Estée Lauder Companies (EL)
Markets prestige skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care through a global brand portfolio.
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Estée Lauder sells expensive beauty — face creams, lipsticks, perfume — under about two dozen brands, almost all of it wholesale, to the department stores, duty-free shops and beauty chains that stock the counters. Sales are still well below their peak, and the company is two years into a repair job: costs cut, weak counters closed, perfume leading the way back. The brands are the asset; shoppers in China and in airports decide the pace.
Item facts: FY2026 · year ended June 30, 2026, from filings, earnings calls and company pages.
Judgment weights, not filed revenue
The band summarizes business focus and direction. ~ marks estimates.
7 in detail · 19 more below
Estée Lauder
The founding brand and the largest one: skin care led by Advanced Night Repair, the Double Wear makeup line, and a new perfume called Glimmer. It sits in the middle of the expensive-beauty price ladder, and its health decides the company's.
Competes with Lancôme (L'Oréal) · SK-II (P&G)
In plain English
The family name, and still the biggest seller in the house. It sits in the middle of the pricey-beauty ladder — dearer than what you grab in a drugstore, cheaper than the jars kept behind glass — and it leans on skin care, with makeup and scent alongside.
Money comes in when a department store, an airport shop or a beauty chain buys cases of serum and lipstick and puts them on the counter. Shoppers return because a bottle runs out every few months. Across the whole company, the five biggest of those retail customers account for roughly 28% of sales.
Clinique
Allergy-tested skin care with a large makeup line — management calls it the top makeup brand in the US. Roughly a ninth of sales, but it comes up far less on company calls than it did a year ago, and cheaper dermatology-style rivals are growing faster.
Competes with La Roche-Posay and CeraVe (L'Oréal) · Clé de Peau Beauté (Shiseido)
In plain English
Beauty with a doctor's-office manner: allergy-tested, dermatologist-minded, sold on the promise that sensitive skin will not flare up. That reassurance is a good part of what a shopper is paying for.
It earns the way the rest of the house does — shipping cases of cream, toner and foundation to American shops and, increasingly, to Amazon, where the company has just put someone in charge of the account. The squeeze is plain: drugstore names now make the same gentle-skin promise for a fraction of the price, and they are growing faster than Clinique is.
La Mer
The luxury jar — Crème de la Mer — at the portfolio's highest prices, about a tenth of sales. It leans on Chinese travellers and duty-free shops in Hainan, Korea and Hong Kong, so it moves with travel rather than with Western shopping.
Competes with La Prairie (Beiersdorf) · Clé de Peau Beauté (Shiseido)
In plain English
Very expensive face cream, sold in a small white jar, built on a preparation the brand calls Miracle Broth. Buyers here are not comparison-shopping on price — owning the jar is part of the point, a bit like a watch that also happens to tell the time.
Much of the money arrives through duty-free operators in Hainan, Korea and Hong Kong, who buy cases and sell them to travellers heading home, and through luxury department stores. That makes La Mer a bet on Chinese travel: when trips and duty-free rules loosen it grows, when they tighten it stalls.
The Ordinary
Cheap, plainly labelled single-ingredient serums, bought as part of DECIEM. Growing at double digits and climbing towards a billion dollars a year; its hair-density serum went viral. Low prices leave less profit per bottle than the rest of the house earns.
Competes with The Inkey List (Aria Growth Partners) · Good Molecules (Aria Growth Partners)
In plain English
The cheap one, and the fastest riser. Each bottle holds one active ingredient at a stated strength, labelled like something from a chemistry bench, with hero products often under twenty dollars — the opposite of a hushed luxury counter, on purpose.
It sells through beauty chains like Sephora and Ulta, through online stores and through shopping apps, and it grows the way internet things grow: an ingredient catches on, a product sells out. The trade-off is built in — at these prices each bottle leaves less profit behind than a La Mer jar does, so it has to move in volume.
M·A·C
Professional-artistry makeup and the clearest comeback in the portfolio: a hit lip stain, new shelf space in Sephora, and a number-one spot regained in the June quarter — while the brand shut a lot of its own stores.
Competes with NARS (Shiseido) · Fenty Beauty (LVMH) · e.l.f. Cosmetics (e.l.f. Beauty)
In plain English
Makeup built for people who do makeup for a living — strong-pigment lipsticks and foundations in long shade ranges, the kit a backstage artist reaches for, sold to everyone else on that reputation.
For years it leaned on its own small shops. Management has been closing many of them and putting the products where younger shoppers already are: Sephora's shelves, social apps where a short video sells a lipstick, and a rebuilt US website. That switch is what turned the brand around, and it also means M·A·C now shares a shelf with rivals instead of owning the room.
Jo Malone London
British colognes and home scents, made to be layered, and newly past a billion dollars a year. Gifting piles the sales into the December quarter, and perfume is the company's fastest-growing category, up about 12% in FY2026.
Competes with Diptyque (Manzanita Capital) · Creed (Kering Beauté)
In plain English
Think of scent sold like a wardrobe: light, single-note colognes meant to be worn two or three at a time, plus candles and diffusers for the house. Nothing about it is hard to explain, which is exactly why it works as a present.
Shops and airport stores buy the boxes, and the buying bunches up around Christmas. The company keeps pushing the brand into more airport shelf space across the Americas and Europe, and has a heavier slate of new scents lined up for FY2027 — new scents and hero bottles are what its growth has been running on.
TOM FORD
The designer name Estée Lauder bought outright for about $2.8 billion, past a billion dollars of sales for the first time in FY2026: luxury perfume first, face and eye makeup second, plus fees from firms licensed to use the name elsewhere.
Competes with Dior Beauty, including Sauvage (LVMH) · YSL Beauté (L'Oréal)
In plain English
A fashion name that mostly sells perfume. Estée Lauder used to sell the beauty products under licence from the fashion house; in the end it bought the brand outright, so every bottle now belongs to it.
Two things bring money in. Shoppers buy the black-and-gold bottles, and lately its powders and eye makeup, at luxury counters and airport shops. Separately, other companies pay to put the TOM FORD name on goods that are not beauty products — income that arrives as a fee rather than a sale, and sits inside a small catch-all line that came to $103M in FY2026.
Estée LauderThe founding brand and the largest one: skin care led by Advanced Night Repair, the Double Wear makeup line, and a new perfume called Glimmer. It sits in the middle of the expensive-beauty price ladder, and its health decides the company's.The founding brand and the largest one: skin care led by Advanced Night Repair, the Double Wear makeup line, and a new perfume called Glimmer. It sits in the middle of the expensive-beauty price ladder, and its health decides the company's.
In plain English
The family name, and still the biggest seller in the house. It sits in the middle of the pricey-beauty ladder — dearer than what you grab in a drugstore, cheaper than the jars kept behind glass — and it leans on skin care, with makeup and scent alongside.
Money comes in when a department store, an airport shop or a beauty chain buys cases of serum and lipstick and puts them on the counter. Shoppers return because a bottle runs out every few months. Across the whole company, the five biggest of those retail customers account for roughly 28% of sales.
Competes with Lancôme (L'Oréal) · SK-II (P&G)
CliniqueAllergy-tested skin care with a large makeup line — management calls it the top makeup brand in the US. Roughly a ninth of sales, but it comes up far less on company calls than it did a year ago, and cheaper dermatology-style rivals are growing faster.Allergy-tested skin care with a large makeup line — management calls it the top makeup brand in the US. Roughly a ninth of sales, but it comes up far less on company calls than it did a year ago, and cheaper dermatology-style rivals are growing faster.
In plain English
Beauty with a doctor's-office manner: allergy-tested, dermatologist-minded, sold on the promise that sensitive skin will not flare up. That reassurance is a good part of what a shopper is paying for.
It earns the way the rest of the house does — shipping cases of cream, toner and foundation to American shops and, increasingly, to Amazon, where the company has just put someone in charge of the account. The squeeze is plain: drugstore names now make the same gentle-skin promise for a fraction of the price, and they are growing faster than Clinique is.
Competes with La Roche-Posay and CeraVe (L'Oréal) · Clé de Peau Beauté (Shiseido)
La MerThe luxury jar — Crème de la Mer — at the portfolio's highest prices, about a tenth of sales. It leans on Chinese travellers and duty-free shops in Hainan, Korea and Hong Kong, so it moves with travel rather than with Western shopping.The luxury jar — Crème de la Mer — at the portfolio's highest prices, about a tenth of sales. It leans on Chinese travellers and duty-free shops in Hainan, Korea and Hong Kong, so it moves with travel rather than with Western shopping.
In plain English
Very expensive face cream, sold in a small white jar, built on a preparation the brand calls Miracle Broth. Buyers here are not comparison-shopping on price — owning the jar is part of the point, a bit like a watch that also happens to tell the time.
Much of the money arrives through duty-free operators in Hainan, Korea and Hong Kong, who buy cases and sell them to travellers heading home, and through luxury department stores. That makes La Mer a bet on Chinese travel: when trips and duty-free rules loosen it grows, when they tighten it stalls.
Competes with La Prairie (Beiersdorf) · Clé de Peau Beauté (Shiseido)
The OrdinaryCheap, plainly labelled single-ingredient serums, bought as part of DECIEM. Growing at double digits and climbing towards a billion dollars a year; its hair-density serum went viral. Low prices leave less profit per bottle than the rest of the house earns.Cheap, plainly labelled single-ingredient serums, bought as part of DECIEM. Growing at double digits and climbing towards a billion dollars a year; its hair-density serum went viral. Low prices leave less profit per bottle than the rest of the house earns.
In plain English
The cheap one, and the fastest riser. Each bottle holds one active ingredient at a stated strength, labelled like something from a chemistry bench, with hero products often under twenty dollars — the opposite of a hushed luxury counter, on purpose.
It sells through beauty chains like Sephora and Ulta, through online stores and through shopping apps, and it grows the way internet things grow: an ingredient catches on, a product sells out. The trade-off is built in — at these prices each bottle leaves less profit behind than a La Mer jar does, so it has to move in volume.
Competes with The Inkey List (Aria Growth Partners) · Good Molecules (Aria Growth Partners)
M·A·CProfessional-artistry makeup and the clearest comeback in the portfolio: a hit lip stain, new shelf space in Sephora, and a number-one spot regained in the June quarter — while the brand shut a lot of its own stores.Professional-artistry makeup and the clearest comeback in the portfolio: a hit lip stain, new shelf space in Sephora, and a number-one spot regained in the June quarter — while the brand shut a lot of its own stores.
In plain English
Makeup built for people who do makeup for a living — strong-pigment lipsticks and foundations in long shade ranges, the kit a backstage artist reaches for, sold to everyone else on that reputation.
For years it leaned on its own small shops. Management has been closing many of them and putting the products where younger shoppers already are: Sephora's shelves, social apps where a short video sells a lipstick, and a rebuilt US website. That switch is what turned the brand around, and it also means M·A·C now shares a shelf with rivals instead of owning the room.
Competes with NARS (Shiseido) · Fenty Beauty (LVMH) · e.l.f. Cosmetics (e.l.f. Beauty)
Jo Malone LondonBritish colognes and home scents, made to be layered, and newly past a billion dollars a year. Gifting piles the sales into the December quarter, and perfume is the company's fastest-growing category, up about 12% in FY2026.British colognes and home scents, made to be layered, and newly past a billion dollars a year. Gifting piles the sales into the December quarter, and perfume is the company's fastest-growing category, up about 12% in FY2026.
In plain English
Think of scent sold like a wardrobe: light, single-note colognes meant to be worn two or three at a time, plus candles and diffusers for the house. Nothing about it is hard to explain, which is exactly why it works as a present.
Shops and airport stores buy the boxes, and the buying bunches up around Christmas. The company keeps pushing the brand into more airport shelf space across the Americas and Europe, and has a heavier slate of new scents lined up for FY2027 — new scents and hero bottles are what its growth has been running on.
Competes with Diptyque (Manzanita Capital) · Creed (Kering Beauté)
TOM FORDThe designer name Estée Lauder bought outright for about $2.8 billion, past a billion dollars of sales for the first time in FY2026: luxury perfume first, face and eye makeup second, plus fees from firms licensed to use the name elsewhere.The designer name Estée Lauder bought outright for about $2.8 billion, past a billion dollars of sales for the first time in FY2026: luxury perfume first, face and eye makeup second, plus fees from firms licensed to use the name elsewhere.
In plain English
A fashion name that mostly sells perfume. Estée Lauder used to sell the beauty products under licence from the fashion house; in the end it bought the brand outright, so every bottle now belongs to it.
Two things bring money in. Shoppers buy the black-and-gold bottles, and lately its powders and eye makeup, at luxury counters and airport shops. Separately, other companies pay to put the TOM FORD name on goods that are not beauty products — income that arrives as a fee rather than a sale, and sits inside a small catch-all line that came to $103M in FY2026.
Competes with Dior Beauty, including Sauvage (LVMH) · YSL Beauté (L'Oréal)
Named in filings, launches and programs
- Global Travel RetailCustomer program · RampingAbout 15% of sales — roughly $2.3B — ships to duty-free and airport shops; June and July 2026 were the first positive months worldwide in three years.
- Le LaboBrand · RampingNiche perfumery sold mostly in its own shops; among the fastest growers of FY2026, with management putting brands like it above fifty percent growth.
- Bobbi Brown CosmeticsBrandPrestige makeup in the $400M-to-$1B size band, taking share in US makeup while the category overall sits roughly flat.
- AvedaBrandSalon hair care sold through hairdressers; not yet back to growth, though it is taking share in tracked US salon sales.
- Bumble and bumbleBrandSalon hair care, inside a hair business worth $565M that has not grown for two years.
- KILIAN PARISBrand · RampingSmall niche perfume line named a top-three grower in FY2026, with a new Prestige range out in the first quarter of FY2027.
- Balmain BeautyBrand · RampingBeauty made under a licence of the Balmain fashion name, launched into the prestige tier during FY2026.
- Dr.Jart+BrandKorean dermatology-style skin care; part of a $425M write-down in August 2025 that management tied to weak China and Korea demand.
- Too FacedBrandPlayful prestige makeup, written down alongside Dr.Jart+ in that same $425M charge.
- Editions de Parfums Frédéric MalleBrandNiche perfume house on the company's luxury list, sitting in the smallest of its three size bands.
- AERIN BeautyBrandLifestyle fragrance and beauty, also on the luxury list, also in the smallest size band.
- Smashbox and GLAMGLOWBrandStudio-style makeup and treatment face masks; both small lines under $400M a year.
- Origins, Darphin Paris, Lab Series and AramisBrandHeritage lines — naturally derived and French botanical skin care, men's skin care and men's fragrance; Darphin and Lab Series now sit under the luxury remit.
- NIOD, Avestan and LoophaBrandThe other brands that came with DECIEM, all small, all still on the company's own brand list.
- TOM FORD trademark licensingServiceOutside firms pay to put the TOM FORD name on non-beauty goods; the fees arrive as licence income rather than product sales.
- Forest EssentialsBrand · AnnouncedIndian ayurvedic beauty brand; in March 2026 the company agreed to buy the roughly half it does not already own, closing later this year.
- 111SKINBrand · AnnouncedLondon clinical skin care for before and after cosmetic procedures; the company took a minority stake in April 2026, terms undisclosed.
- One ELC / Enterprise Business ServicesPlatform · RampingInternal rewiring of how the company runs; about four-fifths of affected roles had moved by September 2026, full switch-over targeted by year end.
- Beauty Reimagined cost planPlatform · RampingThe cost-cutting programme behind the margin repair: staff down from 62,000 to 55,000 in two years, with $1.5–1.7B of charges expected.
Global Travel RetailCustomer program · Ramping
About 15% of sales — roughly $2.3B — ships to duty-free and airport shops; June and July 2026 were the first positive months worldwide in three years.
Le LaboBrand · Ramping
Niche perfumery sold mostly in its own shops; among the fastest growers of FY2026, with management putting brands like it above fifty percent growth.
Bobbi Brown CosmeticsBrand
Prestige makeup in the $400M-to-$1B size band, taking share in US makeup while the category overall sits roughly flat.
AvedaBrand
Salon hair care sold through hairdressers; not yet back to growth, though it is taking share in tracked US salon sales.
Bumble and bumbleBrand
Salon hair care, inside a hair business worth $565M that has not grown for two years.
KILIAN PARISBrand · Ramping
Small niche perfume line named a top-three grower in FY2026, with a new Prestige range out in the first quarter of FY2027.
Balmain BeautyBrand · Ramping
Beauty made under a licence of the Balmain fashion name, launched into the prestige tier during FY2026.
Dr.Jart+Brand
Korean dermatology-style skin care; part of a $425M write-down in August 2025 that management tied to weak China and Korea demand.
Too FacedBrand
Playful prestige makeup, written down alongside Dr.Jart+ in that same $425M charge.
Editions de Parfums Frédéric MalleBrand
Niche perfume house on the company's luxury list, sitting in the smallest of its three size bands.
AERIN BeautyBrand
Lifestyle fragrance and beauty, also on the luxury list, also in the smallest size band.
Smashbox and GLAMGLOWBrand
Studio-style makeup and treatment face masks; both small lines under $400M a year.
Origins, Darphin Paris, Lab Series and AramisBrand
Heritage lines — naturally derived and French botanical skin care, men's skin care and men's fragrance; Darphin and Lab Series now sit under the luxury remit.
NIOD, Avestan and LoophaBrand
The other brands that came with DECIEM, all small, all still on the company's own brand list.
TOM FORD trademark licensingService
Outside firms pay to put the TOM FORD name on non-beauty goods; the fees arrive as licence income rather than product sales.
Forest EssentialsBrand · Announced
Indian ayurvedic beauty brand; in March 2026 the company agreed to buy the roughly half it does not already own, closing later this year.
111SKINBrand · Announced
London clinical skin care for before and after cosmetic procedures; the company took a minority stake in April 2026, terms undisclosed.
One ELC / Enterprise Business ServicesPlatform · Ramping
Internal rewiring of how the company runs; about four-fifths of affected roles had moved by September 2026, full switch-over targeted by year end.
Beauty Reimagined cost planPlatform · Ramping
The cost-cutting programme behind the margin repair: staff down from 62,000 to 55,000 in two years, with $1.5–1.7B of charges expected.