Full Coverage: Can Tina Craig’s U Beauty Crack Luxury Beauty?; An Anastasia Beverly Hills Update

When I talk to founders who have recently sold their businesses, one of the many tips they give me for launching a brand today is to start with a famous face.

And no, we’re not talking about celebrities; we’re talking about influencers or creators.

Given the high cost of marketing and intense competition in beauty right now, it’s no surprise that some of the most talked-about brands have people like Mona Kattan (Kayali), Chriselle Lim (Phlur), Patrick Starrr (One/Size), Mario Dedivanovic (Makeup by Mario) and the illustrious Bobbi Brown (Jones Road) leading them. Influencers are who customers are paying attention to!

With the exception of Brown, many of these founders were met with scepticism when starting their brands. What did a fashion influencer know about beauty? Can a vlogger really go beyond YouTube when so many have failed? Tina Craig, a fashion influencer known as Bag Snob, was in the same boat upon launching her line U Beauty in 2019. But Craig did have a foothold in beauty as one of luxury’s biggest customers — vouching for and touring with brands like La Prairie.

“I’m the most reluctant skincare founder. The world doesn’t need another skincare brand. It just needs one product that works,” she told me recently.

For U Beauty, it’s actually two products: Its bestseller dubbed The Duo is made up of the Resurfacing Compound and the Super Hydrator and retails for $396 (individually they are $228 and $168, respectively). Beauty insiders have talked to me a lot about the Super Hydrator, a rich fluid moisturiser that doesn’t feel heavy, and its corresponding body cream called the Super Body Hydrator.

Given its high, high price point, U Beauty has focused largely on its direct channels and partnerships with department stores, Bluemercury, Cos Bar and Violet Grey. (The brand is small and stable, on track to hit $35 million in revenue next year.) It hadn’t made the choice between Ulta Beauty and Sephora, until now… later this month, the brand is launching at Sephora.com and into 46 select Sephora stores in March. While Sephora remains the place to launch, its luxury play is still developing largely because there are questions about whether the wealthiest beauty shoppers will brave the retailer’s sometimes chaotic, birthday party-ridden stores.

U Beauty will be one of the most expensive skincare brands in Sephora, joining Dior Beauty, Augustinus Bader and a smattering of products from Lancôme and Clarins at the top. It’s a gamble for the line, but one worth taking.

“With a luxury brand, you really have to hold the brand really, really tightly,” said Katie Borghese, U Beauty co-founder and chief marketing officer. “You can’t just be everywhere at all times; [if you do] it’s at risk of losing brand equity.”

But what even is luxury beauty today when both price and product efficacy are under scrutiny?

It’s a question I’ve been asking myself for a long time. Fashion has its host of heavy hitters: Hermès, Chanel, Dior, Prada and younger names like Jacquemus, but beauty’s “luxury” names are far more disparate. Yes, Chanel and Dior have probably the most representative beauty products (and best beauty businesses), but some of L’Oréal’s host of licensed names (such as Valentino) leave something to be desired. Names like La Prairie remain top of mind, but have struggled in this beauty slowdown.

But U Beauty has another string to its luxury proposition. Earlier this year, it partnered with “White Lotus” star Michelle Monaghan as an ambassador as a clear signal of who U Beauty is for.

“I hope I can talk about aging in a positive way, in a positive light. I hope I can exemplify that for my daughter, who is 17,” Monaghan told me, looking picture-perfect on Zoom. The star expects the two will be able to share products while shopping at Sephora together.

Selecting a face over the age of 40 and best known for starring in a luxury-coded show underscores U Beauty’s aspirations to reach wealthy women — you know, the ones who can actually afford its products. But perhaps the brand’s founders knew that in order to convey real luxury, Craig couldn’t be the only one on its billboards anymore.

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