Before I sit down with Brent Ridge, I've been sitting with his book. I came across Brent Ridge the way a lot of good things happen, unexpectedly, through a conversation that led somewhere I didn't anticipate. I looked him up, found the book, and by the time I was boarding a flight to Warsaw for a podcast recording, I had it downloaded on my iPad and ready. I didn't put it down for the entire flight. Not because it's a page-turner in the conventional sense, but because I kept

As fragrance booms, Byredo’s success reveals why insider codes, cross-cultural references and restraint are redefining value in beauty and wellness In an era where fragrance has re-emerged as one of the fastest-growing categories in global beauty, few brands have navigated its cultural ascent as precisely as Byredo. Once a niche Stockholm-based fragrance house, the brand has evolved into a €1 billion luxury player, propelled not by performance marketing or mass appeal, but by

The shift from aesthetic wellness to measurable health. A conversation with Lisa Tengbom by Paula Ironside. The wellness industry didn't just grow, it expanded into something ambient. It became part of how we signal identity, discipline, even taste. Green juices, cold plunges, infrared saunas, rituals that promise not just health, but a certain kind of life. But as the category scaled, so did a quiet fatigue. Not necessarily with the practices themselves, but with what they r

Why the next generation of wellness and beauty businesses won’t be built on aesthetics, but on non-negotiables Across wellness and beauty, we’re hitting a point of aesthetic saturation. Not just in products, but in faces, lighting, copy, tone.The same skin. The same glow. The same language. Repeated, endlessly. And the data is starting to reflect it. Instagram, once the engine of beauty and wellness brands, now sits at some of the lowest engagement rates across platforms, hov

We remember the brands that made us feel something, not just the ones that looked good. In this blog, I’m sharing thoughts on one of the most powerful yet misunderstood parts of branding: storytelling. Whether you’re building a skincare line, running a studio, or simply trying to show up more meaningfully online, your brand’s story is not just background noise. It’s the thing that makes people stay, care, and come back. I’ll be breaking down: 💛 What story-driven branding act