In 2026, the beauty buying universe is reconfiguring once again.
True, the Estée Lauder Cos. just acquired the remaining 51 percent in Indian beauty brand Forest Essentials, but other than that it is said to be largely focused on divestments, namely Dr. Jart, Too Faced and Smashbox.
Lauder isn’t alone. Other strategics, too, have divestments on their mind. Take the market chatter around LVMH’s Make Up Forever and Fenty Beauty, while Coty has started a strategic review of its $1.2 billion mass color cosmetics business and operations in Brazil. Shiseido’s restructuring, meanwhile, mean it’s unlikely to buy new assets anytime soon.
Coty’s CoverGirl is one of many makeup brands looking for a buyer.
Courtesy of Coty
And while L’Oréal and Unilever appear to be in acquisitive modes still, they are both very strategic and discerning in their purchase decisions. As well, L’Oréal is thought to be focused on assessing a potential deal to acquire 15 percent of Giorgio Armani, as laid out in the late designer’s will, while Unilever chief executive officer Fernando Fernandez has publicly stated his intentions to increase acquisitions primarily in the U.S. and India, but most likely in the personal care and well-being categories.
At the same time, a number of private equity players that have been active in the past, like Eurazeo and Carlyle, are said to be turning away from beauty. Eurazeo, in particular, recently shuttered its brand investment arm. The likes of TPG, TA Associates and Summit Partners are also understood to be less focused on beauty these days.
“In 2021, you could probably have said there were two dozen large PE guys out there that wanted to do beauty buyouts. Today it’s really narrowed down,” said one banking industry source.
But while the traditional buyers may not be particularly active, there are no shortage of brands in market looking for a new home. There’s the cohort of makeup brands that have been trying to sell for the past couple of years to no avail, while speculation also continues to grow around numerous other brands in multiple categories from Bubble to Parfums de Marly to Amika to Olaplex and many more.
That begs the question of who is active these days.
Some Asian strategics are coming back to the market, with Korean companies, in particular, looking at U.S. based K-beauty brands. Sources pointed to the likes of Amore Pacific and Goodai Global, which reportedly raised $600 million in December, as potential acquirers. Chinese strategics are active, too.
“Korean beauty strategics tend to view the market through the lens of K-beauty or Korean-inspired products, but with a focus on U.S. consumers,” said Mandy Zhou, a managing director at Barclays. “Chinese players are also active, though their perspective is often different — they typically favor European luxury beauty. Within China, some strategic players, like Proya, are building what you might call a “Chinese L’Oréal” — multibrand platform spanning multiple categories, while private equity shops often focus on retail-led, scalable brands.”
Closer to home, while the pool has narrowed, there are still some interested private equity players.
“There’s definitely a handful of private equity firms who still have a lot of conviction around the space and are looking at brands across categories,” said Marissa Lepor, managing director and head of beauty and personal care at The Sage Group. “They’re looking at brands in color, which other firms perhaps are less excited about. But the firms who really have conviction in beauty know that color is still here to stay.
“You just have to invest in what you think is the winner, and there can be multiple winners,” she continued. “So they’re looking at color, at skin care, at fragrance, at body. It’s just that perhaps it’s just not as sought-after across the entire private equity ecosystem as it was five, 10 years ago.”
While rumors continue to persist that Parfums de Marly is for sale and that Henkel AG is eyeing Olaplex, sources say Advent International is still interested in the category, as is Bansk Group, which just acquired a majority stake in skin care brand Byoma. Elsewhere, General Atlantic invested in Osea, while TSG Consumer Partners made a bet on Summer Fridays and L Catterton took a stake in the niche fragrance brand, Ex Nihilo, in January.
Byoma was acquired by Bansk, which is said to be pursuing more deals.
Photo courtesy of Byoma
Yellow Wood Partners is also understood to still want to make waves in beauty. Last year, It merged Suave Brands and Elida, both 2023 acquisitions from Unilever, into a single operating entity called Evermark, a platform of personal care brands with combined annual retail sales of around $1.9 billion. Its portfolio includes Suave, Q-tips and Chapstick as well as Pond’s, Caress, St. Ives, Noxzema, Timotei, Tigi, VO5, Brut, Impulse, Alberto Balsam and Monsavon.
“They’ve done a really excellent job at identifying brands that have lifetime potential, or already lifetime brands,” said Lepor.
In consumer goods, Church & Dwight is viewed by sources as open to more acquisitions, after buying hand sanitizer brand Touchland for $880 million last year and Hero Cosmetics for $630 million in 2022. Its other brands include Nair, Batiste and Arm & Hammer.
“Church & Dwight has grown Touchland and Hero under their ownership. So their playbook is to really focus on a set of acquisition criteria, and not stray from that, and it’s worked very well for them,” said Kelly McPhilliamy, a Managing Director at Citigroup and head of health and beauty within the global consumer and retail investment banking group.
Then there’s Kimberly Clark, the owner of Kleenex and Huggies, which surprised many industry watchers when it announced it is acquiring Kenvue in a deal valued at $48.7 billion. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2026, subject to regulatory approvals, and will make it the owner of the likes of Neutrogena, Aveeno and OGX.
At a recent Consumer Analyst Group of New York Conference, chairman and CEO Michael D. Hsu discussed the reasons for the acquisition.
“Joining forces with Kenvue presents a generational opportunity to create the preeminent personal wellness company that provides extraordinary everyday care,” he said. “Together, we’ll have leadership positions in many of the industry’s largest, most attractive categories. These categories have favorable growth and penetration trends across baby care, women’s health, and active aging.”
Sources, however, believe that deal was more about acquiring the consumer health component so the jury is still out if Kimberly Clark will keep all beauty assets and/or make any future beauty asset purchases.
And at the beginning of the year, there were media reports that Henkel AG has proposed a takeover offer for Olaplex Holdings Inc., based in New York, while on Monday it announced plans to acquire hair brand Not Your Mother’s.
Sources also noted two other entities that could become more acquisitive if their rumored IPOs come to fruition: the Wella Co. and L’Occitane Group.
Then there’s the growing number of beauty firms that are looking to snap up and turn around underperforming brands from both strategics and indie founders. Think AS Beauty, Windsong Global, and Rare Beauty Brands.
“I do think those divestitures will go to the value players,” said an industry source. “Too Faced is a good brand, but it is a big ship to turn around. That’s why I think all those are going to go a little bit more the value route than your typical growth PE buyout route.”
Nevertheless, there is still scope for the traditional players to dive back in.
“As the strategic M&A activity slowed, you saw private equity follow. Most are still looking. I think simply, the bar is higher,” said Cathy Leonhardt, global head of retail, investment banking at Barclays. “Fundamentally, this category is still very, very attractive. It grows both in price and volume, unlike anything else in CPG. It’s got discretionary characteristics, but it’s high velocity, and so it’s still a very attractive, unique category for consumer investing, where, otherwise many private investors have pulled away.”
“The buyer landscape in beauty has evolved, but it remains active and increasingly diverse. While some strategics have spent time optimizing portfolios and a few traditional PE firms temporarily stepped back from consumer, the overall universe of buyers has broadened,” added Rich Gersten, cofounder and managing partner of True Beauty Ventures.
