Fresh off the acquisition of Mented Cosmetics, West Lane Capital Partners is enlarging its beauty business again by buying Beauty Bakerie.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. It represents a precipitous reversal of fortunes for Beauty Bakerie after the brand announced in March on social media and its website that it had closed. At West Lane, it’s joining Blooming Brands, a portfolio company housing beauty brands Mented, Seven, Blossom and Blue Cross Nail Care, and will be guided by Mented co-founder KJ Miller as its president and CEO. A relaunch is slated for the fall.
Cashmere Nicole Carrillo, a former nurse called Cashmere Nicole professionally, introduced Beauty Bakerie in 2011 and was diagnosed with breast cancer the same year. Formulated to be clean, the brand’s products adhere to a whimsical baking theme that informs packaging, names and imagery.
Beauty Bakerie’s hero products are Lip Whip, a smudge-proof matte lipstick priced from $20 to $22, and Flour, a setting powder priced from $26 to $28. In 2019, it was on track to hit $12 million to $15 million in sales, according to an article in the outlet CEW Daily. Beauty Bakerie’s DTC distribution previously extended to as many as 120 countries and its retail distribution extended to nearly 2,000 doors. Currently, the brand remains available at CVS, Target and Amazon, and it has 1 million followers on Instagram, where Nicole shared the news of its sale to West Lane.
Prior to the sale, Nicole says she was Beauty Bakerie’s majority owner. The brand raised roughly $15 million from investors, including Unilever Ventures, New Voices Fund, Montage and Harlem Capital Group. Nicole is consulting West Lane on Beauty Bakerie, but will not be involved in its day-to-day operations.
She says the Los Angeles private equity firm has “a strong track record and extensive expertise in the CPG industry specifically, which gave me the confidence in their ability to take this brand to the place we all know it is capable of going. Additionally, West Lane has the resources and strategic insight to help the brand grow and expand in ways that we couldn’t achieve on our own.”
“West Lane has the resources and strategic insight to help the brand grow and expand in ways that we couldn’t achieve on our own.”
Michael Wentz, VP at West Lane, says Beauty Bakerie is “unique in the market. When we look at brands, we’re always looking for something that’s special or clever, especially in the beauty space, that draws people’s attention, and I think Beauty Bakerie has that with the way they name their products and the whole story around the products.”
Miller agrees, saying, “Cashmere’s done such a great job cultivating the brand. When you see it, you recognize it immediately. Even when you see images of the models without the logo or products, you can identify them as Beauty Bakerie because she’s created such a fun, bubbly, warm, inviting brand, and in my opinion the brand really is going to stand the test of time.”
Miller points out that Beauty Bakerie and Mented’s customer bases are different. Started in 2017 with nude lipsticks designed for women of color, Mented’s core customers are women of color spanning elder millennial to boomer age groups. They’re chiefly interested in products that perform and fit easily into their everyday routines. Beauty Bakerie’s core customers are gen Z and younger millennial makeup enthusiasts tracking the latest beauty trends.
Post-acquisition, Beauty Bakerie will concentrate mainly on DTC distribution. However, West Lane wants to shore up the brand’s existing retail relationships by fortifying its fulfillment capabilities. Miller will be assessing future retail possibilities for the brand, ranging from department stores to drugstores, but emphasizes she will be cautious not to stretch the brand’s distribution too far. Wentz estimates West Lane has 50 to 100 people working across its beauty brands.
“When you see it, you recognize it immediately.”
“I really want to figure out who are our primary retail partners are going to be and focus in on one to two as opposed to trying to land four to 10 accounts because I think that is very difficult to do all at once,” says Miller. “And I think for both brands, whoever those primary retail partners end up being and very likely they’ll be different, I want them to be able to say that Mented is their favorite customer, that Beauty Bakerie is their favorite customer.”
West Lane has made over $250 million in capital investments across six sectors, including distribution, food and beverage, manufacturing and business services, and beauty and wellness. Supported by an unspecified family office, the private equity firm is continuing to evaluate beauty brands for acquisitions, particularly venture capital-backed brands that have struggled to meet past growth expectations, but have maintained a connection to consumers and differentiated products. West Lane typically invests in brands generating at least $10 million in annual revenues. However, it will consider brands with revenues under that amount.
“The mindset when you’re VC-backed is growth, growth, growth, and I think sometimes operational execution can fall behind a little bit,” says Wentz. “Any brand that has some significant scale and can show positive unit economics, where they can be something like first-order profitable on direct-to-consumer or they have a decent retail footprint, those are the brands that are going to be exciting.”
Dedicated to her Christian faith and now living in Thailand, Nicole, who led Beauty Bakerie out of San Diego, is enjoying life beyond beauty entrepreneurship. “I’m letting go of 16-hour workdays and learning to rest,” she says. “I’m slowing down from a hectic pace to truly connect with others by asking, ‘How are you? No, really, how are you?’ I’m looking forward to deepening my faith and participating in community initiatives in my new country. Focusing on helping others is something I’m passionate about and excited to pursue more deeply.”
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