Janna Mandell

Freelance Reporter

United States

Janna Mandell is a New York Metropolitan Area-based reporter covering wellness and the beauty industry, most recently for The Washington Post. Industry peers have called her a trend-spotter for her early coverage of trends like the Korean beauty craze and the natural beauty boom years before hitting the mainstream. In her reporting, she has interviewed everyone from CEOs, academics, and celebrities to toxicologists, dermatologists, and TikTok influencers.

Portfolio
Washington Post
07/23/2022
Why your sunscreen isn't working

Placeholder while article actions load Julian Sass is a sunscreen educator to his nearly 20,000 followers on Instagram, and every time he posts a sunscreen review - via a 90-second "reel" - he applies approximately half a teaspoon (2.14 grams) of sunscreen to his face and neck.

Washington Post
04/01/2022
'Slugging,' the viral beauty hack that skin-care experts actually like

Placeholder while article actions load It's rare for TikTok beauty trends to hold merit with dermatologists and aestheticians. Whether they're ridiculous (#lubeprimer, #snailfacial) or dangerous (#diymoleremoval, filing teeth), most TikTok "beauty hacks" are quickly debunked by skin-care professionals - with the overwhelming exception of " slugging."

Washington Post
07/27/2021
Why acne-fighting pimple patches are 'here to stay'

Charlotte Cho first came face to face with pimple patches while working in Seoul more than a decade ago. The Korean American entrepreneur, who was an international corporate communications manager for Samsung at the time, was fascinated to see co-workers dressed in suits and heels arrive at work and attend important meetings with little round stickers on their faces.

Washington Post
06/20/2021
Hyperpigmentation is a common skin problem. Here's what you can do about it.

Donna Gould, a 43-year-old aesthetics student in Cocoa Beach, Fla., can't remember a time when bug bites and scrapes didn't leave her with dark spots on her skin. "I just assumed I was a slow healer." Ten years ago, Gould finally asked a doctor about the spots, thinking they were from a vitamin deficiency.

HuffPost
01/09/2020
VSCO Girls And E-Girls: The TikTok Subcultures You Need To Know About

Zoe Holland is a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Southern California, where she is surrounded by possibly unintentional VSCO girls (pronounced "visco"). With her jet-black hair, blunt Bettie Page bangs, black-winged eyeliner, heart cheek stamp and pink-blushed nose and cheeks, Holland is the quintessential e-girl, lost in a sea of Malibu Barbies taking selfies.

Washington Post
05/04/2021
Retinoids remain the gold standard for fighting acne and wrinkles. Here's what you should know.

Although they've been around for decades, the vitamin A derivatives known as retinoids remain the gold standard for treating acne and wrinkles, with the skin-care and pharmaceutical industries continuing to develop and manufacture new products featuring them. Retinoids - including the most commonly known, retinol - are found in both prescription medications and over-the-counter formulations in a variety of strengths and product types.

The Washington Post
Covid-19 conspiracies are dividing the 'clean' beauty industry

Based on the advice of wellness and clean beauty influencers, Rust said she threw away all her plastic, dryer sheets and conventional beauty products; she believed that toxic chemicals could be found throughout her home. "Everything had to be natural," she said. "I fully overreacted out of fear."

HuffPost
06/03/2020
'This Is A Very Strange Time To Be A Black-Owned Business'

This story, as told to Janna Mandell, is from the perspective of Trinity Mouzon Wofford, the co-founder of Golde , a Brooklyn-based superfood-fueled beauty and wellness brand, which she co-founded with partner Issey Kobori in 2017.

HuffPost India
08/29/2019
What Is Collagen Banking? And Do We Need To Start In Our 20s?

Waiting for my Botox appointment in a posh medical spa in San Francisco, I started chatting up the 20-something woman sitting next to me. With her flawless skin and apparently amazing genetics (sky-high cheekbones and full lips), I couldn't figure out what she could possibly need done at a medical spa.

SFChronicle.com
08/24/2018
Are next-generation fast beauty brands worth the hype?

Before the days of Instagram's #Instastories and r/MakeupAddiction on Reddit, young women got their makeup inspiration from glossy magazines and the local beauty counter. The trajectory usually involved starting one's teen years with Clinique and MAC, and eventually graduating to Chanel and Dior.

Forbes
01/16/2018
Cannabis Could Be The Most Profitable Ingredient In Skincare, If The U.S. Government Allows It

Lord Jones co-founder Cindy Capobianco describes her luxury cannabis-infused product business in much the same manner as any maker of a prestige natural skincare brand: it's made in small batches, organic ingredients, medicinal value of said ingredients. With a body lotion and face products slated for release later this year, Lord Jones is trying to be a prestige natural skincare brand.

SFChronicle.com
08/20/2018
How Botnia skin-care line started in Sausalito founder's backyard

When Botnia skin-care founder Justine Kahn and her husband bought their home in Sausalito in 2010, it was a "contractor's special" to say the least. The house was leaning to one side like the famous tower in Pisa and was accessible only via a ladder.

SFChronicle.com
06/29/2018
Spas embrace cannabis-infused massage rituals

It takes a second for your eyes to adjust when you enter Earthbody, a day spa in Hayes Valley. Once you've settled on the dimly lit pillowed banquette, a spa employee brings you paperwork along with a tray of goodies to begin your cannabis ritual.

Forbes
05/22/2018
Saks Fifth Avenue Rolls The Dice By Moving Beauty Department Off Ground Floor

Talk to any beauty-product enthusiast and she probably has an early memory of her first visit to the beauty floor at her local department store. Stepping in from the drab parking lot into a magical world where heavily made-up women offered perfume spritzes, vivid signage showed pouting models in glossy bright makeup, and glass cabinets filled with tubes, bottles and jars sang their siren songs of glamour and smooth skin.

SFChronicle.com
05/17/2018
Tatcha CEO's book takes a beauty lesson from the geisha culture

Victoria Tsai, founder and CEO of San Francisco beauty brand Tatcha, wants you to forget everything you learned from the best-selling book "Memoirs of a Geisha." The Harvard Business School-educated Tsai would know; she based her entire brand on the beauty rituals of the geisha.

Forbes
03/27/2018
Strand Equity Declares 'Youth To The People' With Minority Investment

Los Angeles-based vegan skincare company Youth to the People (YTTP) announced today they received a minority investment from private equity firm Strand Equity, also based in Los Angeles, to further expand the brand and fuel growth. Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Forbes
04/06/2018
The Alchemist And The Scientist: How Strange Bedfellows Created The Future Of Skincare

The first thing you notice when you open the door to luxury botanical skincare brand In Fiore's studio and showroom in San Francisco is the scent - otherworldly yet grounded, like Big Sur after the rain. The showroom itself looks like an old-world apothecary: wood and glass cabinets filled with etched bottles and jars housing potent balms, oils, and other skincare and fragrance potions.

Forbes
01/24/2018
Why Amazon Isn't Ready To Dominate Beauty (Yet)

Reading through recent headlines about Amazon disrupting the beauty industry, one would think that it's time for Sephora and Ulta to panic and rethink their strategies. Yes, I know the power of Amazon and how it's eating almost every retail sector's lunch.

San Francisco Chronicle, Style Section
01/08/2017
Put Your Best Face Forward

Julie Lynge's facial massage targets jaw pain and adds a rejuvenating lift

San Francisco Chronicle Style Section
04/27/2017
Bite Lip Lab offers possibility of that perfect shade

Looking through the windows of the Bite Beauty Lip Lab on Fillmore, you might mistake the lip boutique for a candy store. The shelves are lined with jars full of brightly hued pellets, and there are stools set up around high tables. The glass case at checkout looks to be stocked with candy-colored truffles.

San Francisco Chronicle
08/26/2016
Neve & Hawk combines creativity and commerce

On a recent Saturday morning at Neve & Hawk in San Anselmo, the boutique's namesakes are making themselves at home. The owners' 9-year-old daughter, Neve, is working the register - and getting a lecture from her mother, Kris Galmarini, on giving the correct change.

San Francisco Chronicle, Style Section
03/27/2016
Rockin' a Runway Look

Reporter experiences how makeup artist interprets runway trends for the every day woman.

San Francisco Chronicle, Style Section
02/25/2016
Backstage beauty notes from 10 top fashion shows

NEW YORK - Skin was the star again this season with models' faces that looked scrubbed clean until they caught the bright lights on the New York Fashion Week runways, revealing soft palettes of iridescent pinks and nudes.

San Francisco Chronicle
Tata Harper is comfortable in her skin

The first thing you'll notice about Tata Harper is her ethereal, glowing complexion. Harper's eponymous skin-care line, adored by celebrities and beauty editors, is known for its natural ingredients and high degree of efficacy. [...] Harper is opening her first-ever spa room for facials and other skin treatments inside Credo, where we spoke to her while she was in town putting on its finishing touches.

San Francisco Chronicle
Credo a showcase for natural beauty

When Shashi Batra, founder of new beauty boutique Credo in Pacific Heights, talks about Credo's featured brands his face lights up and he transforms into a proud parent. A longtime veteran of the beauty industry (Batra brought a little shop called Sephora to the U.S.

San Francisco Chronicle, Style Section
02/14/2016
Bay Area Bliss

You don’t need to travel far for a relaxing, rejevenating spa day

The Huffington Post
02/08/2016
3 Must-Have Beauty Treatments for New York Fashion Week

Not all members of the media and attendees and of New York Fashion Week strut from their trendy apartments in recently gentrified neighborhoods on Day 1 rearing to go. Some of us who cover fashion week actually come from far away lands like, in my case, the hippy hills of Fairfax, CA.

The Huffington Post
01/29/2016
Planning the Perfect "I F'd Up" Romantic Wine Country Weekend

You really did it this time... It doesn't matter if it was going away for a boys' weekend on her birthday or drunkenly flirting with her friend at a party, you're going to need to plan one hell of a Valentine's Day weekend to make up for your errant ways.

San Francisco Chronicle
Best Bay Area Beauty Finds (Cover Story)

From manis to massages, brows to braids, stylish insiders share their top recommendations of transformative services and top practitioners: Jeannie Jarnot is founder and CEO of Beauty Heroes, a curated beauty subscription-box service featuring luxury nontoxic brands like True Nature Botanicals, Vintner's Daughter and In Fiore.

San Francisco Chronicle
Silicon Valley stylist takes clients beyond the hoodie

Damon Schechter emerges from the dressing room at Denim & Soul on Union wearing olive green cords, plaid shirt, cashmere hoodie and a denim shirt as a jacket and exclaims, "I would have never thought of putting this outfit together!" His style consultant Victoria Hitchcock quickly goes to work cuffing his sleeves and fixing his collars.

The Huffington Post
12/15/2015
5 Slightly Passive-Aggressive Gifts for Him

Sure, he may have put a signed basketball from Steph Curry and a Beer of the Month Club on his wish list, but really, does he "need" those things? Is he actually going to admire that ball every day or is it just going to sit in a tacky plastic case on your mantle?

San Francisco Chronicle, Style Section
11/01/2015
Facial Goes Beyond Skin Deep

Kristina Holey brings pioneering French massage technique to S.F.

San Francisco Chronicle, Style Section
10/18/2015
THE BROW WHISPERER

Michele Holmes brings an expert eye, gentle products to tame, tease or transform eyebrows

San Francisco Chronicle
09/24/2015
Put your best face forward: Our favorite facials

Getting a facial can be a bit intimidating. It's like using an online dating site - you know people who swear by it and others who have been burned. Or perhaps you've actually been scarred by overly aggressive extractions or too-harsh exfoliations in the past.

San Francisco Chronicle
N.Y. Fashion Week's makeup artists let cosmetics multitask

At Marc by Marc Jacobs, noted makeup artist Diane Kendal used Marc Jacobs Beauty Lip Lock Moisture Balm as a highlighter to accentuate models' cheekbones and eye contours. $24, www.sephora.com. The Nars Matte Multiple in Cappadoce earned its namesake at shows like Alexander Wang and Naeem Khan, where makeup artists applied the traditional blush and lipstick on eyelids.

San Francisco Chronicle
Benefit Cosmetics traces its success to being born in S.F.

Talk to any employee at Benefit Cosmetics' Bush Street headquarters or Bay Area boutiques and you can expect to hear about the "DNA of the brand" as well as its motto, "Laughter is the best cosmetic." Today, on the heels of the 25th anniversary of its San Francisco boutique openings, Benefit is poised to become a billion-dollar company, "exporting" its quintessentially S.F.

SFGATE
06/14/2013
Screening sunscreens

Life used to be so easy: Slathering on sunscreen meant you were safe. Not anymore. Thanks to the FDA's new requirements that require sunscreens to pass a "broad spectrum test" and limit the verbiage of water-resistance claims, you need to carefully read your sunscreen bottle before hitting the beach.