Revlon‘s newly minted chief executive officer Michelle Peluso wants to make the company unforgettable — for all the right reasons.
Taking the helm after a period of immense turmoil that included a seemingly insurmountable debt and endless speculation about the fortunes of former owner Ronald Perelman, Peluso is on a mission to drive the once-powerful beauty company back into the fast lane by leveraging the good parts of its storied past.
In its heyday, namesake cosmetics brand Revlon urged women to “be unforgettable,” but financial struggles, combined with the explosion of indie brands and a fiercely competitive landscape, meant that the brand itself became overlooked by many consumers.
Now, with the company out of bankruptcy and under new ownership following Perelman’s exit, Peluso is quickly implementing a strategy playing on Revlon’s glamorous past to win back customers and shelf space. Her game plan for the business overall? Obsessing about the consumer, investing at scale and regaining trust as the omnichannel partner of choice brand by brand, starting with Revlon.
“The bottom line is this is a brand that’s always stood for glamor,” said the CEO from her riverside office in downtown Manhattan. “We’re not the no-makeup-look brand. We’ve been taking our partners through a three-year road map of innovation and storytelling to strengthen that ownership of glamor for mass.”
While the Revlon cosmetics brand has struggled at home, there are some bright spots: The company’s international business has performed well. Of note is Elizabeth Arden’s performance in China, where it has bucked the trend of sharp decreases like many of its peers.
Peluso is inheriting her duties from Liz Smith, the interim CEO since August 2023, who will continue on as the board’s executive chair. Smith’s appointment came on the heels of Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, which cut more than $2.7 billion in debt and handed ownership to Revlon’s lenders. The resulting entity, Revlon Group Holdings LLC, had around $1.5 billion in debt at that time. According to the 2024 WWD Beauty Inc Top 100, the company’s annual sales were $2.1 billion, putting it in 23rd place.
Peluso may not be a beauty lifer, but she brings with her a plethora of experience from some major companies: Most recently, she served as the chief customer and experience officer at CVS Health, where she oversaw the end-to-end consumer experience across all channels. Prior to that, she held global chief marketing officer roles at IBM and Citi, and CEO roles at digital commerce pioneers Travelocity and Gilt. She is also a member of the board of directors of Nike.
The warm and friendly CEO puts her success across many different industries down to deep curiosity. “It’s being always willing to learn and grow and the humility to know the things I don’t know know, to be vulnerable about the things I don’t know,” she said. “At the same time, my good fortune of being at the forefront of consumer and technology has meant that there’s so many relevant places where those skill sets are being applied.”
What attracted you to Revlon?
Michelle Peluso: To me, the story of the next chapter of the Revlon company is a super compelling one. Combining my passion for the consumer with where I think our industry is headed in terms of technology and new ways of doing things, being in New York City (a city I love and my family loves), there’s just a lot that was attractive.
What are the key opportunities you see with the company, and then some challenges?
M.P.: In terms of opportunities, we’ve got to get back to accelerating growth across these brands. We have incredible brands to work with. That is not a problem, but reinvesting, making sure we’re doing bold storytelling in new ways, leaning harder on platforms for innovation. You saw this with what we just launched, with “Glimmer, Shimmer, Shine” and Revlon. The good news is it’s doing really well. It’s the number-two lip brand on Amazon, for instance. Bold storytelling and innovative platforms are critical and that has to happen brand by brand. We’ve been doing an enormous amount of work going back to the library and the iconic history of these rich brands, and thinking about how we launch new innovation, how do we tell that forward in new ways.
It’s also about being a retail partner of choice. This goes to the challenges. We have not shown up for retailers in the way we need to in the past five years, if not longer, and we’re rebuilding a lot of that muscle, which is critical to our success. That’s about rebuilding digital muscle and omnichannel muscle and showing up in new ways.
Last but not least, Revlon got more fragmented than it should. We have these incredible hair brands in Europe. We didn’t think about how we globalized them. And Creme of Nature and American Crew are iconic brands in the U.S. that have a lot of potential outside the U.S.
Before the bankruptcy proceedings with that huge pile of debt, it was difficult for the company to invest in R&D. How are you thinking about that now?
M.P.: The nice thing is we emerged with a lot less debt, a whole new board, a whole new ownership structure and the capacity to grow. Our 2025 plan is one of growth and investment, and the board and the owners feel very comfortable, given some of the early wins we’ve had, that now’s the right time to step on the gas. That’s not every brand. Almay is going to be more of a 2026 opportunity for us. We’ll be really thoughtful. We’ll read the signposts carefully.
Nielsen’s latest figures showed that sales growth was decelerating a little in mass. What are your thoughts on mass, especially vis-à-vis your experience at CVS?
M.P.: Generally, everybody’s first experience of beauty is often through mass, whether it’s that lip gloss that your mom finally lets you buy or something you saw on Instagram. It plays a fundamental part for retailers in attracting new audiences. As long as we continue to innovate and tell rich stories in ways that compel and modernize the channels of communication, mass at its best brings every consumer accessible beauty. That’s a brand promise that we are very passionate about — bringing the next trends in accessible beauty to everyone at a price point people can afford, in locations that people can readily access. We don’t see a world where beauty is relegated to those who have means. We see a world where beauty should be accessible by all and mass plays that role.
Michelle Peluso
Meghan Marin/WWD
What are you thinking about shelf space, especially with the mass brands?
M.P.: We need to win back shelf space. Let’s be crystal clear about that. But that has to be based on everything we talked about earlier. Of course great products, great storytelling that retailers can trust and believe, but also productivity and operational excellence and a true spirit of partnership. I am not at all unaware of the sizable work we have to do to truly be the omnichannel partner of choice for our retailers, and it’s why I’ve prioritized so intensely getting on the road and listening to our partners and what they need from us. Having said that, shelf space is an interesting term right now, because so many of the best retailers are very omni in their thinking. It’s no longer the case that e-commerce and stores sit by themselves, and a lot of beauty companies and CPG in general get that wrong. They have a team that faces off to think about the store, and they have a team that thinks about e-commerce, and that’s not how the consumer shops, and it’s not the way we should be showing up for our retail partners. So our job is to be as sophisticated with our own data and as integrated across digital and physical as our partners are as well.
What’s your assessment of the evolution of digital, such as Amazon and the rise of social shopping on TikTok?
M.P.: It’s awesome to see innovation in channels. They are all so different and that’s important to remember. What Amazon needs and wants and what attracts Amazon consumers is completely different than what TikTok needs and wants and what attracts TikTok consumers. So the agility and sophistication to understand that is really important.
For the Revlon brand, here, there, everywhere, what is the plan?
M.P.: Let me just start with hair color. Immediately we have the number-one position, and we have a lot of innovation coming. We just launched bond repair and things that we fundamentally believe don’t just color and provide great coverage, but also strengthen the bonds of your hair. That can go in lots of different directions, so stay tuned for that. We’re launching some great Ashley Graham commercials that highlight the innovation.
On color cosmetics, this will be a return to our heritage and our roots with a lot more innovation. I’m obsessive about the consumer and we’ve been doing a ton of market research to understand the market and where Revlon is best positioned to win. You can think about the iconic campaigns of the most unforgettable women in the world, our history, our strength, our position with consumers, the love we have is really rooted in glamor.
How are you thinking about the role of celebrities?
M.P.: It has to be deeply authentic. Keke Palmer at Creme of Nature is a great example. Coming from Chicago herself, these brands were very big in her family and her own life. She has passion for the brands, which is why we said we don’t want you to be a spokesperson. We want you to be a chief brand officer. She’s helping inform innovation, distribution strategies and channel strategies. And of course, she’s key to our creative and storytelling approach. It sharpens and amplifies the work we’re doing.
What are your thoughts on Revlon’s international business?
M.P.: It has been a strong business for Revlon. It’s a team that has a great consistency of leadership. The international teams have done a phenomenal job, and they’re so passionate. There are real pockets of entrepreneurial energy that fuel the brand. China, with Elizabeth Arden, is an incredible example of that. We’ve done very well this year in China, and upping our position in terms of skin care brands and in Asia travel retail. That team is innovative, purpose driven, very understanding of the local consumer needs and trends and extremely agile.
Do you think that’s why you seem to be winning with Elizabeth Arden in China when others are struggling?
M.P.: China is going through an unprecedented bit of turmoil, and we don’t understand yet in the era of potentially increasing tariffs what that will mean for the Chinese consumer and how the Chinese government will react. There’s certainly a lot of local Chinese brands. To succeed in China, it really has to feel like the brand is China for China, and our team has done a really nice job of positioning Elizabeth Arden, in particular, as meeting the needs of a local Chinese consumer in very fresh and very authentic ways.
Can the North America market learn any lessons from Elizabeth Arden in Asia?
M.P.: I absolutely think so. I’ve been really impressed and am bringing some of the U.S. team with me to China and Australia because there’s opportunity, and that’s a bigger theme at Revlon. Having gone through some tough times, the tendency is to put your head down and focus on the thing in front of you. One of the most important things we can do is now lift our heads up and look across the world. There’s so much richness and learning, and there’s so much gross margin expansion if we actually take some of these brands and think about them more holistically.
How are you feeling about the current portfolio?
M.P.: We’ll always be thinking about that question, right? It’s a never-ending question, of course. But when you think about all of our brands we have the brands that enable the future for us. Are we always open to new opportunities? Of course. We’ve just implemented some new ways that we’re keeping a good, competitive scan to see if there’s something we think that would benefit from our scale and our size and our positioning, but we’re excited about the brands we have.
How would you describe your leadership style?
M.P.: I start every conversation with “I don’t want to start with the financials. I don’t want to start with operations. I want to start with the consumer.” It doesn’t really matter the topic. There’s always an angle to think through. How could we be different? What does she really want? What does she need? How do we show up? I’m not somebody who starts with channel. I’m not someone who starts with function. I’m not someone who starts with geography. I always start with the consumer.
The second principle for me is lead for the betterment of others. If there’s one thing I’m usually known for it’s talent and culture, and so taking the time to really understand individually, where do people want to get to? What’s important to them? How am I making them better? How am I helping them do their best work? That is really, really critical. Third for me is being a learn it all and not a know it all. Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft, said this, and I’ve just always been at the forefront of what’s next. That’s the career I’ve chosen for better, for worse. I’m deeply curious, and I fundamentally believe that journey of learning never ends. Fourth, be bold and edit to amplify. Mark Parker, the CEO of Nike, once shared that phrase with me, edit to amplify. It’s always stuck out to me as a really critical leadership philosophy. Last, play with joy.
