Betting On A Return To Full Glam, Unilever Ventures And True Beauty Ventures Back Hung Vanngo Beauty

Unilever Ventures and True Beauty Ventures have invested in Hung Vanngo Beauty, the new brand from the makeup artist who’s created looks for Selena Gomez, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry and Scarlett Johansson.

The amount of the seed investment wasn’t disclosed, but Unilever Ventures led the round. A significant portion of it will go toward supporting Hung Vanngo Beauty’s retail push. The brand launched online at Sephora and in 223 stores in the United States and 36 in Canada on Monday last week with a seven-product assortment priced from $22 to $49, including Color Story Eyeshadow Palette in eight varieties each dedicated to a specific color, Soft Velvet Kohl Eyeliner, Longwear Eyeliner, Creamy Matte Lipstick and Accentuating Longwear Lip Liner.

Hung Vanngo Beauty is the second brand Unilever Ventures and True Beauty Ventures have co-invested in. In 2023, they both backed The 7 Virtues, a fragrance brand carried by Sephora. Other brands in Unilever Ventures’ portfolio are Trinny London, Straand, Live Tinted, Exponent, The Inkey List, Saie and Alice Mushrooms. Other brands in True Beauty Ventures’ portfolio are Crown Affair, Dieux, Caliray, Evolvetogether, Iris&Romeo and Jupiter.

Vanngo’s journey to handling makeup for magazine covers and the red carpet, where Glamour characterizes his style as ultra-flattering glam, has been arduous. Born in Vietnam, he fled the country with his family to Thailand and lived in a refugee camp for three years before immigrating to Canada and spending his childhood in Calgary. He entered the beauty industry as a hairstylist in Calgary and left for Toronto in 2003 to pursue hairstyling and makeup artistry and three years later moved to New York City, where his career in makeup artistry took off.

Today, Vanngo has 4.1 million Instagram followers and nearly 600,000 YouTube subscribers. On YouTube, Vanngo posts lengthy videos—20 to 40 minutes is typical—walking his audience step by step through the makeup application process to allow everyday people to replicate his techniques. To add executive heft to Hung Vanngo Beauty, the brand has tapped Samantha Kitain, former CMO of Tarte Cosmetics, as CEO.

“Obviously, he has a massive following, and he’s a very well-known, globally acclaimed in-demand celebrity makeup artist, but I think what attracted us the most is really who Hung is as a person and artist. The investment in this brand represents a nice convergence of artistry, authenticity and commercial opportunity,” says Cristina Nuñez, co-founder and managing partner at True Beauty Ventures. “He brings a level of credibility to artistry that is really refreshing and brings a modern point of view to beauty that will resonate with consumers.”

“The investment in this brand represents a nice convergence of artistry, authenticity and commercial opportunity.”

In beauty investing, one of the main challenges is trying to align funding with beauty industry category and trend cycles. Unilever Ventures and True Beauty Ventures are banking on a strong resurgence of bold makeup looks after a period of minimalist, “clean girl” makeup looks and for growth in the makeup category to pick up.

In the first half of this year, market research firm Circana estimates prestige makeup sales were up 1% on a dollar basis, although was flat on a unit basis. Prestige skincare dollar sales dipped 1%, while unit sales increased.

Nuñez says, “Skincare is starting to decline now in terms of year-over-year growth. To me, that could be an early sign of makeup’s resurgence, with a consumer shift from skin and treatment back to transformative looks and enhancing skin with makeup.”

Three to five years from now, she adds, “We believe artistry-driven glam makeup will be at the peak of the makeup cycle again, and we hope Hung is positioned to ride that wave. The fact that the brand is launching now is well-timed.”

Currently, makeup mergers and acquisitions are at low tide. While Nudestix announced last week that it sold to an unnamed private equity firm, deals for Makeup By Mario, Merit, Kosas, Rare Beauty and Glossier have yet to come to fruition. Instead, skincare has remained the dominant force in beauty M&A.

No matter the status of the makeup category in the market, Nuñez explains the limited field of buyers for makeup brands relative to skincare makes exiting a makeup brand harder. These days, she reasons buyers have been especially cautious about makeup deals to avoid being tied up in brands that may have benefited from short-term social media-propelled boosts.

Nuñez says, “A lot of them had very fast growth driven by in some cases virality and the impact of social media. I think, in general, strategics are looking at that virality as something that they want to see, but can you comp that, and does it have sustainability?”