Too Faced acquired by Estée Lauder in the beauty company’s biggest deal yet

15-Nov-2016 - Last updated on 15-Nov-2016 at 16:09 GMT

This week Estée Lauder announced that it will pay over $1bn for the millennial-facing color cosmetics brand—a deal that will likely be complete by the end of the year.

Estée Lauder is buying up brands that will position the company to win in the evolving beauty marketplace. Like other big cosmetics and personal care companies, Estée Lauder is opting to handpick innovative brands from the pool of indie brands and beauty startups rather than experiment in-house.

Yesterday Estée Lauder not only announced its plan to acquire Too Faced, the company also closed its acquisition of BECCA Cosmetics. That deal cost the company over $200m, according to reports.

BECCA caters to women of every skin tone and shade with its color and completion products. BECCA is also known for its success in the digital and social realm, reaching today’s consumers wherever they live online.

Something new

Too Faced is a whimsical brand with packaging that suggests snacks and toys as much (if not more) than it does cosmetics.

“The acquisition of Too Faced is complementary to our portfolio of brands because it has a unique feminine and Millennial communication focus, which is really complementary with very little cannibalization with the rest of our makeup portfolio,” Fabrizio Freda, president and CEO of Estée Lauder tells WWD.

Estée Lauder is paying $1.4bn for Too Faced, the most the company has ever paid to acquire a brand. But, Too Faced and Estée Lauder are not strangers. The men who founded the brand, Jerrod Blandino and Jeremy Johnson, at one time worked the counter for Estée Lauder, as fortune.com reports.

And this year Too Faced is anticipated to report over 70% growth in sales, amounting to more than $270m.