Estée Lauder puts beauty brands on the block -- Women's World Daily

[ESTĒE LAUDER store at Beijing Daxing International Airport]
Robert Way

Estée Lauder (EL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EL]) is reportedly looking to sell off two of its beauty lines and a Korean skincare brand while it conducts merger negotiations with Spanish fragrance and fashion company Puig (PUIGF [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PUIGF]) (PUGBY [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/PUGBY]).

According to Women’s World Daily, the cosmetics giant is looking for interested buyers for Too Faced, Smashbox, and Dr. Jart, with Too Faced and Smashbox likely to be sold as a pair and Dr. Jart individually.

Sources cited by WWD say there was at least one interested buyer for Too Faced and Smashbox, while several others were considering Dr. Jart.

A sale of the three brands would leave Estée Lauder (EL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EL]) with its namesake line, Clinique, Aveda, Jo Malone, Bobbi Brown, and 17 others.

During the company’s latest earnings call [https://seekingalpha.com/article/4897620-puig-brands-s-a-pugby-q1-2026-sales-trading-call-transcript], Puig CEO Jose Manuel Albesa confirmed acquisition talks with Estee Lauder (EL [https://seekingalpha.com/symbol/EL]) are ongoing, but a final decision has not been made.

While Estée Lauder did not break out results for each brand, it noted [https://media.elcompanies.com/files/e/estee-lauder-companies/global/investors/earnings-and-financials/quarterly-earnings/2026/q3/q3-fiscal-2026-earnings-release.pdf?_ga=2.181168354.472777753.1778864618-743325981.1778864618]that Too Faced suffered a double-digit sales decline in the fiscal third quarter, contributing to flat sales for the parent company’s makeup business.

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