The Barefaced Podcast

The beauty industry is a trillion dollars, and right now almost all of the biggest names in it are struggling. Estée Lauder's stock is down over 70% from its peak. Coty has been in turnaround mode for years. The giants are stumbling, margins are compressing, and the whole industry is watching a renaissance unfold in every corner.
And yet, one company did not just survive this shakeout, it thrived. e.l.f. Beauty went public in 2016 at a valuation of around $737 million. Today, it's worth $5.2 billion. A dollar-store cosmetics brand became beauty's best-performing IPO of the last decade, while the legacy giants who were supposed to own the category collapsed around it.
In this episode, I trace the full twenty-year arc. How e.l.f. started by knocking on Target's door and getting rejected, accidentally inventing the DTC playbook before DTC was a term, and then navigating one of the most dramatic post-IPO periods in beauty history — proxy fights, sanctions violations involving North Korean false lash manufacturing, the Varsity Blues scandal, and a $1 billion acquisition of Rhode that cemented e.l.f. as a multi-brand platform. We also look at what e.l.f.'s story tells us about the future of publicly traded beauty — why supply chain speed, disciplined capital structure, and the refusal to play by legacy rules might be the only real moat in an industry being rewritten.
A series of images, references, graphs and visual aids have been created to help narrate this story. You can find them at barefaced.substack.com. And you can find Barefaced everywhere else at beacons.ai/barefaced.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barefaced.substack.com

Not that long ago, Australia had more women's magazines per capita than almost any comparable market. Australian Women's Weekly, Vogue, Dolly, Cleo, Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar, Elle, Girlfriend, Marie Claire, Grazia. Titles that shaped culture, launched careers, and functioned as the single most powerful distribution channel beauty brands had access to.
That ecosystem is largely gone now. In May 2020, Bauer Media shut down most of its Australian titles in the middle of a pandemic, laying off the majority of staff over a single Zoom call. Titles that had been publishing for decades closed within weeks.
In this episode, I sit down with Kate Lancaster — a beauty journalist who was on that Zoom call. Kate's words you have undoubtedly read, whether in the pages of Elle, Grazia, or on a billboard for your favourite sunscreen brand. Together, we unpack how the magazine business was structured, how it made money, why it stagnated creatively, and what the collapse actually looked like from inside a newsroom. We also look at what comes next — from the rise of brand Substacks to why journalists might be the most valuable hires in beauty right now.A series of images, references, graphs and visual aids have been created to help narrate this story. You can find them at barefaced.substack.com. And you can find Barefaced everywhere else at beacons.ai/barefaced.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barefaced.substack.com

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barefaced.substack.com

Before Sephora, beauty retail was a very different world. Products sat behind glass, and a single sales rep, loyal to just one brand, controlled how a customer experienced beauty.
Today, Sephora has completely rewritten that experience. It is now the largest beauty retailer in the world, generating over 17 billion U.S. dollars in annual sales and holding immense power over which brands rise and which brands fade. But how did a 60-year-old French company become an American powerhouse? What happened that allowed Sephora to rise from a disruptor to the most powerful player in beauty retail?
In this episode, we’re diving into part one of Sephora’s story. (Apologies for the late upload, but this turned out to be a much bigger story than we expected.) We’ll unpack how Sephora began, and how it went on to take over the world. Next week, we’ll zoom in on the past decade and take a closer look at the wider industry to understand what Sephora’s position means for brands today, and where it’s headed.

A series of images, references, graphs and visual aids have been created to help narrate this story. You can find them at barefaced.substack.com. And you can find Barefaced everywhere else at beacons.ai/barefaced.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barefaced.substack.com

When we talk about the frontiers of beauty, we usually think of France, the United States, South Korea, or China. But a new frontier is emerging further East: the GCC. A group of six countries in the Middle East that are shaping the future of beauty.
You’ve probably heard the buzz around Dubai, but the GCC as a whole is worth paying attention to. The region already represents 43% of the global luxury market. And unlike much of the world, where personal luxury spending declined by 2% in 2024, the GCC grew by 6%. Fashion may dominate overall sales, but beauty is the standout, growing 12% year-on-year and quickly becoming the fastest-rising category.
In today’s episode, we’ll give you a crash course on beauty, luxury, and the GCC. We’ll explore where this growth is coming from and how brands are positioning themselves to ride this wave — so you have the insights you need to do the same.

A series of images, references, graphs and visual aids have been created to help narrate this story. You can find them at barefaced.substack.com. And you can find Barefaced everywhere else at beacons.ai/barefaced.


This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit barefaced.substack.com