the future of beauty is still in a bottle

+ substack's new fundraise, pinterest coffee, and anti-AI design

Good morning and welcome back to as seen on.

Today’s newsletter is free thanks to Nutrafol, the #1 dermatologist-recommended hair growth supplement brand. I started using Nutrafol after a friend left their bottle at my place and I kept forgetting to return it. True story. As you know, I err on the side of skeptical when it comes to most supplements, but a few months in, I’m loving the results so far.

Nutrafol takes a science-backed, whole-body approach to hair health, addressing everything from stress to hormonal shifts to aging. At the end of this newsletter, I interview Dr. Isabelle Raymond, SVP of Global Medical and Clinical Affairs at Nutrafol, where we talk about the cultural shift toward science-backed wellness — and what sets Nutrafol apart.

Also in today’s newsletter: some really bad Gen Z branding, soft clubbing, Cosmo Club, Kylie’s nostalgia play, Coty breakup rumors, Substack funding news, the anti-AI design movement, Zaslav’s pay cut, the return of Vice, UMG’s new venture, and a bunch of other stuff.

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• The Times profiled Shop Cats, the viral TikTok bodega cat show produced by Mad Realities—“the MTV of the internet”. I interviewed Mad Realities founder Alice Ma for the last edition of as seen on's INDUSTRY NOTES series. This is me telling you to go read that now. I have a ton of interesting Gen Z founders lined up for INDUSTRY NOTES in the next few weeks, so watch this space.

• The Pinterest creative team has been working hard lately. The brand collaborated with Chamberlain Coffee on a limited-edition coffee blend for its first ever co-branded product after Emma found inspiration for the flavor and visuals of the campaign while using Pinterest. The Fisherman Aesthetic trend was one of Pinterest’s annual predicted trends for this year. Create the world you wish to see. Pinterest also collaborated with e.l.f on a new color analysis tool.

  

  

• Speaking of the Fisherman Aesthetic, fisherman sandals are once again having their seasonal moment. Search interest in “fisherman sandals” has doubled over the past month. It’s spiked every May for the last three years. “Jelly sandals women” just hit an all-time high, and “leopard print sandals” spiked +120% in the past month.

• Soft Clubbing is apparently the new going out, according to The Cut. “Gone are the nights of partying until 4 a.m.; instead, we’re spending evenings (or, just as often, afternoons) ‘partying’ at coffee shops, cafés, and, yes, hair salons.” I’ve been thinking about how our need to label everything—especially when Gen Z is concerned—creates this false sense of novelty where there really is none. Soft clubbing is not a thing. Everyone in the comments agrees with me. “Soft indeed. When did people become total weeners about literally everything?”

• Gen Z is also “speed-friending” because the stats say we are lonely. According to the UK’s Office for National Statistics, 56% of women feel lonely at least some of the time, with 16–29-year-olds reporting the highest rates of chronic loneliness. Ergo, Cosmopolitan has launched Cosmo Club, a new free community where members can meet other Cosmo readers at events and socials. Fun.

• Reese Witherspoon is also building community for Gen Z. Yesterday, her media company, Hello Sunshine, announced a new Gen Z-focused sister brand, Sunnie. I’m just going to quote

  Casey Lewis
  here because her thoughts are my thoughts: “The vibe is very mid-aughts girl power. If Sunnie were a teen magazine in 2005, it would be on the Barnes & Noble shelf next to Seventeen and Cosmogirl (post-Atoosa, when it got really cheesy), not ElleGirl and Teen Vogue, and that is not a compliment. The website looks like the landing page of a sunscreen brand aimed at Gen Alpha, and the copy that reads, ‘You glow different. Process life. Find new obsessions. In your glow, on your terms,’ does nothing to deter that.” I don’t know who those 20 people in their Gen Z advisory board are, but they need to do better. Or hire Casey and I.

  

• Vulture has been doing some amazing journalism lately. They talked to seven musicians about their health insurance horror stories. This article isn’t about the truly famous, but random people are always giving me gossip about how broke (or close to broke) a lot of famous people actually are.

• For the first time in history, parents overwhelmingly want daughters rather than sons. Everyone wants to be a girl dad now.

• I too think the marriage of literature and fashion is brilliant.

• WhatsApp will start adding ads to the Status screen. Surprised it's taken them this long.

• 23andMe founder Anne Wojcicki’s nonprofit has reached a deal to acquire the company. After filing for bankruptcy in March, pharmaceutical company Regeneron was announced as 23andMe’s acquirer with a $256 million bid. But Wojcicki’s nonprofit TTAM Research Institute reopened the bidding process by making an unsolicited bid earlier this month, and Regeneron was unable to beat their $305 million offer. You know what? Mad respect for Anne Wojcicki. She’s not letting go of this company.

• Newcomer reported that Substack is currently in talks to raise financing, thanks to exploding usage of the Substack app and the success of its new political newsletters, AKA the Trump bump. The platform is reportedly pitching a $50–$100 million round that would push its valuation beyond the $700 million mark and telling investors it now generates around $45 million in annual recurring revenue, with $450 million in total subscription revenue flowing to its creators. As a reminder, Substack quietly raised $10 million last November from strategic investors including Omeed Malik, Nate Silver, and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant. Malik runs 1789 Capital, a firm that backs companies aligned with the “Republican/Parallel Economy,” “Deglobalization,” and “Anti-ESG” values. Donald Trump Jr. is a partner there.

• Elon Musk's AI startup xAI is burning through $1 billion a month and expects to lose $13B next year. As reported by Bloomberg, xAI's revenues are expected to be $500 million this year, rising to over $2 billion next year, but the company is struggling to develop revenue streams at the same rate as its competitors. To cover the gap, xAI is now finalizing $4.3 billion in new equity funding, and it already has plans to raise another $6.4 billion of capital next year. All this on top of the $5 billion in debt that Bloomberg has previously reported Morgan Stanley is helping it raise. Making sure I get to heaven so I can ask questions. Life is so unfair.

• Amazon’s CEO told employees he expects widespread cuts to white-collar jobs because of generative AI. And the WSJ reported that U.S. public companies have reduced their white-collar workforces by a collective 3.5% over the past three years. Over the past decade, one in five companies in the S&P 500 have shrunk, with managers being an especially at-risk species.

• Meanwhile, The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders will receive a pay raise of roughly 400 percent for the 2025 season. Blessed are those who work with their hands.

• Kylie Cosmetics is bringing back their lip kits. Because when in doubt (and they are in doubt), reach for nostalgia. This is a recession indicator.

  

• Beauty conglomerate Coty could be headed for a breakup. WWD reported that the company is exploring a two-part sell-off—starting with its luxury division (Gucci, Burberry, Hugo Boss) and eventually offloading its consumer brands (Covergirl, Rimmel, Max Factor), with Interparfums reportedly interested in parts of the fragrance portfolio and the Gucci license likely to return to Kering by 2028. The mass side might be a harder sell, with revenue down 9% and little investor appetite. Add in Coty’s $71M loss from Skkn by Kim, underwhelming results from Kylie Cosmetics, and CEO Sue Nabi’s rumored exit this summer.

• Topicals has archived its entire Instagram page. Rebrand? Product launch? Excited for whatever it is.

• ILIA launched a limited-edition collection, The Eldorado Ballroom Edit, with Solange.

• Molly Baz’s condiment company Ayoh has closed a $4.5M seed round led by Imaginary Ventures, with participation from Lerer Hippeau, Simple Food Ventures, Habitat Partners, and Great Circle Ventures.

• CPG brands like Brightland, Ghia, and Fishwife are leaning into consumer-driven creativity as others lean into AI. Dieline’s Chloe Gordon calls it the Anti-AI Design Movement. A few weeks ago, Brightland hosted an event that allowed attendees to paint their own bottles, which eventually led to the brand’s Paint and Pour Gift Set. Ghia’s recent Le Fizz launch came wrapped in a black-and-white label meant to be colored in, and Fishwife is launching a new Summertime Art Box that features its packaging without color. Consumers can create their own art on the boxes. Becca Millstein, Fishwife CEO and co-founder, shared, “We’re all seeing the same thing: this desire for community, creation, and authenticity. If brands are listening, they will hear that call, as well, and show up in a way that feels really genuine to their business and community.” Couldn’t agree more. So much opportunity for brands to stand out creatively as AI becomes the norm.

  

• Flamingo Estate launched a new membership program and a Substack.

• Warner Bros CEO David Zaslav is set to take a significant pay cut—down nearly 50%—after the company splits into two entities in 2026. His 2024 pay package of $52 million, which surpassed that of peers at Disney and Comcast, was recently rejected in a symbolic shareholder vote. Under the new structure, Zaslav’s target compensation will drop to $16.5 million if he hits 100% of his performance goals, compared with $37 million in the current contract. I mean… shareholders have been pushing back on his compensation for a while—and rightly so. WBD’s stock is down 60% since the Discovery-Time Warner merger Zaslav spearheaded. And they recently hit junk bond status. Fair’s fair.

• Vice Media has hired former NBCUniversal executive, Adam Stotsky, to be its new CEO. Under Stotsky, Vice will focus on “provocative storytelling” through franchises like Gangs of London and Bama Rush, as well as news podcasts like co-founder Shane Smith’s mildly successful video podcast, Shane Smith Has Questions.

• Universal Music Group has launched a new joint venture with WME co-founder Patrick Whitesell, backed by $250M from Silver Lake, to build businesses around its artists' IP. Whitesell told FT the venture won’t compete with other agencies in talent representation but will instead offer consulting, capital, and marketing support to develop new ventures for UMG artists. A few thoughts: labels have historically made money off masters and touring, but things have been a lot less flush in that department for a while now. I think this signals UMG's broadening ambition to act like a modern brand accelerator, capitalizing on their artists' cultural capital beyond music. It also reflects a shift in the artist development model: rather than relying solely on the life cycle of an album or tour, labels are now thinking in terms of multi-channel brand building. And while this might not look like traditional artist management, it's a clear acknowledgment that fandom can be monetized in formats far beyond streaming.

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Dr. Isabelle Raymond is the SVP of Global Medical and Clinical Affairs at Nutrafol, where she leads Nutrafol’s rigorous clinical testing process and medical research publications. Before joining Nutrafol, she spent years in pharma and biotech — industries where scientific rigor is non-negotiable. In this conversation, we talk about what drew her to a supplement company, how Nutrafol is reshaping the wellness category with clinical credibility, and why consumers are demanding more proof behind the products they’re marketed. We also get into the deep blind spots that still exist in women's health — especially around life stages like postpartum and menopause — and why internal health is the new beauty standard. You can explore Nutrafol’s full product range here.

You started in pharma and biotech – industries built around rigorous science. What drew you to Nutrafol, and how did you reconcile your own initial skepticism about supplements?

I was absolutely skeptical at first. Coming from pharma, I was trained to follow regulations, prioritize clinical evidence, and uphold scientific rigor. Unfortunately, many supplements just don’t meet that standard. But what drew me to Nutrafol was their fundamentally different approach. This wasn’t about chasing trends; it was about high-quality, clinically studied ingredients and a real investment in clinical science. Their commitment to clinical trials and a thorough biological understanding of hair health made it clear: Nutrafol isn’t just another supplement company. It’s setting a new standard for how we approach hair wellness.

What did you discover once you started digging into integrative health and women’s wellness that surprised you most?

How underserved women truly are, especially during life stages like menopause or postpartum. There’s this huge blind spot in traditional medicine when it comes to connecting symptoms like hair thinning, mood shifts, or sleep disturbances to underlying hormonal or metabolic changes. And yet, these are some of the most life-altering moments for women. 

Wellness isn’t new, but today’s consumer is craving something deeper when it comes to the wellness products we’re being marketed: proof. Why do you think we’re seeing a cultural shift toward science-backed wellness right now?

Consumers are more informed and more skeptical than ever. They’ve seen the promises. Now they want the proof. I think there’s also a growing awareness that health and beauty aren’t separate silos — they’re deeply connected. So people are no longer satisfied with vague claims or pretty packaging. They want real data, real results, and transparency around what they’re putting into their bodies. This shift is pushing the entire wellness industry to raise the bar, and honestly, it’s long overdue.

Nutrafol stands out for its clinical rigor. Can you explain what that means in practical terms for consumers?

At Nutrafol, clinical rigor means we go well beyond the industry norm. While many supplement brands rely solely on studies of individual ingredients, we conduct clinical trials on our final formulations — the actual product you’re taking. These trials are randomized, double-blind, and placebo-controlled, which is considered the gold standard, and they’re published in peer-reviewed scientific journals. Just as important, we test our products on the specific populations they’re designed for. So if we’re addressing menopause-related hair thinning, we study the formulation in menopausal women. For consumers, this means a higher level of confidence. You’re choosing a supplement that’s been thoughtfully tested to support your needs, not just assumed to work based on ingredients alone.

Where do you see this “beauty from within” movement going next? What role do you hope Nutrafol plays in shaping that future?

I think the movement is evolving into something more holistic and personalized. It's not just about glowing skin or shiny hair anymore, it's about feeling better in your body at every stage. At Nutrafol, we’ll continue to lead the way by marrying science with real human insight, and by creating products that support not just beauty, but true well-being. If we can normalize conversations around things like hormonal health and aging, and bring more clinical credibility to the wellness space, that’s the future I want us to help build.

For someone just starting to think more holistically about their beauty or hair journey, what’s one thing you’d want them to understand?

That beauty is a reflection of internal health. If something is showing up on the outside — whether it’s thinning hair, breakouts, or dull skin — it’s often your body signaling that something needs attention inside. Don’t be afraid to look beyond the surface. When you support your body with the right tools, like nutrients, stress management, and hormonal balance, beauty becomes a natural byproduct of health.

Hope you enjoyed the conversation. As always, thanks for reading!