Someone's lying about not buying SKIMS
Their $48 Sculpt Face Wrap sold out in hours.
Welcome to Beauty Bureau!
To celebrate National Black Business Month in August each letter will highlight Black beauty brands! I’ll share a few of my favorites and also if you have some brands you’d like to share, send an email to hello@dardencreative.com
Today’s Letter SKIMS and KK have a pulse on our insecurities, SS x AE will only get one paragraph out of me, Tracee Ellis Ross for Self Magazine, Rare Beauty announces new fragrance launch
SKIMS Seamless Sculpt Face Wrap sells out in hours. The news—the collagen yarns infused sculpting face wrap is $48 and was available in two colors. There are velcro closures at the top and nape of the neck, so you can sculpt that face everyday… yes, every day. And guess what, it sold out.
As someone who worked in product development a sold out launch can be misleading, especially if it was a MOQ (minimum order quantity). MOQ usually happen to test interest before making a bigger resource commitment. So let’s assume they did a MOQ of 10,000 units per color. 10,000 units doesn’t sound like a lot, but 20,000 people bought something to mimic a less evasive face lift.
I won’t deny my fascination of the Kardashian clan, specifically Kim, who has risen from reality tv infamy to become a business mogul (let’s be honest here!) who also uses her influence to help with prison reform. I still watch Keeping Up with The Kardashians when it sporadically shows up on my Hulu queue. It’s entertaining and fascinating to see how the 1% live (no surprise it’s detached from reality most times).
The point I’m trying to make and not sure if I’m making is, although KK is often mentioned as appropriating Black culture in her come up and then dropping it (which is true)…along with removing some implants to cater to thinness culture & maintain relevancy (allegedly) with people declaring they do not purchase her products…SOMEONE is lying. Gotta be lying (or maybe people are secretly buying SKIMS). Because selling (possibly) 20,000 face sculpting wraps in 2 days is astounding.
Mouth tape, waist trainers, booty sculpting leggings, buccal fat removal surgery, this is just another item that plays on our insecurities and obsession with thinness. Plastic surgery is on the rise, with many clients desiring to mimic features created by IG filters. When I speak with friends (and from what I see from online observations) Black women (and men) are becoming more comfortable with cosmetic procedures whether it’s fillers, botox or rhinoplasty. Have you seen this doctor’s work???! This is not a knock on plastic surgery but rather to drive home the point that KK and Co. have a pulse on what’s happening and are creating seemingly good products to capitalize on them.
Rare Beauty announces fragrance collection. The collection includes Rare Eau de Parfum and 4 Layering Balms created with the intent to mix with the parfum. The collection launches on the Sephora app on August 6th and in Sephora stores August 7th. I’m curious to try it! Rare Beauty is definitely a celebrity makeup success story, with the brand generating $350 million in revenue in 2023 and has a $1.3 billion valuation. As Ochuko Akpovbovbo mentioned in as seen on, there seem to be signs of an exit but of course time will tell.
Several letters ago, brand strategist Claire Moskal named accessibility as a beauty packaging trend to watch:
Accessibility. Rare Beauty has prioritized easy to open packaging for people with dexterity issues, and Isamaya Beauty is planing to launch packaging with the inclusion of braille. L'Occitane has had braille on packaging since 1997, but with the inclusion of Rare Beauty and Isamaya, I think it’s something to pay attention to. The inclusion of braille on packaging can fill a real void in the market and not just a temporary request for novelty.
Recently on Gloss Angeles the Chief Product Officer, Joyce Kim shared why they chose an oversized actuator to cater to people who have dexterity trouble. Very cool!
SS x AE will only get a paragraph from me. In 2018, MIT scholars reported that on Twitter “false news stories are 70% more likely to be retweeted than true stories.” In addition they found false tweets move 20 times faster than facts. Although this was research on misinformation, let’s apply this to rage bait. Rage is strong currency in our current social media landscape. Unfortunately, decision makers know this and are willing to jeopardize or bypass their brand’s ethos for visibility and clicks. In the words of Nikita Walia “rage bait is a strategy and some brands are absolutely leveraging it.” Checkmate.
And speaking of false news: this fake Levi’s ad is making its rounds on Threads.
Tracee Ellis Ross for Self Magazine. I aspire to Tracee’s kind of carrying on. The Self Magazine spread was absolutely beautiful and sexy. The wardrobe stylist Dione Davis (who I first learned from The Cutting Room Floor Podcast) did her big one with this spread. Cheers to the entire team!
Reading the words "carrying on" brought me so much joy. Thank you.