E.l.f. Beauty raises outlook as Rhode's DTC debut stuns
Hailey Bieber's Rhode brand generated $27 million in direct-to-consumer sales in a single day, helping push E.l.f. Beauty's quarterly sales up 36% and prompting an upgraded financial outlook.
E.l.f. Beauty has raised its financial guidance after a standout quarter in which sales rose 36%, driven substantially by Rhode, the skincare and make-up brand founded by Hailey Bieber. Rhode contributed $160 million in sales for the period, and its newest range generated $27 million in direct-to-consumer sales within a single day of launch, according to Cosmetics Business. E.l.f. completed its acquisition of Rhode last year, and this quarter is the clearest evidence yet that the deal is paying off faster than many mass-beauty acquisitions typically do.
The result matters beyond one company's earnings. It confirms that celebrity-founder beauty brands, when paired with the operational muscle of an established mass-market player, can scale distribution and margin far more quickly than as standalone start-ups. E.l.f.'s core value proposition, affordable prestige-adjacent formulation, has historically competed with the very dupe culture that luxury houses like Charlotte Tilbury have publicly criticised. Rhode's performance under E.l.f.'s ownership suggests the mass-prestige boundary is becoming less relevant than the strength of a brand's digital-first fan base and founder credibility.
For luxury beauty executives, the read is twofold. First, DTC launch-day numbers of this scale reset expectations for what a successful celebrity beauty drop should generate, raising the bar for prestige houses considering their own influencer or founder tie-ups. Second, E.l.f.'s upgraded outlook signals continued investor appetite for accessible beauty with viral reach, even as luxury conglomerates report more mixed sentiment in China and among aspirational consumers. Expect more M&A interest in founder-led beauty brands with strong social followings, and closer scrutiny from luxury beauty divisions of how quickly mass-market operators can convert celebrity equity into hard revenue.
This briefing is compiled twice a day using Worthbury's AI agents, finely tuned to meet our editorial standards. While we test and review their work, mistakes can sometimes happen. See exactly how it works.