Multiple birds, one stone. In snapping up Naturium Skincare for $355 million in cash and stock, e.l.f. Beauty furthered its agenda in a number of key ways. One, it boosted its offerings in skin care to 18 percent of retail sales, a category the publicly traded budget-makeup juggernaut has long been determined to crack. Two, it added yet another plant-based brand to its growing roster of acquisitions, alongside Well People. Three, it made sure it remained at the top of the news cycle, right where it’s been all summer. Good News …
Kim & Coty: Kim Kardashian Moves to Reclaim Coty’s Stake in SKKN BY KIM
While she may serve up plenty of bikini-clad, in-repose social media posts, no one could ever accuse Kim Kardashian of resting on her laurels. In fact, it’s the rare week that passes without news of some major professional venture or milestone, whether it’s launching the private equity firm SKKY Partners or hitting the $4 billion valuation mark for Skims, her “solutions for every body” range of undies and loungewear. The Gold Standard Kardashian’s business dealings are so Midas-touch, that recent news she’s attempting to buy back the 20 …
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The 20 Million Dollar Man: Johnny Depp Re-Ups With Dior Sauvage
It must feel pretty great to be Johnny Depp right about now. Not only was the heavily tattooed, 59-year-old bad boy lavished with a raucous, minutes-long standing ovation at the Cannes Film Festival this week for his role as King Louis XV in the new period flick Jeanne Du Barry, Dior just re-signed him as the face of Sauvage. Although the LVMH subsidiary is keeping mum on the specifics of the deal, at an estimated rate of $20 million+ for three years, it’s widely considered the most lucrative men’s fragrance contract of all time. As a basis …
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Nailed It
This one’s definitely for the “why hasn’t anyone done this yet?” files: After logging decades as arguably the top nail pro on the red carpet and runway circuit, and then launching a successful product line steeped in her healthy-ingredients POV, Deborah Lippmann is letting the masses in on all her many tricks and tips. In fact, the “Deborah Lippmann Complete Course to the Perfect Natural Manicure”, unveiled in March on the digital platform Thinkific, is so packed with info, purchasers may never set foot inside their corner nail joint again. …
Quality Counts: Why the $2 Billion Bidding War for Aesop Makes Perfect Sense
When a number of reputable business news outlets recently reported that none other than LVMH, L’Oréal and Shiseido were allegedly embroiled in a $2 billion bidding war for the Australian beauty brand Aesop, I’ll cop to being a bit surprised. Somehow, when I wasn’t looking, this quietly lovely line, founded in 1987 and steeped in natural ingredients, had morphed into a covetable, highly profitable powerhouse. In fact, when São Paulo-based Natura & Co bought a 65 percent stake in Aesop directly from its founder Dennis Paphitis in 2012, a …
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Clean Is Under Siege
Even before the November 2022 class action lawsuit against Sephora, filed by a customer who evidently felt bamboozled by its “Clean at Sephora” seal, I could sense the once-hot category of “clean” beauty was sputtering. Utterly ill-defined, even more so than its chief precursor -- the “natural” category – clean’s big moment in the beauty spotlight lasted all of maybe five years. Cleanwashing Coming on the heels of “greenwashing” we have now have fears of “cleanwashing,” i.e., marketing that overpromises on the good-for-you front, …
Lauder’s Fashion Sense: How Tom Ford Lured the Beauty Behemoth into Untested Waters
While I’m sure it was just the way it all shook out, there are only men - seven of them, in fact -- quoted in the mid-November official press release announcing the acquisition of Tom Ford by Estée Lauder Companies. Building the Empire In order, they are Fabrizio Freda, EL Cos. president and CEO; Ford himself; Domenico De Sole, co-founder and chairman, Tom Ford International; William Lauder, executive chairman, EL Cos.; Guillaume Jesel, president, luxury business development, EL Cos.; Ermenegildo “Gildo” Zegna, CEO, Ermenegildo Zegna …
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Dupes Undermine Prestige Brands
With more than 60,000 monthly searches, and nearly a half million downloads since its 2018 debut, the comparison-shopping app Brandefy is a success by any measure. And the fact that this handy tool for finding beauty dupes acquired nearly 70,000 new “community members” in 2021 speaks to both the consumer’s growing skincare-literacy and fondness for self-care acquired during Covid, alongside a more recent surge in inflation-generated concerns about personal finances. TikTokking into the Alternatives And then there’s that other massive …