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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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12 comments
I remember SpaceNK up for sale about 10 years ago, the staff saying it was rubbish. But they do that every time it was for sale and never actually sold. I was a big fan of SpaceNK, but really think it has gone down hill big time. Starting to sell brands that are widely available else where.
Their VIP birthday gift, great if your birthday is the beginning of the month but if at the end. Well, no choice, you just get given whatever they have left. Really makes you feel special, not. Before, customer service would let you pick something from the month before, if available.
Strangely, they stopped all contact with me and I have no idea why but maybe the telling thing is that it’s really no loss.
I still use SpaceNK for Eve Lom and a few other staples – their deluxe tier membership is generous – but where they really have gone downhill is the endless new ‘celebrity’ and influencer brands. Sometimes it seems they’re launching several of these a week, and none of them will attract the repeat sales commitment brands like Lom or Chantecaille enjoy.
All this newness won’t transfer to customer loyalty. Actually it will put people like me off. For example, they don’t even stock Darphin anymore. Even when they did the selection from the brand was hemmed in one sad little shelf between celebrity this and influencer that. Dame thing with La Mer – and half the time they didn’t even stock more than one tub of one of the moisturisers.
I’m afraid it is basically turning into an influencer store. The staff don’t seem as invested as they used to be either.
SpaceNK should observe what H Beauty is doing right…
Certainly their buying strategy has changed and yes, they do seem very invested in influencers, but equally, everyone else is too. The weird thing is that there are hardly any customers in the stores I pass regularly – I’ve yet to see it ‘rammed’.
I observed the same thing. I think it was when Rare beauty launched in my (then) closest branch… they had taken over a sizeable part of a wall by the till for customers to stick post-it notes of inspiring quotes…
All the notes were written by staff, practically under coercion…no one was there…the staff were rolling their eyes at it…aaaand meanwhile they were out of stock of most Chantecaille, loafs of Laura Mercier, Diptyque etc…
Jane, I remember you writing about a Guerlain oil that it was for people who didn’t know, or care, who Kim was.
You were spot on.
thanks Jamie 🙂 it’s such a fluid situation – who knows what they’ll do next!
Shame about Beauty Bakerie. I have an excellent blush quad from them that I still love and use. Emma x
Yes it is a shame – it was fun.
SpaceNK are doing a roaring trade to Australia. The local equivalent, Mecca, is very pricy, only has sales once a year (of limited edition holiday lines only) and pretty much a monopoly on the Aussie high end beauty market. SpaceNK regularly do ‘20% off everything’ sales and shipping to Oz is free when we spend over $175 which is so easily done with the brands they stock. As someone who used to live in the UK and shop regularly at SpaceNK, Liberty and Selfridges 10 years ago, I happily buy from SpaceNK online now for Hourglass, By Terry, and Chantecaille to get a much better deal than I can get locally.
That’s interesting to know – I’ve just read an industry feature that is red-flagging this sale as odd timing, odd (not dodgy) finances to trade with at this moment and questionable valuation. They conclude that perhaps financing is what they want, rather than sale, to roll out many more stores. It’s just theory but it’s food for thought.
I don’t know much about Beauty Bakerie but reddit has a thread about it from a former employee. It was an interesting read.
I’ve seen it – very interesting.