Our financial investment guru Anne Ashworth makes YOU money by searching the stock exchange for the finest funds and shares. She exposes how you can capitalize cosmetics ...
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Looking excellent can be pricey. Lotions, potions, make-up and creams: they are all pricey. But for financiers, they can likewise be highly profitable.

The target of one of this summertime's most talked-about takeover offers is a cosmetics organization developed simply three years earlier by an American model who's married to a pop idol.

This business's products, a huge success amongst Gen Z, consist of a 'glazed-doughnut effect' lip treatment.

The $6.41 bn e.l.f. Beauty group, commemorated for its discount 'dupe' - or copycat - creams and make up, is paying $1bn in shares and cash for Rhode, a charm business whose sales in the year to March were $212m.

Rhode is led by Hailey Rhode Bieber, an entrepreneur and influencer with 55.1 m Instagram fans, a necessary in a market being interfered with by social networks. She is the other half of singer Justin and daughter of star Stephen Baldwin, sibling of Alec.

The enjoyment around the deal suggests that, if your portfolio requires a glow-up, possibly you ought to seek to the international beauty business, whose sales are anticipated to reach $600bn by 2028.

Rhode, a beauty company owned by design Hailey Bieber, is being acquired by e.l.f. Beauty (below) for $1bn

New research study from Barclays shows that the 'lipstick index', still uses.

Under this theory, in difficult times women will continue to treat themselves to a small indulgence such as a lipstick - or these days, a peptide lip treatment.

Gerrit Smit of fund supervisor Stonehage Fleming believes the human desire to look better will constantly be with us - and for that reason guarantees returns for investors.

'Beauty is a sector with indefinite sustainable development, as the desire for charm is a forever aspect. Everyone is getting older and would like to look good doing so.'

Smit highlights the sector's innovation, with its concentrate on evolving creams and cosmetics for different markets, varying from 'tweens', the 13-year-olds with complicated skin cleaning routines, to older ladies combating the consequences of ageing.

Such was the excitement about Rhode's possible to all ages that there was a 24pc bounce in it shares.

The purchase of Rhode will also make it possible for e.l.f. (the name represents eyes, lips, face) to diversify its supply chain. The business, that makes 75pc of its ranges in China, is currently subject to 30pc tariffs in the US, and has actually currently been forced to raise costs.

News of the Rhode acquisition was accompanied by the announcement of 28pc increase in e.l.f.'s sales for 2025 to $1.3 bn. This seems like a remarkable rise. But sales jumped by 77pc in 2024.

Ms Bieber and e.l.f. Beauty chairman and CEO Tarang Amin

The slower growth highlights the market's various difficulties - such as Chinese customers' unwillingness to spend.

This disinclination to splash the cash has hit the shares of the charm power homes: Coty, Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, Shiseido and Puig, the Spanish owner of Charlotte Tilbury.

Estee Lauder shares reached $365 in December 2021. They are now pull back at $68, partly due to management and other problems - but also since 26pc of its profits come from China.

Other forces are also bringing modification, as Will McIntosh Whyte, fund manager at Rathbones, explains: 'Brand loyalty is on the decline, considering that social networks allows start-up brand names to reach big audiences and proliferate.'

But e.l.f.'s transfer to buy Rhode might show confidence is returning and there is an opportunity for investors to benefit.

At least one influential and hard-headed US financier appears persuaded this the case.

Michael Burry, the hedge fund supervisor whose bet in 2008 on mortgage-backed securities was portrayed in the film The Big Short, is backing revival at Estee Lauder.

His Scion Asset Management fund now holds a $13.3 m stake in Estee Lauder, owner of brand names like Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Jo Malone London and Le Labo.

Who understands if Burry is a routine user of Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum? But there can be some advantage to dedicating a few of your financial investment spending plan to the companies that make the important things you enjoy. This familiarity offers you extra insight. Here are your options.

THE BEAUTY PARADE

Among L'Oreal brand names are CeraVe, Garnier, Maybelline and the more upmarket Aesop and Lancome

L'Oreal, a EUR200bn Paris-based service, is the titan of the industry. The founding family, the Bettencourt Meyers dynasty, have a 35pc stake.

Among L'Oreal brands are CeraVe, Garnier, Maybelline and the more upmarket Aesop and Lancome. Demand for these costly lines helped first-quarter sales to rise by 3.5 pc to EUR11.73 bn.

Smit notes L'Oreal's strengths. 'Its success is based on extreme research: it invests about EUR1bn a year. Its gross profit margins can be as high as 70pc on some items