Secrets of the Booming Beauty Business
As with other consumer-facing industries, the upstarts are where the excitement is, and may be the next acquisition targets.
A positive story for women.
Photographer: Vivien Killilea/Getty Images North AmericaThe beauty industry is thriving like never before, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at the stock market.
Shares of the big beauty houses haven’t performed so well in recent months, even as trends like facial-sheet masks, serums and metallic makeup tones have exploded in popularity. Coty Inc., the parent of CoverGirl, the third-largest color-cosmetics brand in the U.S., has seen its price tumble 50 percent over the last six months, while Revlon Inc. is being choked by debt. And after strong runs into the first part of the year for larger conglomerates Estee Lauder Cos., L’Oreal SA and Shiseido Co., these stocks have all run out of steam.