A Year of Abundance Ahead of Us

Aren't we lucky that feeling generous also feels good?

Ok so the world is tilted and unsettled to say the least, but I find that gratitude is the balm that heals. Reflecting on what’s happening right now, I am happy that 2026 looks like a year of growth and movement out of stagnation and paralysis. (Behaviorist Chase Hughes says that we should change our inner voice about anxiety to excitement, eg “I’m excited about this new project we have two weeks to complete”… so I’m feeling a LOT of excitement lately, lol.)

On a personal note, I’m so grateful for my LookLook team who have stuck with me through a turbulent past few years. My staff, many of whom who have been with me since they started their insights careers, are now having babies, which is very exciting. I myself started this company in order to create a life where I could work from home and be very present in my children’s lives.

We all work remotely, which I know is no longer as in vogue as it was a few years ago, but it works very well for us as a small team and we rely on every functionality available on Slack to stay in close touch throughout the day, complete with Happy Hour silliness, lots of “huddles” and many shares of pet photos. I love that both men and women at LookLook can take time off to care for their new ones and also have the flexibility to get work done when it works for them. I never, ever, question their commitment because I know they enjoy this flexibility.

I’m also grateful that purse strings are going to loosen up this year, which means people are going to become more excited and less anxious (haha) about making mindful purchases. Mindful is the key theme, and it points to the harsh fact that we’re living in a Darwinian time where the fittest will survive and thrive. No company can rest on its laurels at the moment. We all have to keep the creative fires lit from within. But now that (some?) dust has settled and the layoffs are easing, GDP is rising and inflation is lowering, things look good for our clients and our research participants (we call our 20k+ growing database of Cultivated Communities our “jewels”.)

Shopping one’s own closets and perusing TheRealReal has been satisfying for a few years, but now we hear from women that they’re getting bored with that. They want to see NEW fashion statements, creativity, whimsy, irresistibility, risk-taking. They want to wear heels again (maybe a little lower, though) and more color. This goes beyond apparel to jewelry and also the highly dynamic fields of self-care, wellness and beauty.

So here is the BURIED LEAD: we’ve decided as a team that we’re going to give away for free the Beauty Momentum Tracker we just launched (free download of the inaugural report at the bottom of this post.) A lot of work goes into this, but it just feels good to do it because our Beautyverse loves to share its opinions, and our business is now largely in the luxury beauty space, which includes makeup, skin care, fragrance, and increasingly, health and longevity. CHANEL, LVMH, Huda Beauty, Shiseido and Puig (all LookLook clients) have weighed in on our first effort and their feedback has been invaluable.

So, every month, there will be a free topline report on what our 1,000-member Beautyverse has to say about luxury beauty products they are actually buying and WHY. It’s the first such tracker that is fielded exclusively amongst luxury purchasers.

Another of our Cultivated Communities is the Luxuryverse, which has its own IG and TikTok (@luxuryverse100) if you’d like to give us a follow. These women are 1% -ers with exquisite taste on almost everything, and we talk to them more broadly, from maternity care to automotive. They are pointing us to future trends with what they tell us they are buying and craving.

One observation we’ve made about the Luxuryverse is that they are increasingly distracted from “mainstream” luxury brands and attracted to founder-led, niche, and personalized luxury experiences. There’s a lot of pride in their own discoveries, word-of-mouth amongst tight circles, and a fair amount of gatekeeping. More insights to come on this from the U.S. and from China, where we also have cultivated a Luxuryverse of women.

Here’s an example. One NYC member pointed me to Alicia Yates’ THANKYOUHAVEAGOODDAY fashion line, run from her Vestry St loft, and I’m sharing my first TikTok where I show off the incredible leather pants (drawstring with tassles! impossibly rich leather!) I bought from her. Handmade, mind you, and constructed from deadstock, because Alicia used to work for Celine, Isabel Marant and others and has incredible fabric connections. I get SO MANY compliments on these.

P.S. Please don’t judge me harshly, I’m new at this video stuff!

And do check out our free debut of the Beauty Momentum Tracker, the first of which focuses on luxury makeup trends. Next up is skin care, so if you manage a luxury skincare brand, please reach out to me on email at malinda@looklook.app if you want your brand included because it’s going to be a tricky list to compile with all this new Korean skin care people are using! These Trackers are a fun, highly visual and slightly gossipy read, robust with bone-honest quotes from discerning women. It will become more data-packed as we continually build the data set and can measure shifts in brand momentum over time.

Warm wishes to all - I can’t believe we are up to nearly 500 subscribers. Substack is amazing! Reading it has nearly replaced my TikTok habit which was getting a little out of control.

Cheers, Malinda