Third Spaces, Integrated Care, and Creative Authority: Why 2026 is about putting it back together
From saunas in Paris to menopause clinics and hairstylists as co-creators, 3 signals reshaping how beauty, health, and authority are being rebuilt.
As you’re reading this, I’m about to do something I’ve wanted to do since the very beginning of Future of Skincare. I’m heading out to meet a brand in its own environment: its city, its everyday reality. Not in Paris, not through press days or showrooms, but on the ground. In the backstage. In the places where things actually happen. After discovering brands through products, conversations, research, and communication, there’s something essential about spending time where they were born. It changes the lens. It adds depth. It brings a different kind of understanding. I can’t wait to share more very soon. If you’re curious, follow along on Instagram this weekend. I’ll be sharing the experience as it unfolds.
In the meantime, this week’s newsletter looks at three signals emerging across beauty, wellness, and longevity. They’re very different on the surface, but deeply connected underneath. Each one responds to a visceral need we’re all starting to feel more clearly. The first follows a cultural movement that feels increasingly inevitable: a response to how we live, how we gather, how we inhabit our bodies in cities today. The second addresses a long-standing gap, a real absence. Something that should have existed much earlier, and whose arrival feels both overdue and necessary. The third restores authority where it belongs. It shifts power back to the people who practice, create, and shape culture every day, inviting them to build rather than simply represent.
Before you dive in, a quick note if you haven’t visited the site recently. Two pieces I loved working on are now live on Future of Skincare.
One is my conversation with Andrea Elisabeth Rudolph, founder of Rudolph Care. I met her just before the holidays, and her presence, clarity, and integrity stayed with me long after. I hope the interview resonates with you as much as it did with me. The other is a more personal piece, written after spending a night at La Folie Barbizon. A quiet interlude. A sweet pause.
For now, I’ll leave you with this week’s three signals. And if you want to follow my brand immersion weekend, join me on Instagram starting today.
BEAUTY / WELLNESS / LONGEVITY SIGNALS
1. Sauna Culture Hits the Mainstream: Paris Is Next
In New York, the past 18 months have brought a flood of bathhouse openings: Lore in Noho, Othership in Williamsburg and Flatiron, Bathhouse expanding to ten U.S. locations by 2027, Remedy Place opening its third location in Soho, Saint preparing to launch on West 29th Street. The pattern is clear: people want places to meet that aren’t bars, aren’t phones, aren’t performative. The sauna has become a third space, somewhere between home and work where connection happens naturally, in towels, dripping sweat, with no screens.
The U.S. sauna market is projected to grow 6.2% annually through 2030.
