Rachel Strugatz

News, notes, and dish from the evolving front lines of the celebrity beauty sub-industry: Blake Lively's drama-filled debut, Lady Gaga's surprise comeback, and Gwen Stefani's doubtful shelf-life.

A dip into the recent plot twists of the nearly half-trillion-dollar beauty industry: Inside LVMH's Givenchy fumble, the pivot away from “clean beauty,” the Sephora Industrial Complex, and the Drunk Elephant-ization of niche.

Emily Weiss's $2 billion beauty brand is launching not one but two new perfumes this autumn, perhaps hoping that another dose of lightning in the bottle could seduce that long-awaited deep-pocketed suitor.

Estée Lauder's latest stab at innovation is Balmain Beauty, a new partnership that attempts to revive a legacy brand and has debuted with an exceedingly large portfolio of products. Could it work? Well, it's not Cartier, but it kinda has to.

There are apparently five contenders in the mix to succeed Fabrizio Freda as the next C.E.O. of The Estée Lauder Companies—including Jane, an heir to the Lauder fortune.

Rêve and Doux, the company's new fragrances, had a buoyant debut. But will they offer the sort of sustained success required to create a scent portfolio and offer Emily Weiss (and Kirsten Green… and Josh Kushner…) that long-awaited exit?

Despite recent layoffs, Gwyneth has found her groove in the food business and gotten serious (no more vagina candles) about her beauty brand. But can her wry, in-on-the-joke WASP aesthetic and celebrity icon status overcome C-suite troubles and find her an exit?

Jane, an ELC exec and a runner-up to replace departing C.E.O. Fabrizio Freda, has announced she's stepping back from the company her grandmother built, along with her cousin William Lauder. How will this notably un-familial succession drama, and the new reign of Stéphane de La Faverie, scramble the company the Lauders are leaving?

Gwyneth's eternally unprofitable startup is facing yet another crisis, with a flailing beauty brand, a third round of layoffs, and a founder who's realizing the limits of building a brand around her own personality. Will Goop ever locate an exit?

After being passed over for the C.E.O. job, and as she exits her family's storied beauty company, Jane Lauder took a sharpened eyeliner pencil to her cousin William in a leaked letter calling for his ouster from the board. Is this a petty family skirmish, an overdue governance change, or the first salvo in a new era at the historic beauty company?