Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.
Welcome to Haul of Fame, your weekly roundup tracking the new products and ideas driving the beauty industry forward.
Included in this week’s issue: Barrière, Dr Melaxin, Ilia, Lalique, MAC Cosmetics, Rocco, Rhode, Roundlabs and Salt & Stone.
But first…
Parents shopping for kid-friendly beauty products today are spoiled for choice: From sheet masks to body sprays, a new raft of brands are intent on catering to children’s TikTok-driven demands. But few are tackling the actual basics that every parent buys regularly, like gentle shampoo or hair detangler, and that are less suited to the #GRWM videos tweens love to binge.
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On Tuesday, Fipl became one of them, launching exclusively direct-to-consumer with a daily shampoo and conditioner, body wash and detangling spray. The brand was started by Victoria Gioia, the co-founder of prenatal vitamin brand Perelel, and her husband Greg Gioia after they noticed a dearth of disruptor brands geared toward the ages of four and 12.
“There’s a ton of brands in baby,” said Victoria Gioia, “and then there’s a lot of brands that are playing in the teen-tween space. That felt like a mismatch for what our kids needed.” The bootstrapped brand is a separate entity from Perelel, which announced a $27 million funding round last fall.
The current market remains dominated by conglomerate-owned incumbents, with children’s shampoo options by Aussie, Suave, Johnson & Johnson and Aveeno selling at big-box stores for around $5–$10 a bottle. The only disruptor brand to hit it big in the space has been The Honest Company, a baby line co-founded by the actress Jessica Alba, though it has had roughly an 81 percent drop in stock price since it went public in 2021 at a $1.4 billion valuation. But the obsession with capturing Gen Alpha beauty routines, focused more on trending ingredients and bright packaging, has yielded far more brands offering colourful tween skincare products, such as Sincerely Yours or Bubble, than replenishable bathtime products.
There’s Pipette on the masstige end, with a 330 mL shampoo that goes for around $12 and is available at Target, and the more premium Evereden, which sells a 200 mL option for $33 as the first kids’ care brand at Sephora along with other lines for babies, tweens and moms. Australian brand Mimi Haircare For Kids will be launching at CVS in the US next week, with shampoo retailing for $13.
Fipl, which is an acronym for the first letters of the couple’s four kids’ names, falls in between these prices at $20 for a 280 mL bottle, and is differentiating itself with clean ingredient messaging that will appeal to the crunchy mom cohort and mainstream parents alike. As the success of The Honest Co. shows, many parents are moving to cleaner baby and kids formulations, especially as Johnson & Johnson publicly contends with lawsuits over baby product ingredients.
“We really focused on not being ‘premium-premium,’” said Greg Gioia. “We wanted this to be as accessible as possible.”
The marketing strategy for this product lineup aligns more with baby than tween products. This means messaging to Millennial moms rather than their Gen Alpha offspring and working with momfluencers, not the Gen-Z influencers doing skincare tutorials for rapt tween audiences.
“They’re not quite ready to be in this tween space. They’re not talking about skincare, and I don’t think they should be,” said Victoria Gioia. Instead of forcing parents to stave off demands for $60, age-inappropriate face creams, Fipl is geared toward the age group that needs to learn about basic hygiene in the first place. It appeals to this target demographic with user-friendly bottles and colourful, kid-friendly caps designed to alleviate bathtime battles.
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The first hurdle will be winning over parents, but the real challenge is making something kids want to use.
“We get the question, ‘Why do I have to wash my hair?’” said Greg Gioia of the couple’s own kids’ mindset. “The front door is the parents, but then once we’ve landed on the shelf, hopefully the kids love it.”
What else is new?
Skincare
Who: Rhode
What: Mexico launch and “summer station” pop-up
When: June 9
Why: As long as Hailey Bieber’s skincare label continues its global expansion I will continue to use the pun: The global Rhode show continues. The brand expanded its direct-to-consumer operations to Mexico on Tuesday, coinciding with the launch of their summer collection. The collection launch set a site traffic record of 1.75 million visits on day one, along with 90,000 new customers, and recorded over 700,000 waitlist sign-ups — the most demand for any Rhode anything ever, according to the brand. They also sold out of two shades of the luminiser and one shade of the bronzer on day one.
The tour continues at home: Starting this week, Rhode’s “summer station” pops up in Newport, Rhode Island to hawk its new bronzers, highlighting milks and merchandise before heading on to Dallas, Texas where you can buy the sold out items and exclusive merch. Sephora US, Canada and the UK will have the collection starting June 25.
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Who: Dr Melaxin
What: Ulta Launch
When: June 7
Why: Dr Melaxin launched on Ulta.com this week, with plans to roll into 1500 Ulta Beauty doors later in the year. The brand is the second most popular beauty label on TikTok Shop, finding sweeping success with heroes such as Collagen Calcium eye patches and Calcium Intense cream.
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Who: Barrière
What: Burn Notice: UV Glow Stickers ($12.98)
When: June 15
Why: Barrière is truly innovating the patch category. Fresh off the drop of its lactose-intolerance patches, the brand has entered the suncare space. A clear patch when applied, Burn Notice gradually comes into focus with UV exposure: Once the hidden artwork is visual, it’s a sign to reapply your SPF.
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Who: Round Lab
What: Birch Juice Moisturising Sun Serum ($32)
When: June 16
Why: Round Lab has held the number one spot of Olive Young’s suncare category since 2021. It’s bidding to retain that crown with a new offering, an SPF 50 that combines vegan PDRN and a concentrated hydrating essence.
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Who: Rocco
What: Brand launch
When: June 17
Why: An exciting merger: Upcoming skincare label Rocco was developed with neuroscientists, and each products pairs clinically proven ingredients with mood-boosting scents. Feel-good skincare — literally!
Makeup
Who: MAC Cosmetics
What: Chappell Roan Viva Glam ambassador announcement and collection
When: June 9
Why: Ms Roan is the new face of Viva Glam, and her limited-edition collection hit stores on Wednesday with three lip products: Lipglass Air Non-Sticky Gloss in limited-edition shade Damsel, MACximal Silky Matte Viva Glam Lipstick in UnNatural Red Head and Lustreglass Sheer-Shine Lipstick in Roan of Arc. As with all Viva Glam collections, 100 percent of proceeds will go to the brand’s HIV/AIDS charity.
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Who: Ilia Beauty
What: Haim partnership
Why: June 9
Why: Ilia’s bestselling super serum skin tint has a new face — or three. Its new campaign with rock group Haim, titled Almost Ready, spotlights the sisters’ skincare routines with a short video of the trio getting ready for a shoot. Maybe they were wearing Super Serum skin tint courtside at the Knicks this week?
Body care
Who: Salt & Stone
What: Lily & Yuzu collection (from $33)
When: June 16
Why: Back by popular demand: Salt & Stone’s beloved but short-lived Aritzia collaboration Lily & Yuzu is now part of its permanent lineup. Now with packaging that fits the brand’s wider catalogue, the scent will be available as a deodorant, body wash and body mist.
Other
Who: Lalique
What: Tales of Light home scents collection (from $85)
When: June 15
Why: Luxury French house Lalique has introduced its newest scent collection. Each of the six Art Deco-inspired candles are designed to emulate a key event in its founder’s life — and as is befitting for the luxury glass label, are keepsakes once the wax is burned away.
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