Hot Brands Have Strategy: Curated Crushes Vol. 2
The Brand Baby It List Returns
Welcome back to Hot Brands Have Strategy, my ongoing love letter to the beauty and wellness brands that aren’t concerned with riding basic trend cycles, but rewriting the rules of brand building altogether. Their way.
In Volume 2, we’re making room for the insomniacs, the SPF evangelists, the skincare-for-breasts believers. These ten brands are proof that you don’t need stunts to build real traction. You need clarity, conviction, and community.
From Dr. Diamond’s Metacine to Black Girl Sunscreen, this roundup is full of brands making niche fully mainstream and intimacy feel aspirational. They know their customer. They trust their POV. And they make it look easy, which is always the giveaway that there’s real strategy underneath.
Ten brands. Ten masterclasses in modern marketing.
Let’s gossip about greatness, babes.
Dr. Diamond’s Metacine: Dermatology Meets Main Character Energy
Created by celebrity plastic surgeon Dr. Jason Diamond, Metacine could’ve coasted on name recognition alone, but instead, it delivered real IP. The launch of the Instafacial Plasma Serum, engineered around regenerative actives like bioactive growth factors, felt more like a drop from a fashion house than a medspa. The brand strikes a rare balance: clinical credibility paired with cultural cachet. The visuals are crisp, moody, and deeply editorial. The brand language? Low on fluff, high on conviction. And the rollout strategy has always been tight with limited SKUs, luxury distribution, and a big groundswell thanks to dermatologist and aesthetician co-signs. This is science-forward skincare for people who collect serums the way others collect handbags; discerning, loyal, and always onto what’s next.
Sleep Or Die: Insomnia Core Goes Cool Girl
Sleep Or Die could have been another sleepy supplement startup. Instead, it built an entire identity around the cultural unraveling of burnout. It’s cool, moody, and laced with playfulness — the kind of brand that tells you to get some rest while holding a mirror to your 3AM scrolling habit. The visual language is fun with a bit of weird thrown in. It makes you say wait and keep scrolling for more. The brand nails the vibe-to-product pipeline, treating sleep not as a medical issue but a cultural rebellion. It’s not wellness. It’s survival with style.
Buj: Breast Care That’s Tender, Not Taboo
Buj is skincare for breasts, but not in the gimmicky, over-sexualized way you might expect. It’s soft, considered, and deeply intimate. With a product lineup consisting of a single SKU that’s designed to support breast health and skin texture, Buj gently encourages us to include the chest in our beauty routines with the same reverence we give to our faces. The visuals are dreamy and non-performative, with warm-toned bodies and slow visuals that invite connection, not performance. It doesn’t scream “feminine care,” it’s the full embodiment of the female gaze. In a world that often ignores the breast area entirely (until something goes wrong), Buj offers both education and sensory pleasure. It’s ritual vs. reaction and that’s powerful.
Rest Religion: Ritual Skincare That Slows You Down
Rest Religion is skincare as ceremony. Rooted in stillness, wrapped in softness, and powered by genuinely thoughtful formulation. Both SKUs are designed to help skin recover from the chaos of modern life, with actives that soothe without stripping and textures that feel like an exhale. But what really sets it apart is its pace: there’s no urgency here, no 12-step pressure or trend-chasing. The visuals are poetic, the branding dreamy, and the messaging a soft rebellion against hustle culture. Rest Religion isn’t selling transformation, but offering necessary relief and that’s rare.
Dune Suncare: SPF, But Make It Sexy
Dune has done what most SPF brands still struggle to pull off: made sun protection aspirational. With its clean, sun-drenched aesthetic and packaging that feels pulled from a Slim Aarons photograph, Dune is rewriting the visual language of sun care. Their lineup includes a range of formulas, but none of them feel clinical. They’re luxurious, wearable, and thoughtfully designed. The brand language is breezy but informed, tapping into both nostalgia and science. In a category that’s long been ruled by fear-based messaging or clinical branding, Dune makes protection feel like part of your personal style.
Untoxicated: Science-Backed Skincare With Real-Life Sensitivity
Untoxicated isn’t about detox culture. It’s about real skin, real concerns, and real science. Created by a board-certified allergist, the brand takes a medical-meets-emotional approach to skincare, targeting the needs of reactive, sensitive, and allergy-prone skin without compromising on aesthetics. The packaging is fresh and no nonsense, and the tone of voice is calm, clear, and deeply informed. Never fear-based, never fluffy. Untoxicated is creating space in the skincare conversation for those whose skin won’t tolerate just anything, and doing so with both clinical credibility and cultural relevance. It’s less about glow-up promises and more about peace of mind, delivered in a practical bottle.
Soft Rows: Textured Haircare, Tenderly Designed
Soft Rows is rewriting the textured haircare playbook with an approach that’s less about taming and more about tending. This is a brand that treats textured hair with the respect and softness it deserves, both literally and emotionally. The visuals are striking yet calm; the product language emphasizes nourishment, ritual, and presence. It’s beauty that feels intimate without a drop of performative-ness. Where legacy haircare often markets control, Soft Rows markets connection — to your hair, your heritage, your whole self. The positioning is powerful: care, not correction. And in a category full of noise, that clarity stands out.
Educated Mess: Beauty for the Hyper-Informed
Educated Mess is skincare with a point of view. And a personality. Built for beauty lovers who know their ingredients and their politics, this brand isn’t afraid to have a voice. The packaging is smart and bright, with typography that skews Gen Z without trying too hard. But it’s not all talk: the formulas are hardworking, multi-tasking, and rooted in transparency. Its founder-led tone of voice is a huge strength with equal parts education, sarcasm, and community-mindedness. This is a brand for the over-thinkers, the skincare forum dwellers, and the ones who want receipts and results.
Gntl: The Minimalists' Emotional Support Essentials
Gntl isn’t chasing a never-ending product portfolio or fleeting hype. It’s too busy perfecting texture. This minimalist brand offers a tightly curated lineup that puts efficacy and elegance ahead of trend. The design is pure modernist with clean lines, gender neutral tones, no unnecessary anything. But the feeling it gives you? Cozy, calming, trustworthy. Gntl is rooted in softness (the name says it all), but beneath the calm lies serious formulation integrity. It doesn’t have to shout to earn your trust. And in a space where loudness is often mistaken for value, that’s a bold move.
Black Girl Sunscreen: No White Cast, No Compromise
What started as a product gap quickly became a cultural force. Black Girl Sunscreen filled a need long ignored by the beauty industry: sunscreen made for deeper skin tones, with no “universal” lies, no mess, no condescension. But it’s not just the formulation that won people over. This is a celebration of skin. The branding is bold and clear. The community is loyal, vocal, and expansive. This isn’t “niche,” but fully necessary and long overdue. Black Girl Sunscreen is proof that when you speak directly to the people who’ve been left out, they show up. Again and again.
The Common Thread: Proof That Depth Converts
Each of these brands offers something the beauty and wellness industry desperately needs: point of view. Whether they’re selling SPF, sleep tape, or skincare for your boobs, they’re not here to follow a basic playbook. They’re here to build their own. The creative is considered. The copywriting is confident. The products are smart. But most of all, the energy is clear. These brands don’t ask to be liked. They invite consumers into their worlds and let them decide if they belong. And when they do? It feels personal.
Great Brand is about resonance, relevance, and real strategic thinking — wrapped in great aesthetics and a whole lot of feeling.
To Be Continued...
This is only Volume 2, and there’s still so much more coming. If you’re building something bold, or obsessed with a brand that’s doing it right, I want to hear about it. Hot Brands Have Strategy is open to anyone creating brands with brains, guts, and great taste.
Brand Baby doesn’t gatekeep good marketing. I study it, stan it, and share the hell out of it.
And if you need help making your brand a bit more fabulous, we should book some time together here.
XOXO,
B