda Beauty, acquired in 2017.
It looks like Rare Beauty is pausing its sale process. Last week, Selena Gomez held the title of Hollywood’s newest minted billionaire, based mostly on Rare Beauty’s $2 billion valuation. However, Axios now reports that the company isn’t actually worth that yet, despite spending the last six months trying to find a buyer at that price. It's a tough market for beauty brands looking to get acquired—tougher still if you’re a celebrity brand. Private equity and strategic buyers are all too aware of the risk of celebrities stepping back after an acquisition and the potential loss in brand value as a result. Take what’s happening with Kylie Cosmetics, which Coty acquired a 51% stake in in 2020, for example. Last year, Bloomberg reported that Kylie was unhappy with the partnership and was trying to buy out Coty. Meanwhile, I can’t remember the last time I heard about Kylie Cosmetics from someone that isn’t Kylie Jenner.
I don’t often find as seen on worthy content on Reddit influencer snark pages, but a recent thread titled A Call for Tea on Potential Dieux Divorce caught my attention. According to the thread, Dieux’s co-founder, Marta (also behind Air Milkshake and Angel Therapy), posted an Instagram story mentioning that she hasn’t had access to her Dieux email since July 9th—which makes sense because that’s when her LinkedIn profile lists her time at Dieux ending. I checked, and she no longer follows Dieux on Instagram, and she and co-founder Charlotte Palermino don’t follow each other. A Reddit user posted a screenshot of Marta’s Instagram story showing a picture of Futurewise’s new cleanser with the caption, “Only cleanser launch I care about,” notable since Dieux launched a cleanser at the same time. No thoughts, but I will say this: there are many Dieux’s, but only one Air Milkshake.
Would you buy a deodorant for $46? Former Aesop executive Daniel Bense is counting on it. His new premium personal care brand, To My Ships (he’s a Homer fan), launches September 26, with a collection featuring a $51 hand and body wash and a $222 perfume, in addition to the $46 deodorant in question. Bense tapped Céline Barel, a perfumer who previously created fragrances for Loewe and Jo Malone London, to craft its scents. According to market intelligence firm Euromonitor, the premium deodorant category makes up around 3.2% of the overall deodorant market, growing 5.2% between 2018 and 2023—more than double the growth of the standard market. Bense said he plans to differentiate To My Ships from brands like Hume, Akt, and Salt & Stone by being even more elevated, with a focus on bringing fragrance into everyday products. His ideal customer, he adds, will be more “mature, unconventional… not Gen-Z.” When I found out To My Ship’s first collection was called ‘Of The Gods’, I had a hunch about something and immediately went over to their Instagram page. Sure enough, the branding so far is very similar to David’s, a new protein brand I wrote about recently. The Roman Empire lives on.
David Protein vs All My Ships Landing, an app that allowed users to create and publish moodboards and collages, is shutting down and rebranding to Zeen. Per their LinkedIn page, Zeen is a platform for visual, shoppable blogs, which sounds a lot more promising than virtual mood boards. I’ve been seeing a lot of personal curation type shopping platforms building community pre-launch on Instagram. The ones I have on my radar are
, Phia (Bill Gates’ daughter’s company), Tata Bazaar, and now Zeen. This is obviously an evolution of recommendation culture and the taste economy, but I’d love to know if and how these platforms will differ from LTK or Amazon Storefronts, for that matter. Still, I’m bullish.Jamie Dimon, Jensen Huang, Daniel Ek, and 6,000 tech bros showed up to watch Mark Zuckerberg’s live interview for the Acquired podcast on Tuesday. There’s a conversation to be had about how Acquired became the business podcast, but the one I want to have is about Mark saying he’s “done apologizing.” Specifically, he’s done apologizing to people blaming Meta for issues that are, according to him, not Meta’s fault. “Some of the things they were asserting that we were doing or were responsible for, I don’t actually think we were,” he said. “When it’s a political problem… there are people operating in good faith who are identifying a problem and want something to be fixed, and there are people who are just looking for someone to blame.” Pretty pointed, considering that last month, he sent a letter to House Republicans, effectively apologizing for allowing the White House pressure Facebook into censoring misinformation about the pandemic and the 2020 election.
OpenAI is now also in talks with both Tiger Global and Abu Dhabi AI investment firm MGX for its $7 billion fundraise. Thrive Capital, Microsoft, Nvidia, Apple, and Khosla Ventures are also writing checks. Shit’s getting crazy.
I don’t know if we need a dating app specifically for sober people, but this is the second app in as many months that thinks we do.
Surprise, surprise, Adam Neumann’s climate/crypto/carbon-credit startup has officially failed to launch. Oh, say it ain’t so! Flowcarbon, which promised to tokenize carbon credits by putting them on the blockchain, has been quietly issuing refunds to buyers of its Goddess Nature Token, through which it raised $38 million.The rest of the company’s $70 million in capital came from a traditional funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz, whose founders will apparently back Neumann till the end of time.
But Kyle, haven’t we been posting faux messy intentionally curated photo dumps for like two years now? I’m confused.
Nara Smith x Ballerina Farm is the link up I didn’t know I needed. Jokes, I prayed for this.
its a vibe, alright Spotify is launching Countdown To, a video series where artists discuss their new projects with fellow performers, family, and friends. The first episode, airing today, features MGK in conversation with Jelly Roll ahead of his new album Beautifully Broken, out next month. Bloomberg’s Amanda Carmen reported that Spotify has been making offers to video-oriented creators, some reaching seven figures, to distribute their shows on the platform, in addition to YouTube. And unlike its podcast deals, Spotify doesn't seem interested in acquiring programming rights or exclusively ad sales—they just want a bigger video catalog.
Guess what the family behind Chanel and the billionaire heiress of L’Oréal have in common? They both recently bought stakes in Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen’s luxury fashion company, The Row. Imaginary Ventures, co-founded by fashion entrepreneur Natalie Massenet, and Saint Dominique Capital, a fund backed by businesswoman Lauren Santo Domingo, are also investing in the company. The deal—which values The Row at $1 billion—leaves the Olsens as majority shareholders, an enviable position for any founder to be in right now.
Paramount teamed up with live shopping company Shopsense AI to allow viewers shop dupes inspired by outfits from the VMAs. For Chappell Roan’s look, the software recommended this $500 AllSaints maxi dress and this $56 Boohoo milkmaid dress, both of which are decidedly not the vibe.
I told you Kourtney Kardashian’s supplement brand was going to launch an Ozempic dupe. Imagine seeing those Hims’ stocks climb like no one’s business and not wanting in on the game. What I couldn't predict was that the product would be called “Lemme GLP-1 Daily” without actually containing any GLP-1. Lemme’s “natural” Ozempic alternative is “an all-natural supplement with no known side effects, powered by 3 clinically-tested ingredients: Eriomin® Lemon Fruit Extract, Supresa® Saffron Extract, and Morosil™ Red Orange Fruit Extract.” “If you told me when I launched the brand that this would be a product we were making, I wouldn’t believe you,” Kourtney told Vogue. “But GLP-1 medications have been helpful to so many people. The drug clearly has so many benefits, but it also has a lot of side effects.” Looks like she’s really using the no side effects angle as the product’s USP. Lemme GLP-1 Daily will be available to anyone without a prescription or doctor’s consultation, and you should read this Vogue article if, like me, you’re feeling sus about “plant-based Ozempic” thing.
Speaking of Ozempic, Lauren Sherman’s commentary on the drug’s presence at NYFW was everything: “There were people who had lost 60, 70 pounds over the past year. There were people who suddenly looked old. There were people who have always been skinny, but now look shriveled. Then there were the people who had probably just lost a little weight the old-fashioned way, but everyone thinks they’re on the shot because… why wouldn’t they be?”
Still on the topic, two U.S. Senators have proposed a bill that would allow the FDA to fine individuals and companies up to $500,000 for posting false information online about GLP-1 drugs. The bipartisan legislation, led by Senators Dick Durbin and Mike Braun, would also require drugmakers to disclose payments to influencers in the federal Open Payments database, as they currently do with payments to physicians and other health providers. Will Kourtney get fined?
Kevin Hart’s vegan fast food chain, which I never even knew existed, closed all four of its locations on Tuesday. “The response to the product has been incredible, and we thank our committed team, our customers, and our community partners for helping make the change we all craved, and for their unwavering support of Hart House,” said CEO Alex Hooper, whom Hart started the company with in 2022. Sixteen restaurant chains and large franchises have filed for bankruptcy this year, many of which took on debt to survive the pandemic and are struggling to pay it back as consumers slow their restaurant spending due to inflation. Debtwire also reported that Hooters and Black Angus Steakhouse are struggling to pay their debt and could be going the way of Red Lobster.
Eater spoke to six chefs and restaurant owners about why restaurants are so expensive these days. In summary, inflation and rent are getting to them too.
Every fashion Substack I follow is watching the upcoming launch of Literary Sport, a new activewear line I’ve seen described as “The Row meets activewear.” So far, their Instagram page is very... curated. Less sports, more vibes. The brand held a closed collection preview last week, and while you can barely make out the product, they made sure to tag every cool guest who showed up. That too, after all, is curation.
Also, Victoria's Secret is bringing back their activewear line, just like they’re bringing back the Show we still haven't heard anything about.
PwC is laying off 1,800 employees in its U.S. office, its first formal layoff since 2009. People, white-collar employment is looking rough! My friend, who is a senior at Yale, replied to my Wednesday newsletter, where I discussed consultants getting ghosted, telling me that many of her classmates are having a hard time securing consulting offers. “My friends recruiting full-time are struggling,” she said. We both agreed that it's a combination of AI and the COVID bubble burst. In another conversation with a new friend yesterday, we discussed how high interest rates and, again, COVID mean that many businesses aren’t growing or hiring. I know too many people stuck in jobs they would have easily left just a few years ago. It’s really not an employee market anymore.
Not sure that people want their everyday products to be fragranced. If anything, more people want fragrance-free products so they don’t clash with their $300 Byredo/Baccarat/DS & Durga scents.
lol at the idea that an 'all-natural supplement' contains registered ingredients.