The culture of tech, food & beauty
The business and culture of beauty — brands, rituals, and the stories behind what we put on our skin.
On 4 Oct 2026 Kyunghyang reported MFDS data to Rep. Lee In-young: 166 AI or suspected-AI unfair ads in Jan–Jul 2026, above last year’s 93. Of 83 general-food cases, 61 had no AI label. Fake-expert food-ad ban takes effect 27 Nov.
Bio Ionic launched its limited-edition Jade Dream hot-tools collection into 1,500 Ulta Beauty stores, the first time the jade colorway has left direct and pro channels.
Seoul Beauty Week 2026 drew 147 companies and buyers from 48 countries — up from 52 and 18 in 2022 — with Kolmar Korea as official partner for a fifth year.
Valentino Beauty unveiled Vendetta, a fragrance duo fronted by Dakota Johnson and Alexander Skarsgård, with a 35mm campaign film by Romain Gavras.
Merit launches into 37 Sephora stores across Australia and New Zealand on September 30, 2026, with early access for Beauty Pass members from September 28.
LG H&H sold Avon North America to Regent affiliate Stratford Worldwide for about $6 million, seven years after paying roughly $125 million — reuniting Avon globally.
Henkel closed its $1.4 billion Olaplex takeover at $2.06 a share, delisting the brand and becoming global No. 2 in professional hair care.
L’Oréal won a 50-year exclusive worldwide license for Gucci beauty from Kering, effective July 2027 — a year early — with Coty paid ~$400M to exit.
Waldencast agreed to sell Obagi Medical to Bridgepoint for up to $460M, refocusing on Milk Makeup and repaying ~$178M in debt.
Rhode, Hailey Bieber’s e.l.f.-owned brand, entered Latin America via Mexico and added seven European markets, extending its push after e.l.f.’s $1B acquisition.
Boots’ owner Sycamore is exploring a ~$10B sale of the UK chain over a London IPO; Australia’s Sigma Healthcare confirmed talks and the Weston family is also circling.
Glossier secured a $45M credit facility from Tiger Finance — its first outside capital since 2021 — as CEO Colin Walsh runs a leaner turnaround, cutting stores from 12 to three.
EU negotiators agreed on the "Omnibus VI" package to simplify cosmetics and chemicals rules — saving the sector an estimated €363 million a year — while keeping key safeguards.
Givaudan agreed to buy a majority stake in Spain’s Eurofragance, a pure-play fragrance house with 2025 sales above €200 million, expanding in high-growth markets.
The FDA approved bemotrizinol, the first new sunscreen active ingredient in the U.S. in about 20 years — a broad-spectrum UVA/UVB filter usable from August 9, 2026.
Bath & Body Works will sell in 600+ Ulta Beauty stores and Ulta.com from July 12, 2026 — its first major wholesale deal; BBWI shares rose ~6%.
e.l.f. Beauty launched its first haircare line, “e.l.f. Hair” — six products priced $6–$10 — rolling out via TikTok Shop and Target, after 25% net-sales growth in fiscal 2026.
On June 18, 2026, L’Oréal agreed to take a majority stake in Innovist, a digital-first Indian personal-care house of brands (Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play).
At VivaTech on June 17, 2026, L’Oréal and OpenAI announced a partnership to bring verified product data, Maybelline virtual try-on, and ad pilots into ChatGPT.
The Estée Lauder Companies, Jo Malone London and Pinterest launched "Scent Scanner," an AI tool that reads the imagery on your Pinterest boards and translates your visual taste into personalized Jo Malone fragrance recommendations.
South Korean PE firm PTA Partners has been named preferred bidder for a 70% stake in COSBELLE, a Provence organic-cosmetics maker — reportedly the first time a Korean fund has bought a French cosmetics manufacturer, as K-beauty shifts from exporting to owning Western production.
L'Oréal's Cell BioPrint — a tabletop "lab-on-a-chip" co-developed with NanoEntek — reads skin protein biomarkers from a tape strip in about five minutes. It debuted at CES 2025 and is now rolling out at scale under Lancôme in 2026.
L'Oréal is acquiring a majority stake in Innovist, the Bengaluru digital-first house behind Bare Anatomy and Chemist at Play — its first Indian acquisition since 2013, reportedly valuing the firm at around $350–450 million.
At VivaTech 2026, L'Oréal and OpenAI announced a sweeping partnership: Maybelline virtual try-on inside ChatGPT, AI-native ads for CeraVe and Garnier, and an OpenAI science model to study skin's microbiome for La Roche-Posay.
Reddit beauty fans are reacting to the FDA first new sunscreen active ingredient since the late 1990s. The change matters, but it does not instantly clear every Korean SPF formula for U.S. shelves.