As you might imagine, beauty world has somewhat ground to a halt in the wake of Covid but I have a few snippets that are making news at the moment.

Charlotte Tilbury Sale : Rumours have circulated for quite some time that the brand is looking for a buyer. It was thought, towards the end of last year that Estee Lauder Companies were strong contenders but apparently, while they’re not off the table, Unilever and L’Oreal are both in the frame. It was reported widely in the financial press that the Charlotte Tilbury investors (US venture capital firm Sequoia and Venrex) were asking $1.4 billion, which Lauder baulked at. At first glance, if it goes to Unilever, my thoughts are that it will be at the expense of Hourglass.

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Victoria Beckham Trademark: Hmm.. what can we make of the Australian brand using the initials VB across their skin care line? VBSkinlab seems to have just the one product – The V Lifting Face Serum (interesting because Clarins has a V Serum and Lumene has a similar sounding product using the letter V). The Australian IP office is undecided whether it’s a cynical move by Skinlab or over-reaction by Victoria Beckham. Skinlab’s defence is that the two won’t be confused, and especially won’t be confused by the lookie-likie model they use who is a dead ringer for a young Victoria. I’m siding with Victoria on this one.

Cost Savers: Many beauty brands have implemented wage cuts to keep their workforce – notably, ELC, who have frozen recruitment and suspended payments. However, the majority of larger cuts seems to be at senior level – William Lauder and CEO Fabrizio Freda dropping 50% for example. A little mention of Huda Kattan and her business family members won’t draw a salary for the rest of the year to protect workers and keep them paid. Victoria Beckham has (wisely) decided not to furlough her workers.

Deal or No Deal: Coty has been looking to offload its professional beauty inventory for a while (OPI, GHD to name a couple) with Henkel (Right Guard, Schwartzkopf) looking interested. However, all cards are off the table as it’s thought that Coty revenue estimates will be hit hard by Covid so bids are being held back for now.

There’s no blog on Monday – I’m taking part in #NHSMoraleBoost that offers beauty/skin care tips and advice via video chat to NHS workers. It’s a straight 5 hours split into 10 half hour chats which hopefully will be useful and fun. #NHSMoraleBoost was set up by make-up artist Caroline Barnes (find her HERE on Instagram with relatable tutorials for all ages and tones) who has corralled a hundred beauty experts to offer up 1000 hours of their time. Gladly given 😊

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