Leading global beauty company Shiseido Americas made headlines on August 25, announcing that it plans to sell subsidiary cosmetic brands BareMinerals, Buxom, and Laura Mercier to AI Beauty Holdings Ltd. The sale is one of many notable business transactions in the beauty industry this year, including multinational consumer goods giant Unilever’s June acquisition of popular skincare brand Paula’s Choice. Despite the sale, Shiseido Americas retains a number of prominent beauty and cosmetics brands, including NARS, Clé de Peau Beauté, and Dolce & Gabbana.
It’s been a challenging time for the beauty and cosmetics industries, with a majority of brands in the space experiencing a significant slow-down in Earned Media Value (EMV) growth during the pandemic. However, the acquisition of BareMinerals, Buxom, and Laura Mercier represents a fantastic opportunity to rekindle interest in beauty products, especially as social distancing restrictions loosen.
Known as a beauty industry staple, BareMinerals’ Original Liquid Mineral Foundation Broad Spectrum SPF 20 helped revolutionize the beauty industry with its “clean, good-for-skin formula.” The product has continued to be a go-to offering in the brand’s lineup, driving $1.6M EMV for BareMinerals from September 2020 to August 2021, 3% of the brand’s EMV total ($61.1M). Despite a slight 3% decrease in year-over-year EMV growth, BareMinerals appears set to regain momentum: the brand’s 26.9k posts during the time period monitored represented a 15% YoY increase in content volume.
Despite struggling with the rest of the beauty industry to maintain positive year-over-year EMV growth, Buxom thrived in July 2021, and may be poised to boom in the coming months. Buxom achieved $5.5M EMV in July, a significant 61% increase over the $3.4M it drew in June. The brand’s success was due in part to a significant jump in the potency of its content creators, who increased their average EMV contribution from $4.9k to $7.4k each.
In contrast to many of its competitors within the top 10 beauty brands from September 2020 to August 2021, a set that experienced an average 29%year-over-year decrease, Laura Mercier enjoyed a respectable total. The cosmetics giant achieved $327.1M EMV over the last year, a 23% YoY decrease that nonetheless proved one of the smallest such contractions within the top 10. Contributing to Laura Mercier’s success was increased activity among its influencer community, which saw a 4% YoY uptick in posting activity. Content creators averaged 10 posts each about the brand, underscoring Laura Mercier’s enduring popularity among beauty aficionados.
The landscape of the beauty industry is constantly shifting, and it takes being on the cutting edge of influencer marketing strategies to stay ahead of the curve. As ownership of BareMinerals, Buxom, and Laura Mercier changes hands, we can likely expect big changes from these brands in the near future.
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