This week, I explore how beauty brands are successfully leaning into the “brat girl summer” pop culture trend with slime-green product launches and social campaigns. Additionally, Blake Lively enters the hair-care industry with a debut at Target, and Chanel scouts a new beauty and fragrance executive.
As ‘brat girl summer’ gets stickier, more beauty brands respond with products and social campaigns
A few weeks ago, “brat girl summer” was a fringe pop culture trend framed around Charli XCX’s breakthrough album, “Brat.” Fans found an invigorating rallying call for a fun, messy, girls-come-first summer in the star’s “360” music video, which celebrated “it” girls like Julia Fox, model Gabbriette, actress Rachel Sennott and a who’s who of cool, internet-famous female faces. The album’s slime-green hue anchored the trend, while a sexy, gothic undertone defined the look.
“This [‘Brat’] album has resonated with youth audiences on a mass scale because it aligns with their current views around anti-perfectionism and toxic positivity, instead embracing a full range of emotions,” said Mia Jacobs, youth strategist at WGSN, a trend forecasting company. “It also taps into the return of rave culture and hedonistic pursuits, which we have been tracking since the pandemic.”
The roots of the trend have been growing for the past few years disguised under sub-trends like #Feralgirlsummer and #Ratgirlsummer before becoming #Bratsummer, Jacobs said. “All of [these trends] promote chaos culture and reject perfectionism,” she added.
According to Dash Hudson, a social media management platform, “brat summer” content has seen 39.53 million engagements across Instagram, YouTube and X (formerly Twitter) since Charli XCX’s album dropped on June 7.
But the “brat girl summer” trend’s growth is not unlike female-empowering battle cries of the past, including “hot girl summer,” inspired by rapper Megan Thee Stallion’s 2019 song of the same name. In theory, “brat girl summer” would have slowly faded by fall, but instead, in a turn of surprising events, it went mainstream.
When Vice President Kamala Harris announced her candidacy for president last month, the internet decided she was “brat,” and a flood of slime-green memes and “brat” iconography flooded the internet. Charli XCX also endorsed Harris by taking to X to share “[VP] Kamala [Harris] IS brat,” which received more than 50 million views.
Within days, nearly every news outlet had published a “brat” explainer, from CBS News to the New York Times to the Washington Post, catapulting the trend into the zeitgeist for what experts say could be years to come.
According to Launchemtrics, a data and technology company, the trend skyrocketed in June 2024 with more than a third of all “brat” mentions on the internet being attributed to Charli XCX. But in July, when steam began to form for Harris to become the presidential nominee, the term “brat summer” spiked. From July 1 to July 24, the last data available, the term “brat summer” generated 276% more media impact value compared to June, garnering $30.6 million in MIV.
The trend is ripe for commercialization, with beauty having a unique advantage. For example, whereas the fashion equivalent of the look is framed around black leather, white tank tops or goth accessories, the beauty industry has embraced the Charli XCX’s slime-green album cover for inspiration.
Interchangeably called lime green or cyber green, cool girl brands like Half Magic and Isamaya Beauty have leaned into the trend.
“You just have to rock it,” Isamaya Ffrench told Glossy about the uptick in the bold green hue. The British artist added green shades to her otherwise muted palettes last year dubbed Industrial Pigments 1 and 2. The latter has sold out.
Ffrench was ahead of the curve: She is Charli XCX’s makeup artist and starred in the “360” video. Her line, Isamaya Beauty, was also used exclusively for the video alongside Lashify lashes. Ffrench has published several green shadow tutorials on her and her brand’s TikTok channels in the past few months.
Meanwhile, Half Magic’s founder, Donni Davy, key makeup artist for “Euphoria,” has editorialized a “brat” landing page on her e-commerce site and loaded her own platforms with several tutorials on slime-green makeup.
Other brands have gently leaned into the color trend. For example, for Chanel’s summer 2024 makeup collection launch, the French beauty house led with an image of ambassador Lily-Rose Depp in the collection’s only lime-green shade. For the collection, which was released last month, Chanel created two green products: a metallic golden-green nail lacquer called Reveuse and a shimmery green Stylo Ombre et Contour eye pencil called Dream Leaf.
Given her provocative 2023 Max series “The Idol,” Depp also personifies “brat.”
Estée Lauder Companies brands like MAC and Smashbox have also leaned into the trend and inspired many TikTok tutorials from content creators. For example, although MAC’s Connect In Colour Eye Shadow Palette was released in 2023, its lime-green shade has become popular on TikTok. The brand has since merchandised the palette to be displayed prominently to shadow shoppers on MAC’s e-comm site.
Jill Tomandl, West Coast vp of global brand development at ELC, spotted the trend bubbling up earlier this year and put steam behind product development. “[As soon as we spotted the] citrus-green eyeshadow [trend], we began pitching it internally and putting it into a palette, all to convince marketing and our senior leadership that this color is where it’s at,” she said. Smashbox has since been able to add it to several products and, last week, the brand posted a “brat” tutorial using the brand’s new Always On Mood Board Shadow Palette, a blend of neutrals and slime-green shades.
So far, “brat green” has earned 42% more media impact value in July than June, according to Launchmetrics data. From June 1 to July 24, the term “green” mentioned alongside “brat” keywords garnered $18.5 million in MIV, according to the firm.
While growth seems unavoidable, the future for “brat” is still unclear: When a trend goes too mainstream, early adopters could bail, leaving a trail of green products that hit shelves a little too late.
Executive moves:
- Anne Kirby, the president of Chanel fragrance and beauty, will be retiring from the luxury house at the end of the year. Kirby has spent 35 years with Chanel, including the past six in her current role. Her successor has not yet been announced.
- Alex Alston is the new vp of Skylar Clean Beauty, a perfume brand under Starco Brands that launched in 2017 and currently sells DTC and through Sephora. Starco Brands also owns Soylent nutrition shakes and Art of Sport skin care for athletes. Previously, Alston worked for Rose Inc and R.E.M. Beauty.
News to know:
- Blake Lively is the latest celebrity to enter the beauty industry. She follows the likes of Beyoncé’s Cécred and Rihanna’s Fenty Hair with the launch of a hair-care brand called Blake Brown, a callback to her given last name. The line launched through Target on August 4 with eight products that retail for $18.99-$24.99.
- Winky Lux, a masstige cosmetics brand sold at Target, Ulta and Shoppers Drug Mart, has taken on a majority investment from private equity firm Core Industrial Partners. Winky Lux will keep its executive team in place and use the money to scale the business. The brand was founded in 2015.
- L’Oréal released positive earnings from its second quarter of fiscal year 2024 on Tuesday, which showed a boost in sales from the dermatological beauty category as well as sales in Europe and emerging markets. The company reported more than 6% growth.
- A new direct-to-consumer sexual wellness brand called Hello Cake launched on Tuesday with two new prescription products targeted at women and available via telehealth. The brand will also launch devices and lubricants through drugstores like Target, Walmart, CVS, Walgreens and Rite Aid.
- L’Oréal’s big bet in the home hair-color space has officially launched in 1,000 Target stores and online at Target.com. The new Colorsonic at-home hair color device has been in development for more than a decade and has 29 patents. The tool distributes DIY hair color through pop-in color cartridges and vibrates to ensure an even application. The device sells for $124.99, while color pods are $29.99.
Stat of the week:
According to a market research study published by Custom Market Insights on Thursday, the global demand for bioplastics is increasing. Bioplastics are plastic-like materials made from plant sources, like cornstarch or food waste, and can be appealing to consumers looking for plastic alternatives across consumer packaged goods. The firm estimates the market size in 2023 was $17.7 million and predicts it will grow to reach $51.3 million by 2033. The category is part of the global plastic market, which was valued at $712 billion in 2023.
In the headlines:
What the highest-paid CEOs at U.S. beauty companies make. ‘It’s not you, it’s us’: Saks Fifth Avenue phases out sexual wellness. How Clarins is reformulating its hero product (and its business). Incubator Underlining Beauty’s latest launch is a hair-cycling-focused brand created with Sally Beauty.
Listen in:
TikTok-famous cosmetic chemist Javon Ford joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss his unorthodox career path, turning down collaborations he doesn’t believe in, and the ins and outs of the product development world.
Need a Glossy recap?
Michelle Phan on transitioning from influencer to entrepreneur. Is Mexico the next great fragrance market? With the Hamptons overcrowded, Upstate New York is ripe for fashion retail. Beauty Pop Spotlight: Shop the products influencers love. Brooke Shields used community insights to build a hair-care line. Why iconic L.A. retailer Fred Segal is shutting down.
