Beauty Notes | 10 November ’26
Glow Recipe Is Coming to Ulta
Glow Recipe is expanding its US retail presence with a launch into 1,000 Ulta Beauty stores from 6 December. It’s big news for the brand, and marks its first major retail expansion since launching at Sephora in 2017. To celebrate its arrival at Ulta (and ulta.com), Glow Recipe will introduce the Exopeptide Caffeine Brightening & Depuffing Fresh Slices Eye Mask. It’s a solid hydrogel housed in a twist-up dispenser, so every application is freshly cut. Formulated with exopeptides, collagen, and caffeine, it’s designed to help depuff and brighten the eye area in just 10 minutes. The Ulta exclusive will make its debut on Ulta’s TikTok Shop on 17 November.
Fragrance Brand Choulie Launches
New fragrance brand Choulie has arrived with a more literal take on the skin scents trend. It has launched with five scented body oils designed to be applied to every inch of your skin. The brand was founded by Alison Cayne, and its oils are formulated with a blend of plant oils and squalane to nourish, leaving nothing but a dry, satin finish. Every scent draws on a different fragrance family but is centred around — you guessed it — patchouli. Noble keeps things cosy with citron, orris, chestnut, sandalwood, and musk, while Loam, the earthiest of the five, blends coriander, sage, and juniper with cedarwood and oakmoss. Read about the full collection here.
Shani Darden Unveils Shani Darden Aesthetics
Shani Darden, the celebrity facialist and founder of Shani Darden Skin Care, has launched Shani Darden Aesthetics. It’s an expansion that will see her bring regenerative treatments, injectables, and dermatology to her Beverly Hills studio. Nurse practitioner and injector Quynh Dao-Payne will head up aesthetics, and will be the go-to for procedures ranging from Botox and filler to microneedling and Sculptra. Dermatologist Dr Sheila Farhang will cover laser treatments and medical skincare. To help clients ready to go beyond tweakments, Darden has teamed up with LA Beauty Connect, a concierge service that matches them with surgeons and guides them through the process. She’s also created a skincare protocol to prep skin beforehand and support recovery afterwards.
Olive Young to Open More US Stores
Olive Young is growing its US footprint with five additional stores in California by mid-2027. The South Korean beauty retailer plans to open four stores in Greater Los Angeles — at Del Amo Fashion Center, Bloom on Third, Irvine Spectrum Center, and Brea Mall — and one at Fashion Valley in San Diego, taking its US total to seven. The stores will serve as destinations for K-beauty discovery, where shoppers can find some of the biggest Korean exports, including Anua, Torriden, Medicube, Centellian24, and Mixsoon, alongside non-Korean brands like Alleyoop, La Roche-Posay, and Urban Decay. Each store will also house Skin Scan, Olive Young’s in-store skin analysis service that helps customers understand exactly what their skin needs.
AI Faces Are Showing Up in Surgery Consultations
If we wanted to see a more ‘perfected’ version of our face, any of the big AI image generators could deliver one in seconds. The problem is that the results are almost impossible to recreate, even with plastic surgery. But that isn’t stopping people from trying. According to the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS), 15% of its members have seen patients bring AI-generated images of themselves to consultations, some with unrealistic expectations of what surgery can achieve. For London plastic surgeon William Townley, the issue is that these images are based on beauty ideals, not surgical reality. The good news is that most of his clients still want natural results, and he believes the best face and neck lifts should leave patients “recognisably them, but with a few years shaved off”.
Juvelook Brings Post-Procedure Skincare to the US
Juvelook, the Korean aesthetics brand best known for its collagen-stimulating injectable, has launched a topical serum in the US. Designed for use post-procedure, the Skincare Serum combines hyaluronic acid with poly-D,L-lactic acid (PDLLA), an ingredient used in aesthetic medicine for its collagen-boosting properties. Aesthetics company Cartessa will be the brand’s exclusive US distributor, so sadly this isn’t one for the shop shelves. To try the serum, shoppers will need to visit authorised aesthetic clinics.