A few beauty giants lost their sparkle in their most recent quarters, as E.l.f. Beauty, Estée Lauder, and L’Oréal all recently reported lackluster earnings, attributed to everything from a slow innovation pipeline to the TikTok shutdown.
E.l.f. Beauty delivered another month of rising sales, up 31% YoY to $355.3 million for the quarter ending December 31, but this growth was overshadowed by its guidance cut. The company lowered its outlook for fiscal 2025 following a start to the year that was “softer than we expected,” CFO Mandy Fields said, dropping from a range of $1.32 billion to $1.34 billion to $1.3 billion to $1.31 billion.
CEO Tarang Amin said he attributed the softening to category decline resulting from increased buying during December and fewer conversations online around beauty due to the TikTok shutdown and Los Angeles wildfires. He also noted the quarter lapped its biggest 2024 launch, Glow Reviver lip oil, and it’s seen underwhelming performances for some of its new spring 2025 products.
While Amin referenced a “challenged” and “weaker” mass category, he said there will be “no huge shifts” in E.l.f.’s approach.
Estée Lauder debuted its “Beauty Reimagined" turnaround plan and said it planned to cut up to 7,000 jobs as the beauty giant looks to combat slumping sales. The company reported net sales down 6% for its fiscal Q2 amid continuing challenges in Asian travel retail, and “a narrow focus on too few markets and channels to drive growth,” especially in North America, president and CEO Stéphane de la Faverie said.
“Simply said, we lost our agility,” he said. “We did not capitalize on the higher growth opportunities quickly enough in channels, markets, media, and prestige price tiers nor fuel new consumer acquisition aggressively enough.”
The Beauty Reimagined strategy includes a quicker, on-trend innovation pipeline and increased advertising spending.
L’Oréal saw a 2.5% sales bump in Q4, its slowest quarterly rise since 2020. The company also continues to face challenges in North Asia, but CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said he’s “bullish” on growth in the US, particularly for L’Oréal prestige products. The beauty company also this week took a minority stake in fashion brand Jacquemus, which will make its first foray into beauty with a luxury line housed within L’Oréal’s Luxe division.
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