Yellow Wood Partners-Backed Evermark Combines Suave And Elida Beauty Into New $1.9B Platform

There’s a new holding company aiming to make its mark on the beauty landscape.

Formed by combining brands that came to private equity firm Yellow Wood Partners through three separate transactions, Evermark brings together Suave Brands Co. and Elida Beauty to house 15 global brands, including Q-Tips, ChapStick, Caress, St. Ives, Noxzema and Pond’s. With annual retail sales of around $1.9 billion, the merged company offers greater scale and potential profit upside as Yellow Wood Partners looks toward a future liquidity event, such as an initial public offering, and possible add-on acquisitions.

Antonella Colella, an attorney and beauty industry expert with Colella Legal Studio, says, “Creating a diverse mega-portfolio like this, which includes household names, diversifies risk, making the business much more attractive to investors. There is lower reliance on any one brand or channel, improving predictability of earnings and therefore making it an underwriter’s dream for IPO valuation.”

Rachel Behm, CMO of Suave, tells Beauty Independent, “We want to keep the best of what kept us agile, moving fast and being responsive to consumer needs, but now with the scale of market-leading brands. If you think about how we show up to our customers and our consumers, we now work across more product categories than we did before. We can be better partners to our customers.”

Specifically, Evermark spans eight beauty and personal care categories, including haircare, skincare, body care and personal care. At roughly $700 million in sales, Suave is its biggest brand and the leading wash-and-care brand by volume in the United States, with a presence in almost half of American households. Q-Tips is the top U.S. cotton swab brand by volume, and ChapStick leads the U.S. lip balm category.

Daniel Alter, CEO of Suave Brands and former chief strategy and digital transformation officer for Unilever’s personal care division, will serve as CEO of Evermark. Alfie Vivian, CEO of Elida and former chief commercial officer of Dollar Shave Club, will become president of the European business. Among the established international brands in Evermark’s portfolio are V05, Brut, Impulse, Alberto Balsam, Timotei and Monsavon. The Evermark name will be phased in over the coming months.

According to Behm, former VP of marketing at Alaffia, founder of Layers and head of Johnson & Johnson’s beauty incubator, Evermark is organized into three operating units: a North America unit anchored by eight core brands, a unit focused on TIGI and Bed Head that encompasses Europe and North America, and a business unit focused on Europe and the rest of the world. In marketing, Behm will oversee Suave, ChapStick and Q-Tips, while Kara Langan, former global president at Johnson & Johnson for Vogue International and haircare, will helm marketing of face care plus St. Ives and Caress.

Yellow Wood has developed a habit of collecting other companies’ discarded assets, particularly mass-market heritage brands that have high awareness but have lacked attention. It acquired Suave from Unilever in 2023, then scooped up ChapStick from Haleon, the prior consumer health division of GSK, and Elida Beauty from Unilever in 2024.

Yellow Wood’s most recent fundraise was $750 million in 2022. Last year, the firm sold masstige skincare brand Byoma to another private equity player, Bansk Group, and it continues to build the sexual wellness platform Beacon Wellness Brands, underscoring its strategy of assembling and monetizing multi-brand portfolios.

Yellow Wood has embarked on projects to reenergize the brands under Evermark’s umbrella. A year ago, it unveiled a refreshed Suave with a priority on three main areas—women’s haircare, body washes and deodorants—with elevated ingredient imagery and explanations of product benefits. With about 85% of its product assortment under $5, the brand has leaned into value at a moment when consumers face financial strain.

“The beauty aisle can be that day-to-day luxury, even if it’s $6.”

Discussing Suave’s sales performance, Behm reports the brand saw growth in two of its three priority categories last year: body wash and deodorant. Women’s haircare, a category that had been in long-term decline, stabilized and began what she describes as the start of a turnaround. Suave is available in more than 60,000 retail locations, including Walmart, Dollar General, Target, CVS, Walgreens, Family Dollar, Kroger and Amazon.

Behm identifies Bonding Infusion, a collection of reparative haircare products Suave compares to Olaplex, especially its Purple Toning Shampoo and Repairing Hair Mask, as well as the Strawberry Delight Uplifting Body Wash as standout products. She says the body wash “hit the right fragrance territory at the right time” with strong social support. Suave also relaunched its women’s antiperspirant line with upgraded formulas and packaging, which has been well received by both consumers and retail partners.

In 2026, Behm says Suave will further emphasize its key growth drivers, with major innovation drops slated for haircare and body wash in the first half of the year. She points to a large haircare launch expected in early March, followed by a body wash rollout in mid-February. In addition, the brand plans to modernize segments like women’s styling and aerosol deodorants with updated formulas and shelf presentations without straying from value positioning.

ChapStick is next up for a makeover. Behm declines to share many details, but signals that the brand is preparing for a broad restaging with the intent of extending its relevance beyond its legacy lip care franchise. Noxzema is on deck for a glow-up, too. Behm says the brand is “very clearly problem-solution, not overpriced, does what it says it does and has tremendous potential to go beyond where it’s been in the past few years.”

As Evermark moves to rejuvenate ChapStick, Noxzema and its wider brand roster amid economic uncertainty, Behm returns to the value proposition that underpins the portfolio. She says, “The beauty aisle can be that day-to-day luxury, even if it’s $6.”

Click here to learn more about Dealmaker Summit running from June 8 to 9 in New York.