ARTICLES
Explore our latest insights on the beauty, luxury, and lifestyle industries. At Carrara Advisory, we combine decades of hands-on experience with deep market understanding to provide actionable perspectives on strategy, innovation, and growth. Here, we share our thinking on the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the future of your business.
Search by Category
Beauty Tech Devices: The Strategic Bet Behind Beauty’s Operating Layer
Beauty tech devices are evolving from standalone premium hardware into integrated platforms that drive consumer routines, personalized treatments, and ecosystem-driven value, positioning them as the operating layer of the modern beauty industry.
Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna: The Mirror of Global Beauty
Cosmoprof Bologna remains the beauty industry’s most efficient global dealmaking and intelligence platform, but beneath stable attendance lies a structural shift toward Asia-led growth, category reallocation into fragrance and longevity, and a more selective pipeline of new brand formation that will shape the sector’s next decade.
Beauty Under Siege: Tariffs, Trade Wars, and the Weight of Geopolitical Disruption
The global beauty industry faces a quantifiable but unevenly distributed tariff burden of at least 39 basis points of average adjusted operating margin, that compounds an already difficult 2025 and now risks being further amplified by the 2026 Gulf conflict, with individual company exposure ranging from negligible at L'Oreal to severe at E.L.F. Beauty.
Beauty's 2025 Uneven Year: Winners, Losers, and What About the Road Ahead
The global beauty industry delivered a near-flat 2025 across ten major companies, a figure that masks approximately two percentage points of currency headwind, a striking eight-point performance gap between smaller agile players and larger China-exposed groups, and a meaningful second-half recovery confined to the companies that had struggled most in the first half.
Switzerland's Contract Beauty Manufacturing Ecosystem: Who's Building the World's Premium Skincare
Switzerland's "Swiss made" label unites a surprisingly diverse contract beauty manufacturing ecosystem of fifteen-plus operators, and for brands, choosing between them is less a procurement decision than a strategic one, where the wrong partner can cost as much as the right one can build.
The Great Beauty Portfolio Reset - When Divestiture Becomes the Growth Strategy
The beauty industry is undergoing a structural reset in which large groups like Estée Lauder and Coty are divesting mid-tier, makeup-heavy, marketing-dependent brands that no longer fit their economic and strategic models, signalling a broader shift toward smaller, more focused portfolios built around brands with clear positioning, defensibility, and sustainable growth.
Profit Starts with Price: The Real Strategy Behind Successful Beauty Brands
A disciplined, strategically aligned pricing system is the single most powerful lever for a beauty brand to strengthen margin, restore financial stability, and unlock scalable long-term growth.
The Real COGS Killer: Bad Planning.
Small and mid-sized beauty brands don’t ruin their margins because of component prices, but because they produce too often in small batches - poor planning, not suppliers, is the real COGS killer.
The Eugevity Era: Joi+Blokes and HerMD Lead the Health Revolution
The acquisition of HerMD by Joi+Blokes marks a new era in virtual healthcare, combining diagnostic rigor, clinical specialization, and Eugevity‑focused preventive care to transform how adults manage their long-term health and vitality.
Brands vs Manufacturers: Decoding the Numbers
Brands and manufacturers follow distinct financial and operational models, with brands driving growth and high margins through marketing and consumer engagement, while manufacturers generate stable, volume-driven revenue through operational efficiency, offering investors complementary opportunities across risk, profitability, and scalability.
Inflation Resilience. Two Decades of Industry Winners and Losers
Over twenty years, industries differ sharply in their ability to outpace inflation, with brand-driven, emotionally valued, and innovation-led sectors like beauty, jewelry, apparel, and IT showing consistent real growth, while cyclical, regulated, or discretionary categories such as automotive, alcohol, and parts of pharma often underperform.
From H1 Struggles to Q3 Growth: Key Trends Shaping the Beauty Industry
A clear recovery, with growth driven by agile, innovation-focused brands, strategic turnarounds, and strong execution across channels and regions, while legacy mass-market segments continue to face pressure.
In-House vs Licensing: Strategic Choices and the Cost of Control
While licensing offers a low-risk, capital-light entry and in-house delivers greater control, profitability, and long-term brand equity, the most effective path is not fixed but depends on each brand’s context.
In-House vs. Licensing: Why Luxury Fashion Houses Struggle with Beauty.
Luxury fashion houses are increasingly re-evaluating the balance between licensing and in-house beauty operations, with mixed success, as seen in the contrasting strategies of Hermès, Chanel, Kering, Richemont, and Dolce & Gabbana.
Proya Group: The Blueprint of China’s Rising Beauty Empires
Proya Group’s rise from a local Chinese skincare brand to a digitally-driven, multi-brand powerhouse exemplifies how China’s new beauty empires combine data-driven insight, agile brand management, and strategic sequencing to scale domestically and prepare for global expansion.
Eugévity: The Emerging Paradigm in Aging Well
Eugévity is the new frontier in aging well, bridging science and lifestyle to focus on vitality, resilience, and quality of life - not just longer years. By integrating food, health, beauty, and technology, it transforms preventive, evidence-based solutions into daily, aspirational practices for living better every day
Private Equity is Shaping the Next Generation of CDMOs - 1Q Health Case
The beauty and wellness industries are converging, driving rapid growth, and pushing traditional CMOs further evolve into full-service CDMOs offering end-to-end solutions from formulation to brand support. Private equity is now shaping this space by building next-generation platforms that combine speed, scientific credibility, and integrated services to meet the rising demand.
Douglas Unleashed: Revenue, Risk, and the Road to a Balanced Future
Douglas has grown into a pan-European omnichannel beauty platform, with revenue increasingly driven by Southern Europe and CEE, while mature markets face margin pressure. Its biggest operational challenge remains elevated inventory, tying up cash and amplifying risk, making efficiency the key lever for unlocking free cash flow.
From Vanity Table to Kitchen: Beauty Brands Expanding Inside-Out
Beauty brands are expanding from traditional topical products into ingestible supplements that enhance skin, hair, and overall wellness from the inside out. While these products complement rather than replace skincare routines, adoption faces challenges and brands look for strategic opportunities.
Nutricosmetics and Supplements: Regional Focus, B&M Retail Exclusivity
The global nutricosmetics and supplements market is highly fragmented, with most brands confined to local markets and specific retail channels, particularly drugstores and pharmacies, due to regulatory, cultural, and retail barriers.