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The Hidden Gems of a 48-Hour Trip to Korea That Everyone Overlooks

  • Apr 15
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Forget the Trends: 5 Uncomfortable Truths from Expo West

Why Most Celebrity Brands Won’t Survive the Next 5 Years // This Week, I Turned Down A Book Deal

Mar 08, 2026

∙ Paid

Kim K, Energy Drinks, and the Maturity of Celebrity CapitalCelebrity equity is getting… boring.

Not because it does not work.Because everyone is still doing it.

We went from “Wait, she owns part of it?” to “Of course she does.” in about four years.

Equity used to feel electric. Ownership. Alignment. Skin in the game.

Now it is table stakes.

And here is the part no one wants to say out loud: outside of maybe the Kardashians, very few celebrities actually move me anymore as an investor.

I’d argue we are still in the early innings of celebrities truly understanding what ownership means. Equity sounds powerful. Ownership feels powerful.

Yet as many of you know, that’s far from the day-to-day lived reality. It is dilution. Governance. Capital calls. Seven to ten year timelines. Downside risk that does not care about your engagement rate.

The Kardashian machine is fascinating precisely because they have done this on every level. Ambassador. Minority owner. Founder. Co founder. Different structures. Different intensity.

And I would argue the depth of involvement has been directly correlated to durability.

Because equity does not automatically de risk.

It shifts the risk.

When equity is granted for likeness or promotion, you are underwriting a human being. Relevance cycles are short. Culture moves quickly. Reputation risk does not show up cleanly in a financial model.

The question we ask internally is simple:If the celebrity stepped back tomorrow, would the business hold?

If the answer is no, it is marketing. Not a company.

Now let’s talk about energy.

The global energy drink market is barreling toward $85B plus over the next few years. In the US, it is one of the fastest growing beverage categories, quietly stealing share from soda and increasingly from alcohol as Gen Z drinks less. Energy is no longer a gas station impulse. It is merchandised like performance fuel.

To me, it behaves more like a supplement than a beverage.

Caffeine stacked with adaptogens. Nootropics. B vitamins. L theanine. It promises focus, productivity, gym output. It lives in your morning routine, not your happy hour.

On the women’s side, Alani Nu is really the only breakout winner so far. And that is not accidental. They spoke to a very specific female demographic with precision.

Meanwhile, there are dozens of startups flooding the space. Cleaner labels. Wellness coded branding. Functional claims. It is brilliant and crowded at the same time.

So when Kim steps in as co founder of an existing energy drink, it is not random. It is calculated category selection.

And here is the slightly controversial take: If Kim actually leans in, this probably wins.

Not because taste does not matter. Not because fundamentals disappear. But because in a land grab category, cultural gravity plus capital plus distribution compresses time.

Outside of her, for most celebrities, I say it only matters if they write a real check.

That is the shift that matters to me.

There is a difference between lending your image and wiring your liquidity. Cash changes the energy.

We are moving from celebrity as headline to celebrity as one input in a much larger machine.

The winners will be businesses first:Strong margins.Serious supply chain.Thoughtful retail expansion.A roadmap beyond a single hero SKU.Actual financial discipline.

Audience is not demand.Distribution is not retention.Fame is not product market fit.

Celebrity equity is not dead.It is just growing up.

And the ones who understand that ownership is a balance sheet commitment, not a branding exercise, are the only ones I am still excited to watch.

This Week, I Turned Down A Book DealWhich feels a little unhinged to type considering I have been very loud about the fact that writing a book is one of my goals this year. Manifestation girl meets inbox reality.

I spoke with three publishers. One essentially said, “We love this. Come back when you have 100,000 followers.” Translation: brilliant idea, wrong algorithm. Apparently 40,000 thoughtful, engaged, wellness-obsessed humans are adorable but not commercially viable. The second publisher moved faster. A contract came in. No advance. They would own 85% of the book (so nearly all of the revenue). I would invest nearly $100,000 into marketing. So just to recap: I write the book, build the platform, fund the launch… and rent my own words back.

It broke my heart a little. Not because I think I’m entitled to anything. But because no one talks about this part.

We romanticize book deals like they’re golden tickets. No one mentions the fine print where you are the product, the marketing department, and the checkbook. Is this what everyone is doing quietly? Is publishing just your typical pay-to-play conferences in a blazer? Smile for the panel, pay for the badge, call it prestige.

I’m not writing a book to cosplay as an author. I’m writing a book because I have something to say about ownership, ambition, women, capital, wellness, and betting on yourself. And if the irony is that I have to bet on myself again to do it properly, fine. But I am not signing away the upside just to say I got picked.

So here’s the spicy, slightly vulnerable truth: I want a real partner. A publisher who understands that platform is built in rooms, not just on follower counts. Someone who sees the long game. So I’ll keep you posted on publisher #3, but if you are one, or know one, my inbox is open.

🪩👇 Become a paying subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

🔒 Behind the Paywall

Part II: Forget the Trends. Let’s Talk About the Reality.

You don’t need another Expo West recap. You’ve already seen the photos of the booths and the lists of the “Top 10 Ingredients.”

Every Expo West recap you’ll read this week is going to tell you the same thing: protein is in, fiber is the future, and everyone is still drinking prebiotic sodas.

But if you look past the sampling lines and the $100k booth builds, there is a much quieter—and much more uncomfortable—story unfolding in Anaheim this year.

The “better-for-you” era as we know it is over. Wellness has become a commodity, functional ingredients are no longer a moat, and the industry is hitting a “math problem” that most founders aren’t ready to face.

In this exclusive deep dive, we’re skipping the trend reports and breaking down the 5 uncomfortable truths that will actually define who survives the next 24 months in CPG.

Continue reading→

By now, your feed is likely flooded with Expo West recaps. You’ve read about the rise of fiber, the dominance of protein, the hyper-niche functional beverages, and the fact that mushrooms are, once again, having a moment.

But if you look past the trend reports and the sampling lines, a different, much quieter story was unfolding in Anaheim this year.

It wasn’t about the newest ingredients or the flashiest categories. It was about the fundamental mechanics of the consumer packaged goods (CPG) industry shifting right under our feet.

Here are the five uncomfortable truths that Expo West revealed this year.

1. Wellness Has Officially Become the Baseline

Ten years ago, “better-for-you” was a differentiator. You could launch a brand simply by being the cleaner, healthier alternative to a legacy incumbent.

Today, walk the floor of Expo West and you’ll realize that era is over. Low sugar. High protein. Gut health. Functional ingredients. Cleaner labels. Nearly every single product in the convention center checks some version of those boxes.

Something subtle but massive has happened: Wellness stopped being a category and became the operating system of food.

When health becomes the default, the competitive advantage shifts. The winners are no longer the brands that are “healthier.” They’re the ones that can build real brand gravity, secure distribution leverage, and drive ruthless repeat purchase behavior. The wellness era isn’t ending—but the era of easy differentiation certainly is.

2. We Have a Math Problem (The Saturation Crisis)

If you walk the floor long enough, a quiet, uneasy realization sets in. There are an extraordinary number of genuinely good products. They are well-formulated. They are beautifully branded. They are led by thoughtful, passionate founders.

And yet, the math is incredibly uncomfortable.

Retail shelf space hasn’t grown at the same rate as wellness innovation. Consumer attention hasn’t expanded infinitely. And retail buyers’ velocity expectations keep rising.

Which raises a question the industry doesn’t love asking out loud: Are we building more brands than the market can realistically support? Expo West increasingly feels like a snapshot of a very crowded future. We have reached peak CPG, where simply having a great product is no longer a guarantee of survival, let alone success.

3. “Functional” is the New Commodity

For years, adding function created a moat. You didn’t just sell sparkling water; you sold sparkling water with L-theanine. Protein, adaptogens, fiber, collagen, prebiotics—these used to be the unique selling propositions that justified a premium price tag.

But what happens when every category adds the exact same stack of benefits? Those ingredients stop being a moat. They become table stakes.

We are watching functional ingredients quietly turn into commodities. And once the formulation playing field levels out, the competition moves somewhere else entirely. The brands that win the next decade won’t win on their ingredient panel; they will win on unparalleled taste, unshakeable brand trust, and unit economics that actually make sense. The functional arms race hasn’t ended, but it is no longer the thing that decides who wins.

4. The Illusion of Scale (Innovation vs. Theater)

Expo West is an incredible event, but it is also a performance.

Every year, the booths get bigger. The sampling lines get longer. The brand activations get more elaborate and Instagram-worthy. From the outside looking in, it looks like unstoppable momentum.

But the visual scale of Expo often masks the harder realities founders are navigating behind the scenes. Behind the million-dollar booth builds are thin margins, crushing trade spend, intense retail pressure, and increasingly long paths to profitability.

Expo is where brands look big. The real question is whether the business actually is.

5. The Premium Price Ceiling Has Been Hit

Inside the Anaheim Convention Center, a $4.99 functional beverage or a $3.49 protein bar feels normal. It’s the cost of high-quality, ethically sourced, wildly innovative ingredients.

But outside the convention center, the everyday consumer is exhausted. Inflation has squeezed wallets, and price sensitivity is at a high. The uncomfortable truth is that the gap between the premium prices brands need to charge to survive and the prices mainstream consumers are willing to pay for daily habits is widening.

Winning in the next five years won’t just be about convincing people your product is better; it will be about engineering a supply chain and margin structure that allows you to offer that better product at an accessible price point.

The Real Takeaway

Expo West still matters. It is still the gravitational center of the industry—the place where we gather, experiment, and introduce what’s next.

But the real signal this year wasn’t found in a new superfood or a flashy packaging rebrand. The signal is that the game has grown up. In a world where every product is healthy, functional, and beautifully designed, the brands that survive won’t be the ones chasing the next trend.

They’ll be the ones obsessing over the fundamentals.

Cheers to me never having watched the Kardashians but being obsessed with their business savviness, my desire for a new energy drink to replace my Celsius addiction, and my gratitude for spending time with Dad & the Family this past week.

All the best,

Rachel & WGV Team

Do you know someone who would benefit from being part of this community? Simply forward this email to them and share the link below to join our list!

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Discussion about this post

I couldn't make it to Expo West this year, and your article makes me feel a little better about it. Yes, this space is shifting drastically, and it's an exciting time to see what and who will last. Thank you for your exceptional insights!

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Well, wow about the book deals Rach! Just the fact publishers are interested. But also, it's an education in itself!

I'm still waiting to see what your Celsius replacement will be😜

And I think it makes so much sense about celebrities actually writing checks for companies instead of just being the face of the company. Money speaks volumes and their dedication to it!

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Why I Built a Yoga Studio While Everyone Else Went to Goldman

There Is Something New Is Sitting On My Counter, And We Need To Talk About It.

Apr 05, 2026

∙ Paid

Something Is Sitting On My Counter. We Need To Talk About It.A friend handed me a small tube recently and said, “Trust me.”

Not a new peptide.Not a $200 cream.Not something trending on TikTok.

Estradiol.For your face.

And no, not estriol. Not the “gentler,” often FDA-cleared or widely used-in-skincare version you’ll see positioned as hormone-adjacent beauty.

This is different.

And if your first reaction is: wait… isn’t that an intense hormone… and also something people use for vaginal dryness during menopause?Yes. Exactly.

Which is precisely why we need to talk about it.

Quick biology, because this matters:Estradiol is the most potent form of estrogen in the body. It directly impacts collagen production, skin barrier function, and vascularity.

Which is why when estrogen drops, skin doesn’t change subtly. It changes fast.

What most people don’t realize is that estradiol cream isn’t new. It’s not a beauty innovation. It’s a prescription medication, primarily used to treat vaginal dryness, tissue thinning, and urinary symptoms tied to menopause.

So the question becomes: Why is it showing up on faces?

Because we’re finally connecting something that, in hindsight, feels obvious.

A lot of what we’ve been trying to “fix” topically… is hormonal.

We’ve spent years layering retinol, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, peptides, all trying to stimulate collagen from the outside. Meanwhile, estradiol is one of the primary internal signals that tells skin how to behave.

So instead of pushing harder with actives, the question shifts: What if you replaced what’s missing?

This is where it gets interesting. And a little controversial…

Using estradiol on the face is not FDA-approved. There’s no cosmetic indication. What’s happening right now lives in a gray zone: off-label experimentation, early dermatology curiosity, and increasingly, consumer-led discovery.

The logic is compelling. The infrastructure is not there yet.

And to be very clear, this is not over-the-counter beauty. This is not a casual experiment. Hormones are powerful, can be systemically absorbed, and require physician oversight. This sits firmly in prescription territory.

But I pay attention when something starts to follow a familiar pattern:

First it sounds niche.Then slightly edgy.Then quietly effective.Then suddenly obvious.

We’ve seen this before with GLP-1s, diagnostics, personalized supplements.

And now, hormones are starting to enter the beauty conversation in a much more direct way.

(PS this is not me encouraging misuse 🫠)

Why I Left Wall Street for a Yoga Studio and Why I Still Own One NowAt London Business School, my peers were heading to McKinsey and Goldman. I was building a model for a yoga studio.

Not a metaphor. An actual Excel model. Unit economics, lease terms, instructor ratios. While everyone else was optimizing for the most prestigious on-ramp, I was quietly obsessed with a different question: what does it actually take to build something people show up for — with their bodies, not just their wallets?

The answer, it turns out, is everything.

Brick and mortar is a specific, humbling, irreplaceable skill set. It’s people-first in a way that’s hard to fully grasp until you’re in it. It’s service and hospitality and operations and culture — all at once, all the time. It’s not scalable the way tech is. It’s capital intensive in ways that keep you honest. And it will test your patience in ways no business school case study prepares you for. (Yes, we get some truly unhinged emails. That part is real.)

But it’s also, by far, the most rewarding thing I’ve ever built.

Because alongside the hard stuff comes the other kind of email. The one from the woman who found our studio when she was at her lowest. Who said it brought her light when she needed it most. That she felt more like herself walking out than she had in months. More supported. More held.

You can’t model that. And I wouldn’t trade it.

That chapter taught me how to actually run a business — not theoretically, but in the trenches. How to manage people across every background and disposition. How to hold a team together when things are hard and celebrate when they’re not. And maybe most importantly: it gave me a depth of empathy for the founders I now invest in that I simply couldn’t have manufactured any other way.

The Wall Street training gave me the pattern recognition. The studio gave me the people. Both live in everything I do at WGV.

(PS thank you to the amazing humans who would email me the love notes that made me fall in love with the studio over and over again <3)

🪩👇 Become a paying subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

🔒 Behind the Paywall

Part II: What Founders and Investors Should Actually Be Watching In Skincare

The second half of this piece is where it gets really interesting. Because the story here isn’t estradiol.

Behind the paywall:

  • Where the market is actually moving on hormone-integrated skincare

  • The companies already building in this space (and what they’re getting right and wrong)

  • What this means for the future of your skincare routine — and your portfolio

  • Why “cosmetic skincare” as a category is quietly becoming obsolete

Continue reading →

1. Where the market is actually moving

Right now, “hormone skincare” is in its transitional phase.

On one side, you have cosmetic brands experimenting with estrogen-adjacent positioning.On the other, you have medical platforms quietly building the real thing.

Most brands today are using estriol. It’s lower potency, easier to formulate, easier to message, and sits closer to the cosmetic side of regulation.

Which means:→ It’s scalable→ It’s marketable→ It’s… limited

Estriol is the bridge. Not the destination.

Because the moment you move into Estradiol, you cross into prescription. And that’s where the category actually starts to get interesting.

That shift forces a completely different model:

→ Telehealth or clinical access→ Personalized dosing→ Ongoing monitoring→ Regulatory infrastructure

In other words, this stops being a product.

It becomes a system.

2. The companies already building here (and what they’re getting right and wrong)

We’re seeing three early archetypes emerge:

1. Menopause platforms expanding outward

These are the most advanced players.

They already:→ understand hormones→ have prescribing capabilities→ have patient trust

What they’re getting right:They’re starting with real need states (symptoms, not aesthetics).

What they’re missing:Most are still treating skin as adjacent, not central. The UX is clinical, not aspirational. There’s a massive opportunity to bridge outcomes + experience.

2. Telehealth × longevity platforms

These players are thinking more systemically.

They’re layering:→ hormones→ metabolic health→ diagnostics

What they’re getting right:They understand that skin is a downstream output of internal health.

What they’re missing:They haven’t fully productized it. It’s still fragmented, still feels like protocols instead of something cohesive and consumer-facing.

3. CPG / beauty brands trying to enter “hormone-aware” skincare

This is where you’ll see the most noise.

Think:→ “hormone balancing” language→ ingestible + topical bundles→ estrogen-adjacent claims

What they’re getting right:They’re early to the narrative shift.

What they’re getting wrong:Without prescription access, they’re constrained.

They can’t deliver:→ true hormonal restoration→ measurable outcomes→ defensible differentiation

They’ll win on brand.They won’t win on biology.

3. What this means for your skincare routine — and your portfolio

We are moving from:

Routine → Protocol

From:cleanser → serum → moisturizer

To:diagnostics → prescription → monitoring → adjustment

Your future skincare routine likely includes:→ hormone panels→ personalized formulations→ ongoing calibration

Not just “what’s your skin type?”But “what are your levels?”

From an investing standpoint:

The opportunity is not another product.

It’s the infrastructure layer connecting:diagnostics → hormones → delivery → outcomes

The winners will:→ own the patient relationship→ control distribution (telehealth, compounding, etc.)→ integrate across categories (skin, hair, metabolic, longevity)

This starts to look less like beauty…

…and a lot more like healthcare with better branding.

4. Why “cosmetic skincare” is quietly becoming obsolete

Not overnight. But structurally.

Because once consumers experience:

“This works because it’s addressing my biology”

…it’s very hard to go back to:

“This works because it has a new ingredient.”

For years, skincare innovation meant:→ new actives→ new delivery systems→ new textures

Now the shift is:

→ new inputs (hormones, signals, biology)→ new models (prescription, personalization)→ new expectations (outcomes, not promises)

“Anti-aging” becomes an outdated frame.

The new frame is: biological maintenance.

The bottom line: Estradiol on your face isn’t the trend. It’s the tell. That we are entering a phase where: Beauty is no longer something you apply. It’s something you regulate.

And the companies that understand that firstwon’t just win skincare.

They’ll redefine it entirely.

Cheers to my new cream on my counter, my adventures exploring skincare in Korea, and me getting real about what sucks when you miss a deal…

All the best,

Rachel & WGV Team

Do you know someone who would benefit from being part of this community? Simply forward this email to them and share the link below to join our list!

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Discussion about this post

Those love notes are priceless! Building a company that has meaning and community♥️

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Apr 12

34

2

1

Dec 7, 2025

23

5

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18

3

5

Jan 25

18

1

Jan 18

13

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3

Feb 1

9

4

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Mar 22

13

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Jan 4

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Mar 1

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Feb 8

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© 2026 Rachel Hirsch · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice

Substack is the home for great culture


2

8

Why I Built a Yoga Studio While Everyone Else Went to Goldman

There Is Something New Is Sitting On My Counter, And We Need To Talk About It.

Apr 05, 2026

∙ Paid

Something Is Sitting On My Counter. We Need To Talk About It.A friend handed me a small tube recently and said, “Trust me.”

Not a new peptide.Not a $200 cream.Not something trending on TikTok.

Estradiol.For your face.

And no, not estriol. Not the “gentler,” often FDA-cleared or widely used-in-skincare version you’ll see positioned as hormone-adjacent beauty.

This is different.

And if your first reaction is: wait… isn’t that an intense hormone… and also something people use for vaginal dryness during menopause?Yes. Exactly.

Which is precisely why we need to talk about it.

Quick biology, because this matters:Estradiol is the most potent form of estrogen in the body. It directly impacts collagen production, skin barrier function, and vascularity.

Which is why when estrogen drops, skin doesn’t change subtly. It changes fast.

What most people don’t realize is that estradiol cream isn’t new. It’s not a beauty innovation. It’s a prescription medication, primarily used to treat vaginal dryness, tissue thinning, and urinary symptoms tied to menopause.

So the question becomes: Why is it showing up on faces?

Because we’re finally connecting something that, in hindsight, feels obvious.

A lot of what we’ve been trying to “fix” topically… is hormonal.

We’ve spent years layering retinol, vitamin C, hyaluronic acid, peptides, all trying to stimulate collagen from the outside. Meanwhile, estradiol is one of the primary internal signals that tells skin how to behave.

So instead of pushing harder with actives, the question shifts: What if you replaced what’s missing?

This is where it gets interesting. And a little controversial…

Using estradiol on the face is not FDA-approved. There’s no cosmetic indication. What’s happening right now lives in a gray zone: off-label experimentation, early dermatology curiosity, and increasingly, consumer-led discovery.

The logic is compelling. The infrastructure is not there yet.

And to be very clear, this is not over-the-counter beauty. This is not a casual experiment. Hormones are powerful, can be systemically absorbed, and require physician oversight. This sits firmly in prescription territory.

But I pay attention when something starts to follow a familiar pattern:

First it sounds niche.Then slightly edgy.Then quietly effective.Then suddenly obvious.

We’ve seen this before with GLP-1s, diagnostics, personalized supplements.

And now, hormones are starting to enter the beauty conversation in a much more direct way.

(PS this is not me encouraging misuse 🫠)

Why I Left Wall Street for a Yoga Studio and Why I Still Own One NowAt London Business School, my peers were heading to McKinsey and Goldman. I was building a model for a yoga studio.

Not a metaphor. An actual Excel model. Unit economics, lease terms, instructor ratios. While everyone else was optimizing for the most prestigious on-ramp, I was quietly obsessed with a different question: what does it actually take to build something people show up for — with their bodies, not just their wallets?

The answer, it turns out, is everything.

Brick and mortar is a specific, humbling, irreplaceable skill set. It’s people-first in a way that’s hard to fully grasp until you’re in it. It’s service and hospitality and operations and culture — all at once, all the time. It’s not scalable the way tech is. It’s capital intensive in ways that keep you honest. And it will test your patience in ways no business school case study prepares you for. (Yes, we get some truly unhinged emails. That part is real.)

But it’s also, by far, the most rewarding thing I’ve ever built.

Because alongside the hard stuff comes the other kind of email. The one from the woman who found our studio when she was at her lowest. Who said it brought her light when she needed it most. That she felt more like herself walking out than she had in months. More supported. More held.

You can’t model that. And I wouldn’t trade it.

That chapter taught me how to actually run a business — not theoretically, but in the trenches. How to manage people across every background and disposition. How to hold a team together when things are hard and celebrate when they’re not. And maybe most importantly: it gave me a depth of empathy for the founders I now invest in that I simply couldn’t have manufactured any other way.

The Wall Street training gave me the pattern recognition. The studio gave me the people. Both live in everything I do at WGV.

(PS thank you to the amazing humans who would email me the love notes that made me fall in love with the studio over and over again <3)

🪩👇 Become a paying subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

🔒 Behind the Paywall

Part II: What Founders and Investors Should Actually Be Watching In Skincare

The second half of this piece is where it gets really interesting. Because the story here isn’t estradiol.

Behind the paywall:

  • Where the market is actually moving on hormone-integrated skincare

  • The companies already building in this space (and what they’re getting right and wrong)

  • What this means for the future of your skincare routine — and your portfolio

  • Why “cosmetic skincare” as a category is quietly becoming obsolete

Continue reading →

1. Where the market is actually moving

Right now, “hormone skincare” is in its transitional phase.

On one side, you have cosmetic brands experimenting with estrogen-adjacent positioning.On the other, you have medical platforms quietly building the real thing.

Most brands today are using estriol. It’s lower potency, easier to formulate, easier to message, and sits closer to the cosmetic side of regulation.

Which means:→ It’s scalable→ It’s marketable→ It’s… limited

Estriol is the bridge. Not the destination.

Because the moment you move into Estradiol, you cross into prescription. And that’s where the category actually starts to get interesting.

That shift forces a completely different model:

→ Telehealth or clinical access→ Personalized dosing→ Ongoing monitoring→ Regulatory infrastructure

In other words, this stops being a product.

It becomes a system.

2. The companies already building here (and what they’re getting right and wrong)

We’re seeing three early archetypes emerge:

1. Menopause platforms expanding outward

These are the most advanced players.

They already:→ understand hormones→ have prescribing capabilities→ have patient trust

What they’re getting right:They’re starting with real need states (symptoms, not aesthetics).

What they’re missing:Most are still treating skin as adjacent, not central. The UX is clinical, not aspirational. There’s a massive opportunity to bridge outcomes + experience.

2. Telehealth × longevity platforms

These players are thinking more systemically.

They’re layering:→ hormones→ metabolic health→ diagnostics

What they’re getting right:They understand that skin is a downstream output of internal health.

What they’re missing:They haven’t fully productized it. It’s still fragmented, still feels like protocols instead of something cohesive and consumer-facing.

3. CPG / beauty brands trying to enter “hormone-aware” skincare

This is where you’ll see the most noise.

Think:→ “hormone balancing” language→ ingestible + topical bundles→ estrogen-adjacent claims

What they’re getting right:They’re early to the narrative shift.

What they’re getting wrong:Without prescription access, they’re constrained.

They can’t deliver:→ true hormonal restoration→ measurable outcomes→ defensible differentiation

They’ll win on brand.They won’t win on biology.

3. What this means for your skincare routine — and your portfolio

We are moving from:

Routine → Protocol

From:cleanser → serum → moisturizer

To:diagnostics → prescription → monitoring → adjustment

Your future skincare routine likely includes:→ hormone panels→ personalized formulations→ ongoing calibration

Not just “what’s your skin type?”But “what are your levels?”

From an investing standpoint:

The opportunity is not another product.

It’s the infrastructure layer connecting:diagnostics → hormones → delivery → outcomes

The winners will:→ own the patient relationship→ control distribution (telehealth, compounding, etc.)→ integrate across categories (skin, hair, metabolic, longevity)

This starts to look less like beauty…

…and a lot more like healthcare with better branding.

4. Why “cosmetic skincare” is quietly becoming obsolete

Not overnight. But structurally.

Because once consumers experience:

“This works because it’s addressing my biology”

…it’s very hard to go back to:

“This works because it has a new ingredient.”

For years, skincare innovation meant:→ new actives→ new delivery systems→ new textures

Now the shift is:

→ new inputs (hormones, signals, biology)→ new models (prescription, personalization)→ new expectations (outcomes, not promises)

“Anti-aging” becomes an outdated frame.

The new frame is: biological maintenance.

The bottom line: Estradiol on your face isn’t the trend. It’s the tell. That we are entering a phase where: Beauty is no longer something you apply. It’s something you regulate.

And the companies that understand that firstwon’t just win skincare.

They’ll redefine it entirely.

Cheers to my new cream on my counter, my adventures exploring skincare in Korea, and me getting real about what sucks when you miss a deal…

All the best,

Rachel & WGV Team

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Those love notes are priceless! Building a company that has meaning and community♥️

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I Flew to Korea for 48 Hours To Try Everything Skincare (And What Everyone’s Missing)

Conferences Are Dead. This Is What Replaced Them.

Apr 12, 2026

∙ Paid

This Might Be Inappropriate to Admit…This feels almost inappropriate to say out loud, but I need to…

There have been some incredible CPG deals recently that I’ve missed, and I’ve been genuinely upset about it. Because these were the kind of deals where I know the brand, I love the founders, it fits everything I stand for.

And then my brain does the thing:Is my name not out there enough?Do founders not think of me when they’re building their cap table?Do people not believe in me?

I know. It’s not productive (arguably the opposite of productive). But here’s the thing, I’ve made some investments I’m really proud of. I know this space deeply. So when something that fits my thesis this perfectly closes without me, the spiral isn’t ego. It’s passion. There’s a difference, and I think it matters.

Yet after the spiral, I get really curious.

Zoom out, and the market is getting more competitive. Single funds are taking out full rounds, and I understand the appeal — it’s fast, it’s clean.

But I’ll say this to any founder reading, with genuine love: be thoughtful about concentration. One investor sounds simple until three years in when you stop seeing eye to eye and they’re your only board seat. Or they stop believing in you and don’t follow on or lead your next round (quite a loud signal to investors broadly). Rarely is one-investor-only a long-term net positive.

I digress, because this is really about what I do with the feelings.

Missing a deal doesn’t just sting. It moves me. It makes me want to show up better, think harder, be more present in the right ways. And I’ve been sitting with what that actually looks like.

Does it mean raising more capital? That conversation lives continuously in my head.

Does it mean going to more events? You all know I’m hyper-introverted.

What I keep landing on is depth of presence.

Writing more. Saying what I actually think. Making sure that when the right founder is building the right brand, my name is already somewhere in their head before we ever meet.

Because that’s where my best deals have come from. Founders who felt like they knew me already.

The spiral still happens. Probably always will. But I’d rather feel it than become someone who stops caring whether they’re in the right ones.

If this resonates — investor, founder, builder, whoever you are — I’d genuinely love to know (and be super grateful for the advice) how you move through it.

I Saved One Seat in Austin. It’s Not Public.The most interesting rooms in wellness right now aren’t conferences.

They’re small.Curated.And a little hard to get into.

That’s exactly what we’re building with The 2% Club in Austin next week.

We’re bringing together a tight group of women across investing, building, and operating in wellness for something much more intentional:

Movement togetherReal conversationHigh signal connections

No spectators. Everyone in the room is shaping something.

Austin has quietly become a real hub for us, and this one feels especially special.

I’ll also be in town speaking at UT Austin right after, which feels very full circle.

We saved one spot specifically for a Substack subscriber.

If you’re in Austin and want to join us, comment below.

Which sounds aggressive. But also… very on brand.

Part of it was personal. Part of it was diligence. I went in with two and a half questions: what ingredients do we not actually have access to in the U.S., and are they actually worth it? And second, are derm and aesthetics about to become consumer products?

I came back thinking about something much bigger.

This trip sharpened a question I can’t stop thinking about: what happens when aesthetics stops being a place you go… and becomes something you own?

Because if you look closely at what’s happening in Korea, it’s not just that treatments are more normalized. It’s that they’re being systematized. Everything is built for repeatability. Standardized protocols, predictable outcomes, lower cost curves, shorter treatment times. It’s all being engineered for frequency.

And when something becomes frequent enough, it starts to behave like CPG.

That’s where this gets interesting.

We’ve already seen the first wave of this with devices. LED masks that used to live in clinics are now sitting on bathroom counters. Think Omnilux Contour Face. Clinical technology, repackaged into something you can use while answering emails, consistently, without thinking too hard about it.

But Korea is pushing that one step further.

You start to see early signals of “at-home aesthetics” moving beyond light therapy into more advanced territory.

  • Microneedling devices with deeper penetration

  • Radiofrequency tools designed for collagen stimulation

  • Topicals that sit somewhere between skincare and skin boosters, designed to mimic in-clinic effects.

None of these fully replace a laser or an injectable. Yet.

But they don’t have to. They just have to get close enough, and be easy enough to use consistently.

Because the real unlock isn’t replication. It’s frequency.

A slightly less powerful treatment, done a few times a week at home, starts to compete with a more aggressive treatment done once every few months. That’s a very different model. And one that looks a lot more like how we think about consumer products.

Which raises the real question: does aesthetics stay in the clinic, or does it start to break apart into something more distributed?

My take is both.

You’ll still have clinics for high-impact procedures. But there’s a massive middle layer emerging. Call it “aesthetics-light” or “maintenance aesthetics.” Not quite clinical, not quite consumer, but something in between.

Not Botox in your bathroom tomorrow. But also… not as far off as people think.

Especially as formulations, delivery systems, and education improve.

Now layer in the ingredient piece, because this is what actually fuels the shift.

In the U.S., what ends up in your skincare routine is heavily shaped by the Food and Drug Administration. Which means innovation often arrives slower, softer, and in many cases, diluted.

In Korea, that filter looks different. You feel it immediately. Not just in what’s available, but in how it’s used.

I’d go from a laser treatment straight into a post-procedure protocol filled with ingredients that either aren’t widely available in the U.S. yet, or only exist here in much milder forms.

PDRN, derived from salmon DNA, used for regeneration and healing, shows up everywhere.

Exosomes, supporting cellular repair and communication, are already integrated into facials, serums, and recovery protocols.

Tranexamic acid is used more aggressively for pigmentation.

Spicules, essentially liquid microneedling, help drive ingredients deeper into the skin without a device.

Growth factor-heavy formulations, which feel niche in the U.S., are treated as baseline.

What’s notable isn’t just that these ingredients exist. It’s how they’re used.

They’re not marketed as miracle, one-off products. They’re embedded into systems. Pre-treatment, treatment, post-treatment. Clinic to home. Product to procedure.

That’s the part the U.S. market hasn’t fully caught up to yet.

We’re still thinking in products. They’re thinking in protocols.

And when you combine more advanced ingredients with more frequent, semi-clinical at-home tools, you start to see the outline of a very different future: skincare that behaves like maintenance medicine, aesthetics that behaves like CPG, and a consumer who is far more hands-on in their own outcomes.

I went to Korea expecting to come back with product insights.

I left thinking about infrastructure.

Because the real opportunity isn’t just better skincare.

It’s owning the space between the clinic and the consumer.

And that’s where the next generation of category-defining companies will be built.

» Full details on what I got done and where I went below «

🪩👇 Become a paying subscriber to get access to the rest of this post and other subscriber-only content.

🔒 Behind the Paywall

Part II: Where This Actually Goes, Who Wins, And What I Actually Got Done

If Part I is the shift, Part II is the implication, and the question becomes:

Who captures the middle layer?

Not the clinic. Not traditional skincare.

The layer in between.

This is where I think the next generation of category-defining companies will be built. And it won’t look like what we’re used to.

Continue reading to see who wins plus full details on what lasers I got and what products I purchased→

1. The “Aesthetics-at-Home” Gold Rush (and Why It’s Blending Together)

We’re seeing a wave of companies trying to bring clinical treatments into the home.

Devices like Omnilux Contour Face, Nuface Trinity, and ZIIP Halo paved the way.

Newer entrants are pushing further:

And on the injectable / clinical side:

  • Galderma (neurotoxins, fillers, skin quality)

  • Allergan Aesthetics (Botox, Juvederm ecosystem)

Everyone is moving toward the same idea: Bring the clinic closer to the consumer.

But here’s the issue: A lot of it is starting to feel like a sea of sameness.

Another LED maskAnother microcurrent deviceAnother “clinical-grade” serum

Different branding. Same promise.

2. Where There’s Actually White Space

The opportunity isn’t another device. It’s the system around it.

Most companies today are still selling tools.

Very few are selling protocols.

And that’s the unlock.

The winners will look less like: “Here’s our hero product”

And more like: “Here’s your 6-week skin cycle. Follow this.”

Think:

  • Device + topical + cadence bundled together

  • Pre-care → treatment → recovery fully mapped

  • Subscription-based routines vs one-time purchases

3. Ingredient Arbitrage Is Real (But Temporary)

Korea has an edge right now.

Faster iteration. More aggressive formulations. Different regulatory pathways than the Food and Drug Administration.

Which is why you see:

  • PDRN everywhere

  • Exosomes already integrated into protocols

  • Higher-strength actives normalized

But this doesn’t last forever.

We’ve seen this pattern before:Innovation starts abroad → gets validated → gets regulated → gets commoditized.

So if your entire brand is built on “we have this one ingredient first”…

That’s not a moat.

It’s a head start.

4. The Real Moat: Behavior, Not Product

This is where I think most founders get it wrong.

They’re still building for:PackagingBrandHero SKU

Instead of:

Compliance.Consistency.Habit.

The question isn’t: “Does this work?”

It’s: Will someone use this often enough for it to work?

That’s why frequency matters more than intensity. And why at-home aesthetics is so interesting.

Because it increases:

  • Touchpoints

  • Engagement

  • Data (eventually)

The company that wins isn’t the one with the strongest product. It’s the one that becomes part of your routine without you thinking about it.

5. What I’m Watching (and Why)

I’m paying attention to companies that sit at the intersection of:

Clinical credibilityConsumer usabilityRepeat behavior

Specifically:

1. Device + topical ecosystemsNot standalone tools, but integrated systems (think where CurrentBody is heading)

2. Recovery-first skincarePost-procedure is becoming its own categoryHigh-margin, high-frequency, behavior-driven

3. Guided protocols / platformsAnything that tells you what to do, when, and why (not just what to buy)

4. Clinics that extend into the homeThe smartest clinics won’t just treat you. They’ll own your at-home maintenance.

6. How You Actually Break Through Right Now

Because this is the hard part, because it’s also already crowded and noisy.

So how do you get velocity? Not by being better.

By being different in how you frame the problem.

Right now, most brands are saying: “Here’s a better product”

The next wave says: “Here’s a better system.”

Or even more directly: “Here’s how to get X outcome in 30 days.”

Clear promise. Clear path.Repeatable behavior.

The Bottom Line

We’ve spent the last decade upgrading skincare products. The next decade is about upgrading the system.

Korea just happens to be a few steps ahead in showing us what that system looks like.

And if you believe this plays out: The biggest companies won’t be the ones selling creams. They’ll be the ones that own the relationship between your skin, your routine, and your results.

—

Now for the real juice - what I got done and where I went:

Honestly, I don’t think I’d recommend where I went, but I’ve received similar feedback from others about the other clinics.

There’s a certain… assembly line energy to it. Like you’re moving through a very efficient, slightly dystopian skincare factory.

One of my friends told me the clinic she went to literally wrote a number on her wrist. Not metaphorically. Physically. Marker. Wrist.

I went to Forena Clinic, and was also strongly recommended Amoa 640 Skin Clinic.

Both are known for catering to international clients, so strong English and familiarity with Western skin types.

I scheduled everything over WhatsApp, and I ended up choosing Forena purely because they had more availability.

Which, in hindsight… wasn’t actually availability.

They just don’t take deposits.So they book everyone.And then you all… sit.

I waited about an hour before even getting into a consultation. When I finally did, the dynamic was interesting…They didn’t really tell me what I needed. They asked what I wanted.

Which sounds empowering… until you realize you’re essentially designing your own face protocol in a foreign country after 14 TikToks and a late-night Google spiral.

Thankfully, I came prepared.

She gave me pricing.I paid.Back to the waiting room I went.

Another 45 minutes.

At this point, the room felt like a very niche version of an airport lounge.Americans everywhere.Some people mid-transformation journeys, there for weeks.Bandages, follow-ups, full protocols.

And then there was me. On a 48-hour sprint. Just there to… flirt with lasers.

Originally, I thought I’d do Shurink (a more affordable ultrasound lifting treatment), but she told me I’d need three sessions over time to see real results.

This… ChatGPT did not mention, so unclear if that was medical guidance or a gentle upsell.

Either way, I pivoted. I ended up doing:

• Ultherapy: think ultrasound energy that goes beneath the surface and quietly tells your collagen to get its life together and start rebuilding

• Thermage (around the eyes): radiofrequency heat that tightens things up like a very expensive internal shapewear for the skin

It was… more expensive than I expected. So I did less than planned.

And if I’m being honest?

It’s still a little unclear how much of a difference it made.(Some of these take months to fully show, so TBD… we stay patient, we stay optimistic.)

A few real takeaways:

• The experience is fast, efficient, and not particularly warm• You need to know what you want before you walk in• You will wait… no matter what your appointment says• It’s a very different patient experience than the U.S.

You can get both Ultherapy and Thermage stateside, but it was about 1/3 of the price than in Beverly Hills, so here we are…

Product-wise… I went fully feral.

I think I went into six different Olive Young locations in under 48 hours.

Every time, same move:I walk in, find the most put-together person in the store, and say, “If you were me, what would you buy?”

And yes, I also had ChatGPT open on my phone like a slightly unhinged co-pilot, cross-referencing ingredients, sanity-checking recommendations, and occasionally adding things to the basket that neither of us fully understood.

The result? A suitcase that was mostly skincare.

Some of it I’m testing.Some of it I’m gifting.Some of it I genuinely have no idea what it does yet, but the texture felt expensive and the woman nodded confidently, so here we are.

What’s wild though, and very consistent with everything else I saw:

A lot of these products are available in the U.S. Just… at 2–4x the price.

That said, I did find a few things that actually felt new:

• Form factors we don’t really play with yet in the U.S.(think: ultra-thin ampoule pads, jelly-like sleeping masks that feel somewhere between skincare and dessert)

• Actives I haven’t experimented with much (stronger barrier-repair focus, different combinations, less “burn your face off for results” energy)

• And a general emphasis on maintenance over correction which feels… important

So now I’m in my testing era.

Rotating products.Trying not to destroy my skin barrier in the process.Quietly judging everything.

I’ll report back once I’ve lived with these a bit longer, separated hype from holy grail, and figured out what’s actually worth bringing back into the U.S. conversation.

Any other questions? Just let me know.

Cheers to me getting real about what sucks when you miss a deal, Korean skincare, and heading back to Austin🤠

All the best,

Rachel & WGV Team

Do you know someone who would benefit from being part of this community? Simply forward this email to them and share the link below to join our list!

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Thanks for such a detailed report! I keep hearing about Medicube, curious if you’ve tried any of their products?

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