Thingtesting

Tome, a skincare brand that launched earlier this week, thinks you should slather a prickly sponge, harvested from freshwater sources in Eastern Europe, all over your face. “It smells like you pulled it out of the river,” says Kyra Peckaitis, Tome’s VP of marketing, who is leading the brand’s launch. She has her work cut out for her.

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When Zubek launched its first run of leggings in April, they sold out despite costing €200 ($230) a pair. It was a steep price point compared to the sea of cheap polyester leggings that are out on the market, but for shoppers trying to cut plastic from their lives, these leggings were worth the premium. Zubek, run by sisters Aneta and Beata Zubek, makes polyester-free activewear that it describes are containing “zero toxins”.

Last month, air purifiers started to disappear from Target shelves across the Northern US. Smoke from wildfires ripping through Canada had settled over the Midwest and Northeast, putting more than 100 million Americans under air quality alerts and pushing fine-particle pollution to its worst levels in over a decade. Home wellness brand Canopy says it saw an uptick in sales and web traffic.

This week, we spotted a number of brands reaching for the same word: luxury. Andare just launched a premium before-you-go toilet fragrance that traps odor in the bowl, Lenose makes soap infused with signature perfumes, Salt Oral Care makes oral care designed to be left out on the counter, and 39BC makes body care modeled on ancient bathing rituals. (Apparently, the bathroom was due for a luxury rebrand.) Elsewhere, the product is a mood. More and more brands are taking a stance against screentime.

O mother, where art thou? In 1973, anthropologist Dana Raphael coined the term “matrescence” to describe the profound identity shift women go through as they transition to becoming parents. Now, brands are picking up the term and seeing what they can do with it. In recent months, More Than Nine has rolled out a three-step skincare range with ingredients vetted for safety during conception, pregnancy, and postpartum.

Over the past few years, I’ve hiked more than 5,000 miles on the Appalachian Trail, the Pacific Crest Trail, the West Highland Way, and plenty more across Europe. And when I’m not out in the woods, I like to scroll the ’gram for inspiration on where to hike next. Most of the people I follow are also part-time dirtbags, but every now and then I raise an eyebrow at what I see popping up on my feed. Hikers cosying up in layeres of insulated clothing. Stiff leather hiking boots.

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In June, Bryan Johnson renamed his longevity brand Blueprint to Immortals. Before that, Allbirds became NewBird, an AI company, Harry’s Inc became Mammoth Brands, Nuggs became Simulate, and NoonBrew became MoonBrew. There were all the prebiotic soda rebrands, too: Poppi started life as Mother Beverage, Olipop unveiled a new look this May, and last year Halfday zhuzhed up its packaging with some 90’s nostalgia. Each rebrand happened for a different reason.

Most shampoo comes in a plastic bottle you squeeze until it’s empty. Sapone has another idea: its shampoo is housed in a hollowed-out bar of solid soap, meaning the shampoo’s bottle doubles as a body wash. The soap is designed to dissolve at roughly the same rate as the shampoo is used, leaving no plastic or spills behind (although a soap dish is available to help the bottle dry out between uses).