Beauty

The Factory

Where the product actually gets made — and tariffed

Chinese Contract Manufacturers

The unseen engine of affordable beauty: e.l.f. built its price advantage on outsourced Chinese production — historically ~75% of supply, now diversifying — which is exactly where US tariffs bite. e.l.f.'s gross margin slipped to ~69% under the 2025-26 tariff regime.

IFF — International Flavors & Fragrances

One of the big ingredient-and-scent houses supplying the industry — the fragrances, actives, and textures inside everyone's formulas.

market cap $22B · revenue $11B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Disruptor

The dupe machine eating the industry from the bottom up

ELF — e.l.f. Beauty

The fastest share-gainer in cosmetics: prestige-quality "holy grail dupes" at drugstore prices, shipped on a Silicon-Valley cadence. Now a two-engine company — mass e.l.f. at Target and Walmart, prestige Rhode (Hailey Bieber, acquired for ~$1B) at Sephora.

Why it matters: The center of the map: every incumbent here is either losing share to e.l.f.'s price point, selling through the same shelves, or watching its hero products get duped within months.

Outlook: Q3 FY26 net sales grew 38% to $489.5M — a seventh straight year of sales and share gains — with Rhode tracking toward ~$265M this year. The bear case is the 69% gross margin under China tariffs; the bull case is that the dupe machine keeps taking shelf inch by inch.

market cap $6B · revenue $2B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Mass Shelf War

The legacy drugstore brands e.l.f. is dethroning

LRLCY — L'Oréal

The industry's $240B superpower — Maybelline, NYX, and L'Oréal Paris own the mass shelf e.l.f. is raiding, while Lancôme and CeraVe cover every other price point.

Why it matters: e.l.f. dethroned L'Oréal's Maybelline as America's #1 mass cosmetics brand by unit share — the clearest scalp of the dupe era.

market cap $244B · revenue $45B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

COTY — Coty

CoverGirl, Rimmel, and a stable of licensed fragrances — the legacy mass house whose stock has collapsed to penny-adjacent levels while e.l.f. eats its shelf.

market cap $3B · revenue $6B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

REVLON — Revlon (private)

The cautionary tale: a century-old mass giant that went bankrupt in 2022 and re-emerged private — proof that the drugstore aisle takes no prisoners.

The Prestige Guard

The department-store empires the dupes are aimed at

EL — Estée Lauder

The prestige house of houses — MAC, Clinique, La Mer, Tom Ford — mid-turnaround after China travel-retail collapsed and an entire generation discovered the dupes of its hero products.

market cap $37B · revenue $15B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

LVMUY — LVMH (Sephora, Fenty, Dior Beauty)

Luxury's empire owns both sides of the counter: Dior and Givenchy beauty, half of Rihanna's Fenty — and Sephora, the prestige channel everyone (including e.l.f.'s Rhode) must pass through.

market cap $264B · revenue $80B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Insurgents

Celebrity and DTC brands fighting for the same Gen-Z mindshare

RAREBEAUTY — Rare Beauty (private)

Selena Gomez's brand — the biggest of the celebrity-beauty wave, built on TikTok virality and Sephora shelf space, with IPO chatter never far away.

valuation $2B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

GLOSSIER — Glossier (private)

The original DTC-era darling — millennial-pink minimalism that peaked at a $1.8B valuation, then had to follow everyone else into Sephora to keep growing.

valuation $1B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

The Shelf

Physical and viral — where beauty actually sells

ULTA — Ulta Beauty

The biggest US beauty-only retailer — mass and prestige under one roof, plus shops inside Target. Both a channel and a gatekeeper for every brand on this map.

market cap $23B · revenue $13B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

TGT — Target

e.l.f.'s original launchpad and still a marquee mass channel — the beauty aisle is one of the few places Target reliably wins with Gen Z.

market cap $77B · revenue $108B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

WMT — Walmart

The largest shelf in America — mass beauty at Walmart scale is a volume game, and its beauty reset keeps adding space for the value brands.

market cap $848B · revenue $736B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

AMZN — Amazon

The fastest-growing beauty shelf: Premium Beauty storefronts pulled the prestige holdouts in, and the search bar is where dupe discovery starts.

revenue $776B (research snapshot; the live map shows current data)

TIKTOK — TikTok / TikTok Shop (private)

The virality engine and, via TikTok Shop, a real sales channel: one viral "dupe for X" video moves more units than a season of ads. e.l.f. is the most-mentioned beauty brand of the platform era.

The Mirror

Where the money ultimately comes from

The Beauty Consumer

A half-trillion-dollar global category that grows through every cycle — because at $8 a lipstick is an affordable luxury, and at $80 it's an identity. Gen Z discovers on TikTok, price-checks on Amazon, and buys everywhere.

Relationships on the map

• Chinese Contract Manufacturers supplies e.l.f. Beauty — Outsourced production
  The engine of the $8 price point — and the tariff exposure that squeezed gross margin to ~69%. Diversification beyond China is the margin story to watch.
• International Flavors & Fragrances supplies Estée Lauder — Fragrance & ingredients
  The scent-and-actives layer under the whole industry — prestige houses lean hardest on the big ingredient labs.
• e.l.f. Beauty competes with L'Oréal — The mass crown
  e.l.f. dethroned Maybelline as America's #1 mass cosmetics brand by unit share — the defining upset of the dupe era.
• e.l.f. Beauty competes with Coty — Drugstore shelf
  Every inch e.l.f. gains at Target and Walmart tends to come out of CoverGirl's planogram.
• e.l.f. Beauty competes with Estée Lauder — The dupe economy
  e.l.f.'s playbook is duplicating prestige hero products at a fifth of the price — Estée Lauder's brands are the originals being duped.
• Coty competes with Revlon — Legacy mass decline
  The old drugstore names fighting over a shrinking legacy shelf while the value disruptors take the growth.
• Estée Lauder competes with LVMH (Sephora, Fenty, Dior Beauty) — Prestige counters
  The department-store and travel-retail turf war: MAC and Clinique vs Dior Beauty and Fenty.
• Rare Beauty competes with e.l.f. Beauty — Gen-Z mindshare
  Celebrity gravity vs the dupe machine — both grew up on TikTok and fight for the same first-beauty-purchase customer.
• Glossier competes with Rare Beauty — Insurgent lane
  The millennial original vs the Gen-Z heavyweight, now sharing the same Sephora shelves.
• e.l.f. Beauty supplies Target — Core mass shelf (~$300M/yr)
  Target was e.l.f.'s original national launchpad and remains a marquee channel — the brand's best shelf position in mass retail.
• e.l.f. Beauty supplies Ulta Beauty — Beauty-aisle expansion
  Ulta carries e.l.f. deep into the beauty-first shopper base, mass and masstige side by side.
• e.l.f. Beauty supplies LVMH (Sephora, Fenty, Dior Beauty) — Rhode at Sephora
  The Rhode acquisition bought e.l.f. a seat in prestige: Hailey Bieber's brand launched at Sephora — an LVMH-owned channel — in one of the chain's biggest debuts.
• e.l.f. Beauty partners with TikTok / TikTok Shop — Virality + TikTok Shop
  e.l.f. is the defining brand of beauty TikTok — viral dupes drive discovery, and TikTok Shop converts it on the spot.
• Ulta Beauty partners with Target — Ulta at Target
  Ulta shops inside Target stores — the beauty gatekeeper renting space from the mass anchor.
• e.l.f. Beauty supplies The Beauty Consumer — Affordable glam (~$2B/yr)
  The whole company is priced for the person who wants the look without the prestige receipt.
• Estée Lauder supplies The Beauty Consumer — The prestige receipt (~$15B/yr)
  Prestige beauty sells identity and gifting — the counters, the compacts, the little brown box.