Latest news with #cleanbeauty
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
What Went Wrong With Drunk Elephant
Once an iconic brand, Drunk Elephant is now facing an identity crisis with sales plummeting Drunk Elephant's sales dropped 65% in the past year, urging parent company Shiseido to call for a complete brand revamp. Once a cult brand and disruptor in the world of skincare, Drunk Elephant is an interesting case for what happens when a brand loses its voice and core audience and becomes untangled with short-lived viral exposure. Founded by Tiffany Masterson, Drunk Elephant was among the first brands to lead the clean skincare movement, offering products free of harsh or toxic components, while at the same time focusing on dermatologist-approved ingredients. Masterson formulated products containing active ingredients like AHAs, BHAs and Vitamin C, promising gentle and effective skincare. Through this positioning, the brand attracted both natural beauty fans and clinical skincare users, and quickly gained traction. Its colorful yet minimalist packaging stood out from competitors, helping the brand became very popular on social media and entering Sephora stores in 2015. By 2019, Drunk Elephant amassed $120 million in net sales and was ranked most popular skincare brand across all its retailers. It was acquired that same year by Shiseido for $845 million, making it one of the biggest skincare and beauty acquisitions of the decade. Under its new ownership, the brand expanded into body and haircare, entered new markets and grew its customer base, which mainly comprised women aged 25-40 with a budget to spend on premium skincare. Drunk Elephant sits in the prestige category, with products ranging between $20 and $100, making it a premium yet relatively mass-market brand unlike higher-end luxury skincare brands. As the trend grew bigger, safety concerns arose among parents, dermatologists as well as regulators, concerned about the effects of such adult and mature skincare products on kids. This 'Sephora kids' trend backfired and negatively impacted the brand's equity, creating a disconnect between the brand's core audience and its recent buzzworthy consumers. Tweens likely pushed away the brand's older customers, and bringing them back might be challenging. Sales plunged 65% in the past year, with the brand's main market - Americas - being the most affected in this sharp decline. Now, Shiseido is focused on 'rebuilding brand engagement' with a goal to 'leverage new messaging to drive awareness on clinical and high-performance skincare and drive offline consumer engagement by educating beauty advisors at retail touchpoints', as shared in the company's 2025 Q1 presentation. Will a brand revamp work? Given the intense competition in the skincare space, and the fact that now dozens of new clean and effective skincare brands have seen light of day since Drunk Elephant was born, the task might prove challenging. Drunk Elephant's current struggles are an unfortunate reminder of the risks of short-lived viral trends fueled by social media. The brand's detour into a much younger consumer group cost it both credibility and connection with its original audience, something that may take significant efforts to rebuild. As Shiseido attempts a reset, the challenge will not just to win back customers but to re-establish its brand voice and clear identity in a very crowded market. The clean and clinical skincare space Drunk Elephant helped define ten years ago is now highly competitive, making it even more essential for the brand to reclaim the unique, differentiated brand identity that helped it thrive.
Forbes
3 days ago
- Business
- Forbes
The Future Of Clean Care: Building Brands Based On Integrity Not Hype
The future is not just about finding a better deodorant. It's about finding a brand at the store ... More that you feel good and that who's mission you can get behind. A decade ago, clean care was a niche. It was relegated to farmers' markets and indie apothecaries. Today, it's reshaping the personal care industry, and it's doing so quietly, sustainably, and with what some could call spirit. The next generation of beauty will probably not be defined by celebrity launches or flashy VC rounds. It'll probably be led by founders who value radical simplicity, performance-first products, and environmentally friendly products that walk the walk and talk the talk. And increasingly, it's driven by consumer demand for more than just clean ingredients. More and more consumers, especially the younger generation who want clean intentions behind the brands they support. Take Humble Brands, for example. It was founded by Google veteran Jeff Shardell in Taos, New Mexico. According to Humble, they didn't begin the brand with the intent to disrupt the $500 billion personal care space, they actually started it with a question: Why was it so hard to find a deodorant without chemicals you couldn't pronounce? From that question, their company and their brand was born. You might have come across Humble in your local Target or Walmart and the brand now boasts loyal customers, an expanding product line, high-profile collaboration with actor and environmentalist Jason Momoa (now of Minecraft movie fame), and a growing fan base with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. But Humble's story is more than a case study in scaling a clean care brand. It's a window into where the category is heading next and what it takes to win consumer trust in a post-greenwashing world and a world where next-gen consumers can be demanding. Consumers, especially younger ones, no longer equate more with better. They seek out brands that ... More lead with honesty. So legacy brands are scrambling to retrofit sustainability into their product lines. Clean care upstarts, on the other hand, are building it into their DNA from their inception. That means formulating with fewer ingredients, rejecting unnecessary packaging, prioritizing transparency from the start, and focusing on simple, clear, and verifiable messaging. Brands like By Humankind, Necessaire, and Fussy have leaned into minimalism and not just in design, but in formulation. Products are stripped down to what works. Consumers no longer equate more with better; they want efficacy and honesty, not endless SKUs, fillers, and empty marketing promises. Humble, for instance, built its business around a four-ingredient deodorant. No preservatives. No greenwashing. Just performance. 'Do one thing well,' says Shardell, 'and don't move on until you've earned trust.' Jeff Shardell, started Humble with a question: Why was it so hard to find a deodorant without ... More chemicals you couldn't pronounce? Today's clean care consumers expect more than natural. They want brands that consider the full lifecycle of a product, all the way from how ingredients are sourced to the impact the product has in the world. That's where things like innovations in packaging come into sharp focus. In the case of Humble's collaboration with Jason Momoa, the brand prioritized biodegradable, paper-based tubes, which marked a shift. According to the brand, this seems to now be driving 15 percent of deodorant sales and growing fast. It's not just a celebrity vanity line, it's a functional experiment in sustainable delivery, inspired by a customer-turned-partner who deeply cares about ocean health. Across the category, others are following suit. Everist has pioneered waterless, concentrated formulas in aluminum tubes. Plus launched body wash sheets that dissolve in the shower. Packaging is no longer an afterthought, the packaging becomes part of the product. Next-gen consumers are going for brands like Pipette, Attitude, Blueland, Humankind, Necessaire, ... More Humble and Fussy, who focus on integrity, rather than hype. Clean care brands are proving that scale doesn't have to mean dilution. In fact, the most promising companies are those that resist the urge to expand too quickly or chase shelf space for ego's sake. Instead, they're choosing conscious growth, refusing to launch new SKUs until sustainability standards are met, producing more and more products in-house to maintain quality, and hiring teams aligned with their mission rather than just for industry pedigree. Brands like Pipette, Attitude, and Blueland are forging new models of operational excellence leveraging vertical integration, direct-to-consumer agility, and AI-powered forecasting to stay nimble while growing responsibly. Packaging is no longer an afterthought, the packaging becomes part of the product. As the clean care category matures, we're entering a new phase: one defined by bioinnovation, AI-driven product development, and consumer intimacy at scale. Humble is already exploring bioplastics, which are plant-based materials that replicate plastic's functionality while remaining compostable. At the same time, the company is experimenting with generative AI models to map emerging ingredient preferences, track real-time sentiment shifts, and test new scent profiles before they're even formulated. It's a far cry from the old-school focus group. This is next-gen R&D, and it's giving clean care startups a serious edge over their legacy competitors. In the past, luxury was about scarcity and sophistication. In the future, it will partly be about ... More integrity, sustainability, and design simplicity. In the past, luxury was about scarcity and sophistication. In the future, it will partly be about integrity, sustainability, and design simplicity. That's why clean care brands are well positioned for this shift in consumer behaviour. They aren't trying to emulate traditional prestige playbooks, they're rewriting them. They're premium not because of celebrity hype, but because of trust, craftsmanship, and values-led growth. As new technologies unlock better materials and more responsive formulations, and as consumers grow more ingredient-savvy, the bar will only rise. Brands that cut corners, fake green credentials, or chase shortcuts will love marketshare. The clean care revolution isn't a fleeting trend. It's a permanent shift in consumer values and brand behavior, especially as it pertains to younger demographics making choices with their disposable income. And while companies like Humble may not be chasing unicorn valuations or glossy ad campaigns, they're doing something far more impactful. They are reshaping personal care into something that's actually personal. The future is not just about finding a better deodorant. It's about finding a brand at the store that you feel good and that who's mission you can get behind.
Vogue
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
Hailey Bieber Is Shutting Out the Noise—and Finding Her Bliss
The line begins around the corner. It curls through a hedge and down Melrose, these excited young women in baggy jeans and baby tees, slicked-back center-parted buns, glossy pouts, and perfect, almond-shaped manicures, all patiently waiting for the doors of Rhode's Los Angeles pop-up to open and let them inside. It is a warm morning in February, and some have been here for hours, hoping to get that much closer to Hailey Bieber, the inspiration behind such beauty crazes as 'clean girl,''vanilla girl,'and 'strawberry girl'(the ingestible theme continues with 'glazed-donut skin,' 'latte makeup,' 'brownie-glazed lips,' and 'cinnamon-cookie-butter hair'). Around 9,000 people will show up here over the course of six days for Rhode skin creams, face balms, lip glosses (or the ultra-Instagrammable phone-case holders), and more, but really they've come for the model turned businesswoman who dreamed them up. What is it about Hailey Bieber? What makes her fans stop this particular 28-year-old on the street, paint facsimiles of her freckles on their faces, and wait in line to buy her $20 smoothie collab at Erewhon? What drives others to fixate on her flaws in comments sections, or even, she'll tell me later, follow and berate her in the street? For the former, it's her palpable warmth and kindness, her '90s-nostalgia-influenced style, her seemingly untampered-with good looks, and her charmed life as the devoted Mrs. Justin Bieber. From what I can tell, after several perilous hours spent online, her dissenters believe she's successfully executed an evil master plan to entrap their favorite childhood pop star into marriage and keep him from his one true love, which they believe to be his girlfriend from when he was 16, Selena Gomez. As in the case of most celebrity news, or really news in general, the negative version gets disproportionate airtime; disasters and villains sell. When I meet Hailey Bieber in March for lunch in Los Angeles at a homey neighborhood deli she and Justin frequent, the week's headlines have proclaimed that they are moving to Europe for Justin's mental health; they are in 'crisis'; he is 'manic,' 'disengaged and disheveled,' strange, and spiraling; and she is planning legal action against the creator of an inaccuracy-riddled video that purports to have done a Zapruder-style analysis of her preteen digital output cross-referenced with Justin Bieber concert appearances. (There has also been talk online that influencers are paid to join the pile-on.)
Daily Mail
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Blake Lively reveals what her future plans are... after juggling Baldoni lawsuit while promoting new film
Blake Lively has another project she is talking up and it's not a movie. The blonde beauty - who is making headlines for her ugly lawsuit with It Ends With Us co-star Justin Baldoni - is promoting her hair care line this week. On Monday she talked with People about why it is so special as she avoided any comments on her scandal. The Gossip Girl alum launched her haircare brand, Blake Brown, in July 2024 to create 'clean formulas with incredible performance at a mass price point with a fragrance that I would spray on my body.' The line sells at Target. And Lively also shared what her plans are now that she has had a busy spring. 'Just some time off sounds so nice with my babies and my husband,' she said. Blake is married to Ryan Reynolds and they have four children together: daughters James, Inez and Betty, and son Olin. 'I mean it's always busy, but when the kids are in school, I miss them,' said the looker. 'I'm that parent who just genuinely really loves spending time with my kids. My husband too, we're like, "I wonder if they can miss school today so we can spend time with them." 'We just really like them. Which is important. If you have so many kids, you have to like them. Because they will drive you insane if you don't [laughs],' she said. Blake also addressed how she keeps an eye on her haircare line, her beverage lines, - Betty Buzz and Betty Booze - and her acting projects all at once. 'It's just about being really passionate. I think you have to really love them,' she shared. 'You have to be possessed by them. If you're just putting your name on something, I guess that's probably easy, but it wouldn't feel good to me. 'That's just not the person I am. Maybe if I was a different star sign that that would work, but Virgos, we can't. No, no, no. We love the details. We love the experience. 'So I think that the things that I'm involved in are things that I'm truly passionate about. I used to have a bracelet when I was a kid that said, "Do what you love, love what you do." And I think that's it, do what you love and love what you do.' She talked to People about her three new hair and body mists and how this launch was not initially in her plans. The Gossip Girl alum launched her haircare brand, Blake Brown, in July 2024 to create 'clean formulas with incredible performance at a mass price point with a fragrance that I would spray on my body' 'It was actually not something we intended to do. This was a response to our community going, "Please make fragrance." I was like, 'It's there, it's already in the product.' They were like, 'No, I want to be able to refresh after the gym or throughout the day,"' she said. 'People don't bring their leave-in with them or their dry shampoo, so they just wanted to have that hair and body mist, which I understand. I mean, I'm the person that will just spray dry shampoo in the air and walk through it just because it smells so good. You're probably not supposed to do that, but I just love the smell. And she talked the scent. 'What was important to me is that our hair fragrances layer well. I always, always, always layer my fragrance. Every single day, when I put on perfume, I layer different fragrances so that even if it's a familiar fragrance, it still has a twist on it. It's like what they call umami in food. 'I also wanted our hair products to double as also your fragrance. While different hair lines have beautiful notes and scents, they were never something that lined up with what I would buy if I went to go buy perfume. It was always two very different experiences to smell. 'I also wanted to make sure that they look special and beautiful. I wanted them to look like a retro perfume bottle. So to have an elegance to them and sort of a glamour, but also be easy to throw in your bag.' Lively shared that likes to use a lot of her product. 'I like products that are user-friendly that you can build and you can get your hands on. And I think that getting people comfortable with being able to really use a higher quantity of product, because I think that when it's something that people aren't as familiar with, people don't use mousse as much anymore. They don't use masks as much anymore,' she shared. Blake also said the secret to her full hair is mousse. 'How I get volume is mousse. I mean, it's everything to me. And I use so much mousse, I use absurd amounts. It quadruples my hair and then some,' she noted. 'So I think the biggest thing is just, yeah, I wish I could be in people's showers and in their homes because I like that we have products that aren't everything that you see on the shelf because why create a company just to create another company? If they exist out there and someone else is doing well, I have no reason to do it. 'I'm in a few different professions, and even within my professions, there's different facets of my profession. There's the creative department, there's the business part. But always listening to your community and responding is the most important thing, because it takes you on paths that you didn't always expect to go down, like this.' And she added that she does well because of the people around her. 'I have a great team of people. So the people who work with Blake Brown or people who work with Betty Buzz and Betty Booze, love it. And everybody has a feeling of pride and ownership and passion. So I think that when you find your community or you find your people who believe in a common goal or a common pursuit, that's everything,' said the movie icon. 'There's so many entrepreneurs out there across so many spaces that I look to as role models and inspiration.' Lively said there's an authenticity to all of them. 'I think that's where there's something consistent across them, it's different brands and different ages and different types, there's an authenticity, there's a passion, there's a fire,' said the New Yorker. 'And then I look at people who are just doing a lot and that's a different thing, and they're doing that really well. And sometimes I wish I was just that person who could just say, "I'm just going to put my name on it and then if it works, it works. If it doesn't, it doesn't." And a lot of people have success that way. 'And then a lot of people have success the way where they're just living and breathing it every day. And those are the people that I tend to relate to most.'
