Editors' Top Reads: News from OVA, Adam Minto, Abi Cleeve and more...

Here are some of this week’s news and features highlights handpicked by TheIndustry.beauty team.

The Interview: Adam Minto is back in beauty - with new ‘Gen Zalpha’ makeup brand to disrupt the industry

Since his departure from Revolution Beauty in 2022, Adam Minto has been making a quiet but calculated return to the beauty industry - first with the launch of brand incubator Rebel Rebel, and now with a new makeup brand poised to disrupt the industry once again.

After teasing the brand through a series of Instagram posts, anticipation has been building across the industry - and now, TheIndustry.beauty brings you all the details...

I sat down with Adam, his co-founder and wife Sally, and creative director Alex Dignum to delve into the beauty brand's launch, its unique concept, how they're tapping into a gap in the market and emerging trends, and more.

From colour cosmetics and collectibles to products with personalities and beyond, this was a fascinating conversation - now brought to you in the form of this feature. Read the full interview here. 

Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer.

Boots, TikTok and British Beauty Council back search for UK’s next beauty brand

Boots, TikTok Shop and the British Beauty Council are teaming up with Growth Studio to launch Breakout Beauty UK – a free, six-week accelerator aimed at taking promising UK beauty brands from indie darlings to national retail player, fast.

Guided by heavyweights like Trinny Woodall and Mitchell Halliday, selected founders get direct access to Boots UK's buyers, TikTok Shop experts, and the council’s influential network. It all leads to a pitch for a £350k prize package, including a year-long Boots.com listing, flagship in-store activations, and a major marketing boost.

It’s open to UK-based, founder-led brands across skincare, makeup, haircare, bodycare, fragrance, and accessories - as long as they’re already doing £150k+ in turnover. For indie brands, this is the kind of opportunity you rarely see: retail clout, viral marketing smarts, and industry credibility, all bundled together in one programme.

For UK indie beauty brands, cracking national retail can feel impossible, but Breakout Beauty UK puts the toolkit directly in founders’ hands - combining Boots’ shelves, TikTok’s viral know-how, and the British Beauty Council’s credibility all in one programme. It’s exciting to see a fast-track that could take a tiny indie gem and turn it into the next household name. I can’t wait to see what brands rise through the ranks. If it were up to TheIndustry.beauty's Instagram followers, who have been commenting since the news of the programme broke, KEATS is a worthy candidate.

Chloé Burney, Senior News & Features Writer.

The Interview: Abi Cleeve of Ultrasun and skinSense on being a suncare, skincare and TV shopping pioneer

One of the key strengths of the UK beauty industry (indeed the global beauty industry) is the number of brands led by innovative and pioneering founders. Abi Cleeve is one such person.

Cleeve gave up a successful career at Marks & Spencer in the 90s to go to skin school in Switzerland to enable her to launch the Ultrasun suncare brand into the UK, having discovered it by chance in a Swiss pharmacy during a holiday. That takes guts and vision and in an era when there was no internet, a huge amount of initiative too. Cleeve literally called every pharmacy she could find in the country and asked them to look at her product.

She managed to get it into John Lewis and on to QVC (turning herself into a familiar face for millions of viewers too), before launching her own line skinSense based on the same lamellar technology used in Ultrasun. Furthermore, she went on to lead British-made beauty brand SBC, which makes ionic gel-based skin and body care for more mature consumers, which is a hopelessly neglected demographic.

Yet, Cleeve doesn't get the attention and applause that many other founders in the space do, possibly because the market she serves isn't considered glamorous enough. Or maybe because she isn't a social media personality - even though she is a familiar face on TV. So, if you aren't familiar with her story, please do go and read our interview this week. I can guarantee you'll find her entertaining and inspiring.

Lauretta Roberts, Co-founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief.

Fertility supplement brand OVA raises $1M to drive growth and innovation

OVA, the UK’s first fertility brand to offer supplements for both egg and sperm health, has raised over $1 million in a pre-seed funding round to fuel its next phase of growth.

Founded by former Net-A-Porter alums Danielle Fox-Thomas and Kat Lestage, the brand will use the investment to drive innovation in reproductive wellness and expand its retail presence. The raise includes a strategic partnership with ERA VC, alongside Ventures Together, SyndicateRoom, and several individual angel investors.

Supplements have been coming up a lot lately - partly because our co-founder Ant is always trying the latest formulas, but also because the industry itself is really gaining momentum.

Consumers are increasingly being targeted and educated about the benefits of supplements, driving rapid growth in the market. With over 20 million people in the UK taking supplements daily, priorities such as hydration, skin elasticity, and gut health are at the forefront of consumer demand. OVA aims to capture a significant share of this market with its innovative formulas for fertility health.

Sophie Smith, News Editor & Senior Writer.