Alan and Joey Shamah, the founders of e.l.f. Beauty, co-launched AS Beauty in 2019. The company’s mission statement is to develop global beauty brands and the business has fulfilled these specs over the past three years.
Based in New York, AS Beauty has bought four brands since its debut – Cover FX and the Laura Geller, Molly Roncal and Julep Beauty makeup brands.
The quartet are available in Australia through leading websites such as Amazon, Lookfantastic, TVSN and other online retailers. Cover FX is the best-known and following its acquisition last September increased the parent company’s size by 20 per cent. By the end of the year, Cover FX is expected to grow AS Beauty’s revenues by 40 per cent.
AS Beauty has now taken the leap into skincare and has added Bliss World, the US skincare brand, to its portfolio.
Bliss was the first company founded by serial entrepreneur, Marcia Kilgore, in 1996. She went to on launch Soap & Glory, FitFlop footwear and Souper Duper. In 2016, Kilgore also launched Beauty Pie, the DTC membership website that sells prestige beauty products for heavily discounted prices.
Since its founding, Bliss has had several owners. LVMH, the world’s largest luxury goods company, bought a 70 per cent stake in Bliss in 1999. In 2004, Starwood Hotels bought the brand for US$25 million, selling it to Steiner Leisure, the global spa provider, for US$100 million five years later.
In 2015, Steiner Leisure was acquired by L Catterton, the world’s leading consumer-focused private equity company with close ties to LVMH, for US$925 million. The deal included the Bliss, Elemis, La Therapie and Laboratoire Remede skincare brands.
Under L Catterton’s ownership, Bliss was given a mass makeover to target Millennials with new packaging, formulations and lower price structuring. Today, the brand is sold through 30,000 locations in the US, principally at major drugstores and mass retailers such as Target, CVS, Walmart and Walgreens. Hero products include Youth Got This Serum and Drench & Quench moisturizers.
Terms of the AS Beauty deal were not disclosed, but Bliss is estimated to have annual revenues of US$40 million.
The new owners will continue to build on L Catterton’s strategies, but CEO Meri Baregamian will step down from the role in early February.
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