Beautycounter Worth $1 Billion after Carlyle Deal; CEO Sees Recovery in Makeup

About a decade in the past, Gregg Renfrew based Beautycounter and began advocating for beauty makers to make use of safer elements. Back then, few folks cared about what she was saying.But now they do. So-called “clear magnificence” has develop into a fast-growing class. And the corporate began by Renfrew, a former retail advisor, is price $1 billion after Carlyle Group—one of many world’s largest non-public fairness corporations—purchased a majority stake in April.Gregg Renfrew, CEO of Beautycounter, sees make-up making a “full restoration.”Photographer: Coley Brown/The New York Times/ReduxThe model, which is bought by means of its personal e-commerce platform, a handful of shops and a military of greater than 55,000 unbiased sellers, says it avoids utilizing chemical substances that it deems unsafe. It has an inventory of 1,800 elements, similar to formaldehyde. This contains 1,400 chemical substances banned or restricted in private care merchandise by the European Union.

That mantra helps clarify the way it saved seeing gross sales rise final yr when the sweetness business cratered through the pandemic. While progress slowed, income nonetheless gained about 17% at Beautycounter in 2020, in line with Bloomberg Second Measure, which analyzes nameless shopper transactions. The firm, based mostly in Santa Monica, California, declined to offer particular outcomes.

Bloomberg lately spoke with Renfrew about the way forward for magnificence, and what comes subsequent.Everyone is questioning if, and when, make-up will return. It helps that folk can ditch the masks, however what does a yr of basically no cosmetics imply for the class?We will see a full restoration to make-up. I’m beginning to see a number of daring lips on Zoom. People who weren’t doing lip is perhaps doing a bit little bit of eye. We might not return to heavy contouring, however I do assume we’ll see extra shade.

Resilience
Beautycounter elevated gross sales final yr regardless of the business taking successful

Source: Bloomberg Second Measure analyzes anonymized shopper transactions.

How did Beautycounter handle to develop when masks mandates and lockdowns rocked the business? Your make-up gross sales sank, so how did you keep in constructive territory?While we had been seeing a whole drop in make-up, we helped folks care for themselves. And it wasn’t simply skincare regimens. We noticed folks proceed utilizing tinted moisturizers and foundations.The Carlyle funding greater than doubled the corporate’s final reported valuation to $1 billion. What are you going to do with this money infusion?We’re well-positioned to rise and proceed main our business. We see big alternatives to boost all the pieces we do nicely as we speak. At the core of that’s an elevated give attention to digital capabilities and model consciousness. You function a handful of shops in main cities. Does that concentrate on digital imply you’re leaning out of bodily retail?What we’re now’s how do you mix these 4 partitions with livestream purchasing and broadcasting to a wider viewers, creating content material and interacting from a bodily location in Los Angeles or New York. This interactive focus isn’t simply the way forward for retail, but in addition e-commerce.You began the corporate on the concept of slicing probably dangerous elements from magnificence merchandise. That’s expanded to Beautycounter—each you personally and the model’s sellers—lobbying politicians so as to add extra laws to the business. What’s been the influence?We’ve been capable of assist cross 9 legal guidelines through the years. We have not but handed the federal legislation that we’re hoping to cross, however we do know we have now bipartisan assist.

Absent of that, Americans are nonetheless being subjected to poisonous chemical substances each day.

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