Brand Launches

Thingtesting Rewind: The Best of Summer's New Brand Launches

In case you missed it, a look back at the Thingtesting community's favorite brand launches of the quarter. It was all about sun care graduating from a summer afterthought to a daily step, with face-first formulas, a pocket-sized sunscreen for your hands, a balm built for the water, and SPF made specifically for kids. Which is part of a bigger story: brands are getting younger, with whole lines now formulated for tweens, girls on the go, and babies at the table. Drinks are going the other way and dialing things down, with half-caff coffee, caffeine-free barley tea, and spirits at half the proof, while electrolytes keep finding new formats, including a lollipop. Fragrance brands are still chasing differentiation through art and object design, and in the home, everyday things are being made permanent, in hand-carved marble. Also: a dry shampoo rebuilt as a liquid, and a baby alpaca hat for the sauna, because last quarter's sauna soda clearly wasn't the end of it.

This curated list, which is heavily influenced by what our readers have been clicking on in our weekly newsletters, sums up the direction of travel both in the world of brand building, but also what shoppers are most interested in. Did we miss anything? Let us know.