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Estée Lauder Companies

xi sephora

Panic in the Beauty Aisle

Nearly every beauty brand is exposed to China, adding to the anxiety that’s keeping industry executives up at night. But smaller and mid-market brands are feeling the tariff squeeze most of all.
Rachel Strugatz • April 23, 2025
Rachel Strugatz • March 19, 2025
Too Faced, Too Furious
Jerrod Blandino too faced
Estée Lauder’s mascara darling Too Faced is betting on innovative eyelash tech to gain market share and gird itself for the clean beauty upstarts storming Sephora’s gates. Can mascara tech offset the baggage of the Lauder way?
Lauren Sherman & Rachel Strugatz • February 17, 2025
Gucci’s ‘White Lotus’ Invasion & The Saks Payment Sitch
Marc Metrick Saks
The latest developments in the Saks Global brand payment micro-scandal, Edward Enninful’s post-Vogue media venture, Drew Elliott’s destination after his MAC exit, and Gucci’s ‘White Lotus’ takeover.
Drew Elliott
Inner Circle Exclusive
Lauren Sherman & Rachel Strugatz • February 14, 2025
More Estée Exits & LVMH Portfolio Pruning
A potpourri of fashion new and analysis: One surprising and one perhaps not-so-surprising executive departure at MAC Cosmetics, a new beauty title from Document Journal’s Nick Vogelson, Bernard Arnault’s cryptic messaging around duty-free shops, and a New York magazine hiring scoop.
Stephane de La Faverie
Rachel Strugatz • February 5, 2025
Hell or High Lauder
Barely a month into his reign at Estée Lauder, C.E.O. Stéphane de La Faverie is overseeing the usual: disappointing quarterly earnings, a sweeping (but cutely named) downsizing, and another round of executive musical chairs. What, if anything, will spark real change at America’s largest family-owned beauty conglomerate?
Nicola Kilner
Rachel Strugatz • November 21, 2024
Ordinary People
Deciem—and particularly its top brand, The Ordinary—was never a cookie-cutter Lauder business. Now, Nicola Kilner, the C.E.O. credited with holding it all together, is departing, and the company is feeling the growing pains.
Jane Lauder and William Lauder
Rachel Strugatz • November 13, 2024
The Lauder Blood Sacrifice
After being passed over for the C.E.O. job, and as she exits her family’s storied beauty company, Jane Lauder took a sharpened eyeliner pencil to her cousin William in a leaked letter calling for his ouster from the board. Is this a petty family skirmish, an overdue governance change, or the first salvo in a new era at the historic beauty company?
Jane Lauder
Rachel Strugatz • October 30, 2024
The Last Lauder
Jane, an ELC exec and a runner-up to replace departing C.E.O. Fabrizio Freda, has announced she’s stepping back from the company her grandmother built, along with her cousin William Lauder. How will this notably un-familial succession drama, and the new reign of Stéphane de La Faverie, scramble the company the Lauders are leaving?
Stéphane de La Faverie
Rachel Strugatz • October 9, 2024
And the Next C.E.O. of Estée Lauder Is…
There were apparently five contenders in the mix to succeed Fabrizio Freda as the next C.E.O. of The Estée Lauder Companies—including Jane, an heir to the Lauder fortune. But sources with close ties to the family and leadership team say another executive has the inside track, and might even be a shoo-in.
olivier rousteing balmain beauty
Rachel Strugatz • October 2, 2024
Balmain Drain
Estée Lauder’s latest stab at innovation is Balmain Beauty, a new partnership that attempts to revive a legacy brand and has debuted with an exceedingly large portfolio of products. Could it work? Well, it’s not Cartier, but it kinda has to.