Women’s Wellness: The convergence of beauty, health, and wellness has evolved from trend to cultural and commercial force

Welcome

• Elana Drell Szyfer, President, CEW

Keynote

Healthy is the New Young: Beauty, Health Span, and the Midlife Opportunity

What if the secret to a longer, sharper, more vibrant midlife has been hiding in your gut all along? Dr. Sophocles spent months in conversation with leading scientists, startup founders, and women’s health executives to find the single breakthrough most worth sharing: the ovarian-gut axis, an emerging science linking gut health to ovarian aging, autoimmune disease, and even Alzheimer’s risk. Expect one powerful North Star, not a laundry list of headlines.

• Dr. Maria Sophocles, Gynecologist, Author and Public Advocate

The Women’s Health Opportunity: New Research on What Will Shape Wellness

Menopause was just the on-ramp. Per an AlixPartners x CEW study of consumers and executives, women are determined to get their hands on wellness products, treatments, and services addressing broader concerns, from sexual wellbeing to vaginal health to PCOS. Firstenberg will discuss why women’s health, the industry’s greatest unaddressed need, will shape the market as it moves toward a model integrating concierge medicine, wellness centers, and personalization.

• Lindy Firstenberg, Co-Lead of Beauty, Health & Wellness, AlixPartners

Deep Dive: What the Data Means for Brands + Women’s Health

A conversation on what the exclusive AlixPartners x CEW research means for the beauty industry.

• Lindy Firstenberg, AlixPartners
• Elana Drell Szyfer, CEW

The Wellness Shift: A New Conversation Around Perimenopause & Longevity

Executives from sexual-wellness leaders Joylux and Medicine Mama join Jeannie Mai, executive producer of BALANCE: A Perimenopause Journey, to explore how perimenopause, menopause, and longevity are reshaping beauty and wellness, and how brands and media can move beyond anti-aging to champion education, confidence, resilience, and healthy aging.

• Jeannie Mai, Women’s Health Advocate
• Colette Courtion, Founder & CEO, Joylux
• Brittany Blass, President, Medicine Mama
• with Dawn Hilarczyk, COO / CMO, Borghese

Wellness 2.0: Defining the Next Generation of Wellness at Retail

Consumers are passionate about staying well, but “buying wellness” has become a real challenge amid a flood of new ingredients, categories, and claims. Leading retailers from Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Ipsy, and Vitamin Shoppe share how they’re cutting through the noise to tell meaningful wellness stories, and partner for success.

• Laura M. Beres, Vice President, Wellness – Commercial Lead, Ulta Beauty
• Sharon M. Leite, Chief Executive Officer, The Vitamin Shoppe
• Stacey Politi, Chief Marketing Officer, Ipsy
• Vinima Shekhar, Vice President, Beauty, Walmart US
• with Wendy Liebmann, Founder, CEO, Chief Shopper, WSL Strategic Retail

A Female Pioneer in Creating Solutions for Vaginal Health

For more than a century, an ingredient with published scientific support sat on the sidelines, not because it didn’t work, but because no one could patent it. Deeannah Seymour traces her path to challenging the status quo: a $7,000 investment in 2014, the halls of Congress, and the continuous scrutiny of her formulas.

• Deeannah Seymour, CEO & Co-Founder, pH-D Feminine Health

NielsenIQ: How GLP-1s & the Broader Peptide Landscape are Reshaping Beauty

As peptide-based therapies move into the mainstream, they’re creating ripple effects across the beauty ecosystem. NIQ shares original consumer survey research and panel data on how GLP-1s and the broader peptide landscape are changing spending patterns and expectations around beauty, wellness, and longevity, plus which categories are seeing the greatest momentum next.

• Anna Mayo, Vice President, Beauty Vertical, NielsenIQ

Science, Not Spin: How Science-Backed Beauty Brands Succeed in the Wellness Era

As beauty and wellness increasingly converge, science is becoming a powerful differentiator. Leaders explore how research, ingredient innovation, clinical validation, and new approaches to skin and wellbeing are shaping products consumers can trust, and what it takes to turn credible science into a compelling brand.

• Amanda Kahn, GM/SVP US, NEOM Wellbeing
• Alex Lorestani, PhD, Co-Founder & CEO, Geltor
• Dr. Brent Ridge, Co-Founder, Beekman 1802
• with Rina Raphael, Health Journalist and Author

The Wellness Effect: How Science is Shaping the Future of Fine Fragrance

Drawing on more than 40 years of research in scent, beauty, and emotional science, Amy Rueckl explores the intersection of science, emotion, and sensory experience, and how science-backed fragrance is helping brands meet growing consumer demand for products that inspire positivity and elevate wellbeing.

• Amy Rueckl, Director Regional Marketing FF, NA, IFF

Lead on Marketplaces. Win in Commerce: Why Wellness Growth Now Starts Off Amazon

Consumers discover on social and convert on Amazon, but most brands still manage those channels in silos, and that’s where revenue leaks. Ashley Gomes shares fresh 2026 marketplace data on why VMS growth trailed Beauty and CPG, where demand is actually forming, and the framework for building demand upstream and converting it on Amazon as one connected growth system.

• Ashley Gomes, Senior Director of Partnerships, Front Row

Formulate for Her: A Playbook for Winning the Precision Wellness Consumer on Amazon

As more consumers search Amazon for products tailored to their specific needs, high-intent, demographic-specific searches are seeing significant growth. This session explores what brands should do differently to capitalize on the shift, from reformulating products to optimizing naming, messaging, and merchandising for evolving search behavior.

• Dr. Piper Dobner, NMD, MS, Head of Science & Education, Klaire Labs
• Yanghee Paik, CEO & Co-Founder, Rael
• Éva Goicochea, Founder & CEO, Maude
• with Michelle Lee, Chief Brand Officer, Front Row

Closing Keynote

The New ROI: How Women’s Health Becomes the Ultimate Asset

Lucy discusses her path to building LYMA, raising funds, and growing a business from nothing, plus key insights from LYMA’s landmark Power Report into women’s health, introducing the LYMA P.O.W.E.R. Index, a new standard for women’s health. The report, developed with The Future Laboratory and based on feedback from 500 U.S. women and men on wellness and longevity, will be discussed. The conversation opens the floor to audience Q&A.

• Lucy Goff, Founder & CEO, LYMA
• with Andrea Nagel, Chief Content Officer, CEW

Closing Remarks

• Andrea Nagel, Chief Content Officer, CEW