Cool sh*t we saw this week: Issue 13
We're looking at Grow Good Beauty, The Devil Wears Prada 2, Topicals, and Kai Collective - five campaigns, five very different approaches to showing up.
In this week’s Blackbook Weekly, we’re looking at four campaigns and four very different approaches to showing up. Here’s what caught our eye.
Cardi B, the kitchen beautician, has given us a product we don’t have to blend
After years of hair damage, Cardi B reached for her kitchen (and fridge). Grow Good Beauty starts with a home-grown hair mask made from egg, avocado, and olive oil, the same DIY recipes she’d been using on herself long before there was a brand. Those “kitchen masks” went viral, and Grow Good is the professionalised version: the same ethos, now backed by Fiberlace, a proprietary plant-based complex engineered to fortify the hair shaft and reduce breakage.
What caught our eye is the price point. Products sit between $12.99 and $14.99, aligned squarely with drugstore shelves and accessible to the fans who watched her do it from scratch. When artists launch beauty brands, the default move is premium, such as Cécred by Beyoncé, which went straight to luxury positioning. Cardi went the other way.
Kendall Jenner and Simone Ashley walk into a sequel
L’Oréal Paris is sponsoring The Devil Wears Prada 2, and they stepped inside the movie to announce its upcoming launch. The brand debuted a custom spot during the 98th Academy Awards, featuring Kendall Jenner and Simone Ashley reimagining the sharp, fashion-first world of the franchise. The tone mirrors the film. The beauty messaging lands inside a cultural moment that the audience already cares about.
It’s a smart bit of brand positioning. L’Oréal Paris has long leaned on confidence and glamour, and the Prada universe is essentially a mood board for both. Rather than interrupting the Oscars with a straightforward product ad, they used the film’s world as the creative brief. The campaign extends beyond the broadcast too, with activations running throughout the film’s May release window.
Each patch #PacksAPunch
Topicals launched their Faded Dark Spot Patches at Sephora and turned a retail milestone into a campaign, inviting their community to win exclusive prizes at their booth all weekend long.
The hashtag did the heavy lifting: three words that doubled as a product promise and a call to action.
The process is the content
Kai Collective’s docuseries Working Hours puts the founder front and centre, and in episode three, Snow Vuong of Plygrnd Ldn walks us through her journey and the creation of a bespoke grill. No polished campaign imagery. Just craft, on camera, in full. The making of the thing becomes the thing worth watching.
If you spotted a campaign we missed, let us know. And if you’re not already part of the conversation, you know where to find us on LinkedIn and Instagram @thebrandingblackbook.