This week, I checked in on the bubbling market for soda and beauty collabs. Additionally, Rare Beauty shakes up its C-suite, and Glossier makes cuts to its staff.
Why soda and beauty collabs are popping off
Some beauty consumers still haven’t forgotten the smell of their Dr. Pepper Lip Smackers of the 1990s. While Lip Smackers are long gone, thirty years later, there’s a new wave of soda-inspired lip glosses hitting the shelves.
In September, Tower 28 and prebiotic soda brand Poppi released a limited-edition holiday duo of a lip gloss and powder blush inspired by Poppi’s seasonal Cranberry Fizz flavor. In January, E.l.f. and sparkling water brand Liquid Death followed up on their 2024 collaboration with a lip gloss line. In February, Cocokind launched three new flavors of its ceramide lip balm in collaboration with prebiotic soda brand Olipop.
But unlike the full-sugar Dr. Pepper Lip Smacker, today’s beverage and beauty crossovers speak to consumer demand for health and wellness at every turn, including in their soda.
“Poppi is the Dr. Pepper of today,” said Tower 28 founder Amy Liu. Tower 28’s collaboration with Poppi came through Liu’s friendship with Poppi co-founder Allison Ellsworth, Liu said, but it also made for a natural fit with beauty’s ongoing play for food-inspired, sensorial storytelling.
“As beauty brands, we’re always trying to tell flavor stories,” she said. According to Tower 28, the Poppi holiday campaign generated $11.4 million in earned media value and reached 223 million consumers. “Food and beauty are [similar] because they’re consumed so regularly, they’re so socially visual, and they’re sensorial.”
For Cocokind, the Olipop collaboration was a chance to maintain excitement around its ceramide-infused lip balms, first launched in 2025. It was also an opportunity to get a front-of-store promotional display for the first time at Ulta Beauty, its exclusive retail partner for the Olipop collaboration.
“There’s this very nostalgic, emotional connection that people have to [Olipop’s] flavors, and that made translating that into lip balms feel like such a natural extension, rather than a forced collaboration,” said Cocokind CMO Maria Maciejowski. “I think everyone’s just being more thoughtful and mindful [in their consumption], generally. As much as it extends to skin care and the [beauty] choices people are making, it, of course, also extends to their overall diet and well-being. So when we were looking at partners, Olipop was the name.”
Poppi- and Olipop-branded lip glosses also speak to consumers who see their food and drink choices not merely as health aids but also as accessories to their makeup routine, be it a Stanley Cup or an Erewhon smoothie.
“Some of [these food and drink collabs] represent the shift of consumers treating their food and their drink engagement as part of their lifestyles, much more than they have in the past,” said Melanie Bartelme, associate principal in food and beverage at consumer insights agency Mintel. “[Functional soda brands] have a coolness factor, and beauty brands also have a coolness factor.”
The lines between what is food and what is a beauty tool are only growing more blurred as consumers see looking good and feeling good as one in the same. According to Mintel, 48% of U.S. consumers report consciously consuming food and drinks for their beauty benefits, while 74% of U.S. consumers say improved diet and lifestyle choices can replace the need for topical products.
With their promise of gut-friendly fiber and prebiotics, functional soda startups like Poppi and Olipop, both launched 2018, have become the David to Coca-Cola and Pepsi’s Goliath. In February 2025, the Coca-Cola Company launched its own prebiotic soda brand called Simply Pop. Three months later, PepsiCo went straight to the source and acquired Poppi for $1.95 billion.
But with more and more health-conscious sodas coming to market, collaborations with the likes of Cocokind can help a brand like Olipop not only break through an increasingly crowded grocery store aisle, but also show up outside the beverage case altogether.
“The interesting part of this Cocokind thing is that it’s putting our brand in Ulta, which has never sold beverages,” said Olipop director of media and partnerships Steven Vigilante. “It’s a big-scale, national mass retailer where we would never be able to exist otherwise.”
But for those who want something closer to their Dr. Pepper lip balms, there’s more than just fiber-filled soda glosses on the market: In February, Vacation, Inc. released a Cherry Cola lip balm in collaboration with Pepsi. The accompanying retro campaign may be more of a balm to consumers than any contemporary wellness soda.
“A prediction that [Mintel] came up with that we released this year is called ‘retro rejuvenation,’” said Bartelme. “It’s looking at how consumers are, in general, drawing more on nostalgia than maybe ever before. The world around them is so chaotic and anxious, it feels like any time other than the time we’re in was better.”
Executive moves:
- Wella Company named Calvin McDonald as its next CEO, effective April 2. McDonald most recently served as CEO of the activewear brand Lululemon. Wella, which owns brands like Wella, Clairol and OPI, saw its previous CEO Annie Young-Scrivner resign in January 2025.
- Revlon appointed Mario Rivera as chief operations officer. River joined the cosmetics company from CVS Health, where he served as svp, chief supply chain and logistics officer. He will oversee areas such as supply chain and logistics.
- Rare Beauty promoted Joyce Kim and Ashley Murphy to chief brand and chief marketing officer, respectively. Murphy succeeds Katie Welch, who left the Selena Gomez-founded brand in January to join Chanel as U.S. head of brand and communications.
News to know:
- L’Oréal Group reported a 6% increase in sales for Q4 2025. For the full year 2025, the cosmetics giant reported a sales increase of 4% to €44 billion ($52 billion). Its dermatological beauty division, which includes brands like Cerave and La Roche-Posay, was the highest performer with an 11.5% sales bump.
- Glossier laid off roughly a third of its employees. The downsizing affects more than 50 employees and comes after Colin Walsh replaced Kyle Leahy as CEO in October. The cosmetics brand previously cut 80 roles, about a third of its workforce, in 2022.
- Maesa launched new perfume brand Scents Unearth’d at Target. The fragrance line is Maesa’s second mass perfume line for Target, following the launch of dupe line Fine’ry in 2023. Scents Unearth’d includes $35 eau de parfum and $17 perfume mist with scents inspired by the likes of Egypt and the Amazon.
- Cardi B to launch a hair-care brand. The rapper took to Instagram to announce the launch of her upcoming Grow-Good brand, which will focus on stimulating hair growth. In 2023, she was rumored to be launching a beauty line called “Kulture Wave Beauty.”
Stat of the week:
U.S. mass fragrance sales grew 15% in 2025, making it the fastest-growing category in the mass beauty market, according to data from Circana.
In the headlines:
The rise and fall of a beauty mogul. I don’t know about these fancy bathhouses, man. Behind the scenes at LVMH Beauty.
Listen in:
The New York Times’s David Dodge and McGill University’s Jonathan Jarry join the Glossy Podcast to talk how peptides are driving wellness culture.
Need a Glossy recap?
Seoul-born Borntostandout aims to be ‘the craziest’ fragrance brand in Sephora. With value top of mind, Sally Beauty is betting on dupe fragrances and instant delivery. Legacy skin-care brands are restructuring PDPs to stay visible in GEO AI search. Glossy Pop Newsletter: Sarah Creal and Erica Taylor team on a truly ageless eyeliner.
