Hair
Crimped Hair Is Back: How to Wear Texture Without Turning It Into Heat Damage
The 2026 crimped-hair comeback brings volume and visible texture. LCY connects the cultural signal with heat-damage science and a more measured technique.
The archive
Every story, filterable by evidence.
123 stories · page 3 of 11
Makeup
Collectible Makeup Palettes: Useful Product or Beautiful Packaging?
Holiday 2026 palettes are designed like art objects. LCY weighs shade utility, duplication, skin-tone inclusion, cost and usable life.
Sustainability
When Does Refillable Beauty Become More Sustainable?
Refillable packaging is not automatically greener. LCY examines the primary pack, refill count, logistics, end-of-life and real consumer behaviour together.
Aesthetics
RF Microneedling: Between Skin-Tightening Promise and a Safety Warning
RF microneedling is rising as a collagen-remodelling treatment, but the FDA’s warning on serious complications makes device, settings and practitioner selection central.
Skin
Do NAD+ Serums Make Skin Younger? A Longevity Claim Check
NAD+ biology is real, but translating it into a claim that a cosmetic serum rejuvenates skin requires human evidence that remains limited. LCY separates mechanism from outcome.
Sustainability
Can Lightweight Packaging Become the New Luxury?
Beauty packaging is trying to create a premium feel with less material, challenging the old code that equates heavy bottles with quality. LCY verdict: heavy is not automatically premium, and light is not automatically sustainable.
Sustainability
Mono-Material Packaging: Does It Really Make Recycling Easier?
2026 packaging reports are prioritising pumps, caps and bodies made with fewer material types. LCY verdict: look for country-specific disposal instructions and verified recovery data beside the material claim.
Sustainability
A Sustainability Label Is Not Enough: Why Traceability Matters in 2026
As new EU packaging rules begin to apply, producer information, material flows and substantiated claims are becoming more visible. LCY verdict: traceable data over green adjectives; comparable metrics over a beautiful story.
Lifestyle
Beauty in Digital Identity: Will Our Avatar Shop Before We Do?
Fashion apps moving into beauty turn the avatar from a try-on model into an identity-building space. LCY verdict: the play space is valuable; without transparency and control, personalisation can slide into surveillance.
Lifestyle
The Maintenance Economy Is Changing: Are Fewer Appointments the New Luxury?
Gray blending and longer-wear routines are bringing time cost into beauty decisions alongside appearance. LCY verdict: what consumers are buying is not only a look but time back in the calendar.
Fashion
Fall Colour Does Not Mean the Same Brown for Everyone
Colour analysts are adapting olive, rust and burgundy to individual undertone rather than prescribing one autumn palette. LCY verdict: personalise the trend palette; do not surrender personal style to a chart.
Technology
Beauty Tech Is No Longer Just Generating Heat—It Is Managing It
A liquid-cooled hair tool shows that beauty devices are starting to compete on when they remove energy, not only how they deliver it. LCY verdict: hardware storytelling should be followed by independent performance data.
