Although "nimble" and "agile" aren't two attributes I typically ascribe to the beauty industry, there's something that feels decidedly "fast on their feet" about the way Ulta Beauty and Sephora announced alliances with Target and Kohl's, respectively, just as the pandemic has upended American life as we know it. Surely those plans were percolating well before Covid struck, and we've got several months yet to go before either of these buzzed-about retail ventures actually gets unveiled to the beauty-besotted public. But for this generally …
Beauty’s Shifting M&A Landscape
As a beauty journalist who came of age in the 1990s, I was shocked and a little sad to see that Perricone MD, a proto "doctor brand" that made its debut during that era, recently changed hands for a mere $60M. When unicorns and "near-unicorns" (my very unofficial term for brands approaching the billion-dollar mark) like Morphe, Charlotte Tilbury and Drunk Elephant are fetching $2.2B, $1B and $845M, respectively, it's easy to feel like any majority stake or outright acquisition that doesn't reach at least the $100M mark has fallen …
DTC High Tech Beauty Solutions
You gotta hand it to L'Oréal for sheer transparency. In the wake of its mid-July announcement that it was pulling the plug on Clarisonic, it immediately began a digital fire sale, offloading all the iterations of the once-untouchable sonic cleansing brush on its website at a deep discount, along with the replacement heads and companion skincare. By August, the cyber shelves were wiped clean. "We are completely sold out on Clarisonic.com and the sale has now ended," reads a notice on the brand's home page. "Our sale continues in stores, so …
Will Beauty’s Recent Support of Racial Justice Actually Stick?
When I decided to write about the explosive topic of racial justice and equality in America, and how that plays out within the beauty category, I came face-to-face with a four-letter word: fear. Dead Silence First, an analytics firm that measures consumer confidence - and that had originally approached The Robin Report offering its insights - declined to answer any questions regarding brand authenticity and racial justice. Next, a digital marketing platform, used by a huge number of DTC beauty brands to send promo emails and newsletters to …
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Beauty Gets Ugly
Admittedly it was a very "Barbie In Her Beauty Bubble" stance to take, but this was my first thought when Forbes dropped its "Kylie Jenner fooled us about her billionaire status" bombshell: Wait -- by Forbes's calculations she's worth $900M? That's so close! But then I remembered that old saw about horseshoes and hand grenades - and this little thing called shareholders - and I knew I had to do some serious digging and reading to understand the ramifications for all parties involved. If Coty overpaid for its 51 percent stake of Kylie …
Really Great Advice for Helping the Beauty Industry Survive the Pandemic
Like the rest of us, I've been extremely busy this past few weeks trying to make sense of the New (Coronavirus) World Order. I've had days that have been rendered virtually useless because of anxiety, but then I've had others that have been much, much better. Those are the days when I've gotten out of my own muddled head, plunked myself in front of my computer monitor and attended one of the many excellent free webinars the beauty industry has recently been doling out like perfume samples. I've watched the founders of Glow Recipe, a …
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Real Money, Real Help: Beauty Steps Up to the Plate
In the dark, murky sea of literally 62,377 emails in my inbox, I almost skipped over one because it had the words "Hand Sanitizer" in the subject line. I'm not hardened and cynical. I'm just busy. And like so many other beauty journalists, I'm not exactly hurting for emails about hand sanitizer right now. Many, many companies - up and down the annual turnover ladder - have followed LVMH's lead in shifting production-line capabilities from creating miracle creams, blush and lipstick to the life-saving liquid gold that is hand sanitizer. This …
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Beauty to the Rescue
"In this corner, we have industry goliath LVMH, pledging to donate 12 metric tons of hand sanitizer to 39 Paris hospitals in under a week. And in this corner, we have tiny, farm-based indie Beekman 1802, flipping the switch on its "live baby goat cam" for the world to see. You know, to alleviate stress? To transport you, at least temporarily, to a world in which Covid-19 doesn't exist? And in another corner, AP reports that "Germany-based Beiersdorf, whose brands include Nivea and Coppertone, says it is launching production of medical …