A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Ben Bennett, taut and well into his 50s with an unmistakably airbrushed look, is one of the most successful beauty executives you’ve never heard of. “He’s very private. He likes to keep himself out of the narrative,” said a person familiar with his business. And yet, everyone in the industry knows his work. In 2020, he founded The Center, the trendy incubator that has generated endless intrigue and envy and many feelings in between. He has an aptitude for building brands alongside influencer talent that, somehow, outperform most of the usual made-for-Gen Z drivel. (A spokesperson for The Center clarified that the company refers to itself as an accelerator, not an incubator. Bennett declined to be interviewed for this piece.)

So far, two of The Center’s brands have achieved exits: Naturium and Phlur, which were acquired by E.l.f. Beauty and TSG Consumer Partners, respectively, for $355 million and around $400 million. Saltair, another brand in Bennett’s five-business portfolio, has more than $100 million in revenue. The Center itself, however, has raised a very modest amount of capital: The company is almost fully funded by Alicia Sontag’s Prelude Growth Partners, beauty’s “Goldfinger” V.C., which has put at least $15 million into the incubator (I’ve heard they quietly invested another $15 million, although a spokesperson disputed this), following an initial $5 million-ish investment from Bennett himself. I asked several industry types to define Bennett’s superpower. “He’s good at understanding white space on the shelf and creating a product to match—and matching the right influencer,” one industry insider said. Another beauty veteran said that Bennett knows exactly when to exit, which is often before brands traditionally go to market. He’s not waiting for the $1 billion sale, an ego trap that many founders fall into. Last summer, when TSG acquired Phlur, the brand was said to be doing about $100 million in sales. Similarly, Naturium’s revenue was $90 million when it was acquired. These revenues, although impressive, are still more modest than many of the assets currently in market, most of which still can’t find a buyer.

Indeed, timing does seem to be Bennett’s greatest talent. Several years ago, Bennett sold HatchBeauty Brands, his first incubator, to American Exchange Group for an undisclosed price. (None of Hatch’s lines ever achieved a high-profile exit on the level of Phlur or Naturium.) And last fall, not long after the Phlur sale, Bennett bought the Bel Air home of Ryan Murphy, who had previously bought it from Tom Ford, for $24 million.

Most incubators fail because of lazy branding, cookie-cutter playbooks, and talent misalignment. Numerous entrepreneurs, from Shaun Neff (Beach House Group) to Ari Bloom (A-Frame Brands), have tried to replicate the success of Kylie Jenner’s Kylie Cosmetics by pairing famous faces with generic-looking brands, to various degrees of success. Sometimes, the pairings have made sense (Tracee Ellis Ross’s Pattern Beauty), and other times not so much (Kendall Jenner and Moon, a toothpaste brand, or John Legend and Loved01, a skincare line). Usually, the failure has been in assuming that massive celebrity followings automatically equate to big sales—and many of them have learned their lessons the hard way.

For his part, Bennett has taken a different tack. He prefers to work with small to midsize influencers, like skincare content creator Susan Yara, a co-founder of Naturium (and fun Instagram follow), and Chriselle Lim, who joined Phlur as its creative director in 2021. It’s still a little blurry whether Yara joined after Naturium was created, or just waited to disclose her involvement until she started promoting the line, but fans didn’t care. The mass-priced skincare line was a hit, and three years later, became the first significant exit for an influencer beauty brand. Phlur’s rise, in particular, was interesting to watch. After acquiring the struggling direct-to-consumer fragrance business in early 2021—I’m told it only cost him $1 million—Bennett tapped Lim as creative director, relaunched the brand with catchy fragrance names like “Missing Person,” “Vanilla Skin,” and “Father Figure,” priced its scents under $100, and partnered with Sephora—all of which produced one of the most viral fragrance brands of the past few years. Lately, though, I keep hearing about Cyklar, a 2½-year-old bodycare brand that I hear is already an over–$20 million business. Cyklar was founded in 2023 by beauty influencer Claudia Sulewski (Billie Eilish’s brother’s girlfriend) but was quickly acquired by The Center and got the Bennett treatment. Bennett helped to overhaul positioning and pricing (body washes originally retailed for close to $60, and now they cost $35) and brought Sephora to the table. Cyklar entered the LVMH-backed retailer in February, and last week, it became the retailer’s number one bodycare brand, pushing the multibillion-dollar global powerhouse Sol de Janeiro down to the second spot, a person familiar with Sephora’s business told me. “Most launches don’t break through,” this person said, noting that of the 35 brands launched at the retailer last year, only a few reach the top of their given category, and very few make it to number one. I don’t think it will surprise anyone if the brand scales significantly this year and next.

Vanity Fair style correspondent José Criales-Unzueta has launched a weekly newsletter that you should subscribe to because it’ll be great and offer a real point of view. [Fit Check]

Here’s an interview with Rudy Manse, who ended up doing the costumes for Love Story and fixed a lot of the problems. [Cultured] Mickey and Alex Drexler on Alex Mill! [Vogue]

Until tomorrow, Lauren

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