Rachel Strugatz

With a limited number of targets on the market, strategics and private equity firms are rushing to snap up the most promising brands.

Recalling the appeal of Lip Smackers balms and Lancôme’s Juicy Tubes, skincare brands like Rhode, Summer Fridays and UBeauty have the lip category cornered.

E.l.f.’s $355 million acquisition of Naturium doesn’t change the fact that most influencer, actor and musician-fronted brands need to radically rethink their approach.

Heaven, the designer label’s lower priced diffusion line that leans on nostalgia, has been a hit with younger shoppers. The Coty-led revamped cosmetics line should follow its lead.

Private equity shops and venture capitalists are being more discerning with their dollars, and yet capital is still critical for emerging brands seeking to stand out in a competitive landscape.

After a series of multi-billion dollar M&A deals, global beauty giants are taking an alternative route: reviving sleeper labels at the top end of the market.

The luxury brand is the latest to put a hot young star at the forefront of its advertising efforts, but what’s most compelling is what the partnership says about male celebrity today.

Euphemisms like “pro-ageing” and “anti-anti-ageing” exist to obscure the fact that the beauty industry is selling the same creams and tonics meant to enhance one’s appearance. It may be time for a new approach.

Hyram Yarbro and Addison Rae are the latest content creators-turned-founders to discover online fame alone doesn’t translate into beauty sales.

Skin and hair care line SpoiledChild, which shares a parent company with Il Makiage, has the look of a brand targeting teens but a price point and products that seem intended for an older audience. Is it possible to straddle both worlds?

The designer’s makeup and fragrance line brought glamour, sex appeal – and sales – to the cosmetics giant. Keeping the magic in house was worth nearly $3 billion.

The cosmetic brand’s parent company is facing an uncertain future after a series of troubled attempts to launch new makeup and skin care lines around influencers and pop stars.

Into the Gloss, the pioneering beauty website created by Emily Weiss in 2011, hasn’t been updated since June.

With viewers preoccupied by real-world events, even Kim Kardashian’s platinum blonde hair can’t provide an escape.

The makeup artist’s four-year-old brand, Westman Atelier, is finding an audience alongside much larger competitors in the high-end colour space by appealing to a customer willing to invest in pricier cosmetics.

New beauty lines gravitate toward “affordable” or “luxury” branding, but often get stuck somewhere in between. Finding a way out of the mushy middle requires a unique product and attention to detail.

The direct-to-consumer pioneer, which popularised millennial pink and dewy skin, can’t keep up with an evolving beauty industry, customer and retail landscape.

Charlotte Palermino, a leading ‘skinfluencer’ and co-founder of decidedly not clean skin care brand Dieux, is using her platform to shift the conversation around “clean beauty.”

A return to pre-pandemic beauty habits means people are heading back to stores to shop for skin care and makeup — and investors are rethinking where they’re putting their cash.

After years of steady growth, medical spas such as Ject, Ever/Body and Alchemy 43, which claim to democratise cosmetic treatments like Botox, are seeing an explosion of interest.