I had a dream I went on a brand trip for Spirit Airlines

What have I missed?!!!?

I’m not very good at working during the summer. I’ve missed you guys soo much!

At the top of summer I was randomly thinking that I had never been to South America, and by August my summer wrapped with an unexpected trip to Brazil. The mindpower!

That burst of fall motivation is starting to trickle in, but I still have dozens of vacation photos to edit and the thought alone drains me. Oh, to be a fake ass content creator. 2026 will be the year I get on an ADHD med, I swear.

Anyways, back to schedule.

What did I miss?

• Finally a decent answer to Gen-Alpha skincare. Sincerely Yours, created by YouTuber Salish Matter and her dad Jordan, just launched in Sephora. It’s clearly referencing teeny bopper fave Drunk Elephant, but the branding questionably comes off more mature and with a bit of sophistication for a child’s brand. I guess it couldn’t come across too much like they were reheating Drunk Elephant’s nachos. Sincerely Yours is backed by Strand Equity, the firm behind Youth To The People and R.E.M Beauty. Mildly curious to see where this goes.

  Sidebar: Why does it horrify me when teens have their age in their bio?

• Wyn Beauty is basically unraveling and sales at Ulta (its exclusive retail partner) have steadily declined since the brand’s Spring 2024 launch. I don’t think this brand is underperforming because of celebrity beauty fatigue since we all know people aren’t as over celebrity brands as they claim to be. I love Serena, but it’s obvious this brand was clearly an afterthought. Personally, I don’t think my girl ever cared much about it. If she did, it could have easily been more visible.

  Like J. Lo Beauty and Brad Pitt’s Beau Domaine, it’s one of those celebrity brands that seemed like more of a shell company than a true founder-led brand. Wyn Beauty’s social strategy was initially spotty and then nonexistent outside of a few GRWM’s on TikTok. I’m not surprised Ulta has ended their relationship especially as their own star continues to rise.

• Alo paid all that money to Kendall Jenner for no reason. Where does an athleisure brand have room for a $3,600 purse? I think Alo is being a little delulu about its current brand equity. An unoriginal four-figure leather bag is not where their customer’s aspirations lie. Hard agree with a smart fashion marketing friend of mine, Esoteric_Report, who wrote that this would have worked far better as a luxury collab à la Adidas x Gucci.

  

• NeueHouse has shuttered their doors citing financial challenges. The thing I’ll remember most about NeueHouse is being turned down for an EA role and having to work the floor of the Bloomingdales Flagship instead. RIP NeueHouse .

• Honestly….I feel like Louis Vuitton’s La Beauté and their $160 lipstick stunt would have made a better splash if the launch were a little more stealth and strategically oblivious around the price point.

• On luxury beauty — Tom Ford Beauty needs to be focusing on a way to bring back that discontinued Traceless foundation stick before they even THINK about opening any doors. I posted a video 2 years ago that the day they decide to discontinue this product I’ll lose it, and that day, has sadly come. I’ve never had a single foundation product take me from a 10 to a 12. I am so undone that I can’t even hear the name Tom. Any recs?

• Girl, not Hailey growing on me as a founder, omg? I am being programmed.

  Rhode x Sephora has officially taken flight, with the brand rolling out across every Sephora in the U.S. The launch is being considered the largest in Sephora’s history with Europe next on deck.

  Conversely to Serena’s brand we have to admit that Rhode has seen the success it has because of the founder commitment. It’s clear that this is Hailey’s livelihood. I legit forget she’s also a mother + I’ve started to detach her from who she’s married to, which says a lot about how strongly Rhode is eclipsing her personal narrative.

• On Rhode, their former CEO, Melanie Bender has been teasing her own brand LORE (co-founded with YTTP’s Greg Gonzalez and Milk Makeup’s Mazdack Rassi). After a few weeks of cryptic posts, we’ve now learned the brand will be fragrance.

  Dare I say, I’ve very much been liking what I see, because it’s fucking weird. The content has been a bit mind-bending, something I think the industry needs to disrupt all of this clean girl shit. I should be getting my hands on some gifting soon.

  Melanie, by the way, told me I had the best Substack name. Be jealous!!

  

• A thought:

• Did Recho ever get that $55k role filled? Some may hate it, but after the controversy she’ll only become more successful than ever. Being cancelled has really only ever worked on Daniel Caesar. Recho is a top of mind queen, who I highly doubt was deliberately trying to exploit people with a low-paying role. Let’s have some more grace for the (presumably??) self-funded.

  This Gweneth Paltrow interview was very timely to the backlash.

Anyways, it’s good to be writing again and back to our regularly scheduled program.

Tootles + talk soon!

xox,

SF