Victoria Beckham is putting her best face forward, in more ways than one.
On the heels of releasing the joint financial results of her fashion and beauty businesses, Beckham is also gearing up to launch The Foundation Drops, her take on beauty’s largest category, as part of her brand’s ongoing collaboration with Augustinus Bader.
It will debut for $110 on Sept. 3 in 19 shades before rolling out to the brand’s full distribution, which now includes Neiman Marcus, Bluemercury, Nordstrom Inc. and Printemps in the U.S., as well as a slew of other partners globally.
“I wanted to create this right at the beginning of Victoria Beckham Beauty,” Beckham said of the launch, which took six years to perfect. “But it was very apparent that it would be a huge undertaking because it’s such a competitive category, and I wanted to do it in a way that felt innovative and honest.”
As with each of her new launches, Beckham was guided by the integrity of the product and wouldn’t compromise on either performance or payoff.
“For me, it’s all about the product, the why of the product, making sure that I’m not settling and that I truly believe everything is best-in-class before I put it out there,” she said. “Everything has a point of view. This is a saturated market. It’s not about adding product for the sake of it, there’s a real reason why. Ultimately, everything is what I desire and can’t find.”
To that end, Beckham had a handful of pain points she was solving for. “I’ve tried so many foundations. I wanted something that was going to conceal, even out my complexion, and treat my skin at the same time, not irritate it. Lots of people claim to have skin care within their foundation, but that was not enough for me.”
That was the rationale behind expanding Victoria Beckham Beauty’s partnership with Augustinus Bader, which currently comprises a concealer, a serum and an illuminator.
Adding functional levels of TFC8, Augustinus Bader’s proprietary technology, to a pigmented formula came with its own set of challenges, said brand cofounder Augustinus Bader in an email.
“TFC8 is a highly sophisticated technology that works best in direct contact with the skin, guiding key nutrients to support its natural processes of repair and renewal. In a makeup context, the question became how to preserve the full efficacy while also introducing color,” Bader said.
The formula, as it currently stands, “allows pigments to diffuse seamlessly while ensuring that the actives remain unobstructed and fully effective. The result is a formula that balances performance and permeability in a way not typically seen in makeup, delivering both immediate coverage and long-term skin benefits,” said Bader.
At $110 per bottle, that puts the foundation squarely in the luxury price range, which has been challenged across categories in beauty in the U.S., with the exception of fragrance. Per financial results released Tuesday, Victoria Beckham is bucking that trend across both her fashion and beauty businesses. Revenues for both topped a combined $150 million, driven in part by all three categories of the beauty business. Complexion is expected to make up around 20 percent of the beauty business’s volume, which also gets a boost from hero Satin Kajal Liner and its growing portfolio of fine fragrances.
“We are, as a company, showing solid and sustainable growth on top and bottom lines from an EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization] perspective,” said Lauren Edelman, Victoria Beckham Beauty’s chief executive officer, who assumed the role in January. “When I look at what’s working for beauty, it’s our core competency: making best-in-class product.”
Edelman acknowledged that complexion is the largest segment of the makeup category, and also said it was the brand’s most requested product. Perfecting the launch strategy took as much finesse as the formula did.
“It’s typically a very hard category to build, particularly if you come from a fashion or a color perspective, because clients will ask if you really know the technology or understand how to make a great complexion product,” Edelman said. “Partnering with Augustinus Bader and having TFC8 in the product that actually treats the skin was where we actually saw the opportunity. It’s not just a complexion product, but it does all the great makeup things you need it to, like 12-hour wear.
“From a product perspective, it’s really hard to get wear, comfort, performance and treatment all in one formula,” Edelman continued. “Most brands look to the white space and where the market volume is. If we did that solely, we would have launched foundation years ago.”
The 2024 launch of the concealer pen — at the time, predicted to do around $10 million in sales before the end of that year — helped the brand set the strategy for the launch of foundation. That includes the accompanying marketing, which showcases the 19 shades of the foundation to aid in shade-matching. “It’s also an important brand statement about how you show up and represent skin tones,” Edelman said. “We had such a small wholesale footprint and we knew that we had to have a really compelling online experience so people could find their shade.”
In that vein, the brand is investing meaningfully in digital marketing, but the brick-and-mortar channel has gained significance for the health of the brand as a whole: by launch, the brand will have 150 doors globally, and 200 by yearend.
“There will be an opportunity for people to discover it online, try it in-store, and then come back and shop,” Edelman said. “Knowing how to launch well online really benefited us with this product.”
In terms of education, that’s where clinical testing comes in. “The thing we all responded to was the idea that 100 percent of testers saw improved skin elasticity. We’ve seen diminishing fine lines and wrinkles, as well as moisturization. But skin elasticity is such a strong point of difference in terms of a treatment claim,” Edelman said.
As for Beckham, she said she tested the product in a variety of locales — from London to Miami, throughout filming her documentary and on magazine cover shoots. “People are looking for this. They desire it. They appreciate our quest for excellence. People have so much choice, and it’s ultimately about giving them what is not already out there.”
