Your Summer Beauty & Wellness News Recap

[View this email in your browser]( | [Manage newsletter subscriptions](newsletter=all2) [Allure logo image]( September 02, 2024 In Case You Missed It... As Allure’s content director, I get to put my little fingers into all our story pies, which gives me a nice bird’s-eye view of the beauty industry and pop culture reporting our team of full-time editors and freelance writers are publishing every day. It’s a lot of great content, so I can’t blame you if you missed an article or two. That’s where our new top stories roundup comes in. At the end of every season, I’ll pop into your inbox with a rundown of the most read, shared, and commented-on Allure stories of the past few months. We’ve got science-y deep dives! We’ve got celebrity interviews! We’ve got trend reports and product reviews and first-person accounts from writers who’ve gone under the knife (or at least the injectable needle)! Whatever type of beauty and wellness reading you’re in the mood for, this newsletter has you covered. [Kara McGrath, Content Director](   In our most-read feature this summer, Kara Nesvig spoke with over two dozen plastic surgeons who told us they were seeing a marked difference in the [skin quality of patients on Ozempic (GLP-1)]( versus those who weren’t. This isn’t the “Ozempic face”—the hollowed out look that’s common for people who lose a lot of weight in a short period of time—you probably saw in headlines earlier this year. Instead, “these patients’ skin doesn’t always seem to behave like skin normally does,” Nesvig wrote. Many doctors compared it to an old, overused rubber band and noted that this change could make procedures like facelifts more complicated—or even impossible—to perform. [bare breasts]( In other plastic surgery news, Jolene Edgar explored [how the boob job has changed]( in the last few years and [how your current injectables routine could complicate any facelifts]( you might want later in life. Executive beauty director Jenny Bailly spoke to a woman whose [husband gave her a facelift](, while writer Beatrice Hazlehurst shared her own [experience getting an “internal bra,”]( a common add-on for a breast lift. “Was it worth going through all of this, just for slightly smaller tits with slightly higher nipples?” she ponders. Guess you’ll have to click in to find out. For [Melanin Edit](, we produced two major features: The first addressed a federal appeals court ruling that said the Fearless Fund’s grant program for Black women-owned businesses was [“substantially likely to violate” a law]( that prohibits the use of race as a deciding factor when awarding or enforcing contracts. After the ruling, Kayla Greaves spoke with Black founders about the impact this will have on some of our favorite beauty brands, many of which are already struggling now that the 2020-era wave of support has largely tapered off. [an illustration of a black woman with traction alopecia]( We also launched It’s Textured, a new column where we untangle the joy, trauma, confusion, and frustration that can come with Black hair. For the inaugural piece, associate editor Annie Blay spoke with [women who live with traction alopecia](, a hair loss condition that’s common among Black women who wear protective styles—and can come with serious emotional side effects. As one source put it: “I went from not thinking about my hair at all to it being something that consumes my entire life.” On a lighter note, we reviewed the second-most controversial thing 👀 to happen to Blake Lively this summer: [her hair-care line, Blake Brown](. While I don’t know that the entire “conditioner-free” (unless you count the hair mask, which, like all hair masks, is essentially a conditioner) collection will make its way into our editors’ regular rotation, there were a few surprising standouts. [Maluma Allure cover]( Speaking of hair masks, [Nicola Coughlan]( shared the $30 version she wore under all her Bridgerton wigs. [Brooke Shields]( said “fuck you” to the concept of “aging gracefully,” while [Sofia Vergara]( vented about her annoyance that “menopause” remains a dirty word. And did you catch our most recent [cover shoot with Maluma](? I have been (respectfully) revisiting the photos at least once a week since it went live. When we’re not interviewing the latest celebrity to decide that the world needs them to launch a beauty product line, we aren’t too proud to wade into the TikTok discourse. Generally, the discourse is exhausting, but we’re always pleasantly surprised when our reporting finds that the people behind those front-facing videos could be onto something. For instance: [Rubbing castor oil on your belly button]( might actually help with digestion (though not for the reason so many people seem to think) and the [“Irish wave”]( really is a tricky type of curl pattern, though it’s not a phenomenon limited to people who share my ancestry. The [“morning shed,”]( however, is something we’re a little less eager to get behind. But nothing stoked the comments section quite like two op-eds from Allure’s senior news editor, Nicola Dall’Asen. First, she speculated that none of us ever had [“eyebrow blindness;”]( we just really wanted our brows to look like that in 2016, OK? Then, a month later, she declared that [undereye concealer is dead](—news that initially had me shaking in my house slippers, but felt less dramatic once I became a dedicated user of the concealer alternative [Caliray Hideaway](. Now, I only look the trendy amount of tired, not like I’m about to drop dead! Some of the other products we tested this summer: [Dyson’s inevitable styling product line](, [Urban Decay’s revived Naked Palette](, the [Clinique Black Honey]( extended universe, [burgundy mascara](, and [a $158 hair tie](. [Olivia Rodrigo, Zendaya, and others]( Looking ahead, we’ve already rounded up the [hair](, [makeup](, and [nail trends]( experts predict will be huge this fall. I, for one, plan to get Gothic French manicures all season.   Catch you next time, Kara [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [Instagram]( [Pinterest]( This e-mail was sent to you by [allure.com](. 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