Author: Rachael Griffiths

Jane Lauder, the granddaughter of Estée Lauder and former chief data officer for the Estée Lauder Companies, sold $1.68 million worth of company shares on Nov. 26 according to a report from Investing.com published Monday.The former president of Clinique sold 17,840 shares of Class A Common Stock with prices ranging from $94.35 to $94.52 per share, the report said. On the same date, Lauder exercised options to acquire the same number of shares at $89.46. The move means that Lauder, who is a director of the company, remains in direct ownership of 58,763 ELC shares.The insider activity comes after an…

LVMH Luxury Ventures Fund, the conglomerate’s investment arm, has taken a minority stake in niche French fragrance brand BDK Parfums, the two companies announced Monday. Exact financial terms were not disclosed.The deal is the first investment for BDK, which was founded in June 2016. In a statement, brand founder David Benedek said that the investment will allow BDK to further expand into key retail markets internationally. He added that LLV will “support the brand without interfering in its creative strategy or operational development, which remain entirely independent.” Joel Palix, founder of consultancy Palix Unlimited, advised on the transaction.BDK’s flagship boutique…

Estée Lauder Companies has shuttered its Bucharest global technology hub and laid off 150 employees, local Romanian publication Profit.ro reported on Tuesday.The Bucharest hub, opened in April 2023, was the US conglomerate’s third technology-focused campus behind locations in New York and Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and was designed to enhance the company’s digital and technological capabilities. Romania was selected due to the country’s positioning as a global leader in IT talent, ranking first in Europe and sixth globally as of 2023. No layoffs have been announced in the larger Estée Lauder Bucharest office, which opened in 2021.The Estée Lauder Companies did…

Kat James, the first over-50 influencer to amass one million followers on TikTok, thinks of her followers as a database she can tap to predict the next big beauty trend. “I have thousands and thousands of comments a day, and you see how those comments shift,” she said. “In the last year, it’s all been skincare. One of the most asked questions in my DMs is: ‘What can I do about my neck?’”Insecurity about the region is nothing new, and was canonised two decades ago by Nora Ephron, but the Zoom era has renewed anxieties. “Tech neck”, a term which…

Even as global consumer sentiment has plummeted toward record lows in the latter half of 2025, shoppers are still planning to spend more than ever this Black Friday weekend. Per Adobe, the five days spanning Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are set to generate $43.7 billion in the US alone, 17 percent of spend for the entire holiday season and a 6.3 percent increase year-on-year (down from 8.2 percent last year). Beauty is one of the three main categories expecting to cash in alongside clothing and electronics, said Pierre Dupreelle, managing director and partner at Boston Consulting Group. But…

In 2015, makeup artist Gabriella Elio launched her brand Sweed Beauty with a range of false lashes. Ten years on, they only account for one percent of her business.“Back in 2015, everyone was wearing false lashes. Not just professionals, but also normal customers,” said Elio. While the diminished share is partly thanks to Sweed’s expansion into other categories like complexion over the last decade, brand data reveals that just three years ago, false lashes still accounted for over 20 percent of sales — marking a swift and sharp decline. Broader data tells a similar story: in the US market, the…

Interparfums’ stock plunged by 9 percent on Wednesday after the fragrance maker trimmed its 2025 earnings outlook for a second time this year.Interparfums, with European and US operations based in Paris and New York respectively, predicts flat sales growth of less than one percent, or $1.47 billion in net sales, for the 2026 fiscal year. The company had previously estimated sales of around $1.51 billion. Diluted EPS is expected to decline by 5 percent, falling from $5.12 per share to $4.85.For the muted outlook, Interparfums chairman and chief executive officer Jean Madar cited the impact of one-time tax gains, tariffs…

When the US Food and Drug Administration passed the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act, or DSHEA, in 1994, there were 4,000 supplements on the market. Today, there are close to 100,000.Besides a 2007 supplementary rule which outlined good manufacturing processes in the industry, no major updates to DSHEA have been passed — even as the industry has ballooned. “This wouldn’t be a problem if the DSHEA law was really strong, but it’s not, which is why we’ve got a sceptical consumer marketplace,” said Lindsay Dahl, an environmental health advocate and the chief impact officer of vitamin company Ritual. In…

US conglomerate Oddity, the owner of Il Makiage and Spoiledchild, has entered the telemedicine skincare category with its newest label Methodiq that launched on Tuesday. A personalised telemedicine (or teledermatology) service, Methodiq debuts in the US with a range of 28 SKUs, 19 of which specifically target acne. Some, like the oral medication spironolactone, are tried and true prescriptions; others are new-to-market formulas designed by dermatologists at in-house research unit Oddity Labs. While traditional telemedicine firms aim to improve accessibility, they lack the product breadth for true personalisation, said Methodiq’s chief executive Tom Amsterdam. “Methodiq is not a skincare brand,…

German mass beauty brand Essence has entered the Indian market via an exclusive agreement between parent company Cosnova Beauty and India’s Reliance Retail Limited, the retailer announced on Monday.Reliance Retail is India’s largest retailer and has a growing beauty portfolio. Essence’s products will be made available to consumers nationwide through its specialty retail arm Tira Beauty’s e-commerce and physical stores, as well as in partner retail.Founded in 2002, Essence is Europe’s number one cosmetics brand by units sold, according to Cosnova, with makeup products priced between $5 and $10. It is available in around 90 countries and at retailers such…