Very important beauty people

Head-to-toe skincare is in, skincare for kids will never be in.

Good afternoon everyone. Today’s newsletter was written from the train to Ottawa and includes Château Montebello’s forced sale, Questrade’s splashy product event, and takeaways from having dinner with 23 beauty founders.

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• Top Knot Ventures hosted a dinner for 40 Canadian beauty founders, investors, and partners. I think many of us can accept that success as a Canadian (as in many countries) often means ‘making it’ in America. In fact for brands, losing the ‘Canadian’ label can signal that they’re doing something right—think of global success stories like MAC, DECIEM, and Nudestix. What struck me was how many founders—behind brands like Sahajan, Bathorium, and Three Ships—I didn’t know were Canadian (the Shopify to beauty founder pipeline is very real). Many of them look to the U.S. for growth, community, and investment, elements that Manica Blain,

  Taylor Frankel
  , and Barb Stegemann want to see nudge into Canada. The opportunity exists, since some of the most passionate beauty consumers are here (a quarter of Sephora’s best-performing stores are in Canada).

  • Conversations with about a dozen founders confirmed that clean girl aesthetic is trending out, head-to-toe skincare is in, skincare for kids will never be in, and that people are excited about hydration and oils.

  • Some positive news (that I can share) is that Bathorium made it on Oprah’s favourite things list, Bush Balm’s wholesale wax business is thriving, and PAUME had its first $1 million month in September.

• Bell Canada laid off 700 people this week, including 40 at Bell Media.

• You’ve heard of the end of banking, but are you familiar with the dawn of investing? Questrade, now a licensed bank, is trying to court the growing number of retail investors with products that seem like the antithesis of Wealthsimple’s set-it-and-forget-it robo-advisor services. I wonder if splashy product announcements at Brickworks and the Design Exchange will become the new normal, and if big banks will catch on (probably not).

• It’s Alison Roman’s world and we’re all just living in it. The Montreal and Toronto stops of her Something from Nothing cookbook tour were this week, which focuses on recipes for cash- and time-strapped millennials.

• I first wrote about this Toronto ASMR spa earlier this year. According to WIRED, they now offer sessions that simulate scenarios like doctor’s visits.

• Québec’s historic Château Montebello will be put up for sale. PwC has taken control of the resort, which has hosted world leaders, actors, and pop stars over its 95-year history, after it failed to make payments on its $63.9 million in debt. The hotel was bought by China’s now-collapsed Evergrande in 2014, but PwC told The Globe and Mail it’s not clear who the hotel’s owner(s) are right now. Strange. It’s still operated by Fairmont.

• A huge month for Canada in the UAE means someone had to update the government page. Inovia, a VC firm, has opened a UAE office (which I’m told is becoming more common, as it’s essentially marketing to tap into the region for fundraising), and Mark Carney says he secured a $70 billion investment in Canada over the year (with a minerals deal in the works).

• And before I let you go, who do you want to see featured in Milk Bag next month?