EWB 2.14 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 am Nick Axelrod Welk, joined by Diamond Creek Baum, DCB for short, also known as EYEWITNESS. Annie: Well, my last name begins with a K, so, D K B. Nick: We're spelling Creek with a K? No, your real last name. That's what it was, that's what it was, Creek Bomb. K R C R E E K B O M B. Annie: I don't like being associated with bombs or other military devices. Nick: What about, okay, fine, Creek Bomb, B A L M. [00:01:00] I love that. Annie. Nick. It's Valentine's Day. Aw, do you feel the love? No, I mean, I was telling you before we started recording, but Evie's class, there were all these emails that went out saying that you can, you know, everyone doesn't have to, but it's, you know, encouraged to bring Valentines, but there's all these stipulations. You can't bring candy, you can't write kids names on them, and you have to bring them for everyone. And Annie: of course, you have to bring Nick: them for everyone, of course, but like, I mean, some people are bad people and probably wouldn't. But anyway, so I had sort of recused myself from this activity and Casey had stepped up and was like, I'm going to handle Valentine's day long, long, long, long, long story short. Evie will not be handing out valentines in [00:02:00] class today. Annie: Is this a preschool thing or is this like all children now are no longer allowed to bring candy to school? Oh, Nick: that's really funny. You should ask I think they're allowed to know each other's names but I think it's more of like a logistical thing that if like you put people's names on it and like one got lost or like they'd have to be like sorting through things to like find whose thing it is, but the funny thing is like These are three, two and three year olds. They don't know what the fuck Valentine's day is. Then what are they gonna do with all these pieces of paper? Throw them out. They're going to go in a landfill. And for what? Annie: I mean, the no candy thing is crazy. Is this a peanut issue? Is this an allergy thing? Nick: No, it's sugar. I mean, Evie is actually going to a new school next year and at her new school, at the tour we went on, they said that you're not allowed to bring juice. Annie: Well, I don't like a lot of juice. I'm actually discriminatory against a lot of juices. Nick: Well, juices are, are not good, are just overwhelmingly bad for you. [00:03:00] Like Minute Maid? name one juice that's actually healthy. Tart cherry juice, I guess, if you want to do that sleepy time, sleepy girl mocktail. Annie: Sleepy girl mocktail, uh, I would say fresh, like fresh wheat grass, I think is still, I can see, I can see my skin. I can see the green coming through my, the chlorophyll like seeping out of my pores whenever I do that, which I feel like Nick: can't be a bad thing. And then also sometimes prune juice can be a good thing, but not in any kind of like, you know, substantial amounts. Annie: The only reason we should be using canned juice, like pre made, pre squoze juices. The next one is the minute made frozen cans and they should be going into mom's margarita. Yeah that's the way my mom has always made margaritas and Nick: I don't even know if they make those like frozen minute made things anymore. Annie: Let's go to, [00:04:00] if we go to Texas, we go to Tom Thumb grocery store. I guarantee you there's going to be a whole freezer full. Funny story. She, we, my parents used to have like little social gatherings at the house and my mom would make. You know, adult margaritas and children's margaritas. And there were leftover margaritas in the freezer one summer day. And how old are you? What do I do? Nick: Nine. Okay. Annie: But the weird thing was, didn't feel, didn't feel Nick: a thing. You already had a really high tolerance. My mom, my Annie: mom like told me about it. I, you know, discovered it. She's like, did you drink that? And, um, yeah, it didn't feel a thing. Nick: Wow. The first time I ever drank was the spring of my sophomore year of high school, my roommate and I, I was in boarding school and we were going on vacation with my parents [00:05:00] and somehow we found, oh no. We we took a bottle of vodka, like a bottle of Stoli from my dad's like liquor cabinet and drank it and chased it with orange juice, speaking of juice, and then we replaced the vodka that we had drank with water. And it was like, we're so hung over on the plane the next day. We look like green and my mom and dad are like, are you guys okay? And we're just like really motion sick. Because it was our first time ever drinking and flash forward probably 10 years, if not 15 years. And I guess my dad had like, was just out of all alcohols and we had friends over and you know, I guess he found that bottle of Stoli. And he was like, I guess you could have, like, you know, would you like a stoli on the rocks? And my dad's friend said, sure, and [00:06:00] he tasted it and he was like, Steve, this is water. So you know what? I got caught, but I got caught 15 years later. Annie: If you get caught as an adult, then it doesn't, Nick: no, the statute of limitations is expired. Annie: I got in trouble for opening Christmas Barbie dolls. Nick: Before Annie: Christmas? No, because I got the special collector's editions Barbie dolls. Nick: You got them two years ago or you got them when you were a kid? No, growing Annie: up, growing up. Like every year I would get like one or two. And everyone knows those are made to sit on a shelf. you don't break the seal. You don't undo the little like wires. Ties, the little twisties. They stay in the box. And they stay on your shelf and you admire them from afar. And, I don't know, like, I guess at some point during my fucking childhood, when I was a single [00:07:00] digit old, I must have, you know, gotten a little crazy, and Nick: And wanted to play with your Annie: Barbies. And I bet I did it really sneakily too, I bet I like used an X Acto knife or something. But hold on, but Nick: was your mom, she wanted to preserve them for like resale value? Like what was the, what's the ultimate Annie: goal? I mean, think about it. It's like, the beanie. It's just like, people were so weird about toys in the 90s. Let's get real. Yeah. I don't know. I don't, I don't even think they knew why, you Nick: know, you just did. Annie: You just did. Nick: I think, were you a horse girl? Were you a horse Annie: girl? I was asking myself this the other day. Let's get back to that. And we have to talk about, we have to talk about how horse girl it is. We're entering horse girl era. Nick: Because of Bella and her beauty and her beauty line, Annie: Beyonce going country. Oh, true. It is. Let's face it. The crossover between Swifties and Horsegirls is like, Nick: also, oh, that is very true. [00:08:00] And also, guess what else? I have one other picture to show you about Horsegirl. Wait one second, please. And Annie: I don't know. Nick is holding up a photo of Sarah Jessica Parker right now. That is so fucked up, Nick. No. Nick: That is so fucked up. It's a picture of Kim Kardashian in bell bottoms and a cowboy hat. Oh, Kimmy. Posted 20 hours ago. Kimmy, Kim, Kim. It's horse girl. Okay, we're in our horse girl era. Anyway, continue. Well, now I even Annie: forgot what I was talking about. Oh, the Barbies. But were you a horse girl? So then, so then, so then, flash forward. Flash forward several Nick: decades. Don't yell at me. Do not raise your voice towards me. Annie: I yell at people, Nick, you know, that that's my thing. Um, so we. Anyway, I'm like literally 30 years old. My mom, sorry to put them on blast like this, but my parents did get a, did get a divorce. I was an adult, [00:09:00] so it still caused me a lot of trauma. So I do claim that trauma. Nick: Because you were like, I'm still a baby. Annie: I'm just a baby. I remember being really overwhelmed at work one day, and like, Emilina was talking to Emilina, and I was like, Listen, my parents just Nick: got And she was like, what? Annie: She was like, wow, I'm sorry. Nick: I'm sorry, but I'm glad that you're I'm glad that you're literally, like, 29. I Annie: know I'm 25, but that means it comes with a whole other set of issues, okay? Kids, kids are resilient. Adults are not. Um, anyway, so, as what, you know, as people do when they get a divorce, they move and they get like a adorable mid century and like a cute neighborhood. And so my mom, of course, is bringing all the like. Kid stuff that like never got thrown away. The Barbies were amongst them. My brother had a bunch of like Star Wars figurines and my mom's like I gotta get rid of this shit You know like and she's like these I could do them in a yard sale, [00:10:00] but there's like vintage toy shops She was like, I'm gonna take it to the vintage toy shop and see if I can get some money for this And I guess in that process she discovered that I had baby Annie had opened The Barbies were turning them useless Price, Nick: I mean, uh, we're worthless, Annie: worthless, worthless, not useless. They Nick: can actually like rendering them useful yet worthless. Annie: So, yeah. And so of course, as a 30 year old, I'm like suddenly like in trouble with my mom, as if I'm like, like, I haven't been in trouble with my mom in, Since I was probably Nick: 16 years old. Right, and now it's like you've totally fucked your inheritance. Annie: No, I haven't. My mom reminds me of that all the time. Nick: You haven't fucked it up? She's Annie: always like, listen, whatever happens, you know I got you. Nick: [00:11:00] Okay, that's nice. That's a nice little parachute. I know, trust me, I'm very lucky. Okay, but in terms of horse girls in that era I can picture you in your bedroom with, like, strung up Like ribbons from like horse competitions. No, I was like Briar. Was it Briar? Like, yeah, those plastic horses. Annie: No, I wasn't a Briar horse girl and I wasn't like a competition horse girl, but I did do like summer camp where you would do a lot of horseback riding. And we also did this thing, which I didn't know at the time was weird, but it was called vaulting. Or I think it was called vaulting. Nick: And it was really jump off that like springboard. Annie: No, you, on a horse, you stand, so a horse is like trotting around a stadium, whatever. A ring. A ring. And you learn how to like Beyonce plays stadiums. Okay. Um, okay, Nick: so Annie: Beyonce's about to play the Fort Worth Stock Show and you're gonna eat your words. Nick: The Grand Ole Annie: [00:12:00] Opry. Anyway, the horse goes around in a circle and you learn how to, like, stand on top of the horse and, like, shoot a gun from the top of the horse. And, like, and then, like, flip off the side of the horse and, like, roll, like, it's like gymnastics on top of a horse. And then we also Nick: shot have this at Bucks Rock Arts Camp. I'll tell you that much. And, like, I Annie: Did you shoot guns, too, at camp? Nick: No! I did glassblowing. Literally, Annie: We worshiped Jesus. We like stood on horses and we shot guns and we did the, Oh my God. Nick: That's beautiful. Annie: Anyway. So that, and then, and then my family has always went on like vacations to like. Nice like ranches where you would ride horses. So I like rode a lot of horses growing up, but I was never, I didn't Nick: do an identify at all. Got it. You were more of like a sides. I Annie: think I was like a normal Texas girl, you know, horse adjacent. Like Nick: you knew your way around a horse, but you weren't. It wasn't your whole life. Annie: Oh. I can run up to a horse, no saddle, [00:13:00] grab its, uh, mane, and like swing myself up on it. Like, I can do And Nick: then stand up and fire a gun? Annie: Um, okay, well, let's put a pin in the horse. We don't want to talk about Bella and Nick: her, and her horse? Okay, go ahead. Go ahead. So we broke a, we had a big scoop last week, which I think is a, it's beautiful that our readers gave you exclusively credit for having uncovered the, the sort of reason behind the picture that the weird pictures that Bella Hadid posted on her Instagram, like, in front of the Alta headquarters sign a quick, uh, USTPO, the trademark office search revealed that she had filed for trademarks, she had filed trademark applications in 3 different categories. I believe 1 being [00:14:00] cosmetics and 1 being bags and umbrellas and things like that. And then the other 1. I forget what the third one was. Anyway, we posted it on our Instagram and everyone was like, Annie, how'd you do it? This research is too good. And I was like, okay. Annie: I know, apparently I'm the only one that can use USTPO. I have another trademark story too after this. Nick: But anyway, so she's, so clearly she's launching makeup at, uh, oh, and the other one was sunglasses, which actually, or eyewear, which makes sense for Bella. Um, but Annie: But Nick, here's my question. Does that tell us, that does, does that tell us anything? Like Kris Jenner will trademark all of her grandkids names. No, but it was, Nick: but it's, obviously she's trademarked them in these categories and she's at Ulta, she's launching beauty at Ulta. Yeah, but even Annie: if we, even if she didn't, I don't know about this. I mean, I do, it does seem like she's up to something with Ulta for sure. I'm just like, can [00:15:00] we squeeze any more from this trademark juice to give us any more information? Nick: Okay, let's see. Annie: First of all, I hope it's color, I hope it's color cosmetics one. I think Nick: it will be. Annie: Two, there were, so I googled Bella Ulta to see who else was talking about this, and the only thing, the most recent thing that came up, and there was a lot of it, were clearly staged paparazzi photos of her like walking out of the Ulta in like midtown with like big Ulta bags, so they've been like seeding this for a while, and I don't know. It's going to be like roadish, maybe, but hopefully with color. Nick: Yeah she got an extension on January 9th of this year. It's her fifth extension. When did she first file? 2020. Annie: Oh, that's weird. You would think that she would have done something before that. Yeah, Nick: that's why I think that it's more, it's more targeted. Annie: I wonder if she'll do a fragrance. [00:16:00] Nick: I don't know. The funny thing, though, is Ulta Has a huge footprint in the Midwest and in strip malls. Like that's where Altas thrive and. And that's where they grow, that's their natural habitat. And I didn't, I would imagine that Bella Hadid is not exactly like a universally appealing influencer. She feels kind of coastal to me, right? Like she was, she's so high fashion. She's like Dior beauty. You know what I mean? Like Gigi makes more sense in some ways, but she's a little bit more like Americana. I don't know. Annie: I feel like there's, I feel like this idea of like coastal elite, especially when it comes to like, or like coastal fashion versus like Midwest, especially when it comes to Gen Z when they're all consuming the same content on TikTok. Like, I don't know that there's a huge line of demarcation between like, you know. That's [00:17:00] fair. I would say too. Bella is has made herself so accessible with the depop of it all with the Dating normies with me being very like Um, she's like unfiltered. Nick: You know. Okay, so we'll see. But anyway, Annie: she is a horse girl though. Nick: She is a horse girl. She's basically spent the last year and a half doing Annie: that. She's gone from English to Western. Which is important. Style writing. Yeah, so she grew up in what, Malibu? Writing David Foster's, Like birthday gift horses. And then Yola bought a house, a farm in Pennsylvania, and they've been Gigi and Bella go and stay with her there and have horses there. But it was, it all felt very Hermes. Like it all felt very waspy. [00:18:00] But, the big exciting thing is, Bella has gone Western. She has started dating an Ariat sponsored writer. What is Nick: I don't know what any of the What's Ariat? Annie: Ariat is a boot company. Okay. You know I You know I know a lot about cowboy boots, right? And Nick: Oh, Ariat sponsored writer. Annie: I cannot wait for The book slash movie, because this will explain my whole history, but I also dated a guy in high school whose dad owned, I think, a couple of boot companies and they made like Lucchese and Nakona and, Ariat and whatever. Anyway, I have a weird connection to Cowboy Beaver, um, but Ariat is like a big, like, boot company and I, they probably also have a big style Nick: experience and stuff like that. Not a writer, not like a scribe, a writer, like someone who's Annie: writing something. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Somebody that does something physically with their body. [00:19:00] Not somebody who just talks about, like, maybe working on a project at some point. Got it. And so, and I haven't done a lot of digging on him. But he seems to there's a lot of like also South American crossover with the Western writing world Nick: Yeah, because they're big in Argentina Goucho, right? Annie: So I'm well just in the whole basically the South South Us and then like the around the equator and below that is like horse country, right? Nick: Hmm. Yep, Annie: right cowboy country Cowboys come in all shapes and sizes all from they come from all over the world But this guy, I don't know. He seems like he's like, comes from like a rich cowboy family. It's also like a rich people thing, no matter what. Like, I know people like to think of the South, like cowboy, whatever. I was like, Nick: No, but it's so expensive to maintain, uh, horse. Annie: It's so expensive. I know. To have horses is like, you're, probably a billionaire. [00:20:00] Like, even like normal millionaires don't have horses. Well, Nick: isn't also a horse like over 100, 000 to buy? Yeah, and If you wanted to like own one? If it gets injured. There goes your investment. Annie: If it breaks its ankle, it's like literally dead. Did you know that about horses? Yes, that's horrible. Nick: I can't think about that. I want to try. I know, it just would make me so sad. They should, you know, the We should start a charity that is about research. So that we don't have to kill horses when they break their ankle. Annie: Why can't they just make them a huge doggy wheelchair? Cast! Nick: Like, you know what I mean? Or like, amputate the ankle and then just like, put a fake one on. Prosthetics. Prosthetics. I guess the issue is like they can't, lie down for that long, I think, because of like, like they would like their, their body would, you know, their blood and stuff like doesn't circulate Annie: right or something. Normally, I like to [00:21:00] separate the two, horses and ketamine, but it sounds like this might be Nick: a good use for, a good, intended use. Okay. There's Annie: an idea. Okay, so Bella, we're really excited to see your next phase. Please come on the pod. Every other pod has had Haley. So, you know, I say not that we don't love Haley. I'm just saying, you know, you've always been an original. Nick: The other news that I sent you this morning, this is, so this is really breaking news is Net A Porter is cutting its beauty offering. I think they had something like 200 brands. They're cutting it down to 70. So less than they're going down to less than half the number of brands. That they had, which I, this thing is interesting. In that we saw Farfetch, like, close its beauty operations after acquiring Violet [00:22:00] Grey. Remember, like, the whole launch was this, it was like a huge, fancy rollout. Did Annie: they? Did that happen during our dark period? How did I miss that? I mean, am I surprised? No, but Nick: maybe they didn't. Maybe. Oh yeah, Farfetch is selling Violet Gray in October. They announced it. They're exiting the category. Yeah. Annie: People think beauty is so easy. Nick: Well, the issue, I mean, here's the issue. And I think we talked about this when Farfetch launched beauty was like. With the internet, you can get like, like when we were talking about embryo lease, for example, the moisturizer add into the gloss in 2013 or whenever you were 10 years ago, you had to go to a pharmacy in France to get it. Even though, like, there was the internet, it wasn't the stone age. It was just different, right then [00:23:00] in part, thanks to, you know, stateside publicity, but also just the sort of. The maturity, the maturation of the web and like e commerce, like all of a sudden you can now get all of these things everywhere all at once. Which is the sequel to the movie, all of these things everywhere, all at once. It's about French pharmacy products, not the Asian American experience. Anyway, So I think when you launch beauty as a retailer in 2022 or 2023 you have to think What is my point of view that is making my curation Different than someone else's curation on a different website. What are you getting here? That you can't get on another site and well, there's Annie: there's curation, but there's also presentation and I found that net a porter Motor operandi. Sorry. I love you. Lauren, you know, I love [00:24:00] you. I would love it friends and family code or something Maybe some free like oscar de la renta dresses, but I will say and maybe we can do a trade where I can consult Okay, continue. Nick: Yes. Okay. Okay. Annie: Yes. The content that's presented alongside these beauty products, that it's almost like you're, they're expecting people to buy stuff that they've already tried or something, but it's not like, like when, when Glossier was launching, we wanted to fill. PDP was so much information that it felt like you were shopping in person, right? And you don't, you don't see swatches, you don't see the makeup on skin, even on Violet Gray. Like I totally respect these brands and think that they're curating cool products and, you know, I get their point of view and I like a snobby beauty experience, but they make it so hard. To shop because they don't include like any photography or video or Nick: anything. Okay. Well, what's interesting about that is I think what you're talking about with into the, with Glossier [00:25:00] was like a vertically integrated beauty company. That produced its own products that it sold. And so was funding the shoots and the creative and the design of all of these like assets that you're talking about. You know, when, Sephora, Sephora is not shooting your You know, bottle images, your packaging images, your swatch images, your before and afters, you're providing all of those. So like there's an asset, like when you go on to Sephora, there's an asset list that you need to provide them and it's up to you to. Shoot those and pay for them. So I think, you know, where, when you're like a violet gray, you're going to a lot of young, very young brands who probably don't have many points of distribution. Certainly they're not, you know, already in a Sephora. Violet gray is sort of the, like where, where Sephora and Ulta looks for newness. So you're getting these tiny brands who don't have the, budget. Or the [00:26:00] capacity or the right people employed to, to create these assets. So you kind of do what you can do. And violet gray was very good at storytelling. Like famously they had, they blew the fuck up out of Augustinus Bader through like social media storytelling and sort of like early influencer kind of content. But I think generally speaking, when you're curating these products, like you're, unless you're. Ramping up your own, like if you're Net a Porter and you're ramping up your own content production around beauty, which is an expensive undertaking, you're relying on these brands to provide assets. And like, you only do that if your business is as potentially big as Sephora, which is just a bigger opportunity. Yes, Annie: Annie? Can I have 60 seconds to respond? Yes. Okay, here's my question. You bring up Net a Porter. They produce photo shoots for every single product they have on that website. And they do photo they do multiple photos and video and retouching and they style the fuck out of every look. [00:27:00] And these are for products that are ephemeral. They come and go. Like, every season, every few weeks, they're restocking, restocking, restocking, restocking. The beauty category is different. You're not having new products in every every Season, like if there's a Gucci Westman lipstick that is doing well, it's going to be here for several years. So why are they not making the investment to shoot a short video? a few more photos of the product. Like Nick: redheaded stepchild of these, like. First gen fashion company. It's like Net a Porter Was started by a former fashion editor, a very intelligent, very creative, very forward thinking fashion, but a fashion editor and it's DNA is as a fashion brand, much like an, as sort of an editorialized fashion e commerce play. So of course they don't give a fuck about beauty. Like neither does Vogue. Annie: Is it that they don't give a fuck or is that like Nick: No, no, sorry. It's, I take that back. It's just so far it's not, they don't give a fuck. It's that [00:28:00] like fashion is the reason for the season and beauty is like, oh, maybe we can make money on this, but it's not seen as like an inspiration for creative. Annie: I wonder if there was some sort of kind of decision making process where they were like, okay, we'll do beauty and see how it does. And if it does well, we'll invest more into it. But that's like a logical fallacy because if you don't invest, it's not going to do well. So it's like, it's almost like they just threw it up on the site to see like, Oh, are people going to buy it or not? And if they do, then like, we'll throw a little bit more money on it and like build it out. But yeah, Nick: I mean, I think like. It's, you know, having grown up in the fashion industry and then moving over to beauty, there were very few people when I left fashion to go work with Emily, who understood why I was doing what I was doing. Because it was just not seen as. As important, [00:29:00] whether or not, like, it was sort of a dirty secret that L'Oreal was one of the biggest advertisers of at both Hearst and Conde Nast, like, because really what was exciting was LVMH, right? Or like, you know, like getting those ads. So. You know, I think it, this is as much as like, it's become a much more important business and VC has become more interested in it and everyone, there's a lot more M and a activity happening in beauty as opposed to fashion. as I tell people who want to start fashion brands all the time, I've never met someone who's made money making clothing. Maybe people break even, but generally I just don't know anyone who has. I still think it's just not. It takes a different type of person to be able to create content out of beauty. You're, you're right Annie: on that, baby. Nick: Like, Net A Porter and even Moda. Moda hired our, fat mascara friend. [00:30:00] Yes. Jess. Because they know that they need someone who knows how to make con like she's an editor. She knows how to make content around beauty products, right? Like that is an essential skill. Hopefully she's been armed with enough other people to help execute that, right? Because I think probably a lot of these companies would just hire one person, but one person can't do it all. But like Net a Porter, like their focus was always going to be fashion. I mean, Mr. Porter, his days are numbered. Why? Because everything is like 95 percent off, like at the end of the season. Annie: What are men shopping for now? I don't Nick: know. I mean, I have like, here's the thing is I haven't bought something on Mr. Porter in probably like eight years. Annie: But like, where are you shopping? You're shopping at justinbieber. Nick: com. I shop, I mean, I, yeah, I mean, I think moving to LA definitely changed [00:31:00] how I dressed. Like, I'm a lot more casual. I'm not trying to wear fashion. Like, in New York, you're kind of like wearing an outfit, but in LA, it doesn't really make sense. Um, I don't really shop. I mean, I, I buy a lot of Cole Buxton, which is this UK sportswear company that I'm obsessed with. And they have really great sweaters and like knitwear and I don't know, I buy my Carhartt work in progress pants. And I get expensive shoes, and that's sort of my outfit. Annie: Okay. Yeah, I've been on a shopping, like, I've just been kind of uninterested. I mean, definitely not uninterested, I just don't have the money to buy the clothes that I would have wanted to buy. Nick: I've also transferred all of my shopping addictions to interiors. Annie: Yes, that's healthy. Nick: Yeah, and the other and the crazy thing about interiors is [00:32:00] like unlike fashion where there is a Maximum amount of money that you can charge or that you can pay For a white t shirt the row how much is a row white t shirt? 650 right? Okay. That is the most money that you can pay for a white t shirt in interiors Like what is the most money that you could pay for a yard of fabric? The limit does not Annie: exist. Nick: It's crazy. Annie: And is this in your quest for vintage antique Nick: projects? No, no, this is, I mean, this, it could be anything, I feel like interiors might be the next like massive like growth opportunity, growth category because you look around at these like interior companies that most consumers don't know about that are doing kind of to the trade business and they [00:33:00] seem like they're so successful. Like, have you ever been to like the Holly Hunt showroom? It's so fancy. Like they must be making so much money on fab, by making fabrics. Annie: My friend's dad has um, she's gonna, she's gonna lol because it's the second time I'm bringing her up in like two weeks. My rich friend with the Yeti cups. Oh, yeah. She so her dad owned a, um, well, first of all, her mother is also independently successful. So let's just get that right. But her dad owns a furniture, what's it called showroom, but it's for like hotels, business interiors, like really like large scale businesses. Um, and yeah, the, that whole industry is just like, I mean, think of like the amount of money being spent on even just the logistics alone of getting pieces from here to there, like customization, importing materials, like it's just but I have a [00:34:00] theory around, like, I have like a cookie. I've had this cookie theory for a while around, like, What is sustainability actually look like in practice, like if people are truly wanting to live more intentionally and like, how does that affect consumption? How does that also affect like our aesthetics? What do you mean? Well, I'm going to give you an example. So, okay, perfect. You know, like for a long time and I think still it's happening. You see these huge marble slabs, like Kim Kardashian's house is basically one giant marble slab that was like imported in one piece from like Calcutta, you know? And that the carbon footprint of that is just insane. Right? Nick: Meaning like, transportation, gas, jet fuel, whatever. Annie: Everything. And it's all in, it's all in the name of like, aesthetics. And it's all new. It's a new build. It, there's nothing that's like, maintaining, there's no maintenance, there's no [00:35:00] craftsmanship to it. Sorry. And then there's, I think, the way that people used to live, which is you would have your local, like, specialists, like, you would have the blacksmith, you would have the tile layers, you would have woodworkers, things like that, and like, it seems like those businesses are, and those, Skills are like dying out even like small appliance repair I remember like growing up if the vacuum cleaner would break you would take it to the repair shop And now it's like people just I don't know what they send they send they maybe if it's an expensive piece of Machinery or piece of, uh, equipment and the company is established, you would send it back, but then they would just send you a new one and then God knows what they're doing with like the parts. Like, did they just throw it away? Like, if a vacuum breaks, people aren't going to go to, or they're not even going to send it in. They're going to, they're going to just like, they lost the receipt. They don't know when they bought it. They're just going to throw it out when it, maybe it's just like a simple repair. Maybe it's just like changing a filter, but Nick: oftentimes it's like [00:36:00] cheaper. Uh, Because like all of the mom and pop, like, you know, blacksmiths to VCR repair, you know, like all the different like trades have had to have died, like, because of like, whatever, Amazon, probably like now it's so expensive. Like to get your vacuum cleaner repaired that sometimes it's cheaper. So here's, I have another example. I bought a, I bought a rug. I need to get the rug clean. Guess what? Getting the rug clean was like over 500 because there's only two places in LA where you can like get a rug, like an, an old rug professionally cleaned. And it was cheaper to like buy another rug on Etsy. Annie: The other thing is, so like, if you have a non Kim Kardashian house and. Your tile breaks like you should go and like have that worked on and like repair not rip everything out Like [00:37:00] there's just I feel like we're good We're going to get back to making small changes and actually designing things from like a craftsman level and I think like actually tik tok and social media is uncovering these people who are like Hyper specialists at their thing, you know, like the vintage tile guy the Nick: I also I love oh my god These are my favorite Tick tocks to watch where it's like someone restoring like an antique, like huffing machine or something. Annie: Yeah. You know what I mean? Like they're out there. Um, they just don't have a ton of exposure. People don't even know that there's a person that does that thing. Cause we've been so, yes, you're Nick: actually so right. Like you have a, you have a rusty cast iron pan. You go on Etsy, you can find people who will for like 50 bucks. You know, or you Annie: can find a YouTube video to do it yourself, you know, like I, I just, I think that that's what actual everyday, like living by a more like, I dunno, eco friendly instead of just [00:38:00] doing the greenwash products and the like composting and things like that. I think that there's more like micro decisions that we can make day to day that will involve. You know, handmade things that don't have to be transported from, you know, the other side of the world. You know, local materials, local craftsmen repurposing things like buying on D pop. I don't know. I just, I feel like. Hopefully we can, am I making any sense Nick: at all? I mean, you're making sense, but I think it's too late. I'm a bit of like a fatalist when it comes to all this. I know, I know. I normally am. Like, I mean, like, I feel like the newspapers try to tell us, like, we have three more years, like, they're trying not to be like, we've already done it, you know, generally speaking, they try to be a little bit more positive, like, two more, scientists say we have two more years to correct, but no, it's already done. Anyway, what other Annie: beauty news do we have? We're gonna have to shop local when the [00:39:00] whole, like, global infrastructure shuts down. Yeah, Nick: exactly. So, we'll be forced. Exactly. Annie: You better get used to it. Beauty news, beauty news. Hold on, we did have beauty news. We did. First of all, one, we, we had a major oversight in our bonus episode. You, my friend, did not Nick: give your update. I, I know. I forgot to give my update about talk about not shopping local. I bought a pair of Uggs from Australia, which we discovered or we uncovered in a recent episode are the only real Uggs. Essentially, the, the Uggs that we're buying on Ugg. com is a different company, a different brand, not made in Australia, have nothing to do with Uggs since. What was it like 1974 or something? So I bought a pair as a, as a good journalist, I bought a pair of UGG moccasins from Australia and I was like, all of them have a very long lead time. I don't know whether they're made to order, but. [00:40:00] It was, it took months. They're green, like, they're kind of like the slipper. So like, it's like the mini, the ultra mini but without the, without any ankle coverage. Okay. And I hate them. And why do we hate them? They, like, they don't stay on your foot. Like on the, your heel, like your heel is not Well, taken care of in the heel cup, so to speak, and they're like pointy elf shoes and they also like the the soul is slightly angled their men's too, but it's almost like a, like, but the inner soul is like a wedge. So you're kind of like your feet are uncomfortable, like your toes are kind of like pushed. Forward. They're just bad. They're bad. Damn. I can't wear them. Annie: You know what? We might have to be moo girls now. [00:41:00] Nick: What are moo? Cowgirls? Annie: Moo? Is it called moo? What's moo? Yeah, M O U. They're sheepskin shoes. They're the ones that I feel like kind of tacky rich people wear that have a lot of, they have like stitching, visible stitching. Nick: I don't know about those. Annie: I feel like Brazilian supermodels wear them when like They have to take their private jet somewhere cold. Nick: I don't know about them. I mean. Or we just stick to American Uggs. Annie: I don't know. I don't feel great about that. I just really don't feel good about American Uggs. Maybe now you Nick: know too much? Annie: Well, also I realize, like, the sheepskin is no longer sheepskin. It's all, it's like plastic. It's like faux, it's faux. Nick: Oh, were you talking about the TikTok that's like, Oh, here are Uggs that I bought 10 years ago and like the inner, sheepskin is like beautifully like puffy and then there's ones, here's the ones that I bought two years ago and they're like destroyed or like, like basically the production's [00:42:00] gone down so much with Uggs. Annie: No, this is separate from TikTok this is just my, like shopping for some new, a new set of Uggs online and seeing, like just reading like the, the contents. You know of the shoe and it's saying like, oh, this is faux sheepskins. It's not a real she sheep skin. Oh, interest. So vegan pandering. What else is new Nick: at two Ugg? Annie: at two. Oh, the Bieber phone case road. Phone case. Yeah, you called. That will come out by the end of the month. What else did I call? Oh, I called the CVE Super Bowl commercial. Nick: You did. Annie: When else was I right? Nick: I mean, we didn't even talk about the Super Bowl, not that I care, Annie: but I was amazed at Usher's, the depth of Usher's discography. I had no idea that he had so many hits. I mean, I don't know why I'm surprised. Oh, I did. Yeah. He is truly [00:43:00] the Michael Jackson of our generation. Nick: Yeah, I was disappointed Annie: with that performance. Disappointed in what? I, what? Really? Nick: Yeah. I thought it was like, I mean, how do you, I mean, to follow Rihanna though is an impossible task. Annie: You said it. I was kind of weirded out that it felt like Beyonce was hitching her, goddess chariot to taylor's wagon on Debuting her new album at the Superbowl. Nick: Hmm. Well, I mean, they were the two names of last year, right? Like the two, the two tours, like the reason why like women were having a moment, quote unquote, was like Beyonce, were Beyonce and Taylor. So I maybe she's just like used to having to share that Annie: spotlight, but I just feel like why the super, what, what do Beyonce and the Superbowl have in common? Has she [00:44:00] ever like. Nick: She, I mean, famously one of the best performances when she brought out Annie: Destiny's she always attend the Super Bowl? Nick: You're asking the wrong person. Annie: Beyonce's Super Bowl attendance. I mean, I Nick: think it's just like, as a media event, and in terms of eyeballs. Like, there's no better place to like launch. And I also think that potentially like they're speaking to different audiences. Like, I don't know, like I I'm, I'm a Beyonce person. I could give a F about, T Swift. Annie: Oh yeah. I'm like very, I'm very, I'm very much like dedicated to following this new era of Beyonce, like no doubt. And I'm glad that she released a country album. Um, I think it's. Just abominable that they're not playing it on country radio. Are they Nick: not? Like, I, I've tried not to like, I, I can't, my heart can't handle [00:45:00] like all the hate. Annie: So like, what's going on? I think they probably, I think they probably are at this point. I read one article about somebody called into a country station requesting that they play Texas Hold'em and they said we don't play Beyonce on this station. That's so silly. I listened, I like the song. Me too. I love a western aesthetic. It's the best. If I could wear a cowboy hat and starched jeans and cowboy boots every day. Nick: I mean, if anyone can do it, you can because of your heritage. Annie: I have two products that we can talk about. Okay, one isn't a product. I lied. Hee hee hee. But, I do recommend that people consume it, and that is, if you're in New York, there's a play going on called, Oh Mary, and it's so funny. It was just non stop laughs, non stop laughs, yes. So it's, Cola Scola plays [00:46:00] Mary Todd Lincoln, and, and Nick: they wrote it and directed it, and star in it. Annie: Yes, exactly. Nick: And, it's at the Cherry Lane Theater. Annie: It's not the Cherry Lane Theater, but it's nearby. It's at like a Laura, Laura, It's on Nick: Christopher. Lucille Lortel or Annie: whatever. Like non stop laughs and Nick: just. I want to see it so badly. Colasola Annie: so, I went last night on a Tuesday. It was like sold out. And I think, I think it's going on for a couple more weeks. So definitely see it. It's just so good. I was just, I was lolling like the whole way through. Nick: It's like a real, it's basically the, it's the story. Is it the story of like the assassination? Yes. Told from the perspective of Mary Todd Lincoln. It's not really the story. Vaguely. Annie: Told from the mind of Kola Eskola. Nick: There you go. Okay. And what's your other, what's your product product? [00:47:00] Annie: Okay. So my product is, I know we've had. We've shared some critical thoughts on our girl's brand, but she impressed me this week, and that is Lady Gaga's Haas Labs. I went into Sephora, I bought, I, I was like, I'm needing a, a concealer that matches whatever skin tone I have right now, and it's the concealer. And it comes in a wand, I'm just seeing now that it's actually made in Korea, so there you go. No wonder the texture is so beautiful. And I would say, if you like the Kosas concealer, but sometimes find that it is too sheer for actual coverage, where you need it most and maybe it doesn't come in your exact color, I have trouble finding my color in the Kosas line, get the Haas Labs. It is so moisturizing. So it covers so nicely. By Nick: [00:48:00] moisturizing, do you mean that it doesn't get in like the creaks and the cracks of your like eyes? Annie: Yes. That's a great way to describe it. So, and I will say though. So the texture is as it dries, it does turn into more of a paste so you do have to work quickly and I would recommend applying it on very moisturized skin like a use a serum or a moisturizer that has kind of that tack to it because that's what will interact best with this formula and your skin will just stay like dewy and moisturized all day. Um, and it's really, it layers really well. Is Nick: it the triclone skin tech hydrating de puffing concealer? Annie: It has to be cool. So yeah, I recommend it a lot again. Don't put it on dry skin Put it on Like like attracts like do like a nice moisturizing like [00:49:00] dewy base before you put this on Okay, very impressed very Nick: impressed Okay, I'm in. What else do I have to do? Annie: You have to tell me your product of the week. Nick: You know what I've come back around to? No. Which apparently, I just saw a headline in Glossy that, like, a, uh, a jar of Tatcha's dewy, uh, moisturizing cream, dewy moisturizer is sold every 60 seconds, but I'm back on Tatcha's dewy skin cream. Okay. It's five, it's a five year old cream. It is the brand's best sellers according to Glossy by sales dollars and units and the top seller at Sephora. And the. Overall sales for just this one product continue to grow at a double digit percentage annually. But I didn't read that. I didn't know that. I just bought it because I, I just come back around to loving the idea of like a dewy [00:50:00] moisturizer. Like I wanna, I don't want a moisturizer that like disappears. I want like, I wanna, I wanna know I have it on, you Annie: know? So it leaves that kind of like tactile. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. That's so this sounds like it would work really well. It sounds like Nick: a match made in heaven. The one, I, the one thing I wish, the one thing I wish is that Tatcha did not add fragrance or specifically did not add this fragrance. to their products. It's just, I don't, it's not my fragrance and like, it's really strong and it smells old lady to me. Annie: How have you tried the Lanjean? Is that how you say it? Laneige. Like water bank. Laneige, Laneige. They have like a similar dewy skin moisturizer. Really? Nick: I'll try it. Don't worry. Annie: Um, they do. And then, uh, I think that brand belief, don't quote me on [00:51:00] that. Yep. There's been, there's obviously been like a category expansion here and the dewy skin moisturizers. I used to love the Clinique pink. Moisture surge, but they changed the formula when I was in college. Yeah, they did, unfortunately. So I haven't used that in 20 years. So that's that. I, I feel like I had a big old jar of this dewy skin cream at one point and didn't, I didn't appreciate it when Nick: I had it. It's just really smelly. That's the problem. Mm-Hmm, . I know. And I don't, I don't like that either. I wish it wasn't, but it is. Annie: Oh, I have an update. Look at my eyebrows. I can move them again. Nick: Is that good or bad? I think it's good Well casey's whole technique is that it's he doesn't freeze anything. They were frozen for a bit Annie: totally frozen I couldn't really do you couldn't do that. I could move my hairline down and open my eyes [00:52:00] wide, but the brows Well, that's what you want He didn't do it though where the brows dropped and made me look angry all the time So I was like fine with there not being movement and actually, you know what I was reading Reading, and everybody probably, probably already knows this, but I just figured it out by experiencing it. If you get both, if you have a strong, strong muscular brow and you have feelings, it can result in actually making your mood worse because your brows will naturally End up in like a scowl shape. Nick: So, okay. That's really funny. You say that because Casey would tell me sometimes that he'd have patients, um, who had gone to other practitioners and said that the Botox made them feel depressed. Annie: I wonder if it's because it dropped their brows. Nick: And it is like that. I mean that it's [00:53:00] like when, because like, obviously mind body connection, but like when you, have the feeling, the physical sensation of like scowling. Annie: Yeah. And when you have the physical sensation of your eyebrows being pulled back and a more open expression, which is usually how you are when you're happy and in a good mood, it puts you in a good mood. It's the same concept of like they say. I think in yoga practice or meditation to like smile and it will know that's Nick: what construction workers say when you walk by Annie: Nick, you are quick quick. Nick smile Nick: sweetie pie smile no, I know what you mean. Annie: yeah, it put me in just the best Mood, so I am a little worried that it's where about what Nick: well, don't worry, you know, where do you know where to come? You know where to go. Annie: I actually don't remember the address and it's not on your Nick: website [00:54:00] 822 North La Cienega. I have to go. But, before I do, I'd like to say that Eyewitness Beauty is produced by Jonathan Kornman at Friend of a Pod. We are beautifully edited. And apologies for last week where my sound, my audio was horrible, and it was not, it was my fault, not AJ Mosley's fault who edits our podcast. we're available on Patreon at patreon. com slash eyewitnessbeauty please. At any paid tier support us because the money goes directly to the production of the podcast. We've never once had an ad on our podcast and we've never done anything sponsored. And I saw like some comment somewhere, someone saying that's something they liked about. Our podcast and so maybe that's a selling point for us, but in order to do that, guys, you got to put your money where your mouth is. So join us on that [00:55:00] Patreon. If you can, you get a monthly bonus episode where we get a little bit more unfiltered. You get video episodes. So you can see our Shana Poonam's, um, up close and personal on a weekly basis. And we'll answer questions and comments there too. Okay. Bye. Until next week. Bye.