SPACENK For Sale? This is the big story of the week but it’s not new-news as such – SpaceNK is rumoured to have been quietly ‘for sale’ for a long time but it does look as though it could be a reality this time around. Manzanita Capital, owners of SpaceNK for the past 20 years, also own Diptyque, Eve Lom, Byredo, Malin + Goetz, Susanne Kaufmann and Kevyn Aucoin have apparently approached investment banks to begin the sale process. SpaceNK is thought to be worth between £300 and £400 million and whether it is fully or partially sold remains to be seen. Let’s hope The Hut Group don’t come calling…
Not strictly beauty, but I’m fascinated by the new Unilever Liquid IV that has just launched into Boots. Unilever bought Liquid IV back in 2020 from founder Brandin Cohen who started the rehydration brand in 2012. It’s an electrolyte replenishing powder – or as it says on the packet, a ‘hydration multiplier’ that you add to water to create a drink rich in vitamin C, sodium, potassium, B3, B5, B6 and B12. It’s to replenish electrolytes lost through physical exercise and active lifestyle or as they say, ‘performance, heat, travel and adventure’. I’m not making assumptions but it sounds like an excellent hangover cure so perhaps that’s the ‘adventure’ part.
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Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty is taking advice on opening up for sale. Selena owns a significant proportion of Rare Beauty which is hoping for a valuation of $2 billion. Apparently, investors have been beating their doors down to get hold of the brand. Celebrity status aside, it’s a well thought of brand with team of top players at the helm, all ex-NYX. The biggest questions the beauty industry has right now is who can afford this brand?
If anyone remembers Beauty Bakerie, the cupcake inspired beauty brand founded by Cashmere Nicole, the brand closed suddenly last week. Beauty Bakerie really had its moment pre-2020 with a presence in 2000+ stores. Despite $3 million in seed funding from investors such as Unilever Ventures in 2019 Cashmere has decided ‘her tastes have changed’ and she is starting a Christianity themed podcast instead. Nobody quite knows why Beauty Bakerie was shuttered rather than sold. Sorry to see a black owned, conceived and founded brand disappear whatever the reason.
New on the celebrity founded beauty brand circuit is Rita Ora hair care. Called Typebea (thought to be a nod to her own ‘b’ curl hair) the repair and hair health range is due on April 18th. It’s more interesting who Rita has chosen to partner with on this hair adventure – Anna Lahey, founder of the collagen brand Vida Glow. Anna is an entrepreneur in the style of Marcia Gilgore so no fast fails predicted here.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Serena Williams launched her own skin and cosmetic brand, Wyn Beauty which comes hot on the heels of her performance health brand, Will Perform. Wyn is founded in partnership with The Good Glamm Group, known primarily for their share of markets in India, Dubai, Singapore and the USA. More often creating make up lines with South Asian tones at the forefront, The Good Glamm Group has fronted collaborations with Bollywood stars, influencers and mompreneurs. They also have their own influencer platforms and digital content creation company, The Good Media Co.
Anyone remember the Estee Lauder Companies class action concerning biometric information (Bobbi Brown, Too Faced and Smashbox) from 2022? This has now been heard, and dismissed, by a Chicago federal judge. It concerned the virtual try-on tool across several of the make up brands with four plaintiffs claiming a breach of the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act. However, the class action was dismissed on the grounds that the plaintiffs were unable to prove that the biometric information could actually identify individuals either alone or in conjunction with sources. So, for now we are safe to keep playing with the try-on technology but Biometrics is an area riddled with privacy law suits and there will be more to come.
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