For hair-care brand K18, everything starts and ends with the K18Peptide. "The peptide isn't a marketing story; it's the product architecture," Rita El-Khouri, PhD, senior vice president of research and innovations at K18, explains. Per the brand, the ingredient — born from decades of research and testing — repairs the hair's structure from within at a "molecular level," unlike traditional conditioning agents that simply coat the hair to smooth its surface. "Every formula is designed to support or extend the benefits of molecular repair. That creates a fundamentally different approach compared to brands that rely on cosmetic ingredients or surface-level conditioning," explains El-Khouri. But what stops other companies from simply copy-and-pasting that very successful technology for their own gain? Proprietary status. A proprietary ingredient is simply an ingredient that is exclusive to a brand, cosmetic chemist Kelly Dobos tells Fashionista. ...
Luna Bronze 's U.S. retail debut has been a decade in the making. The Australian self-tan brand — born from co-founder Maddy Balderson's brush with skin cancer — launched in 2015, and it's been restructuring over the last five years in preparation for global expansion. This February, Luna Bronze entered its first major U.S. retail partnership with Ulta Beauty, marking a key milestone for the brand amid a surging appetite for Australia's body-care innovations. "There's definitely growing global interest in Australian beauty more broadly," Balderson, who's based in Sydney, tells Fashionista. "Australian brands tend to be associated with natural ingredients, simplified routines and a strong awareness of sun safety, which resonates with U.S. consumers." Australian beauty brands like Bondi Sands, Lanolips and Ultra Violette have already made waves across categories in the U.S. market, and the A-beauty space is only rising: In 2025, Australian...