In mid-November, the celebrity gossip account @deuxmoi (1.3 million Instagram followers) posted an email it had received. The pseudonym used by the sender: “primar color” Subject line: “beauty industry” The message: “This A+ musician soon to join the beauty industry with a lipstick brand. Keep up with updates cause there’ll be...

In 2021, Walmart added 69 new beauty brands to its assortment -- a range spanning “indie brands, multicultural brands and brands [like Nou] that we built together with P&G,” said Musab Balbale, who’s leading the department’s evolution.

Tinx never set out to be a beauty influencer, yet the products she loves frequently become cult favorites. So it’s no surprise that many brands inked partnerships with her this year. For example, in August, Kiehl’s introduced “The Tinx Edit.”

When Mikayla Nogueira posts about and approves a product, it rarely fails to go viral, receive press coverage and sell out. So this year, brands lined up to work with her — Glamlite released a collab with her in June.

Once known for being exclusionary, the Abercrombie & Fitch of today touts a message that is essentially the polar opposite. Carey Krug is behind the new marketing, which encourages confidence and individuality -- and is resonating with Gen Z.

This year, KVD Beauty rebranded once again. To unveil the updated KVD and its biggest launch of 2021, the Good Apple foundation, a powerful marketing strategy was paramount. Tara Loftis took a big bet on TikTok and won.

Though best known as half of the team behind fashion label Public School, Dao-Yi Chow dedicated much of his time and energy in 2021 to rallying the fashion community, in the name of fueling the Stop Asian Hate movement.

With an aim to reinvent teen skin care, Shai Eisenman launched Bubble as a DTC brand in November 2020. Within two weeks, she was approached by “pretty much every large retailer in the country.” Bubble’s since entered 3,800 Walmart doors.

November saw the launch of not one, but two massive A-list celebrity beauty lines: Harry Styles and Ariana Grande debuted Pleasing and r.e.m., respectively. It's a trend within beauty that shows no signs of slowing down -- Hailey Bieber's line, Rhode, is set for a spring 2022 debut.