☆ Don't buy this beauty advent calendar, full body deodorant is everywhere, Glossier's best launch yet?

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Hey lovely,

Jasmine here, Editor of Daily Rituals, back with your 5-minute Monday Wellness Dose.

A quick thank you to those who are joining our sold out London event this Saturday with our friends over at Project E, I’m so excited! You can join the waitlist here just in case a ticket comes up. I’m all ears for any event requests (or any requests!), so hit reply to this email & let me know where you’d like us to pop up next. A reminder too that if you refer just one friend to The Wellness Dose, you get on our priority access list to find out about events.

As always, thank you for being here. I'm so grateful for you.

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The best stories & updates that caught our eye this week → 

• 🍑 Bottom line: British brand Wype just raised £1m to revolutionise bum care, backed by notable founders from brands like SURI & Heights. Their success follows a familiar blueprint from brands like Touchland: take a boring product in an un-sexy category and make it cute. Wype will have a harder time than Touchland though, since the Sephora kids are unlikely to be bragging about their Wype favourites. That said, the brand is keen to get people talking about our nether regions (& here we are!) with their newly launched cheeky TV ad, featuring a lady having a heart-to-heart with her rear. 

• 💨 Do you smell that: Have you noticed whole-body deodorants are suddenly everywhere? Our extreme avoidance of any body odour is a strange turn on the humans-are-weird timeline, per Ethos. Likely thanks to clean girl aesthetic obsession, women are the main target - we must smell womanly, but not too womanly, even post-hot Pilates or on the Northern Line in peak summer. We've admittedly tried a few of the popular brands & none seem to cut it. This explains why - in short, we have two different types of sweat, so one deo won't "solve" everything. Either way, we're convinced there's a gap for something that helps sweat smell better in a product that's not a deo at all - maybe a supplement or, our preference, a clean aesthetic body wash. In the meantime, we’re sticking with this oil-to-gel body wash that’s guaranteed to leave you squeaky clean. 

• ✨ The IT ingredient: The latest skincare ingredient everyone's obsessing over - exosomes. Reddit helpfully calls them your skins “FedEx delivery system, delivered with a list of (skin-loving) instructions”, and this one caught our eye. Their formula packs 63% actives and claims to create a 53% wrinkle reduction in 7 days. We’re giving them extra points for their third party consumer study & independent clinical testing too. 

• 💋 The price of luxury: The new Pat McGrath x Louis Vuitton collab has divided the internet - some see the collab as iconic as it gets in beauty (and so worth £100+ for a single lipstick), others are confused. Why would anyone drop £190 on a nice-enough eyeshadow quad? The reality is the pricing gets people talking, and it’s positioned to be an intentionally aspirational gateway drug to LV's more premium lineup. We’re personally going to pass and opt for this £26 bronzy palette from Queen Pat McGrath herself instead. 

• 📿 Emotional surveillance: Forget smart rings - this $299 AI necklace tracks your emotional state through vocal biomarkers (e.g. your tone & breathing patterns), environmental noise, and HRV. Since over 44% of Americans have already adopted wellness wearables, emotion tracking feels like the inevitable next step in our mission to optimise our day-to-day. Ah, if only we could volunteer our emotional state data to our employers to show them how bad the office is for us? Here’s to (WFH) dreaming and hoping the brand releases something a little more discrete next.

• 👶 Gen Alpha takeover: Most of us at age 15 were probably swooning over our first love, sneaking into clubs or spending evenings watching 50-minute makeup tutorials we'd later botch. Not Salish Matter. She just launched a skincare brand with her (even more) famous dad straight into Sephora and the response has been crazy. With Gen Alpha growing up beauty obsessed (thanks to brands like Bubble & Byoma) it’s destined to be a hit when you put a relatable teen as the founder with a line up that's elevated, but also safe for young skin. Our guess is that this serum mist will be Gen Alpha catnip.

• 🧠 Noted: An analysis of nearly 15 million people revealed that those with psychiatric disorders are more likely to marry someone with the same condition - a pattern consistent across cultures and generations. Scientists aren't sure why, theorising it could simply be that "like attracts like" or that shared environments make us more similar over time. Interestingly, it could help identify undiagnosed conditions in partners, particularly those with milder symptoms that might otherwise go unnoticed. 

• 💄Oh Glossier: This summer really was the revival of the matte (and of course) blurring blush, and Glossier has been teasing us this past week with their new 10-shade Cloud Paint Plush Blush lineup dropping tomorrow. Although cream-like to touch, the product  transforms into a matte powder once applied and the payoff? Wow.

The Wild West of Beauty Advent Calendars

‘Tis (somehow) already the season where every store and beauty brand worth their weight in setting powder releases their take on the beauty advent calendar. Ignoring the fact that we're barely a week into September and having to discuss Christmas feels absolutely revolting (& I feel I 100% deserve this response..), many do sell out regardless. So today, I figured I'd give you a roundup I haven't seen elsewhere - breaking down the price-to-value ratio (sounds smarter than it is), the full-size versus mini situation of each, overall aesthetic, and my honest take on whether the contents justify parting with your money.

THE CRITERIA

Ultimately, what advent calendar floats your boat is subjective, but for me? Since I'm staring at it all December, it needs to look decent - otherwise, I might as well grab a Lindt one from Tesco for the same morning dopamine hit. It also needs a solid price-to-value ratio (some don’t..). Ideally, at least 30% should be products I already know I love, with the rest being things I'm genuinely excited to try and that won't wreak havoc on my skin / hair / body.

That's probably asking a lot, but let's be honest - most of us aren't buying (or asking for) these for the joy of surprise. We want our money's worth from the contents. Which is why although I've scored each one, you can compare based on what matters most to you - whether that's full-size product count, value, or pure aesthetic appeal. 

One thing I did notice - some brands managed to make their way into basically every one out there, sometimes with numerous products too, which I personally think is giving slight try hard energy. 

★ The DR Verdict ➔

My favourite? This one. Sadly, the most expensive, but it’s the one that looks the most Christmassy without also looking like cheap wrapping paper, & has a great mix of hair, skincare, body & fragrance. 

The full breakdown with scores is in the sheet below - though honestly, if none of these are speaking to you, then I’d suggest skipping the whole advent calendar madness this year & stick to a trusty Lindt instead.

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Thank you so much for your support! See you next Monday.

Jasmine x