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And now, more on Bobbi Brown’s department store retreat…

It’s been a rough decade for Bobbi Brown, the original makeup-artist brand that mainstreamed the concept of “no-makeup makeup” in the ’90s. Ever since visionary founder Bobbi Brown left the brand in 2016—exactly 25 years after it was acquired by the Estée Lauder Companies—revenue has steadily declined, from a $1 billion peak to around $400 million last year, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. (Another person said the figure is “above $500 million.”) Alas, besides that cream eyeshadow stick, no one in my informal poll could name a single product the line sells anymore. (R.I.P. shimmer bricks.)

A MESSAGE FROM OUR SPONSOR

Agentic commerce isn’t a future concept. It’s already reshaping how people shop. Static storefronts are giving way to guided,

conversational experiences that don’t just surface products. They drive decisions and conversion in real time. Swap’s Agentic Commerce 101 breaks down what’s real and what it means for brands right now. Inside:

• What agentic commerce is and why most AI tools don’t qualify

• Why AI discovery platforms aren’t built to convert for your brand

• Why owning your AI experience and your data is becoming non-negotiable

👉 Download the full report

But now, as Brown continues her extraordinary and extraordinarily lucrative latest act with Jones Road, Lauder is making some sweeping changes to what used to be one of its biggest and most important brands. A few weeks ago, it was announced internally that the brand’s global general manager, Lahnie Strange, would be leaving the company. But the bigger headline, as I reported yesterday, is that Bobbi Brown will exit nearly every U.S. department store, including Dillard’s, Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, and Saks Fifth Avenue, at the end of May. Nordstrom, which has a foothold on the West Coast, is the one exception. I’m told the retail strategy going forward will focus on Ulta Beauty and Amazon.

The pivot arrives just as Stéphane de La Faverie, Estée Lauder Cos.’ newish C.E.O., is trying to get his house in order amid merger talks with Puig, the Spanish beauty and fashion giant. (M&A seems to be part of the plan too, given that Lauder today announced a minority investment in London-based skincare line 111Skin, just a few months after investing in Mexican fragrance brand Xinú.) Puig’s makeup category rose nearly 10 percent in the most recent quarter, but the category is still down at Lauder, where most of the brands in its “makeup cluster”—including Bobbi Brown, MAC Cosmetics, Too Faced, and Smashbox—have struggled and inhibited E.L.C.’s overall turnaround effort. (While things aren’t great at MAC, it’s still a huge business with some momentum, and I’ve heard that Sephora North America is pleased with the recent launch.)

Perhaps the most shocking element of the retreat is that half of Bobbi Brown’s North American business is said to come from department stores. Sure, one of Lauder’s biggest missteps was doubling down on the channel, which started to decline when Sephora and Ulta gained market share, and this feels like a dramatic, if necessary, attempt to rectify that original sin. Internally, I’m told there’s optimism around Bobbi Brown’s exit from the channel. “People knew that the brand needed a strategic shift, and that’s finally happening,” said a person close to the brand. But a retail exodus of this magnitude means that Bobbi Brown has to recoup those sales somewhere else—an enormous undertaking, especially for a brand that has lost so much cultural capital in the decade following the departure of its iconic namesake. (Although I can’t help but wonder if it was possible to salvage the businesses at any of the Saks or Bloomingdale’s flagship stores…)

If anyone is up for the job, though, it’s Tara Simon, E.L.C.’s newish head of North America, who has worked at both Sephora and Ulta. After all, the organization needs someone who can take charge of the commercial relationships in the region and oversee Lauder’s Amazon expansion. Bobbi Brown’s door count and in-store space at Sephora have already been reduced (I hear the business has now “leveled out”), but the real opportunity is at Ulta. Unlike Sephora, Ulta still prioritizes department store stalwarts and nonexclusive legacy labels like Clinique, one of its bestselling brands.

Of course, addressing Bobbi Brown’s issues will require more than simply rejiggering distribution. The brand has been mired in a decade-long identity crisis, and has struggled to identify its ideal consumer. After trying to court Gen Z several years ago, it pursued the 40-plus set with global ambassador Sara Foster, but neither push was really effective. A person familiar with the business explained that many of the brand’s problems stem from the fact that former C.E.O. Fabrizio Freda gave the different regions “too much control” over their local markets. “They were shooting their own creative and looks that were locally relevant,” this person explained. “They changed whatever they needed to by market, but there wasn’t a centralized touchstone.”

But what’s probably hurt Bobbi Brown the most—aside from Brown’s departure—is the onslaught of younger, cooler, newer “no-makeup makeup” lines with superior marketing and branding that know exactly who they’re targeting. Over the past decade or so, this makeup subcategory has seen a massive influx of competitors, including Westman Atelier, Merit, Saie, Ilia, and most importantly, Jones Road, which Brown launched in 2020 on the very day her 25-year noncompete with Lauder expired. In just five years, Jones Road has become one of the most successful D.T.C. beauty brands—a fact that surely keeps Lauder’s top executives up at night.

However, Lauder’s larger makeup problems extend beyond Bobbi Brown. There’s Too Faced’s rumored sale, Smashbox’s basically nonexistent business, and although it’s not technically part of the makeup cluster, Tom Ford Beauty can’t seem to get color right. “Bobbi Brown is just another casualty,” said a person close to Lauder’s senior leadership. “It all goes back to everyone being so focused on fragrance and skincare, but really running a true artistry brand is so specific. MAC is the only one that’s sustained [its success].”

If the Puig deal goes through—C.E.O. Jose Manuel Albesa confirmed on Tuesday that “talks are ongoing, but no final decision has been made yet”—it would make strategic sense to combine MAC and Charlotte Tilbury under one division, ideally led by a Puig executive. Lisa Sequino, Lauder’s head of makeup and the former C.E.O. of JLo Beauty, has a lot on her plate. She’s been overseeing MAC ever since the exit of global general manager Aïda Moudachirou-Rébois earlier this year, and I hear she’ll be the interim head of Bobbi Brown, too. But it’s probably in Lauder’s best interest to eventually install seasoned makeup operators with expertise in running global, multibillion-dollar businesses and turnarounds—and soon.

Anyway, the upshot is that every sign points to Lauder reinvesting in Bobbi Brown while searching for ways to drive efficiency. But a question that often comes up among industry types is whether Brown, herself, would buy back her namesake brand. Plenty of beauty founders exit their first brands and start second ventures, but Brown has managed to do something no one else has: capture lightning in a bottle twice.

Armani announced 2025 performance figures today. Actual revenue was down 4.6 percent, to €2.2 billion, but profits were up. C.E.O. Giuseppe Marsocci said that the board has not “started meetings” with the three potential buyers named in Armani’s will: LVMH, EssilorLuxottica, and L’Oréal. [WWD]

Marisa Meltzer is all about eccentric rich people. [Vanity Fair]

I’m not sure there’s a better collab idea than Hill House Home x American Girl. [WWD]

Bruno Pavlovsky on Chanelmania: “We were concerned about the customer reaction because after the first show, not all our clients were convinced this new, looser silhouette was for them. Those fears have been laid to rest.” Expect double-digit Y.O.Y. growth in 2026. [WWD]

Anne-Marie has quickly become Rachel’s favorite beauty Substacker. This week, she dives into the current state of makeup-artist brands. [Trucco Journal]

Until tomorrow,
Lauren

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