Rachel Brown
Beauty’s Gray Area: What’s The Line Between Dupes, Benchmarking And Reverse Engineering?
While dupes have dominated beauty industry conversation recently, two common behind-the-scenes practices—benchmarking and reverse engineering—often raise similar questions around imitation and originality. To understand the distinctions between these practices, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing...
Crown Affair Raises Series C Led By Stride Consumer Partners To Fuel Next Phase Of Sephora Growth
Crown Affair, the brand that made air drying aspirational, has closed a series C funding round led by Stride Consumer Partners as it looks to evolve from cult favorite to scaled prestige...
The Ordinary Takes On Luxury Markups With New Pop-Up. Is It Justified?
The Ordinary is turning markups into marketing with a grocery-style pop-up called The Markup Marché landing in six global cities this month to highlight the extraordinary premiums attached to luxury goods. For example, the pop-up...
How Beauty Brands Make The Cut At—And Get Cut From—Erewhon
Barneys New York may be mounting a comeback, but for those in the consumer packaged goods category, Erewhon is practically the new Barneys. Investors, retailers and shoppers scour its shelves for the next big thing,...
What Should The New Unilever Acquire Next?
Like many in the Ozempic era, Unilever is parting with food to focus on beauty. The consumer goods conglomerate’s roughly $65 billion transaction exiting its approximately $14 billion food business to McCormick & Company unwinds...
Ipsy’s Fundraise, Stories & Ink’s Round, Susan Yara’s Playa Play And More Indie Beauty Dish
Stories & Ink, the tattoo aftercare brand founded by Stu Jolley as The Others in 2018, has raised roughly $1.8 million at an $11.2 million pre-money valuation as it sharpens its focus on Amazon and...
The Beauty Industry Roles AI Will Kill, Create And Reconstitute
Once a brand pinned down funding, the next step was often to build out its team. That strategy isn’t completely disappearing, but it’s teetering. Today, brands raising money increasingly tout how lean they can stay.
