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Over the past year, these nine beauty and skincare brands on the list of 2025 Brands That Matter found innovative ways to make customers see their inner beauty. Some pulled back the curtain on behind-the-scenes processes, offering masterclasses in makeup and lessons in cosmetic chemistry. Others embraced humor, leaning into viral moments with ad campaigns all about angry arachnids and dirty-talking grandmas (yes, really). Here are the brands proving beauty is more than skin-deep in 2025. Bubble Skincare Though every brand would love to be a favorite among Gen Z (and, increasingly, Gen Alpha, as it ages into purchasing power), not many have the chops to pull it off. Bubble is among the rare few that understand their young audience both monetarilyevery product from moisturizer to lip balm to sunscreen retails for $20 or lessand culturally, as evidenced by its booming ambassador program. In 2024, its ambassador community nearly tripled, ballooning to more than 84,000 members. These Bubble lovers test new products and tout them across social media free of charge, driving more than 133 million social impressions last year. In the past months, Bubble has broken into the beauty space with products that fuse skincare with makeup, like its first-of-their-kind color-correcting balms, which combine clinical care and complexion without sacrificing quality or cost. @bubble Dark spots? Redness? Mission accepted. Our new CC Balms instantly neutralize the look of imperfections for a flawless finish. In an independent consumer study: 93% of UNDER COVER Dark Spot Fix users said their skin tone looked more even 99% of SECRET AGENT Redness Fix users said it helped to reduce the look of redness Shop both on hellobubble.com and @Ulta Beauty Passion – Milky Chance Dieux Dieux does more than sell its customers skincare: It teaches them the science behind it. In 2024, the brands following on TikTok increased by 656%, thanks to its informative and entertaining content demystifying all things skincare that consumers are often in the dark about, from the methodology behind their packaging to intimidating skincare terms like comedogenicity (which is a measure of how likely a product is to clog your pores, FYI). That transparency has earned Dieux a loyal customer base with over 50% customer retention. Dieuxs launch at Sephora, its first-ever retail partnership, blew sales expectations out of the water, selling five times more than predicted. The brands collaborations in the fashion world reflect its ideals about beautyacting as the skincare sponsor for no-makeup makeup looks at New York and Paris Fashion Week for Collina Strada, supporting women over 40 at the Met Gala, and raising funds for Black trans-led advocacy group G.L.I.T.S. with a limited-edition eye mask. EltaMD For the second year of marking March 13 as National Dermatologist Day, in 2025 the skincare brand launched its Derm Difference campaign, calling on real dermatologists to share personal stories of the trade, including why dermatology matters to them. Its just one way that EltaMD, a brand renowned for its dermatologist-recommended sunscreens, celebrates the doctors that define its industry and earns itself credibility in the process. EltaMDs dermatologist-forward content strategy earned the brand 63% year-over-year follower growth on TikTok in 2024. Offline, the brands commitment to skincare extends beyond its products, delivering more than 4,000 skin cancer screenings in collaboration with the Skin Cancer Foundation and the Sun Bus. This year, its new all-mineral UV Skin Recovery sunscreen caught the beauty worlds attention, nabbing recognition from Allure and awards Cosmopolitan, Womens Health, and NewBeauty. Eos Products In the wrong hands, a brands social media being flooded with NSFW reviews from customers could be cause for alarmbut for Eos, it was an opportunity. The long-beloved lip balm brands expansion into body lotions in 2024 came with an unexpected side effect: consumers touting the new products as aphrodisiacs. This year, rather than avoiding the conversation and its potential controversies, Eos joined in the X-rated fun with its DirtyDMs and Obsessedimonials” campaignwhich featured real comments from customers raving about the new productsthe former featuring an elderly woman reading the titillating testimonials aloud. Hearing a granny say that Eoss Vanilla Cashmere Body Lotion can get you flipped like a pancake packs a punch of comedy thats too often missing from advertising, and for Eos, it worked like a charm. Its new product line quickly became the fastest-growing body lotion in mass retail and the top-selling body lotion on Amazon. Glow Recipe Pop stars arent the only ones who can go on world tours: As Glow Recipe proved in 2024, skincare brands can do it, too. In honor of the companys 10th anniversary, its founders set off across North America, South America, and Europe to share the Korean skincare philosophies that made their brand a hit. Glow Recipe continues to dominate the indie skincare space: Sales of its flagship products, including Dew Drops and Watermelon Toner, continue to grow year over year, while the launch of the brands Hue Drops, a tinted version of its signature serum, sold well following its fall 2024 launch. Additionally, the brands messaging helps break down stigmas around skin, avoiding all-too-common language like Perfect Skin and Anti-Aging and showcasing real skin in its advertising, thanks to a commitment not to retouch models photos. Makeup by Mario Makeup maven Mario Dedivanovic has two major claims to fame: his years-long trendsetting work with Kim Kardashian and popularizing the makeup masterclass. Now, as part of an excluive partnership with Sephora, his eponymous makeup brand is bringing his signature educational experience to social media. Makeup by Mario invited tastemakers like Paige DeSorbo, Suni Lee, Katie Fang, and Steph Hui to be part of mini masterclasses, reimagining Dedivanovics formula to massive success: The brand reported record-breaking engagement online, with 154% global EMV growth on TikTok. Meanwhile, the brands products are now stocked in nearly 2,100 Sephora stores worldwide, including a recent launch at Sephora Mexico. The brand retains a strong following on Instagram and TikTok, with nearly 16 million follower between the two. Maybelline New York Appearing on all three of Love Island, Saturday Night Live, and Hot Ones is a pop culture hat trick in the 2020s, and over the past year, Maybelline pulled it off. The classic makeup brand has kept up with the times: In 2024, its TikTok campaigns garnered more than 100 million impressions, and its interactive content on Pinterest (a platform itself undergoing a Gen Z renaissance) boosted Maybellines follower engagement there by 30%. In addition to its buzzy media appearances, Maybellines stayed true to its values. That includes doubling down on its commitment to mental health advocacy through both a $20 million partnership with the WHO Foundation and expansions to its Brave Talk program, developing the in-person peer support program into a digital experience. Neutrogena The brand in 2025 has worked with John Cena to recontextualize his iconic You cant see me! catchphrase from the wrestler/actor’s WWE days. Cena’s Neutrogena campaign applies it to the brand’s Ultra Sheer sunscreen while sharing how two skin cancer diagnoses made him realize the importance of UV protection. That personal level of storytelling has become a hallmark of Neutrogenas messaging, which makes use of celebrity spokespeople to reach new audiences. Take its collaboration with Gen Z pop star Tate McRae, who reintroduced Neutrogenas Hydro Boost products to a younger generation for the lines 10th anniversary, or its utilization of actor and singer Hailee Steinfeld to address young Millennials and recommend products to minimize collagen loss. No matter a consumers skincare needs, Neutrogena has a product to meet them (and, odds are, a celebrity to pair it with). Sol de Janeiro The Brazilian skincare brand turned the stuff of marketing nightmares into a win. When a review for Sol de Janeiros Delícia Drench Body Butter, claimed that it attracted wolf spiders, the rumor mill went to work, with other reviewers jokingly agreeing that the product was a spider magnet, while arachnophobes worried that the memes were based in truth. Sol de Janeiro took it all in stride, capitalizing on the viral moment in 2024 with a joke of its own: a fake product, Aranha Spider Salve, that the brand said actually did attract spiders, unlike the real lotion that started the social media frenzy. The meme was a hit, earning Sol de Janeiro 9.76 million views on TikTok and 2.3 million impressions on Instagram. It was a testament to the brands adaptability. This story is part of Fast Companys 2025 Brands That Matter. Explore the full list of honorees that have demonstrated a commitment to their brands purpose and cultural relevance to their audience. Read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
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For the past decade, quantum computing has struggled to balance promise and practicality. While the worlds most advanced systems remain engineering marvels, theyre bedeviled by the same flaw: the fragility of qubitsthe fundamental units of quantum dataand the delicate hardware required to control them. A single fluctuation, for example, can collapse a quantum state, invalidating a computation. Most quantum systems also depend on large-scale refrigeration colder than deep space, with cryogenic racks that often occupy multiple rooms. Scaling quantum systems demands exponential increases in cost, energy, and environmental stability. So while the U.N. has designated 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, for all its scientific significance, quantums commercial trajectory remains narrow. But Japanese conglomerate Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. (NTT) is attempting to rewrite that equation. In partnership with Japan-based quantum technology developer OptQC, NTT is attempting to break current orthodoxy through what is known as optical quantum computing, which uses photons instead of electrical currents to perform calculations. Since photons generate less heat compared to electron-based systems and can travel without resistance, these systems consume far less power. NTT argues that optical systems can be faster and more energy-efficient, forming the basis for greener, more sustainable computing. This combination not only accelerates computational capability but also reduces environmental impact, positioning quantum technology as a foundation for a sustainable digital future, says Shingo Kinoshita, SVP and head of R&D planning at NTT. Rather than relying on cooling systems, NTTs design utilizes light sources and error-correction technologies developed under its Innovative Optical and Wireless Network (IOWN) initiative. Japans broader industrial strategy sits just beneath the surface of this partnership. With the U.S. and China locked in geopolitical competition over quantum supremacy, Japans photonic-first model is being positioned as an alternative: one that favors energy efficiency and manufacturability over extreme-environment engineering. Today, the energy footprint of AI is emerging as a global challenge. Optical quantum computing processes information with light, enabling dramatically lower power consumption and scalable qubit growth through optical multiplexing, Kinoshita says. A million-qubit road map The approach builds on a series of rapid scientific breakthroughs across Japans quantum ecosystem. Over the past year, NTTalongside RIKEN, Fixstars Amplify, the University of Tokyo, and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technologydemonstrated the worlds first general-purpose optical quantum computing platform capable of running calculations without any external cooling. The upcoming platform fits inside a single room, a feat that many leading quantum systems developers cant claim. NTT and OptQC outlined a five-year plan leading to the 2030 milestone. During the first year, the companies will conduct technical studies and begin codesigning while identifying early use cases with external partners. In the second year, they plan to build complete development environments for hardware and software. In year three, they expect to begin verifying enterprise use cases such as drug development, financial optimization, materials science, and climate modeling. The final phase will focus on scaling the system to reach millions of qubits and making it reliable enough to handle real-world use cases, thereby preparing the technology for adoption among companies, governments, and industries. Qubits must scale into the thousands for quantum computing to surpass the current capabilities of AI. Unlike classical bits used in general-purpose computing systems, which exist as 0 or 1, qubits can exist in multiple states simultaneously, enabling exponentially faster processing of complex calculations. The 2030 vision of 1 million qubits is not just about performance, its about redefining how we align advanced computing with planetary limits, Kinoshita says. In the near term, as we aim for 10,000 qubits by 2027, the first impact will be within NTTs own communications infrastructure. Japans photonic bet to power AI As AI models grow in size and complexity, the demand for simulation, optimization, and high-dimensional problem-solving has also increased exponentially. NTT asserts that photonic quantum systems will become essential accelerators for next-generation AI and telecom networks such as 6G. In classical systems, electrical signals travel through semiconductor processors. Photonic systems replace those electrons with light, transmitting information through properties such as photon number, polarization, and amplitude. However, practical commercial quantum computing requires a scale of 1 million logical qubits, along with reliable quantum error correction, a mechanism that detects and corrects the subtle errors qubits constantly make. Todays machineseven the most advanced systems by IBM, Google, and otherssit orders of magnitude below that mark and remain extremely sensitive to environmental disturbances. NTT claims that photonics changes the math. Scaling to 1 million qubits by 2030 and then moving into mass deployment will demand a robust supply chain. Achieving high-performance quantum light sources and improving yield in precision fabrication will be critical steps, Kinoshita explains. In essence, this means NTT must be able to reliably manufacture the key components, such as high-quality light sources, and improve production yields so the hardware can be built at scale. By 2030, with 1 million qubits, the scope expands beyond telecom,” he adds. “NTT plans to explore these opportunities through partnerships with leaders in chemistry, finance, and industrial sectors. The global stakes of a photonic strategy This is not the first attempt at room-temperature quantum hardware, as companies like Sydney-based Quantum Brilliance are also pursuing cryogenics-free architectures. Quantum Brilliance is targeting edge and data-center deployments with compact photonic-inspired diamond devices, while Atom Computing, headquartered in Berkeley, Calfornia, is building large-scale, room-temperature systems that use neutral atoms. We truly believe that optically controllable neutral atom qubits allow a level of flexibility and practicality to the challenge of controlling millions of qubits with high-fidelity, low-crosstalk signals at room temperature, says Ben Bloom, founder and CEO of Atom Computing. But NTT argues that photons, not electrons or atoms, offer an architecture capable of reaching true commercial scale. Its thesis is simple: Light is inherently more stable, generates less heat, and is ultimately more manufacturable than any matter-based system. This shift transforms quantum computing from a niche technology into a broadly available resource,” Kinoshita says. Still, experts caution that the light-based computation path comes with its own unresolved challenges. Photonics faces significant challenges that often get glossed over in the roomtemperature narrative, says Yuval Boger, chief commercial officer at Boston-based QuEra Computing. You need near-perfect sources and detectors at scale, plus efficient photon-photon interactions, which don’t occur naturally and require complex optical elements. The engineering complexity of building a fault-tolerant photonic quantum computer with thousands of high-fidelity qubits is immense. If NTT stays on track, the worlds first million-qubit system may come from a room-temperature optical platform in Tokyo, engineered for real-world use cases including molecular simulation for drug discovery and materials science, financial risk modeling, and manufacturing optimization. Beyond technology, global coordination for specialized materials and resilience against geopolitical risks remains essential, Kinoshita says. When these systems can run in standard IT environments with ultra-low power consumption and rack-scale integration, enterprises will see cost-effective performance, governments will recognize strategic advantage, and the public will experience tangible benefits like greener networks and faster innovation. That moment will mark quantums shift from experimental to essential.
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In case you havent been deluged with enough day-themed holiday shopping sales yet, the travel industry will try to tempt you with some seemingly tantalizing travel offers on December 2, aka Travel Tuesday, traditionally the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving. But whether the travel deals are actually steals may require you to do some research in advance and read the fine print so you dont face some unexpected fees once youre on vacation. If you regularly book through a specific travel provider and have a sense of what you normally pay, that will help you to better suss out whether youre actually saving money. Knowing what a specific trip or ticket would normally cost is important because travel providers may have artificially inflated the price just to offer a discount this week, Sally French, a travel expert at NerdWallet, cautioned to the Associated Press. Theres a sense of urgency with deals like these, she said, but its also important to make sure a trip that youre booking actually works for you and is something you genuinely want. That said, there may be some discounts that are worth taking advantage of. Here are some highlights. Blanket discounts with specific companies For seasoned travelers, some of the most attractive offers this week will likely come from companies you already book with regularly. Even then, however, there are some asterisks to each of these deals. Perhaps they can be used only on select dates or for specific locations, for example, which may put a damper on your wanderlust. Amtrak may not seem like the most exciting place to begin, but if you regularly travel by trainor have a trip in mindyou may be able score up to 25% off regularly priced fares if you book a ticket by December 3 for travel anytime from January 5 to March 15, 2026. That said, there are four blackout dates that coincide with holidays in January and February, while some routes arent eligible for the discount. If you do have your eye on something a bit more exciting, then insiders (aka people who have supplied their information) could score up to 20% off a stay at one of the boutique hotels in the Proper Hotels collection, along with a $175 dining credit. And Marriott is offering discounts ranging from 15% to 25% off stays at participating locations for reservations made through December 2, depending on whether or not youre a Bonvoy member and book through its app. Many major airlines are also advertising discounted fares for flights booked on Travel Tuesday; however, deals are primarily focused on specific routes. Deals on booking sites Aggregators in the travel world are also getting in on the action with some specials. Discounts range widely in terms of whats being discounted and the amount, but its worth checking the various sites if you have a trip in mind. You may be able to score up to 40% off by booking accommodations through Booking.com, while Hotels.com is promising up to 50% off on reservations for eligible hotels and resorts. Not to be outdone, Priceline is offering up to 60% off select travel packages, and some people may even be able to score up to 75% off at a curated list of 24 hotels by booking through Expedia. Some property owners are running their own promotions for bookings on Airbnb and VRBO, though youll have to have some dates and locations in mind to find those deals. More broadly, Airbnb is offering up to 50% off a single experience or service in Los Angeles, New York, or Paris if you book through Thursday, December 4. Discounts for cruises, resorts The most tantalizing, but trickiest, deals to navigate are often at resorts or for cruises. Thats because the discounts offered this week may not tell the full story of how much youll pay once you arrive, as fees and on-site activities can be quite expensive. This is the area of Travel Tuesday where you may want to proceed with caution lest you sign up for a trip that turns out to be far more expensive than you realized. Its also fair to wonder why specific locations are so heavily discounted when others are not. You can score up to 65% off reservations and potentially get some other money-saving perks at select Sandals Resorts locations for travel booked through December 2. And Club Med has extended a sale through December 2, offering up to 50% off at some of its all-inclusive resorts. The major cruise operators are seemingly always running some sort of sale, but the discounts may be bigger this week. Princess is offering up to $800 off fares, while Royal Caribbean is advertising up to $1,000 off its fares. And you can save up to 75% off the booking for a second guest with Celebrity Cruises. But if all these deals feel dizzying, travel experts say dont book just for the sake of booking. The decline in international visitors to the U.S. has seen many travel companies discount rates to ensure they are booked, and that trend will likely continue. As French told the AP, rest assured: If you dont buy on Travel Tuesday, you havent missed your moment.
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E-Commerce
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