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Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

What Beauty Professionals Need to Know Today

This month, BoF Careers provides essential sector insights to help beauty professionals decode the industry.
Two beauty professionals discuss a new product launch.
Two beauty professionals discuss a new product launch. (Pexels)

Discover the most recent and relevant industry news and insights for beauty professionals, to help you excel in your job interviews, promotion conversations or simply to perform better in the workplace by increasing your market awareness and emulating market leaders.

BoF Careers distils business intelligence from across the breadth of our content — editorial briefings, newsletters, case studies, podcasts and events, exclusive interviews and conversations — to deliver key takeaways and learnings in your job function.

Explore global job opportunities in beauty on BoF Careers today, from head of brand creative at Refy in Manchester to a senior beauty and accessories art director at Bloomingdale’s in New York, or as a beauty consultant at Chalhoub Group in Cairo.

Key articles and need-to-know insights for marketing professionals today:

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1. Can AI Pick Your Next Favourite Beauty Product?

Revieve
Revieve (Revieve)

A new tool from Revieve, an artificial intelligence and augmented reality beauty platform called Match My Look [...] allows users to upload an image of a beauty look — be it from social media, magazines or their phones — and Revieve says the tool will detect the exact products used and then show them where they can purchase said item.

Beauty companies have increasingly been taking advantage of technologies like artificial intelligence and augmented reality to make it easier to buy makeup and skincare online, offering everything from product recommendations and virtual try-ons to skin-analysis tests. It’s also a way to stand out in a competitive beauty landscape.


2. Hedi Slimane Launches Celine Beauty Line

Celine Beauty
Celine Beauty (Celine)

LVMH-owned Celine announced this March its foray into cosmetics. Rouge Triomphe will be the first lipstick available in autumn 2024, with a full line of 15 satin-finished colours debuting January 2025. The beauty line is the first extension from designer Hedi Slimane, who created fragrances for the house in 2019. According to the brand, each season Celine will debut new beauty collections including lip balms, mascaras, eye pencils, loose powders and blush.

Celine is the latest luxury brand to try its hand at doing beauty in house, with Kering and Dolce & Gabbana making similar moves in the last year. But Celine will likely have in-house expertise at its fingertips with LVMH’s incubation of Dior Beauty; Kendo’s brands, including Fenty Beauty; and Sephora Collection. LVMH doesn’t break out figures for its brands, but market sources suggest Celine is closing in on €3 billion ($3.27 billion) in annual revenue.

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3. What Blink-And-You’ll-Miss-It Beauty Trends Mean in the Long Term

A collage of beauty trends
Beauty brands need to strike when the iron's hot. (BoF Team)

While their impact may be short-lived, TikTok trends’ impact on the industry at large is enormous. Consumers can immediately start recreating trends with products they already have at home, but depending on whatever’s “in” at any given moment, different products can see a sales bump or slump. 2023′s popular “clean girl” makeup look, for example, often eschews foundation in favour of light concealer.

While being able to have a red-hot, viral product may be somewhat down to luck, brands with wide product assortments and flexible formulas will be at an advantage, said Cierra Sherwin, a product developer who has worked with Glossier and Bobbi Brown. “You always want to maintain a lens of products that allow for manipulation … [things that you can] sheer out, or build up for example,” she said. “[Brands need to] create that nuance.”


4. Can Matilda Djerf’s Influence Translate to Beauty Sales?

A promotional photo of Matilda Djerf in a red turtleneck for her new hair care brand, Djerf Avenue Beauty.
A promotional photo for Matilda Djerf's new hair care brand, Djerf Avenue Beauty. (Djerf Avenue Beauty)

Matilda Djerf’s decision to adopt her signature voluminous, curly blowout with 70s-style face-framing bangs came years before celebrities like Emily Ratajkowski or Kendall Jenner were appearing on red carpets with curtain bangs en masse. Since then, the hashtag #matildadjerfhair has organically earned a total of 160 million views on TikTok after going viral in 2021.

Now, Djerf is parlaying her power over beauty trends into her own hair care venture. Djerf Avenue Beauty debuts on March 27 with two styling products, a gel and mist that retail for $27 and $22, developed to create the founder’s namesake look. [...] With higher margins on beauty, the brand is aiming to keep pricing in the “mid-segment,” said Rasmus Johansson, Djerf’s partner who co-founded the brand with her. The goal is to reach both existing fashion customers and a wider range of new shoppers with the accessible price points.

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5. Lightning in a Bottle: Tapping Into the Niche Fragrance Boom

fragrance boom
fragrance boom (Alexandra Trotobas)

When Benoît Verdier co-founded perfume house Ex Nihilo in 2014, he and his partners set out to create the “Tesla of fragrance,” combining technology with classic raw materials through personalisation services at its Paris flagship. At the time, niche fragrance brands like Ex Nihilo were increasingly being noticed by larger entities: UK private equity group Manzanita Capital had just invested in Byredo the previous year. Estée Lauder scooped up Le Labo and Frederic Malle in 2014 and Kilian in 2016; not to be outdone, LVMH acquired Maison Francis Kurkdjian in 2017.

Brands like Le Labo showed consumers were willing to spend upwards of $250 in exchange for more unique, daring perfumes that showcased craftsmanship and ingredients rather than celebrity spokespeople and established brand names. That, along with the Covid-19 pandemic that propelled consumers to invest in personal care products, paved the way for a larger, more lucrative fragrance market today — and far more competition.


6. Surge in Fake Ozempic Reveals Dark Side of Weight-Loss Frenzy

Ozempic
Ozempic (Shutterstock)

Both organised crime and unscrupulous lone entrepreneurs are looking to capitalise on the weight-loss frenzy with concoctions that range from useless to potentially deadly. Their packaging mimics Novo Nordisk A/S’s Ozempic and Wegovy, the sister drugs that made the company the most valuable in Europe last year. [...] The UK medicines agency has seized 869 fake Ozempic pens so far — more than its counterparts in Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Iceland and the Netherlands combined.

Wegovy and Ozempic have ignited something of a gold rush in the pharma industry, with drugmakers vying to capture a piece of the $100 billion market opportunity. While Novo was first, Eli Lilly & Co. has since introduced a similar injection and others are snapping at the drugmakers’ heels. [...] But with the advent of online pharmacies, it’s becoming harder for customers to distinguish between real medicines and imitations.


7. Why Lady Gaga Hosted a Party for an Obscure Sunscreen Brand

Lady Gaga hosted an event for Clinuvel at the Malibu home she shares with boyfriend Michael Polansky.
Lady Gaga hosted an event for Clinuvel at the Malibu home she shares with boyfriend Michael Polansky. (Getty)

Millions of little monsters and their allies were made aware of an Australian sun protection pharmaceutical brand called Clinuvel, thanks to Lady Gaga, who hosted an event for the company at the Malibu home she shares with boyfriend Michael Polansky. Clinuvel develops pharmaceuticals for the skin and brain primarily by using a group of hormones called melanocortins; its only FDA-approved product is called Scenesse that is used to treat a rare disorder, adult EPP or erythropoietic protoporphyria, that causes acute photosensitivity.

In the context of Gaga’s artistry, a pharmaceutical-cosmetic spokeswomanship may seem odd; in the context of Gaga’s spokeswomanship, it fits perfectly into place. Gaga is currently appearing in television ads for the migraine medication Nurtec ODT (Khloe Kardashian is also a face) and regularly promotes her makeup line, Haus Labs, which relaunched in 2020.


8. Hyram Yarbro and The Inkey List Part Ways

A man holding skin care products
Hyram Yarbro has bought back the skincare brand he started with The Inkey List. (Selfless)

When Selfless by Hyram rolled out into Sephora in 2021, Yarbro could do no wrong. Many of the initial products customers could have easily slotted into The Inkey List’s lineup. But there were a few key points of differentiation. Yarbro’s brand had a social impact component, donating to nonprofits like Rainforest Trust and Thirst Project. But the biggest departure was the line’s higher prices. Many of his products retailed between $20 and $30, while Inkey List items started at just $6.

A celebrity buying back their line is rarely a good sign; after Amryis’ implosion last year, Jonathan Van Ness’ JVN hair care line was bought by consumer investment firm Windsong Global for $1.25 million. Still, you shouldn’t count Selfless out yet. The line was relaunched last year at Target, at a lower price, where it can still be found, as well as on the brand’s own site.

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