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Why one beauty brand is winning over Gen-Z despite tariffs  February 24, 2026

 

Hey everyone, I'm Meena Duerson in for Coy Wire, and I'm so happy to be back with you while he travels back to the U.S. from Italy this week.

 

A lot of things happening in the world around us on this Tuesday, February 24th, so let's get you your news.

 

We begin in our nation's capital, where tonight all eyes will be on President Donald Trump as he delivers the State of the Union address.

 

Each year, usually in January or February, the sitting president travels to Capitol Hill to deliver the address before both chambers of Congress, the Supreme Court, and other key members of the government.

 

It's an opportunity to give them an update on the nation's condition, highlight key issues, and outline legislative priorities.

 

outline [ˈaʊtˌlaɪn] v. 概述，略述

 

Did you know? The duty is enshrined in Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution, and it actually originated from a ritual address given by the British monarchy at the opening session of Parliament.

 

enshrine [ɪnˈʃraɪn] v. 安置

 

This year will mark President Trump's sixth address to Congress, and the 109th time a U.S. president has delivered the address in person.

 

It also comes just one week before primary elections begin for this year's midterms, giving the president a chance to make the case for Republicans to maintain control of the government.

 

But it also comes at a time where tensions are high across all three branches of the federal government.

 

Political analysts and White House insiders say you can expect the president to speak about immigration enforcement operations and the cost of living.

 

Funding for the Department of Homeland Security is at the center of a partial government shutdown that Congress has yet to resolve. Following the president's address, it's tradition for the opposing party to deliver their formal response.

 

This year, Democratic Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger will speak on behalf of her party.

 

Let's turn now to some major winter weather that's wreaking havoc across the Northeast United States. A massive bomb cyclone has brought hurricane-force winds and extreme snowfall to much of the region to begin the week.

 

As of this taping, at least four states have been blanketed with more than two feet of snow. I trudged through like two feet of it just to get here for you guys this morning.

 

trudge [trʌdʒ] v. 跋涉，步履艰难地走

 

Major cities like Boston, New York, and Philadelphia are enduring their biggest snowstorms in years.

 

So far, nearly 40 million people are under blizzard warnings, and more than 650,000 power outages have been reported. Seven states have declared states of emergency in order to mobilize resources to help impacted residents.

 

The treacherous conditions are having a heavy impact on travel as well. More than 10,000 flights were canceled to start the week.

 

Some cities have also paused public transit or imposed travel bans to help keep people off the roads. And here in New York City, students even got their first official snow day since 2019.

 

snow day（学校或其他工作场所因为大雪而关闭的）雪休日

 

Mayor Zoran Mamdani announced the rare move with a surprise call to an unsuspecting student.

 

Hello? Oh my God! It's the mayor! Hi! Hi Victoria! Hi! So, I thought as the mayor I wanted to call you and give you some news. We've got a full snow day tomorrow.

 

No online school? Yes! No remote learning? Full classic snow day.

 

Ah! So, my only ask to you is that you just stay safe, stay indoors during the height of the storm. Once that has passed, feel free to go out and sled.

 

Time for 10-second trivia.

 

Which of the following best describes Carmine?

 

carmine [ˈkɑrmaɪn] n. 胭脂红

 

Is it a petroleum-based dye, a mineral-based powder found in clay, a color derived from insects, or a plant extract from berries?

 

If you said insects, bug out! Female cochineal insects produce carminic acid, which has a vivid red pigment. The insects live on certain types of cacti found only in Mexico and Central and South America.

 

cochineal [ˈkɑtʃǝnil] n. 胭脂虫

carminic acid 胭脂红酸

cacti [ˈkæktaɪ] n.【植】仙人掌(cactus的名词复数)

 

You've probably heard of the makeup brand e.l.f.. Its affordability and approachability have made it super popular with Gen Z.

 

approachability [ǝˌprotʃǝˈbɪlǝtɪ] n. 可接近性，易接近性

 

Well, the company's CEO is garnering newfound attention for taking a major risk with its customers when it comes to responding to increased costs.

 

garner [ˈɡɑrnɚ] v. 获得

 

This is all about the federal government's tariffs, those taxes we've told you about before, where the U.S. put an extra charge on imported goods, which makes foreign products like the red dye Carmine more expensive.

 

CNN's Claire Duffy explains how the beauty brand handled those policies and built an empire.

 

e.l.f. Beauty CEO Tareng Amin is on a mission to build a beauty empire for Gen Z. His formula? Low prices, social media savvy, and last year, the $1 billion acquisition of Hailey Bieber's Rhode, a beauty brand that young consumers line up around the block for.

 

ELF has always been so good at having its pulse on what younger consumers want. How do you keep up?

 

pulse [pʌls] n. 意向，心态

 

So I'm always learning, but we were one of the, actually one of the first beauty brands on TikTok as a way of kind of engaging with Gen Z.

 

engage [ɪnˈɡеdʒ] v. 啮合，接合; 吸引（注意等）

 

Look at you! The first beauty brand to have our own channel on Twitch, the first beauty brand with their own branded experience on Roblox.

 

For Amin, the key to understanding the brand's customers is to hire them.

 

No one's ever going to accuse me of being a makeup enthusiast, so I absolutely rely on our young, passionate workforce to have a pulse on what consumers want because they are our community.

 

76% of our team are women, 74% are Gen Z or millennial, 44% are diverse. They absolutely represent the community we serve.

 

diverse [daɪˈvɝs] adj. 多种多样的，形形色色的(族群)

 

Donald Trump's war on DEI is on. That focus on diversity stands out at a time when companies like Meta and Walmart have scaled back their diversity initiatives in the wake of right-wing pressure.

 

Our country is going to be based on merit again. For Amin, diversity is a priority.

 

merit [ˈmɛrɪt] n. 价值；优点

 

Why have you decided to stick with it?

 

What would be riskier is us abandoning what we stand for. Our community would know about it right away and they would hold us accountable for it. We believe if your team represents communities you serve, your results will be better and we're living proof of that.

 

Last year, White House trade policy threatened another pillar of Elf's success, affordability. To account for tariffs, the company announced it would raise prices by $1 on many products, despite warnings from President Trump to eat the tariffs.

 

account for（对某人, 事）就…作出解释;（对某人,事）就…作出说明

 

Was that something that worried you prior to this announcement?

 

No, it didn't worry me at all. Our whole point is being transparent with our community and what I find consumers are smart. So if you try to put some other twist, it actually gets in the way of that genuine dialogue we have with our community.

 

twist [twɪst] n. 花样; 曲解

 

According to Amin, roughly 75 percent of Elf's products remain priced under $10, an effort to protect the affordability that made the brand a disruptor in the first place.

 

disruptor [dɪsˈrʌptɚ] n. 颠覆者（能为商业格局带来巨变的新创公司）

 

We're known to make the best of beauty accessible to every eye, lip and face. And frankly, that resonates in any economic environment.

 

A bona fide discovery in Costa Rica is digging up new clues about animals from the ice age that once towered over the region.

 

bona fide【拉】真实的；有诚意的

 

The fossils include remains from a mastodon relative that scientists estimate weighed about 11,000 pounds with tusks stretching more than five feet long, along with a giant ground sloth that stood up to 16 feet tall and weighed roughly 9,000 pounds.

 

mastodon [ˈmæstǝˌdɑn] n.【古生】乳齿象(又称长毛象或万象)

ground sloth 地懒

 

A local resident first spotted the bone fragments on private land and alerted scientists at Costa Rica's National Museum.

 

I said, look, I have this one here. What do you think?

 

The man bends down, cleans it, feels it. Young man, this is a mastodon tusk. You've just made history.

 

Early analysis suggests the fossils are between 10 and 40,000 years old, from near the end of the last ice age. So far, scientists have recovered dozens of fossil pieces and believe the site could hold far more than bones.

 

The geological layer has a lot of information, not only vertebrae, but it has seeds, leaves, plants and possibly has microorganisms that we want to analyze together to realize climatic data, for example.

 

Researchers say discoveries of this scale are rare in Costa Rica and help reconstruct how prehistoric ecosystems once looked across Central America.

 

Today's story, getting a 10 out of 10, one Minnesota grandpa is bringing the Winter Olympics to life in his own backyard. Meet Steve Bleese and his papa bear plunge.

 

bear plunge (北極) 熊跳水

 

Starting in 2022, he transforms a snowy hillside into a nearly 300 foot ice luge carved, packed and polished through hours of work, all for his family to enjoy.

 

luge [luʒ] n.平底雪橇；平底雪橇比赛

 

I'm just very grateful to have a grandpa who like does this and I really love it. It's really fun.

 

The result, unlimited rides and high fives for his eight grandkids.

 

Any grandparent will tell you all they want to do is have fun and take care of the grandkids.

 

When Steve's daughter shared the slide online, it snowballed into millions of views.

 

But the joy the slide brings to his family is what matters most.

 

Sure, it's nice. I can't deny that.

 

But that's not why I'm doing it, you know. Hi, pal. That's why I'm doing it right there.

 

See the smile on their face.

 

All right, superstars,I've got time for two shout outs today. First up, Miss Percy Roberts at South High School in Columbus, Ohio.

 

Thank you for subscribing to our YouTube channel. And Mrs. Robbins at Reitspuffer Middle School in Muskegon, Michigan. Go Rockets! Tomorrow is your word Wednesday.

 

Submit your vocabulary word to our latest post on Instagram @CNN10 and we'll choose a winner to work into tomorrow's show. Have a good one, everybody. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will be with you tomorrow.

I'm Meena Duerson and this is CNN 10.