Included in today’s issue: Ariana Grande, Benefit Cosmetics, Charlotte Tilbury, Drybar, Espresso Martinis, Khloe Kardashian, Kiehl’s, Luxe Brands, Mac Cosmetics, Rare Beauty, Seen, Simi Haze, Subtl Beauty, Too Faced, and the chic aliens from “Arrival.”

But first…

For introverts, black sheep, and those with excellent personal boundaries, the holiday season’s forced cheeriness and nonstop magic can be rough. Enter “Creepy Christmas,” the Times-approved vibe that swaps cobwebs for snow and black velvet bows for red satin trim.

In holiday terms, Creepy Christmas looks like Jack Skellington invading Disneyland’s Haunted Mansion, and Travis Barker throwing a skeleton next to his Christmas tree. In beauty terms, it looks like in-demand Tim Burton sets by Melt Beauty, pierced black lip glosses at Isamaya French, and totally sold-out black lip gloss at Urban Decay. (It also looks like #NightmareBeforeChristmas trends getting 3.7 billion TikTok views, and searches for HoloGrave Cosmetics — which has a cartoon coffin as a logo — spiking on Google Trends in November and December, instead of tanking after October.)

Much of this is just common sense. Halloween is a billion-dollar driver for brands, and continuing its Goth Lite vibes helps keep “spooky” products like spider-lash mascara and blood red nail lacquer from hitting the clearance bin. But Creepy Christmas also allows creatives to subvert the holiday’s gooey goodness — to spike the eggnog, if you will — appealing to beauty’s ability to help us transform ourselves, even if we can’t transform our family dynamics. (And anyway, the excuse “I have to go fix my eyeliner” will buy you at least 10 minutes away from a Feast of Seven Fishes and Eight Questions About When You’re Getting Married.)

One more reason Creepy Christmas is a benefit to brands, especially smaller ones: These new witchy products can transition beautifully from a spooky holiday gift into woo-woo New Year’s charm. Throw the Ash + Ember Incantation shadow from Rituelle de Fille in with Kaleidos Elixir Lip Glaze and Alicia Keys Aura Mist, and you’re basically just spell-casting in a Miu Miu clutch instead of a cauldron.

Plus! Celebrity Beauty

Lip gloss is the new band tee! On Dec. 18, Madonna and makeup artist Jerrod Blandino launched highlighter, plumping lip gloss, and red lipstick on her Celebration Tour. Other beauty offerings on pop star’s official merch sites: nail gems from Taylor Swift, hair bows from Olivia Rodrigo, and perfume from Beyonce.

Plus, it’s not on her merch site, but On Dec. 18, Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty unveiled four body care items with “no pressure for perfect self-care regimens; it’s the tiny moments of comfort that go a long way.” The lineup includes a body cream, hand cream, aromatherapy pen, and hair and body mist.

Khloe Kardashian announced plans for her new perfume on Dec. 19. It’ll be under the Luxe Brands umbrella, which makes fragrances for Ariana Grande and also for Hummer, like, the automobile. I think this is frankly amazing and really hope Khloe promotes the scent by pumping it from a beige-on-beige SUV through the streets of Beverly Hills. Truly, I would cry with excitement.

Hair

Buzzword alert! “Scalp care” is the new “skin biome” and yet another brand is entering the category. On Dec. 18, Dr. James Kilgour launched KilgourMD, “a revolutionary skincare brand targeting scalp health.” The ethos is similar to SEEN, created by dermatologist Dr. Iris Rubin in 2014.

Drybar will be the official hair partner of the Emmy Awards on Jan. 15 , where they’ll be “working wonders behind the scenes, ensuring impeccable hair touch-ups for everyone who graces the red carpet and Emmy Award winners in the media center.” What I wonder is, will nominees with other major brand deals — like Jenna Ortega and her Dior gig, or, uh, Rihanna — be cool with Drybar hanging onto their coattails / ponytails? Drybar also just signed Bryce Scarlett, who did Margot Robbie’s hair for her Barbie tour, as an ambassador.

Meanwhile, Better Natured dropped their tress trend predictions for 2024, including a color shade called “Espresso Martini.” It’s basically just brown (sorry) but it’s a smart bid for buzz after #StrawberryGirl and #TomatoGirl became Big Things on TikTok. FWIW, #espressohair has about 310,000 views already, while the tag #espressomartini has half a billion. Yep.

Cosmetics

Charlotte Tilbury’s Queen of Luck Luxury Palette drops today, Dec. 21. It’s an eyeshadow quad to “gild your eyes with the lucky glow of the moonlight,” and at $55, it’s best enjoyed after winning a blackjack round.

Too Faced released their new “kissing jelly” on Dec. 15; it’s the lip oil/lip gloss hybrid model we’ve seen a lot this season… But I think Too Faced is the only one making a very sheer blue tint (theirs is called “Sweet Cotton Candy”) which brings out rosy skin and lip undertones. It’s expensive, though — $22!!!

On Dec. 18, Benefit Cosmetics unveiled Whoop Lash, their lash-enhancing serum. For less permanent results, try MAC’s new “stackable” mascara bundle.

Speaking of stackables, Subtl Stacks makeup just closed a $5 million Series A fundraising round with Cult Capital, which has Supergoop and Act + Acre in their portfolio. Subtl’s makeup disks remind me of Simi Haze’s clever packaging, most recently their coaster-like Skin Suede bronzers.

Flirte Beauty created an app to match your nipple color to their lipsticks, thereby finding the (allegedly) perfect shade. I don’t love the idea of a brand being like, “Hey, send nudes” but I do think this idea of nipples-as-final-beauty-frontier is gaining traction, thanks to fashion’s insistence on “freeing” them every spring season. (Rachel Tashjian’s got some good intel on this if you’d like to learn more.)

Skincare

On Dec. 18, Dove and Nike announced a partnership — complete with a Superbowl commercial — aimed at keeping girls involved in sports! This is the first time Dove has done a Superbowl ad in 18 years; it’s connected to their BodyConfidentSport initiative.

Murad’s Cellular Hydration Repair Mask hit Sephora on Dec. 19, just as Kiehl’s released a stick version of their Ultra Facial Barrier Balm. Between the two of them, your skin should endure winter’s recent wind storms just fine.

Geske German Beauty Tech launched a new “AI Powered App” on Dec. 14 that “analyzes the unique needs of each individual’s skin … guiding them towards a personalized skincare routine tailored to their specific needs.” The first step is putting this tiny little spaceship on your cheek. The second step is probably getting Amy Adams to translate your alien letters from inside a NASA tank. Good luck!

Fragrance… Kind Of

New Balance would like you to smell like super-fresh new sneakers. If you shopped at their Sydney, Australia store on Dec. 19, you could have taken home one of 100 bottles of their new, limited-edition fragrance. Otherwise, do you guys know about this insanity?

And Finally...

Wanna buy a beauty brand? Karen and Tom Benjamin, the founders of Mountain Ocean skincare, are selling their indie business and heading off for the mountains… or the ocean… or both. If you acquire it, please send me some of their Skin Trip coconut lotion as a finder’s fee.

Retinol’s popularity may be ageless, but the ingredient has courted regulatory scrutiny.

Following the signing of the Modernisation of Cosmetics Regulations Act (MoCRA), granting the Food & Drug Administration more oversight on beauty products in the US, the European Commission has put one of the beauty industry’s most popular ingredients under review. Under the purview of the European Union’s Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety (SCCS), the regulation is driven by recommendations that overexposure to Vitamin A can result in adverse health outcomes. If it passes, brands will have up to three years to reformulate over-the-counter retinol products sold in the EU or risk losing access to this market for products that go above the recommended limit.

Best used for its ability to treat pigmentation and acne as well as reduce signs of ageing, retinol has long been a skin care staple. The product has seen a wave of new interest in recent years: TikTok searches for retinol have increased by over 44 percent in the UK since 2022, according to beauty trend forecasting platform Spate.

This means the EU regulation will have an international effect on all retinol-based products, transforming the beauty industry’s approach around potent ingredients.

What’s behind the EU’s regulation?

By the end of the year, policy makers in the EU will vote to change existing policies on the use of Vitamin A, with new regulations active in early 2024. The regulation will limit the sale of over-the-counter retinol to a maximum of 0.05 percent concentration in body lotions and 0.3 percent in face and hand products.

Consumers in the EU can currently buy a up to a 2 percent concentration of retinol over the counter, according to Magda Starula, health consultant at Euromonitor. According to SCCS, overexposure to Vitamin A can lead to health outcomes such as skin disorders, weakened bones, nausea and vomiting. But beauty experts say the correlation of these side effects to the use of retinol compared to the consumption of food, including kale, sweet potatoes and eggs, is unclear.

For Mark Curry, co-founder of The Inkey List, the issue is more about digestible Vitamin A and how it increases the absorption of retinol in your bloodstream.

“Retinol is active only when it’s in the skin and most of the ‘juices’ that you get are not pure retinol, it’s some kind of compound that breaks down in the skin to its active version. But even that is broken down fairly quickly by your naturally producing hormones,” he said.

But for the SCCS, cosmetics contribute to the overall intake of Vitamin A which exceeds the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) recommended limit of 3,000 milligrams for European adults. How this translates to the concentration of retinol products is also unclear.

Under this new regulation, affected brands will have 36 months to adjust formulations for existing products containing retinol, retinyl acetate, and retinyl palmitate. For new products entering the EU market, brands will have 18 months to reformulate their product offerings.

The EU Commission declined to provide further details.

How will the EU regulation impact the beauty industry?

For brands like Sunday Riley and Beauty Pie, retinol-based products are their hero products. The regulation will leave many of the industry’s biggest conglomerates thinking about how to navigate the regulation without compromising overall product efficacy. But industry players like Paula’s Choice and Neutrogena, for instance, have already taken steps towards reducing their retinol content. Both have recently launched products with a 0.3 percent concentration of retinol, said Starula.

Some brands are likely to turn to plant-based retinol alternatives such as bakuchiol, which has similar effects to retinol for its ability to increase cell turnover, said London-based medical and cosmetic doctor Ewoma Ukeleghe. But this ingredient is much less potent than retinol, she added.

“At a cellular level [retinol] does much more,” Ukeleghe said. “Not only does it increase skin cell turnover, it also assists with pigmentation, improves breakouts and acne, and it is the only topical that is clinically proven to treat and improve fine lines and wrinkles.”

While it’s possible for brands to offer different formulations of retinol-based products in different markets, this will be a costly approach, according to Curry. Similar to the EU ban of lilial, the ingredient formerly used in Olaplex’s No.3 Treatment, this regulation will likely lead to a global reformulation of industry best sellers like Drunk Elephant’s A-Passioni, The Ordinary’s Retinol 1%, and The Inkey List’s 1% Retinol Serum as brands consolidate formulas across key markets.

But ultimately, this regulation will not limit consumer access to higher concentrations of retinol. Companies such as Dermatica and Skin+ Me already distribute prescription strength skin care through their direct-to-consumer platforms.

Ukelegh expects to see beauty labels add 0.7 percent or 1 percent retinol to their portfolios.

What are the alternatives to retinol?

Under EU’s regulation of Vitamin A, brands will start to explore ingredients with similar anti-ageing effects, such as novoretin, for example, which activates the same pathway as retinol, according to Starula.

“Raw material suppliers are now increasingly looking at biotechnology and how they can do things that support similar pathways without having that [retinol] source active,” said Curry.

But as the rapid rise and fall of manufacturer-turned-beauty-conglomerate Amyris has shown, communicating the viability of bio-based ingredients in a way that resonates with consumers is challenging, particularly as the desire for more potent and active ingredients continues to rise.

As consumer expectations change, such regulations will not only have an impact on skin care products, the food supplement market will also start to see a shift as policy makers begin to consolidate efforts across different sectors in a bid to protect consumers from ingredients with potential health risks.

But when the virality of ‘skintellectuals’ is driving customers’ buying decisions, “this regulation intensifies one of the beauty industry’s biggest problems - confusing the consumer,” said Curry.

A little over a month ago Bangladeshi union leader Babul Hossain was arrested, picked up for charges of vandalism and assault levelled in a police complaint that included more than 1,000 unnamed individuals.

Hossain, his family and other union members have all testified he wasn’t in the area when the alleged incident took place and claim his arrest is politically motivated, according to testimony gathered by labour rights monitoring organisation Worker Rights Consortium last month.

He’s one of more than 100 garment workers and labour advocates jailed in Bangladesh between October and November, according to the WRC, as mass demonstrations over wage levels were met with threats and violence. Many, including Hossain, are still in jail.

The situation in the country is ratcheting up scrutiny on Western brands that have committed to protect freedom of association for workers in their supply chain and say they support higher wages.

They are navigating a tense political landscape in Bangladesh, where the government has cracked down on its opposition ahead of elections expected in January. Thousands of leaders and activists have been arrested, prompting public pressure from the US to ensure the election is free and fair.

Last week, eight members of Congress, including representatives Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote to trade group the American Apparel and Footwear Association calling for US brands to support higher wages and condemn the violent repression of labour advocates.

“The escalating repression that Bangladeshi workers are enduring underscores the urgent need for transformative, systemic reform — a call to action that U.S. corporations must heed,” the letter said.

The AAFA said it and its members have continuously stated their commitment to support wage increases and condemn the recent violence.

Wage protests in the country escalated after an agreement to increase the minimum salary for garment workers by nearly 60 percent announced last month. The new baseline of $113 a month still falls far short of the $210 a month unions say is needed to lift salaries above poverty levels. The overall increase is smaller than it seems once inflation is taken into account.

Four workers were killed and dozens more seriously injured during protests last month. Blanket charges were filed against more that 20,000 workers, some by suppliers to major fashion companies, WRC found.

The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association said that cases were filed in response to vandalism, violence and looting that took place during the protests and have not targeted employees.

Hossein’s second bail hearing is scheduled for Thursday. His first appeal was denied, according to Taslima Akhter, his union’s president.

Learn more:

A ‘Climate of Fear’ in Fashion’s Supply Chains

The killing of a union leader in Bangladesh this summer has heightened anxiety over the risks facing labour organisers amid a broader, often violent, crackdown on labour rights.