Injectable peptide therapy, a controversial wellness trend that caught fire online in 2025, shows no signs of slowing down in 2026 despite an overwhelming lack of safety data.

Peptides, especially “research peptides” like BPC-157 and TB-500, have been hailed by famous podcasters, biohackers, and longevity gurus as a miracle cure for just about anything that ails you, from torn ligaments and gut issues to curbing wrinkles and dull skin.

There are several well-studied, FDA-approved peptides available today, such as insulin and GLP-1s like Ozempic and Wegovy, but that’s just a sliver of the peptide pie. There are thousands more with glowing online reviews, but scant scientific data, that can be procured online or through longevity clinics.

Mixes of various peptides, called “peptide stacks,” often come with clever names like the ‘'wolverine stack’ or ‘glow protocol’, while others have earned names like ‘Barbie peptide’ for their ability to tan the skin without the sun. These popular stacks are not FDA-approved, so they’re distributed online as 'research peptides' that are meant for in-lab research, not human use — a workaround for their gray market status.

To find out more, host Lexy Lebsack sat down with two experts on the topic. First up was NYT’s David Dodge (8:42), who walked us through the rise of peptide therapy online. He published an article for NYT in November titled “The internet loves peptide therapy. Is it really a miracle cure?”

Lebsack also interviews McGill’s Jonathan Jarry (29:35), who wrote an article in late 2023 — well ahead of a rush of online articles — called “The human lab rats injecting themselves with peptides.” Jarry walks us through the hard science, and lack thereof, of many popular stacks, ahead.

With the new year, changes are afoot at TikTok. On January 22, the U.S. version of the app sold for approximately $14 billion to an investor group that includes Oracle, private equity firm Silver Lake and investment firm MGX. It's yet to be seen how these changes will impact TikTok Shop, which has become an e-commerce behemoth. In December 2025, Wired reported that the social commerce platform had grown to rival eBay in scale, estimating that it sold $19 billion worth of products globally between July and September of last year.

Even before these most recent changes, as TikTok Shop has matured, brands have been rethinking how they work with creators. In this episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, hosted by Pop editor Sara Spruch-Feiner, Glossy reporter Zofia Zwieglinska unpacks her recent story exploring what’s currently driving sales on TikTok Shop — from replicable video formats to product bundles to AI — and how those shifts are redefining influencer marketing.

Over the last week, the beauty industry has seen the closure of three major makeup brands: CoverFX and Mally Beauty are shuttering, while Pat McGrath Labs, once valued at $1 billion, is headed to bankruptcy. This comes on the heels of unexpected 2025 closures that included Ami Colé, Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty, REN Clean Skincare, Apostrophe telehealth skincare and Gwyneth Paltrow’s mass line Good.clean.goop.

At the helm of two of these brands, CoverFX and Mally Beauty, is AS Beauty CEO Joey Shamah, the founder and former CEO of E.l.f. Cosmetics.

“We’ve been coined as a purchaser of distressed assets [at AS Beauty], but we’re not only buying [brands in] distress,” Shamah told Glossy. “We look at them in three buckets. Distressed or challenged is definitely one of them, a second one is divestitures, … and then the third way is similar, but different, where private equity funds have invested in a company, and their funds are sunsetting, so they’re looking to exit.”

AS Beauty was founded in 2019 by Shamah and three co-founders. It is the parent company of CoverFX and Mally Beauty, as well as Laura Geller, Julep and Bliss. While the latter two were sunset this past week, Laura Geller has grown more than 10x to over $300 million in sales, Julep has been the No. 1 selling eyeshadow brand on Amazon for several consecutive years, and Bliss has evolved into a multi-category lifestyle brand, according to AS Beauty. In total, AS Beauty’s annual revenue is around $500 million, Shamah told Glossy.

Shamah is also the founder and operator of Fit for Life, a fitness equipment licensing company behind brands like GAIAM, New Balance and Fila.

AS Beauty purchased Mally Beauty and CoverFX in 2021 and 2022 from investment firms Beauty Visions and L Catterton Partners, respectively.

In today’s episode, Shamah joins the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the decision to shutter CoverFX and Mally Beauty — at least for now, we learned — and the economic pressure that led to the decision. He also discussed the challenges of running an underperforming brand, the warning signs that a brand is in distress, and the way an operator comes to the decision to sell, shutter or file bankruptcy.

Ulta Beauty is doubling down on the wellness category.

“We’ve been on the journey with wellness since 2021 when we launched the wellness shop at Ulta Beauty, and we’ve learned so much about the category,” Laura Beres, vp of wellness at Ulta Beauty, told Glossy. “Wellness continues to grow in the market, and importantly, our guests just continue to demand more of it. … This is really an evolution of the Wellness Shop.”

Launching next week, the retailer is rolling out a pilot program called “Wellness by Ulta Beauty,” a shop-in-shop boutique concept piloted in four U.S. stores. It will include an education-focused wall, gondolas, end caps and a sampling table, all staffed by specially trained wellness advisors.

“This is much larger [than our existing Wellness Shop]: It’ll be about 475 square feet in the store, which is a significant experience [for Ulta]. And it will have some space for guests to be able to really explore and navigate in a way that gives them that sense of calm and peace throughout the store,” Beres said.

The boutiques will be located in Columbus, Ohio; Short Pump, Virginia; Peabody, Massachusetts; and Naperville, Illinois.

Beres joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss the launch, how brands can participate, and what’s coming next for Ulta Beauty’s continued wellness expansion. Listen in now, then learn more in Glossy’s latest Ulta Strategies story on the launch.

After a few sleepy years, beauty M&A had a gangbuster 2025, including three deals worth more than a billion each, leading many insiders to speculate on whether the momentum can continue in 2026.

“We were excited to see what we saw last year; M&A had become so dormant for a while, we were getting a little concerned,” said Kimber Maderazzo, professor of marketing at Pepperdine Graziadio Business School and former Proactiv and L’Oréal Group executive. “But I think we’ll see something different [this year].”

In 2025, E.l.f. Beauty purchased Hailey Bieber’s Rhode for $1 billion in May. Then in June, men’s care brand Dr. Squatch was acquired by Unilever for $1.5 billion, and L’Oréal Group bought clinical skin-care brand Medik-8 for approximately $1.1 billion.

“When you see big deals like that, it sends a message out to private equity that strategics are looking for big, big brands that will last over time,” Maderazzo said. “And when we look at the history [of beauty M&A], a lot of those brands [acquired in the past] didn’t.”

In this week’s episode of The Glossy Beauty Podcast, host Lexy Lebsack sits down with Maderazzo to discuss the new acquisition rulebook, as she sees it, what strategics are looking for today and what we can expect in 2026. 

Lebsack also taps Maderazzo to share her “2026 in and out” prediction list and an insider glimpse into the trends and topics most important to the beauty-industry-focused graduate students she teaches today. 

The latest Glossy Beauty Podcast episode features board-certified dermatologist Dr. Marnie Nussbaum and beauty industry veteran Jodi Kaplan — the founder and CEO, respectively, of the Dr. Marnie skin-care brand. Dr. Nussbaum gained popularity while catering to dermatology clients in New York City’s Upper East Side before launching the brand, which was called Lines before rebranding in November. For her part, Kaplan built her industry prowess through roles at brands including Droplette, Dr. Barbara Sturm and Augustinus Bader. 

Dermatologist-founded brands continue to resonate with beauty consumers, who are seeking credibility, education and expertise in an oversaturated market. On the podcast, Glossy Pop editor Sara Spruch-Feiner asks Dr. Nussbaum and Kaplan why they chose to lose “Lines,” what a founder’s name on a product line signifies and what’s in store for derm-led skin care in the years to come.

What will 2026 mean for the beauty and wellness industries? 

In today’s special episode, hosts Lexy Lebsack, Emily Jensen and Sara Spruch-Feiner share their 2026 industry predictions. 

This includes a slowdown of the "no-makeup makeup" aesthetic in favor of bolder color cosmetics trends, the rise of experimental peptide therapy among wellness consumers and an uptick in budget-conscious beauty shoppers. The hosts also made specific predictions, such as an increase in savory scents in fragrance and more clean, value-priced body care in big-box stores. The trio also muses about the bubbles that could burst in 2026, and so much more. 

As 2025 comes to a close, the Glossy Beauty team — Sara Spruch-Feiner, Lexy Lebsack and Emily Jensen — came together on the Glossy Beauty Podcast to reflect on some of the defining themes that shaped the beauty industry this year, and their own reporting.

Spruch-Feiner unpacks the continued rise of Gen Alpha as a beauty consumer, the brands emerging to meet that demand and the retailers adapting to deliver for this younger demographic. Jensen examines a challenging year for color cosmetics, where lip care and lip liner emerged as bright spots. And Lebsack points to longevity as a key growth area in wellness, highlighting momentum in categories like fitness trackers and strength-training equipment. She also notes that, in skin care, clinical, results-driven products are igniting consumer interest. 

Tune in for a look back at the biggest moments and themes across beauty and wellness in 2025 — and what they could signal for the industry in 2026.

In January, Kecia Steelman became one of the most powerful executives in beauty. 

After more than a decade at Ulta Beauty in positions like COO and head of international, she stepped into the president and CEO role with an uphill battle ahead of her. 

That’s because sales at Ulta tumbled during the 2020 pandemic, and despite an uptick in 2021, year-over-year sales had been steadily falling for nearly three years. She took over as CEO in January, and by March, she unveiled her Ulta Beauty Unleashed comeback plan — and in just 11 months, her strategy has paid off. 

As part of her vision, Steelman expanded Ulta’s e-commerce and product assortment with a new online marketplace, led the acquisition of U.K. specialty beauty retailer SpaceNK, expanded internationally into Mexico and the Middle East, and shepherded a shop-in-shop breakup with Target, all while dramatically improving revenue.

Sales at Ulta Beauty have been on a continuous upward swing since Steelman took over as CEO in January. In May, the retailer reported 4.5% net sales growth. This doubled to a 9.3% net sales spike, reported in August, and the company nearly tripled that growth in last month’s earnings report. 

Host Lexy Lebsack sat down with Steelman to unpack her first year in charge and look ahead to 2026 (16:50). But today’s episode also celebrates Glossy 50, our annual award list honoring business leaders, changemakers and insiders behind the beauty, wellness and fashion industries. Steelman’s interview is a special Glossy50 preview with the full list publishing next week. 

But first, Lebsack is joined by co-host Emily Jensen to break down the news of the week. This includes the novel launch of a new "bedtime fragrance" from the U.K. sleep-solution company This Works. The brand is known for its pillow spray and body oil, which include ingredients such as lavender and magnesium, but this week it expanded into fine fragrance designed to be applied before bed to improve sleep.

Lebsack and Jensen also discuss the newest spokesperson for Estée Lauder-owned M.A.C. Cosmetics, pop star Chappell Roan, and the mixed response from her fans online. In addition, they analyze an unexpected collaboration between The Gap and beauty brand Summer Fridays, which includes clothing but not beauty. And finally, the duo discusses the latest moves in the supplement space, including Sephora’s rollback of the category from its selection, and a buzzy new launch from the co-founder and former CEO of Allbirds.

On this week's episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, we're exploring what teens are hoping to receive for the holidays. To do so, Sara Spruch-Feiner speaks to 13-year-old Indy (whose last name is omitted for privacy), based in Los Angeles, who shares her full wishlist with us, as well as the picks of members of her volleyball team.

But to get a broader look at the gifting landscape in 2025, Spruch-Feiner also interviewed Anna Andreeva, managing director of footwear, beauty and brands at Piper Sandler. Piper Sandler, a financial services company, is well-known for its biannual teen survey, which, this fall, tapped 11,000 teens, most of whom were 15-18 years old and had an average household income of about $70,000.

But first, a look at some of this week’s headlines, including results of this year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday spending, the FDA's decision to withdraw a proposed rule that would have required beauty brands to test talc-based cosmetics for asbestos contamination, and, finally, the news that LVMH Ventures Fund has invested in the niche perfume brand BDK Parfums.