September 19, 2026 - Famous Times

Selena Gomez Connects Rare Beauty to a Bigger Wellness Story

Famous Times Staff 2 on September 19, 2026

Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty are highlighting the brand’s mental-health and accessibility initiatives following Gomez’s appearance at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in New York. Publicly released figures show that the Rare Impact Fund has raised more than $30 million, while separate accessibility research has helped shape aspects of the brand’s product design.

Key Takeaways

Gomez discussed Rare Beauty’s mental-health work at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in New York on Sept. 17, 2026
Publicly reported figures indicate that the Rare Impact Fund has raised more than $30 million
Rare Beauty says it directs 1% of its sales to the Rare Impact Fund
Accessibility research conducted with Casa Colina involved 57 participants with hand or arm disabilities
The fourth Rare Impact Fund Benefit is scheduled for Oct. 14 in Los Angeles

Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty Put Mental Health in Focus

Selena Gomez appeared with Elyse Cohen, Rare Beauty’s chief impact officer and president of the Rare Impact Fund, at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival in New York.

The discussion brought renewed attention to the Rare Impact Fund, which supports organizations working in youth mental-health services and education. Fast Company reported that the fund has raised more than $30 million and works with 30 nonprofit partners across five continents.

The same report said programs supported by the fund have reached about 3.5 million young people and helped train approximately 208,000 educators. Those figures are based on information associated with Rare Beauty and the Rare Impact Fund and describe the scale of programs supported rather than guaranteed individual outcomes.

Gomez described Rare Beauty as “super mission driven” during the festival discussion. The company says 1% of its sales is directed to the Rare Impact Fund, while additional support comes from foundations, companies, individuals and other contributors.

The fund has set a broader goal of mobilizing $100 million for youth mental-health services and education. That figure represents a stated fundraising objective rather than money already raised.

The initiative has remained part of Rare Beauty’s public identity as the business has continued introducing products and expanding its retail presence. The company’s wider Rare Beauty expansion has also placed greater attention on how its commercial operations and social-impact programs sit alongside one another.

Accessibility Adds Another Layer to Rare Beauty’s Wellness Focus

Rare Beauty has also connected its broader inclusion strategy with product usability.

In 2023, the Casa Colina Research Institute conducted a study for the company involving 57 participants with upper-extremity disabilities linked to conditions including stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury and other neurological or orthopedic conditions.

Participants evaluated seven Rare Beauty products, with researchers examining factors including grip, maneuverability, packaging design and applicators. The study was intended to identify features that could make some products easier or more difficult to use for people with certain hand and arm limitations.

Rare Beauty later incorporated findings from that work into its Made Accessible Initiative. The company has said the research is intended to help inform future packaging decisions.

The brand has also acknowledged that accessibility needs differ widely and that a study involving a limited group cannot represent every potential user experience. That qualification keeps the initiative focused on specific design considerations rather than suggesting that every product will work equally well for every consumer.

The accessibility work became more visible in 2026 with the release of the True to Myself Natural Matte Longwear Foundation. The product launched in April with 48 shades and packaging designed with usability considerations in mind.

Public coverage of the launch noted features including a pump mechanism and packaging intended to be easier to handle for some users. Rare Beauty has presented those features as part of an ongoing effort to consider accessibility during product development rather than as a universal solution.

That distinction also separates the brand’s cosmetics products from its mental-health initiatives. Rare Beauty does not position makeup as health care. Instead, the company places product accessibility and mental-health support within a broader brand framework centered on self-expression, usability and access to resources.

The October Benefit Extends Attention to the Rare Impact Fund

The next major public event connected with the initiative is the Rare Impact Fund Benefit, scheduled for Oct. 14 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles.

Rare Beauty announced that Gomez is expected to host the fourth annual event, with actor and comedian Sean Hayes scheduled to serve as emcee.

According to the event announcement, proceeds are intended to support organizations working in youth mental-health services and education. The benefit also forms part of the Rare Impact Fund’s broader effort to work toward its stated $100 million mobilization goal.

The event follows Gomez’s September appearance in New York and keeps the Rare Impact Fund visible during a period when Rare Beauty is also emphasizing accessibility and product development.

For Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty, the current wellness narrative is built around several documented initiatives rather than a single campaign. The Rare Impact Fund, accessibility research and the upcoming benefit each represent different parts of the company’s stated approach to mental-health support, inclusion and product usability.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Rare Impact Fund?

The Rare Impact Fund is an initiative associated with Rare Beauty that supports organizations working in youth mental-health services and education. Rare Beauty says it directs 1% of its sales to the fund, which has a stated goal of mobilizing $100 million.

How much has the Rare Impact Fund raised?

Public reporting in September 2026 placed the amount raised at more than $30 million. The figure reflects reported fundraising to date and is separate from the fund’s longer-term $100 million goal.

How does accessibility fit into Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty?

Selena Gomez and Rare Beauty have linked accessibility to product design through the company’s Made Accessible Initiative. Research conducted with Casa Colina examined factors such as grip, packaging and applicators among participants with hand and arm disabilities.

When is the next Rare Impact Fund Benefit?

The fourth annual Rare Impact Fund Benefit is scheduled for Oct. 14, 2026, at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. Gomez is expected to host the event, while Sean Hayes has been announced as emcee.

From Colorado Trails to Global Stages: ARGYRO and The Fray Show Two Sides of Denver’s Pop-Rock Story

Famous Times Staff on September 19, 2026

By: Bryson Davis

Denver may be better known outside Colorado for mountains, altitude, and an outdoor culture than for glossy pop-rock, but the city has quietly produced musicians capable of carrying a distinctly Colorado sensibility far beyond the Front Range. Two acts at very different points on that spectrum, ARGYRO and The Fray, illustrate how broad that musical identity can be.

One is an independent multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and actor building a cinematic body of work largely on his own terms. The other is a Denver-born band whose songs became part of the soundtrack of 2000s American pop culture and which, more than two decades after forming, is writing a new chapter.

What connects them is less a specific sound than a sense of place, melody and storytelling.

Scott Argiro, who records as ARGYRO, is originally from Pittsburgh but has made Colorado his home for years. In a 2024 interview, Argiro said he had been living in Denver for eight years and had worked with numerous musicians in the local scene before developing his solo work. A drummer by origin, he expanded into bass, piano, vocals, and songwriting, eventually becoming the multi-instrumentalist at the center of his own recordings.

His latest album, Glitterati, released through MTS Records in October 2025, contains nine tracks, including “Glitterati,” “Cool Shades,” “She’s So LA,” “The Phenomenon,” “House Upon the Mountainside,” “Perfect Endings” and “Lifeline.”

It is an album fascinated by image and authenticity: celebrity, romantic fantasy, ambition and the sometimes ridiculous lengths people go to in order to be noticed. Yet one of its most appealing songs emerged about as far from the red carpet as possible.

“Cool Shades” began while Argiro was hiking in Colorado. A bass line and melody came to him on the trail, and he stopped to record the idea on his phone before later developing it in his studio. That outdoor genesis helps explain the song’s spacious character. Instead of chasing spectacle, “Cool Shades” settles into an atmospheric pop-rock groove built around escape, water, sunlight, and the luxury of slowing down.

That relationship between Colorado landscape and creativity offers an interesting counterpoint to The Fray.

The Fray’s Denver story began in 2002, when former schoolmates Isaac Slade and Joe King reconnected and started making music together. The band’s local following grew, “Over My Head (Cable Car)” gained radio traction, and the group was named Best New Band by Westword in 2004 before breaking nationally.

Then came How to Save a Life.

Released in 2005, the album produced two songs that became inseparable from mid-2000s pop-rock: “Over My Head (Cable Car)” and “How to Save a Life.” The latter reached No. 3 on the Billboard Hot 100, while “Over My Head” peaked at No. 8. Television helped propel the songs further into the culture, particularly the use of “How to Save a Life” on Grey’s Anatomy.

The Fray subsequently demonstrated that the breakthrough wasn’t a one-record accident. Their self-titled 2009 album reached No. 1 on the Billboard 200.

The band’s story has changed considerably since then. Original frontman Isaac Slade departed in 2022, with co-founder Joe King moving into the lead-vocal role alongside longtime members Dave Welsh and Ben Wysocki. After returning with The Fray Is Back EP in 2024, the group released the full-length A Light That Waits in 2026, their first album in more than a decade.

That makes the comparison with ARGYRO particularly timely.

The Fray represents one version of the Denver musician’s trajectory: songs created within a local scene that eventually become international pop-rock standards. ARGYRO represents another: the modern independent artist using Denver as a creative home base while combining recording, acting, visual storytelling, and self-directed artistic development.

Their music isn’t interchangeable. It shouldn’t be.

The Fray built its reputation on emotionally direct songwriting, piano-centered melodies and choruses capable of expanding intimate subjects to arena scale. ARGYRO’s Glitterati is more playful and cinematic, moving between satire, romance, introspection and carefully constructed pop-rock atmosphere.

But both understand something fundamental about melodic music: emotional accessibility doesn’t require artistic anonymity.

There is also a revealing Colorado thread running through their work. The Fray began by earning an audience locally before the rest of the country paid attention. ARGYRO has described Colorado itself as part of his creative process, with hikes becoming opportunities for melodies to emerge rather than simply recreation. Denver is therefore more than an address in either story. It is part of the environment in which the music developed.

And in 2026, both stories are still moving.

The Fray is navigating the difficult transformation from a band identified with enormous songs from an earlier era into an active contemporary group making new music. ARGYRO, meanwhile, is using Glitterati and songs such as “Cool Shades” to continue defining what his own version of independent pop-rock looks like.

Two careers. Two scales. Two very different paths through the music business.

But taken together, ARGYRO and The Fray make a convincing case that Denver’s contribution to pop-rock isn’t confined to one era, or one kind of artist.

Sometimes it begins with a band trying to get a local radio station to play its song.

Sometimes it begins with a musician stopping halfway through a Colorado hike because a bass line just entered his head.

The important part is knowing when to listen.

Day: September 19, 2026