EWB 4.17 V1 Nick: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to Eyewitness Beauty, the podcast where we talk about the biggest stories in the beauty industry each week. I'm Nick Axelrod Welk, joined as always by the increasingly stunning Annie Diamond Creekbomb. Annie: Stop. My brother in Christ. Nick: We're rebranding. Annie: yeah, I've been thinking a lot about the Texas Evangel Well, and the algorithm, but the Texas Texan evangelical accent and how they say eyes, how they say ours. It's like a very sharp, I think people, when they describe a Texas accent, they often associate it with like a drawl, which to me is like kind of slow and [00:01:00] deep, but it's actually, there's a lot of back of the. Throat kind of nasal action that goes into the like sharper like it's up here more, you know Nick: How are, how are you Annie? the devil get inside your head recently. Annie: I was thinking a lot about confessionals. I think Catholicism is just so much. I know that it comes with a lot of baggage, but I think it's so much cooler. Nick: Then what? Evangelical Christianity? Annie: Yeah. I mean, Nick: to be fair, Catholics, Catholics, Catholics have had a much longer time to like refine their message and like the traditions and the outfits. Yeah. It's like, No, you I love Annie: about Catholicism? What? The confessional booths. Those are just, it's a work of art. If, if you've been to, um, church, I think actually, okay, so somebody told me one time, and I don't know if this is true. So readers weigh [00:02:00] in if you're a Methodist, but that met Methodists were are like a diet. I Nick: thought that's Protestants. Annie: Protestants? Nick: Protestants broke off as the Church of England when that king wanted to marry a divorced woman. Annie: Listen, I, I'm not a, wait, isn't Methodism a sect of Protestants? Nick: Now you're, you're, we're, I'm outside my, my knowledge zone. Annie: Did you bring a verse from the Old Testament, Nick? No, Nick: but what is funny is when I had my bar mitzvah, I did. I think my verse was like, Wow, Leviticus something. I pulled a verse from Leviticus Annie: today, but go ahead, go ahead. Nick: Part of my, like the, picture story that I was telling in Hebrew [00:03:00] was about how if a man lies with another man, they shall be stoned. And I was like, I Annie: didn't talk, I didn't, Nick: I didn't read that piece. I, I did some editing, you know, the rabbi and I went through the Torah and decided we were going to like take a few things out. Really? No, but like, I remember reading the translation of it and that being part of it, because it's also like, if a woman, you know, if, uh, you know, a woman lies with a married man or like, you know, there's all that sort of stuff. Annie: Oh yeah. Cause I actually, I had this prepared. This is Leviticus 18, seven, verse seven Nick: snaps. Annie: Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is, she is a mother. Do not have relations with her. I'm glad somebody said it. You know if they had to, you know, if they had to put that in there, it was Nick: I [00:04:00] know that's the thing about the Bible that we don't really think about is the reason why they put all this shit in is because someone was doing it. You know what I mean? Like, you know, why they're, you know, why Jews can't eat shellfish? Refrigeration. Annie: Yeah, okay. Yeah, didn't a lot, a lot of the rules had something loosely tied to health care, actually. Nick: Correct, and like, Jews have weaker stomachs than most, I think all of us would agree, in the community. And they were just like, I don't know, shellfish seems a little risky when we're talking ancient Egypt, you know what I mean? Annie: You know what? Let's get into Top Stories. Nick: It's time for Top Stories. Annie: I wanna say, look what you did, you little jerks. You're putting the talc, the talcum powder lawsuits is putting Ben Nye, historic makeup brand, you know, Ben Nye. Is he related to Nick: Bill Nye? Who's Ben Nye? Annie: that's a thought that's always crossed my mind whenever [00:05:00] this brand. I've never heard of Ben Nye. Nick: You're the first person to ever tell me about him. Annie: Nick, if you saw the packaging, because it's also a huge YouTuber brand. They, they did the banana powder. That's all the drag queens were using Ben Nye makeup. You go to like the theater district at the Alcone store, or there's a really great I forget what it's called. Oh, Manhattan wardrobe supply. Nick: They filed for bankruptcy. Annie: Yeah. They had to file for chapter 11 because of all of the talcum powder related. Lawsuits talk related lawsuits, and we've already covered it on the podcast. There's been Nick: like talc is not the problem Annie: Talk is not the problem. They've proven that it's not actually linked to cancer And so in fact, I think in the European Union, they've taken like quite a strong stance on that. It's not I don't think it's being pulled from the EU and we know that they have higher standards than we do over here in the US on a lot of things but [00:06:00] And I think, I think people don't realize when stuff goes to court and science is entered into evidence in court. It's not always interpreted in the way in which the researchers intended or in the way that it actually is. Reflects like truth. It's all in the way that the counsel or like whoever's arguing the case interprets the data and convinces the judge to accept it as truth. Does that make sense? Nick: Yeah. don't know. Okay. I, so what we're saying is that like the fact, like it's how you use the facts and how you use data points that sort of like, and it's also hearts and minds, right? Like remember when parabens were like the big enemy and everyone was like freaking out about parabens. Parabens aren't the enemy. Annie: It's also sad because like, once that information gets to the consumer level, it's so hard as a consumer to know where to get your information and what to believe, and you just want to be careful. But these people doing these frivolous lawsuits against Ben [00:07:00] Nye, godfather of full glam. Baking Nick: powder. Can I say one other thing? Speaking of which, So I read something that I read an article that said that, did you know that if you use olive oil, that's in a plastic container, you're like absorb, if you eat the olive oil, you're eating microplastics because olive oil degrades plastic. Annie: Jesus Christ. Nick: Yeah. Annie: Isn't that whole Nick: Graza. So there's like that Graza like squeeze olive oil. I guess the idea with that is that you're going through it fast enough that it's not like degrading the olive oil or it's, sorry, it's not, you know, being degraded because it's being used so quickly. Annie: Here's my question. Is the plastic PCR? If so, then, you know. Nick: No, but it's like PCR isn't even that good. And guess what? Plastic can only be recycled one time. So if you add PCR to your packaging as a brand. That packaging can't be recycled. [00:08:00] Annie: And it can't be squeezable either. If it's PCR, PCR is like quite rigid. So anyway, whatever. You Nick: can't really win. Annie: We have more bad news. Nick: Oh, Annie: This also goes into our decision to rethink this, how we do things here in the podcast, because this is a beauty news podcast and. Let me just say, I think the beauty industry is over. We've been, Music: we've been put out of Annie: business. Ulta shares have dropped 15%. That's bad. This is last Wednesday. Nick: I read that. But then I also saw a headline that was talking about how you know, obviously there's been lots of, Talk recently about how luxury fashion sales are slowing. So LVMH reported a first quarter sales increase of 3%. But that's, I guess being seen as. [00:09:00] A confirmation that luxury demand is slowing. Sales, Annie: uh, Nick: what do you mean? What was like they Annie: reported, oh, they reported a decline or a rise. Nick: Well, it was, it's a sales are up, but. Annie: Right, okay Nick: on an organic basis, but they fell two percent on a reported basis I don't know what the fuck that means, but it's not good Annie: This is what we're talking about when you just use the data for your own Nick: Yeah, louis vitton and laura piana both doing really well for lvmh Christian Dior was slightly below averages. Watches and jewelry sales fell 2%. Wine and spirits was the worst performing division with sales falling 12%. But, remarkable growth. At cosmetics chain, Sephora drove the division up 11%, even as duty free retailer DFS continued to struggle. [00:10:00] LVMH said, according to business of fashion, perfume and cosmetic sales grew 7%. So here we are again, the beauty industry. Is carrying the weight of the luxury fashion industry on its shoulders. Annie: That's very interesting. Cause first, so long in recent history, Ulta has been outperforming Sephora, but now Sephora is out. That's great. Well, Nick: no, I don't know if Ulta versus Sephora, but like. Annie: No, but I mean, Alta is like having a little misstep right now. Nick: Yeah. Annie: Demand is decreasing. At least they're probably still killing it. Like in comparison to, Nick: yeah. And also like, I don't really under, how does, what does that mean? We need an economics person, luxury conglomerate. This is what it says in BOF luxury conglomerate LVMH reported first quarter sales up 3 percent on an. On an organic basis. And then the next paragraph is sales fell 2 percent on a reported basis. I don't know what that means. What's organic versus [00:11:00] reported? Annie: No idea. Nick: No fucking clue. Anyway, we'll put a pin in that. Yeah, that's like all I mean, so is there any other good news? Ew, Annie: ew, I don't like that. Nick: I don't know. I mean, like the answer is no, there's not really good news. I Annie: mean, here's the problem. Instagram has just been giving me evangelical Christian content. It's in a really dark place right now. The algorithm is like trying to be too powerful, and I think it's just showing the limitations of AI. Which has been also a topic of discussion over the past week. And can I say one other Nick: thing quickly? The one other piece of new news that tickled me a little bit, Charlotte Tilbury launched fragrances for the first time and the names and the vibe are so Charlotte Tilbury. There's one called Love Frequency. There's one called More [00:12:00] Sex. There's one called Joyphoria. Magic Energy. Magic Energy. That someone was paid to think of that name. Calm, Bliss, and Cosmic Power. It's like they got less and less excited about this project as they kept naming them. Annie: We have to make those refrigerator magnets. I think that would be so funny. For like Nick: beauty, like how to like create beauty copy? That would kind of be genius. Annie: I mean, this is fun, I guess. I, I mean, it's an interesting strategy to launch how many? Six fragrances at a single time? Nick: Yeah, I don't know. 25 to 150 for 100 milliliters. Here's what else we missed. Serena Williams launched Wynn Beauty at Ulta. Rita Ora launched Type B, Type B haircare. We talked about Annie: this last week. Nick: We talked about [00:13:00] that, but we didn't talk about Serena Williams, did we? Annie: Yeah. I said that brand doesn't need to exist, which I still believe. Nick: Oh, okay. Annie: Sorry. Babe, keep up. Do you not listen to our podcast? Nick: I mean, I guess it's been like a sort of slow, I mean, here's what I want to talk about. Is everyone, all the beauty writers or reporters are talking about how M& A, mergers and acquisition market is heating up and like, will it be rare beauty? Will it be merit? Will it be glossier? I don't see anything happening. When's it happening? Annie: I think we should put all of our energy towards manifesting the glossier one in my personal opinion. Love and light. So readers, do your thing, get, get those crystals out, charge Nick: your crystals in the beautiful sunshine and get to manifesting. Please, please guess what [00:14:00] can we do want to make a promise on this podcast that if Glossier sells or goes public, we will continue making this podcast free in perpetuity. The Annie: only caveat is, if I end up with, Life changing money, which again, read it, like get the crystals, get the, whatever you, let's pray to God. I mean, actually forget the crystals is a Christian podcast. We're going to all pray. but if it's life changing money, that's fine. Like I've always said, you'll never hear from me again. So Um, Nick: okay. I have another piece of news. Pleasing by Harry Styles. Guess what they just launched? Furry keychains. Annie: Okay, merch? Nick: I don't care. I can't even believe they're still in business. There's one that's like grapes. There's one that's called the lion's underpants. The fancy bunny. The Black Cat, the Don't Ladybug Me keychain, but like, what does one [00:15:00] piece of this gosh darn brand have to do with another? Will you explain it to me? Who's in charge of it? Why, who are these characters? And like, why haven't we met them before? Annie: What? Is it just his thing? Does he own his brand 100 percent or is it like I Nick: don't, I don't know. Annie: I mean that would give us some insight on like what the deal is. I'm Nick: googling it. Annie: This, I think it's kind of refreshing if it is a brand where they just have too much money where they don't know what to do with it and they're just being like weird. Unfortunately it creates a lot of waste but I But like Nick: why plushy keychains? Annie: Yeah. I mean, I think it's like, what is that? What is that? I just, I'm saying what a fun work environment. Actually. I did consult for a company that had too much money to know what to do with. And the company had been failing for years and years and years. But they will never, they will never go out of business because they're so flush with just, [00:16:00] Insane. Well, I Nick: mean, it's not, which Annie: made like, which made it a kind of strange culture. I've never, I've never seen that in another work environment. You know what I mean? Nick: I mean, so there's a CEO of pleasing as of last year named Sean Kearney. He came from Vogue or sorry, from goop. Same thing. And it's been very quiet. It can't be doing well. I I have to imagine it's because he's not supporting it in a big way And it's like he's sort of over it or something. I don't understand Annie: My question is why do you keep seeing it and I never see anything about it? It's like Nick: I follow them on instagram. Do you? Annie: No, Nick: oh, Annie: I don't like following things that I don't like Nick: I know but i'm not like a hate follower. I just Annie: like I don't like that. I'm actually I think I have a pretty healthy [00:17:00] like You I can turn it off, like I don't need to do, yeah, I don't, if I don't want to see something, I don't, I typically don't go and look for it, you know? Nick: Yeah. Annie: I think it'll be like a weight off your shoulders just to hit that little unfollow button. Nick: Really? But then who's gonna keep tabs on, who's gonna keep tabs on pleasing? Annie: I think you're the reason that pleasing still exists. I think it's like they're like Nick: He's like at least we're taught like at least people are talking about it. Annie: Yeah Nick: I'm the problem think of how Annie: many think of how many keychains you just sold on this podcast. Our readers are rich Did you know that? Nick: I had a feeling I I could I got that vibe Oh, you know what else I want to shout out? Every so often, not every so often, probably like once a week, Casey my husband comes home and he's like another, I had another patient from the pod and that is really [00:18:00] amazing. Casey loves, loves it when there's a reader of the pod that comes in because he loves me. And so he loves like talking about me. Psych. No, I'm kidding. No, I'm serious. I love Annie: Casey and I, he's Nick: also a genius, so it's worth going to him for if you're gonna get any kind of cosmetic or aesthetic treatments, because I think he's the most judicious. He's like, not gonna just give you what you want. He's gonna like give you what's right. Annie: He's gonna tell you what you want. Nick: I just got dify and it's fucking incredible. That's like the long lasting. Botox. Annie: Oh wow. That's scary to me. But it looks like, Nick: it just like smooths out my forehead, but like, it just looks natural. Like, I can still, I still have movement, but like, just less. Annie: Did I tell you I, I found a study that corroborated our theory that getting Botox makes [00:19:00] you feel less stressed? Nick: Yeah, I thought we, I thought that was based on a study. Annie: Oh, okay, maybe we googled it while we were talking about it. But, it, especially if you're a scowler, because you've kind of trained your muscles to be stressed, and then you feel that physical stress, and then the Botox just releases that, and you just feel, it's literally like releasing pressure from your, like, sinus area. Nick: It's like look good, feel good. Annie: It's truly incredible, it's incredible stuff. And when is Botox hurt anyone? Oh my God. We didn't talk about those women that I sent you that video that we're doing the butt injections, the mother daughter team, Nick: illegal butt injections. I that's too, I can't even think it's so Annie: dark. It's so scary. It's, it reminds me of like the fugitive that got plastic surgery and wherever she was, Costa Rica. What it's that, what a dark place you have to [00:20:00] be or how. How ignorant do you have to be about just basic hygiene? Nick: I think people, like, are too trusting, maybe. Annie: It is just so, it blows my mind how irresponsible that is. You cannot do that. I, I even, I hate You cannot get Nick: butt injections from a mother daughter duo. Annie: From like Craig's List or That literally they had like bottles of stuff that they couldn't even identify with the, they had, it's clear fluid. They couldn't identify what it was. They probably got it on Sheehan. And they were injecting it into people and they had dog pee pads as like the fluid, you know, for the, Nick: oh God, Annie: the fluid, like, oh, it's, it's like truly a horror movie material. In fact, they should do a horror movie about dogs. Nobody steal that ip. That's copywritten. Nick: They look, they haven't stolen any of the IP we've given, we've given out [00:21:00] yet, and so I trust we don't know that. Don't steal that. We should, we Annie: should check deadlines. They're probably like Michael Poppins premiering on a C Family . Nick: Yeah. If you ever, if I ever disappear, it's because Michael Poppins got at Disney and I'm a show runner. . Honestly, Annie: they're like, we love it, but we want it to be. Nick: Michael Poppins is such a good idea. Can we have a moment for Michael Poppins again? Annie: Do you think it would be like Will and Grace where you're making like a gay, the gay lifestyle more palatable to like an evangelical audience? Did we say that Nick: Michael? Oh, Michael Poppins, right? Because he was, he was Mary Poppins. He was gay nephew. Yeah. And he was like, he's been dining out on the fact that like, he's like, yeah, my aunt's Mary Poppins, like his whole life. Annie: Yeah. Nick: And like, and Annie: also I think there's like a lot of joke about jokes about poppers. Nick: Oh, good. Too far. Maybe. Annie: Am I, am I an ally [00:22:00] or am I an asshole? Nick: No, you're an ally, I think. Annie: Okay. Because I think I, I feel a little bad. I feel like I sometimes like imply that gay people have a lot of sex and like party, and I know that there's a, I know that there's an infinity amount of gay personalities. Nick: Yeah. The limit does not exist and. Annie: Literally, no two gay people are alike. Nick: It's true. We're like snowflakes. Anyway, I don't think, I think that that's all we have. And we've, because of our technical disabilities, we've spent like a zillion hours, god damn, doing this. I have to go, I have to take a shower. No, we have to keep going. I have to leave my house. I have to go, you know, face the world. Annie: Oh, but my Vyvanse just kicked in. We got to keep going. Did I tell you I finally found, that's my product of the week. I finally found a pharmacy with every pharmacy, cause we talked about this on the podcast too, I don't know if you'll remember, or to our new readers. So the Vyvanse. [00:23:00] Vyvanse's patent expired last year, I believe, or the year before. And so that means that they could finally make a generic, but the drug companies lobbied the government to put a cap on the number, on the amount of Vyvanse's they can make. And so it's impossible, especially in a city like New York, where we're all like. Music: On Vyvanse. Annie: You cannot find Vyvanse. And so, my psychiatrist was like, sending me to pharmacies in like Harlem, and like, I had to go to the Upper West Side to buy it finally. And they had Nick: it there? Annie: Yes, I still ended up paying an insane amount of money for it. I don't know how that happened. It used to be 45. And they're also trying to switch everyone to a patch, which is a different drug. I'll take it. You don't have to say patch twice. I'm doing like a little sampler. Sounds Nick: fabulous. Annie: No, I don't like that. I don't like [00:24:00] having something on my body. So, um, anyways, so I've really, I objected into my Nick: veins. Annie: I will say if you've been off Vyvanse for a year, maybe don't go, don't start back up on the amount that you , Nick: that you stopped. You took a year long vacation, Annie: vacation. Nick: Or like, honey, I was miserable. I know, but light well, right. It was a year, a year long dry out Annie: from Vyvanse. Yeah. Nick: That's pretty impressive. I took about a year and a half after into the gloss Glossier, and it was tough. Annie: Oh. That's when I started it, because my psychiatrist was like, oh, have you ever considered. And I was like, absolutely not. I am a high achiever. Nick: And you're like, but I'm listening. Annie: Yeah. Yeah. And then I was like, but does that mean I get Vyvanse? And he was like, yes. And you get dexitroamphetamine. Which one's that? And, and we're going to throw in some antidepressants. And [00:25:00] you hate planes? Klonopin. Nick: That was the big, that was the first time you ever took any, uh, Like mental health drugs? Annie: I tried they tried to put me on Prozac before but Nick: they tried to put me on to Prozac Annie: But it wasn't I was like, yeah, I was literally like no no, no, I i've been I've historically been very Why are you laughing? I've historically been very against taking not against the Modern medicine, of course, I think if you need treatment you should take it Absolutely have access to whatever you need and take whatever you need. No shame in that. But for me personally, I was thinking my life is pretty great. Why? I don't know. Why why I put something in my body if I don't need it? So I never did like I did birth control, but then I was like, I don't like this. I just never liked taking pills Nick: Yeah, I've been on i've been on pills since I was like 16 Annie: Yeah, no, Nick: not me consistently [00:26:00] Okay. My product of the week is, so I am always trying to find a good like self tanner and not a bronzer meaning like self tanner. Like it, you know, has that like sugar derivative that like makes your skin orange. And it all is orange because Yeah, they have, because somehow we as a, as a people have not found another technology other than that, like one ingredient made from sugar that like makes you orange or yellow. Like, why is that the only thing that we've found that can tan your skin without sun? Anyway, I have been doing lots of research trying to find something, you know, summer's coming. And. That research brought me to Sephora as it always does, which brought me to Isle of Paradise self [00:27:00] tanning natural glow face drops in medium. Essentially it is just like a very diluted version of that sugar derivative thing, but you mix it in with your moisturizer and I've done it a few days in a row and everyone's like, Oh my God, your skin looks so good. It's not like I look tan, but it just made, it's like a perfecter. Almost. If you do it. You know, like a limited amount. Annie: I have a question. Nick: Any, Annie: how is the smell? Nick: It, it, when you're applying it, it's fine. Like a couple hours later, you smell that, like, you know, when the fake tan is baking, you get a little bit of that, but like, again, because you're not doing that much of it. You know, there's not a ton of smell. Annie: It's not offensive. Nick: Yeah. Annie: Okay. Here, I have another question. If your skin is not the perfect texture, so you have like a scab or, or Nick: stubble. Annie: Yeah. How does it settle in [00:28:00] the, Nick: It. It clumps around those areas. I'm trying, I just ordered on, I'd be like, I've thought about this problem a lot. Thank you for bringing it up. And I actually also bought this other thing, which I haven't received yet from San Tropez, which is a mist. And I, I assume it's like. What's like the bad mists that are bad for the environment? Annie: Aerosol. Nick: I assume it's aerosol because I think what it does is like the droplets in the mist are tiny enough that like it doesn't allow for clumping or like, you know, like congregating around areas that you don't want it to. You just like literally like spray it like a very fine mist on your face. Before bed or whenever. And then it works. So TBD on that. But right now my winner is Isla paradise. Annie: I love that. [00:29:00] You always come, you're very consistent with your product recommendations. Nick: I know. Well, it's like, I only have a certain, I only have certain things I'm trying to figure out. I know. Annie: That's great. I love that. You should try pure iodine next time. That would be really, I've always wondered why don't people do that? Because iodine. Does leave your skin more of that olive green orange, which I believe is, I think is more natural. Nick: Is that the color we want? Annie: Yes, because if it's orange, it's looks very unnatural. You have to have a little bit of green to make it more skin. Like, Music: huh. Annie: And with that, Nick: we're not, we're not leaving yet, but we're just threatening to leave. Find us on patreon. com slash eyewitness beauty. We are produced by [00:30:00] Jonathan Korman of Friend of the Pod, not a question, but a statement. And AJ Mosley is our editor. And what else do you want to say? Annie: Danny Prezant did our music. Nick: And Simon Abronowitz did our cover art, which we should probably update at some point, and we'll be back next week while we figure out what the hell we're doing with our lives.