After a decade under its ownership, L’Oréal USA has sold Carol’s Daughter to an unnamed independent beauty entrepreneur.
The brand’s founder Lisa Price will take on the role as president and has an equity stake in the deal. Other terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are proud of Carol’s Daughter’s long legacy and the transformative impact it has had on the beauty industry,” said David Greenberg, chief executive officer at L’Oréal USA. “At the heart of this legacy is Lisa Price, an entrepreneur who has always been ahead of her time and has built Carol’s Daughter into a beloved brand that has honored and celebrated women of color for decades. We are confident that, with Lisa Price as president and the support of its new partner, Carol’s Daughter will continue to thrive for years to come.”
Price founded the textured hair brand in her Brooklyn kitchen in 1993 and L’Oréal USA acquired it in 2014 for an undisclosed sum. Under L’Oréal USA’a ownership, Price noted that the brand had significantly increased distribution from around 3,000 doors in 2014, reached a wider audience and expanded into Canada.
In an exclusive interview with WWD, Price said: “I have all the feelings at the same time, because there’s definitely excitement about being independent again, but L’Oréal has been so great. There’s sadness that these people that have become like family in the past 10 years, some of them I won’t be seeing on a regular basis. I feel like someone who has always done a thing, and then got to go to school and really, really learn the thing, and now I get to do it again on my own with all of this education and knowledge. So it’s pretty fantastic.”
Price did not know if the whole team would follow her: “People will be given the option because some people come to work at a company like L’Oréal because they want to work at a big beauty company. They want to have a career that spans from hair to makeup to skin care, and they may not want to come and work for an independent brand,” she said, “but those who want to come are more than welcome.”
For now, Price is planning to continue innovating, while being more nimble. “Sometimes it’s hard to react quickly to things in a really big company. I have so much more information now, so much more knowledge.”
