Inside Beauty’s 2026 M&A Pipeline

Summary

Podcast Summary: Inside Beauty’s 2026 M&A Pipeline

Podcast: The Business of Fashion Podcast
Date: January 14, 2026
Host: Sheena Butler Young
Guests: Brian Baskin (Executive Editor), Priya Rao (Executive Editor, Business of Beauty)

---

Overview

This episode of The Business of Fashion Podcast dissects the state of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the beauty industry as 2026 begins, with Executive Editor Priya Rao offering expert analysis on deal-making, distressed assets, and the shifting categories drawing attention. The team covers why some brands are being sold (and at hefty losses), what potential buyers are seeking, and how the market’s “hot” segments are evolving. The episode closes with a look at Drunk Elephant’s turbulent ride post-acquisition, and how the brand is fighting to regain its footing.

---

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Estee Lauder’s Portfolio Sell-off – What’s on the Block?

• What’s Happening: Estee Lauder is reportedly preparing to sell three of its best-known brands: Too Faced, Smashbox, and Dr. Jart.
• Reason for the Sale: The brands haven’t stayed culturally relevant; Lauder is refocusing on brands better positioned for digital and cultural moments and needs the cash to fund new acquisitions. (01:02–01:44)
• Packaging the Sale: The brands are being offered as a package to make them more attractive to private equity buyers, not because of portfolio synergy. “This is more about price than it is about synergies.” – Priya Rao (01:59)
• Financials: Combined sale price is expected in the “low nine figures”—far below their purchase price. Too Faced alone was bought for $1.45 billion; the current package of three would not recoup that sum. (02:42–02:50)

“This low nine figure number ... is not going to make up for what they paid, but it’s going to give Lauder more cash flow on their balance sheet.”
— Priya Rao (02:50)

2. Who Might Buy? The Reality of Today’s M&A Market

• Buyer Landscape: Most likely acquirers are private equity firms looking to extract value, since large strategics are focused on streamlining rather than expanding. (03:40–04:47)
• Value vs. Creation: PE tends to “squeeze out value versus creating value.” (03:52)
• Brand Potential: Dr. Jart could, with more innovation, ride the new wave of K-Beauty instead of lagging; Too Faced still has powerful hero SKUs with potential. (03:52–04:47)

3. Can Estee Lauder Do It Right This Time?

• Lessons Learned: Lauder’s more recent investments, such as in Deciem (maker of The Ordinary) and Le Labo, have flourished because of greater autonomy for acquired brands’ leadership and strategic investment over time—a possible playbook for future deals. (05:08–06:14)

“Deciem sells more skincare products than all of Estee Lauder’s other skincare brands combined, which is insane.”
— Priya Rao (05:08)

“There’s almost a new Estee Lauder and an old Estee Lauder … one is doing really well and one of them maybe has some things to work out.”
— Brian Baskin (06:14)

---

4. What’s Desirable vs. Viable: Beauty’s Segments in Demand

• Makeup Redux: The market is saturated with color brands—buyers are hesitant to invest unless a truly standout brand emerges. Brands “on the market” too long risk diminished valuation, compared to stale real estate listings. (09:06–10:08)

“There’s so much optionality … and it’s a complicated business, probably the most complicated in beauty.”
— Priya Rao (10:08)

• Fragrance, Hair, and Body Care: These smaller categories are now hot growth areas for M&A, especially for strategics looking for incremental value rather than risky, crowded makeup brands. (10:44–11:23)
• Hair Care Standouts:
  • Amika—top dry shampoo at Sephora, now entering Ulta, poised for major growth. (11:32)
  • Not Your Mother’s—mass market, long-standing, focused on styling, with room to expand into higher-revenue segments like shampoo and conditioner. (11:32–12:41)
• Fragrance Focus:
  • Parfums de Marly has transitioned from niche to highly desirable by strategic buyers due to strong business growth and niche appeal, reminiscent of Byredo and Le Labo’s paths. (13:08–13:34)

---

5. Factors Slowing M&A: What Will It Take to Spark Deals?

• Execution Gap: There’s increasing chatter but slow deal closures. Key factors holding up transactions:
  • Solid leadership teams
  • Profitability, top-line growth, and clear expansion runways
    (14:24–15:33)
• Movement Catalysts: Big deals occur when brands tick all those boxes—recent examples:
  • Rhode (May 2025)
  • SpaceNK by Ulta (Summer 2025)
  • Dr. Squatch by Unilever

---

6. Cautionary Tales: The Drunk Elephant Saga

• Acquisition Background: Drunk Elephant was acquired for nearly $900 million as a “cult” clean beauty brand (2019), then faced setbacks as its brand messaging lost focus. (16:05–18:11)
• Sephora Tween Controversy: The brand, via colorful marketing, unintentionally attracted pre-teens, alienating its original Gen X demographic. “Should tweens be using skincare for 40-year-olds?” became the defining question. (16:05–18:11)
• Revamp Strategy:
  • Stripping away excessive color in visuals; focusing on mature, understated imagery.
  • Tagline shift to “Please enjoy responsibly”—a cheeky nod to the brand’s adult origins.
  • Highlighting efficacy, clinical results, and active ingredient messaging.
  • Some inventory/operational recovery: sales declines less severe after new inventory discipline (from –65% to –49%). (18:28–21:29)

“They are really paring back what their look and feel looks like. The bottles are the same, packaging is the same, but there’s not color everywhere.”
— Priya Rao (18:28)

“The tagline is genuinely clever … but I do worry whenever a brand with a really distinct identity starts putting a lot of beige and muted colors and stripping away what made them distinctive in the name of rebranding.”
— Brian Baskin (20:17)

---

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On declining values:
  “They paid $1.45 billion for Too Faced…this low nine figure number…is not going to make up for what they paid.”
  — Priya Rao (02:50)

• On big-brand strategy:
  “There’s almost a new Estee Lauder and an old Estee Lauder…and it seems like one of them is doing really well and one…maybe has some things to work out still.”
  — Brian Baskin (06:14)

• On color cosmetics glut:
  “It’s kind of like a house: why am I going to buy this house at a premium price when I could be buying at a discount and I should be buying at a discount?”
  — Priya Rao (09:06)

• On why deals stall:
  “Do all these brands have the pieces? Are they profitable? Do they have top-line revenue? Is there room to grow and do they have a strong team to make this deal happen?”
  — Priya Rao (14:24)

---

Important Timestamps

• Estee Lauder brand sale scoop – [01:02]
• Justification for brand package, lack of synergies – [01:59]
• PE as buyer, value extraction – [03:40]
• Recent success stories (Deciem, Le Labo) – [05:08]
• Beauty market over-saturation, parallels to dating – [09:06–10:08]
• Hot categories (hair, body, fragrance); brand examples – [11:32–13:08]
• Parfums de Marly as fragrance M&A example – [13:08–13:34]
• What would accelerate M&A activity? – [14:24]
• Drunk Elephant’s boom and bust post-acquisition – [16:05–20:43]
• New approach, balancing distinctiveness and maturity – [20:17–21:29]

---

Conclusion

The episode provides a sharp, candid look at why 2026 is shaping up to be a volatile year in beauty M&A. Brands face tougher scrutiny on profitability, leadership, and cultural connection. Old standouts like Drunk Elephant and Too Faced face “cautionary tale” status, but new growth may be found in less crowded categories. Despite swirling M&A rumors, actual deal flow hinges on discipline, planning, and being truly ready for the next wave.

Catch Priya Rao’s “Full Coverage” newsletter on The Business of Fashion for ongoing analysis of the evolving beauty business.

Transcript

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Foreign.

[Sheena Butler Young]

Hello and welcome to the Debris from the Business of Fashion where each week we delve into Our most popular BoF professional stories with the correspondents who created them. I'm senior correspondent Sheena Butler Young.

[Brian Baskin]

And I'm executive editor Brian Baskin. 2026 is barely underway and the beauty industry is moving fast. You may have already seen the Business of Beauty's recent scoop that Estee Lauder is preparing to sell three of its best known brands. And that's just the tip of the iceberg with what's expected with deal making.

[Sheena Butler Young]

This year, the Business of Beauty executive editor Priya Rao is here to break it all down. Plus, we'll get into how Drunk Elephant is moving past that whole Sephora tweens thing. Priya, welcome to the debrief.

[Priya Rao]

Hi guys. Great to be here.

[Sheena Butler Young]

So, Priya, why don't we start with your big scoop last week, which is that Estee Lauder is potentially putting a couple, well, more than a couple brands on the market. Are they really getting ready to sell too faced, Smashbox and Dr. Jart.

[Priya Rao]

Absolutely. Last week I heard from two sources and actually more since I reported that story that Lauder is trying to package these brands in order to get the best outcome. You know, I think individually these brands don't have add a lot of value to a potential acquirer. And Lauder is in cost cutting mode and they're also trying to be more relevant culturally. So they need more brands in their portfolio to spend, speak to the consumer to be more digitally native. And these brands have been slow to connect with customers. Smashbox Too Faced and Dr. Jart were bought during the 2010s buying spree of Lauder. And obviously the business that they were back then is not the business that they are now.

[Brian Baskin]

But can you explain why these make sense as a package? I understand the idea that if you put them together, a bunch of small brands together, maybe you get a higher price for them. But is, is there something that connects these brands that would make them interesting as a group to a buyer?

[Priya Rao]

Not exactly. I mean, Smashbox and Too Faced are both makeup brands. They're both more of the high glam, very colorful look that we were used to before, you know, Haley Bieber and Rhode came along and made us all clean girls. But Dr. Jart is a Korean beauty brand and you know, one of the first successful Korean beauty brands in the market. And the fact that it's not doing well right now during K Beauty Second wave is kind of wild to me. But again, I think this more about price than it is about synergies. A few years ago, Shiseido offloaded its entire cosmetics business except for nars to Advent International and created or beyond. And that was kind of the boilerplate, I think that Estee Lauder is going off of now.

[Brian Baskin]

We should talk about that price. I mean you're. You reported low nine figures, right, for all three brands, which is way less than they paid for them, right?

[Priya Rao]

Absolutely. I mean in the heyday they paid 1.45 billion for too faced just for two faced just for two days. And so this low nine figure number that was floated to me last week and over the course of the weeks before is not going to make up for what they paid, but it's going to give Lauder more money, more cash flow on their balance sheet and it's going to allow them to acquire more brands, hopefully which they desperately need to do. And you know, I think Lauder has kind of said early that they're ready to acquire new brands. But all the conglomerates are saying that and all the conglomerates are or in this phase of still selling things off.

[Sheena Butler Young]

What's interesting because you made a good case as to why they would want to sell these three brands. But we know that this gap between being for sale and actually being sold is widening in beauty. So like what does a potential acquirer look like? Who's going to want these brands?

[Priya Rao]

I'm not sure. I think the best outcome is again, another private equity firm who thinks they can like squeeze out value from these brands.

[Sheena Butler Young]

No private equity, that's always good news.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

So.

[Priya Rao]

Well, private equity is seemingly like the only option for some of these brands. You know, strategics, like I said, are selling off businesses left and right. They're trying to winnow down their portfolios. The market isn't as hot as it once was. So in some ways it's the best outcome. But I will say that, you know, it's again going to be the situation of squeezing out value versus creating value. I think of all the brands in that portfolio, I mean there is something to be done with Dr. Jar, especially like I said with K Beauty second wave and creating a brand that's more like culturally relevant and also like more innovative in terms of product. I don't know if you guys saw the rubber mask that just came out at Dr. Chart and they're pretty terrifying versus something that I would actually want to wear and use. But too faced there's a lot of value. I mean it's one of the best selling mascaras in the country. And so if they're just able to create a portfolio around that that people want to buy. I think it could be interesting.

[Brian Baskin]

So you're saying Estee Lauder. Estee Lauder bought these brands back in the 2000 and tens when they also needed some fresh, youthful cosmetics lines to supplement their, their more established offerings. And it seems like they're right back where they started 15 years ago. Right. I mean, why, why do we have confidence that they're going to be able to do this better now than they did back when they bought too faced in the first place?

[Priya Rao]

I think that there is an indicator that Estee Lauder could do this Right. And that's because of what they've done with deciem in the Ordinary and Le Labo and some of their fragrance purchases. Deciem was structured like Doster Jart. They invested in small and then over time they invested in greater and then they bought the whole brand. That is one of the businesses that has continued to do well. I've heard that at SEM sells more skin care products than all of Estee Lauder's other skin care brands combined, which is insane. And Le Labo is also continuing to be on fire for the brand even though Santal33 has been around for what, 15 years now.

[Sheena Butler Young]

I'm going to be keeping my Santal33 till the end of time. It's never going to get old.

[Priya Rao]

Sheena's a die hard customer. And actually what's interesting is if you, I mean this is inter office semantics, but these two businesses are the only two leaders that directly report to CEO Stephane Delafe. And so, you know, they are running autonomously and they aren't kind of dealing with some of the shields and barriers that you have when you're at a big conglomerate.

[Brian Baskin]

So there's almost a new Estee Lauder and there's an old Estee Lauder and it seems like one of them is doing really well and one of them maybe has some things to work out still.

[Priya Rao]

Yeah, I think that the flagship brands are doing better. Estee Lauder proper, of course, Clinique with their move on to Amazon and then, you know, Mac has made some good moves in terms of how they're marketing, but they still have some things to work out. Just like you said, Brian.

[Sheena Butler Young]

We'll be back with more of the debrief right after this.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

The start of a new year has this rare kind of clarity that reminds you that nothing changes unless you decide to. If you've been sitting on a business idea, 2026 is your clean slate. This is the moment to stop planning and start building. And the smartest way to take that first real step is launching your business with Shopify. Shopify gives you everything you need to sell online and in person. Millions of entrepreneurs have already made the leap from household names to people launching their very first product. Build your dream store with hundreds of customizable templates. Set up fast with AI tools that write product descriptions, headlines and help you polish product photos. And when you're ready to market, Shopify has built in tools to create email and social campaigns that reach customers wherever they scroll. As your business grows, Shopify scales with you, handling more orders, new markets and everything you manage from one dashboard. In 2026, stop waiting and start selling with Shopify. Sign up for your $1 per month trial and start selling today at shopify.com BOFPodcast go to shopify.com BOFPodcast that's shopify.com BOFPodcast hear your first this new year with Shopify by your side. When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money and agents so you can transform tomorrow Workday moving business forever forward. Before we had AT&T business wireless coverage.

[Sheena Butler Young]

Our delivery GPS wasn't the most reliable.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Once our driver had to do a 14 point turn to get back on route. A 14 point turn, an influencer, even.

[Priya Rao]

Livestream, the whole thing. Not good for business.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Now with AT&T business wireless routes are updating on the fly and deliveries are on time. And the influencer did get us 53 new followers though. AT&T business Wireless connecting changes everything.

[Sheena Butler Young]

So let's talk a little bit about what's separating desirable from viable in the broader beauty market. I know there are some areas that are on fire right now. So hair care is, fragrance is, and then body care is. Talk a little bit about that. Priya.

[Priya Rao]

Well, I think what's happening here is, you know, there's so many makeup brands in market. You know, last year and the year before we started seeing all of these artistry brands like Makeup by Mario and then some other brands that have been around like Kosas and Merit really kind of go to market and see, you know, what they were going to find and if they were going to find a buyer. And very quickly what happened was that there were so many color brands on the market that, you know, what was happening was that people were waiting for the next great one. You know, people were waiting for rare beauty. People were waiting for Westman Atelier. And so they weren't willing to make a bet on any of these brands until the full slate was out. But then that left these other brands in market on and off for like over a year. So the longer that they're sitting in in markets, kind of like a house, you know, like, why am I going to buy this house at a premium price point when I could be buying at a discount and I should be buying at a discount.

[Brian Baskin]

It actually sounds a little bit like how people use dating apps.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

Right.

[Brian Baskin]

They're always thinking there's someone better coming along with the next swipe, right?

[Sheena Butler Young]

Totally.

[Priya Rao]

There's so much optionality. And, you know, it's not just optionality in terms of color, cosmetics and makeup. You know, I think it's hard in makeup because you have to have so many SKUs. You have to have so much innovation. You know, there's always new trends to jump on. There's always virality to think about. And so it's a complicated business, probably the most complicated in beauty, but it's the biggest part of the market, so we can't ignore that.

[Brian Baskin]

We just talked about too faced, which is a cautionary tale here, I guess. I mean, they were the brand in the 2010s. They still have a successful hero product, and they're worth maybe a fifth or less of what they were acquired for. Right?

[Priya Rao]

Exactly. Sheena, you mentioned fragrance and hair care. You know, I think these are smaller parts of the market, but fragrance has been growing really fast. And I think everybody is realizing, like, in their portfolios where that they have a whole. I think that they. All of these other businesses, hair care, body and fragrance, is more incremental to a strategic. And that's where I actually think that strategics are going to play. I mean, I think private equity is trying across the board, but if you want l', Oreal, if you want lvmh, if you want Estee Lauder, I think if those are your targets, I think you have to be in categories that are going to add incremental value versus something that they're still trying to figure out. And it's. And it's complicated.

[Sheena Butler Young]

What about those hair care brands that are booming, though? Like, can we throw some names out? Like, what are the desirable hair care brands in the market right now? And also in fragrance, like, what are the big ones?

[Priya Rao]

Well, Sheena, you know, my full coverage comes out tomorrow. My column. So I don't want to give everything away, but two of the brands that are really big right now are Amiga which has the number one or number two dry shampoo at Sephora. And they just went into Ulta and Ulta has a huge, huge hair care business because of their back bar program. So we're going to see them really explode, I think when they, you know, do the Sephora Ulta dance. And the other one is actually really interesting. It's not your mother's daughter. It's a mass hair care brand. It's been around for a while. People have looked at it in the past and questioned its longevity. And yet here we are like 10, 12 years later and they're still around. And I think not yout Mothers is a little bit more nuanced. It's not a brand for me, but I think it's for the girl who or guy who has just graduated from college who's willing to spend a little bit more on their hair care routine. And it's all styling and texture. So they haven't even played in shampoo and conditioner yet. And in mass hair care that's where you play to make the big bucks. So any strategic has that going forward for them, that's where they could take them and they can get very, very big.

[Brian Baskin]

It sounds like what you're talking about is mostly categories like hair care, maybe body skin care that are smaller than cosmetics, but a good add on. But fragrance is kind of its own beast, right? I mean that market has just been booming for so long that it's becoming a real factor with even the strategics. Right?

[Priya Rao]

Absolutely. And you know, again, I don't want to give away all the full coverage tomorrow. You guys have to read it.

[Brian Baskin]

That's Priya's newsletter. Please [e-mail] something that you really have.

[Priya Rao]

To pay attention to is Parfums de Marley. You know, just a couple of years ago when I started this top M and A target list, Parfums de Marley was looking for like was looking for a strategic sponsor and they got it in Advent International. Now we're talking about like what, two or three years later. And now we're thinking it's going to go to a strategic, I guess before.

[Brian Baskin]

We get into who's going to buy them. Can you, can you tell us a bit more about the brand? I mean why are they the face of Fragrance M and A this year?

[Priya Rao]

Well, they're a high perfumery brand, an expensive brand. It's niche. It's not one of these mass brands that you're going to find. And you know, Ulta Sephora. It's a brand that like still has a lot of like, you know, what people were attracted to with Birado or Le Labo. And so I think people are really attracted to that. They've been able to diversify their merchandising assortment. They're not just one hero product anymore. And I think what's really attractive is that their business has just been incredible. I would love to share numbers but then you guys have to read full coverage tomorrow.

[Sheena Butler Young]

So there's this idea in beauty that like there's a lot of chatter as we've just proven. And then the market is very slow to move. Before we move on to Drunk Elephant, I want to hear from you, Priya. What would it take in the next six months for the, the buying and the selling to actually pick up? Not the chatter, but the follow through?

[Priya Rao]

Again, I think it's about the brands. I think people will move with the right brands. Last year we saw Rhode get picked up in May. We saw Space and K picked up by Ulta in the summer. And then we saw Dr. Squatch get picked up by Unilever. So I think it's just about the momentum. Somebody has to move first and I think it's the right brands. I mean, I don't know, like one of the things that we found out last week was by makeup by Mario. You know, they have been in market, they've been trying to. They have a new, they're going to be, they're looking for a new CEO. So whoever's buying that brand is probably not buying it right now because they don't have leadership. The same thing happened with Glossier a couple of years ago. You know, they, their CEO left at the end of last year. They have a new CEO, Colin Welch, who's supposed to be incredible and sold way to Procter and Gamble. But you know, nobody's going to be looking at them this year even though they were active two years ago or a year and a half ago because they don't have the leadership. So I think we have to think about like do all of these brands have the pieces? Are they profitable? Do they have top line revenue? Is there room to grow and do they have a strong team to make this deal happen?

[Brian Baskin]

So I called two faced a cautionary tale about M and A earlier. But you know, Drunk Elephant, which is our final topic today is probably the ultimate cautionary tale because they were acquired by a strategic for something like $900 million a few years ago and they've had a pretty rocky run of it since then, and it looks like they're trying to turn a page now. And Priya, you had the details on that. Tell us what has been going on with Drunk Elephant and why they needed a new look.

[Priya Rao]

Drunk Elephant is a crazy story. I mean, Tiffany Masterson created the most desired, most culty clean beauty brand when Clean Beauty was not even a thing, and became one of these Sephora darlings. You know, they exploded. Besides Tatcha, I don't think that there is an example of a brand that was built by Sephora, led by Sephora, and then got acquired for 900845 million in just around 2019. That wasn't that long ago, and that was at the height of the market. So she created something that was new and different. She was ahead of the time in terms of being a founder who was evocative, who was, you know, willing to tell it like it was. She was a little bit sassy. Obviously, the name Drunk Elephant was something that people were really interested in. And, you know, she had this really colorful, cool packaging. But around 2023, when the Sephora tween thing happened, it got really, really convoluted. Because even though there was no confusion at the beginning, even though, like, we knew who Drunk Elephant was for, we knew who glycolic acid was for back in 2013, somehow a decade later, tweens thought it was for them, you know, and I think it was really about the colorful packaging. And it wasn't just the packaging. It was just the whole marketing campaign. There was color everywhere, you know, in gift bags and gift sets on social media. And it really kind of signaled to teens and tweens that this line was forever. And at the same time, brands like Bubble and Bioma were coming out, and they were also trying to use that strategy of color to signal that, hey, we're a young, cool new brand. But for Drunk Elephant, what it did is that all these teens and tweens came and there was all this conversation around, should tweens be using skincare for 40 year olds? And then the 40 year olds left. And, you know, funny is that Tiffany started this line when she was in her 40s and it was really for Gen Xers and, you know, customers who were looking for effective products at like, half the cost they were getting from, like, La Mer La Prairie.

[Sheena Butler Young]

So let's fast forward to today. They're in the middle of a revamp. They're trying to get back their original customers who were alienated by all of this, you know, the color and the gen Alpha piling into it and then all the conversation around whether or not it was for them, whether it was safe for them, all of that drama, they're now trying to build it back. What does that revamp look like?

[Priya Rao]

Well, I think before we start there, I just want to say that there were other issues with Drunk Outfit. They had major inventory issues because they had this product, these bronzing drops that sold out and that were super viral with the teens and tweens and also older women. And they also never clarified that they weren't for teens and tweens. So, like, letting the conversation just go and roll was a detriment to them. As for now, they're really paring back what their look and feel looks like. The. The bottles are the same, the packaging is the same, but there's not color everywhere. The images now are models who are forward fac. Simple imagery that you could probably find at Bobby Brown's Jones Road or Ilia. So it's much more mature and it's not young girls. I think they're also trying with their new tagline, which is please enjoy responsibly, to appeal to, like, the over 21 crowd or really the over 35 crowd, because that tagline is a little bit cheeky, just like Tiffany was at the very beginning. And it's a nod to the alcohol industry and it's not to adult activities. You know, I think it's interesting because I don't know if it'll be enough right now, but I think over time, hopefully, for their sake, that the customers will come back. And there are signs that the brand is making progress. Earlier this year, their sales plunge 65%. And just by getting the inventory a little bit more on track, sales were only down 49%. You know, that's not perfect, but they are coming out with new brand innovation. They are trying to speak to a customer. So I do think that they are making roads that will be positively impacting the brand. But it's hard because they did explode. And when these brands explode, the only way, when you're number one, the only way to go is go down.

[Brian Baskin]

I think the larger issue for me is, like, I think the tagline is genuinely very clever. I mean, sort of making it sound almost like you're buying an alcoholic drink or something. But I do worry whenever a brand with a really distinct identity starts putting a lot of beige and muted colors and sort of stripping away what made them distinctive in the name of rebranding. I always worry about brands when they hit that stage in their in their life.

[Priya Rao]

Well, I think because they're not totally redoing the packaging itself, which is something that is very iconic to the brand, that that's like a saving grace. They're not abandoning everything. They're just trying to make a point of, you know, who the product is for. And that's especially evident by the kind of models that they're using, that they're going after clinical results that they're reinforcing, like, you know, their trials, all the things that make them them, you know, active ingredients. And they're really messaging that on all their products. You know, some of their subtag lines is like skin so good it should come with a warning or, you know, please moisturize responsibly. And so I think they are going to be driving home this point over and over again.

[Sheena Butler Young]

So I think that's a as good a note as any to end on. Priya, thank you so much for joining us. I think the 2026 M&A Beauty Space will be one to watch this year.

[Priya Rao]

Thanks so much for having me, guys. It was so fun.

[Sheena Butler Young]

In closing, I'd like to give a shout out, by the way, to two amazing UNC students that I met on Friday who are the Debrief's number one F. I met them at the NRF Student foundation event and they were lovely. Please be sure to check out Priya's newsletter. Full [e-mail] her reporting on all things beauty as well as other stories are available to BOF Professional subscribers only and you can find the links in the episode notes. You've been listening to the Debrief, produced and edited by Olivia Davies and Eric Ria. I'm Sheena Butler Young.

[Brian Baskin]

And I'm Brian Baskin. We'll be back next week with a new episode. Thanks so much for joining us and be sure to follow us wherever you get your podcasts.

[Narrator/Advertiser]

When you're a forward thinker, you don't just bring your A game, you bring your AI game. Workday is the AI platform that transforms the way you manage your people, money and agents so you can transform tomorrow Workday, moving business forever forward.