What do tomatoes, Hershey’s chocolate syrup and Edie Falco’s character on “The Sopranos” have in common?

They’ve all been cited as inspiration for beauty trends — “tomato girl” makeup, a heavily-blushed freckled face; glossy brunette “chocolate syrup” hair and the “mob wife” look, which includes sultry eyes and plenty of lip liner — that have recently taken off on TikTok.

Since the platform exploded during the pandemic, TikTok has forever changed the trend cycle, particularly in beauty. Today, cleverly named, at-times outlandish looks can quickly rise — and fall — from the centre of conversation. But while their impact may be short-lived, TikTok trends’ impact on the industry at large is enormous. Consumers can immediately start recreating trends with products they already have at home, but depending on whatever’s “in” at any given moment, different products can see a sales bump or slump. 2023′s popular “clean girl” makeup look, for example, often eschews foundation in favour of light concealer.

For beauty brands, the endless churn of TikTok trends also provides ample opportunity to engage in the cultural conversation, whether it’s through marketing on social media or selecting what products to highlight in-store. But it’s up to brands to decipher which trends are worth paying attention to.

“It’s an exciting way for people to interpret the direction that makeup is going, but in a way that’s incredibly relatable,” said Cat Quinn, executive director of trend at Mac Cosmetics.

Capitalising on The Trend Cycle

While being able to have a red-hot, viral product may be somewhat down to luck, brands with wide product assortments and flexible formulas will be at an advantage, said Cierra Sherwin, a product developer who has worked with Glossier and Bobbi Brown.

“You always want to maintain a lens of products that allow for manipulation … [things that you can] sheer out, or build up for example,” she said. “[Brands need to] create that nuance.”

That doesn’t mean trying to be all things to all consumers, and brands don’t need to attempt every single trend. Instead, Sherwin said brands need to be clear about what lane they want to play in, and not lose focus on their core products. Everyday essentials like lip liner and lip gloss, for example, are not going away, she added.

But if a trend really resonates with a brand’s core ethos, or is a natural fit for a hero product, brands should be vocal about it, said Lisa Payne, head of beauty at trends agency Stylus. That can be done by publishing social media content themed to a particular trend, but could even be employed in stores through new signage or re-merchandising.

But brands need to be aware of their own limitations — they’re not the tastemakers. Rather than working to create trends, they should be looking out for them. Once executives have identified a trend that makes sense for their label, then focus on identifying the influencers or figures who are popularising it and connect with them. A hot trend can also boost an influencer: Hailey Bieber’s ascendance to the influencer A-list went hand-in-hand with her popularisation of her “glazed donut” look.

The lightning-fast pace of TikTok can make it difficult to create new products in response to trends — by the time the product in question is on store shelves, the internet may have moved on. Instead, brands can iterate on existing items. Sherwin pointed to the example of Rhode, already known for its peptide lip treatment product, which introduced a strawberry glazed doughnut-flavoured version in collaboration with Krispy Kreme, a nod to the “glazed donut” trend Bieber helped start.

“Just getting the products into the hands of people who are going to play with these trends [makes them] more relevant,” said Payne.

Spotting Staying Power

Spotting trends early will also give beauty brands a leg up that can help in planning these responses — the sooner you notice a trend, the more quickly you can react to it. To be on the lookout, Sherwin suggests paying attention to what people are talking about on TikTok, but also what’s happening in culture at large. Quinn said she sees the mob wife trend, for example, as a pushback to more muted trends that proliferated last year.

“I think a lot of consumers feel that they’ve been doing minimalism and ‘quiet luxury’ for so long,” said Quinn. “They want makeup, and they want theatre.”

Her advice to brands? Not getting too hung up on a trend’s quirky name — instead, look at what sort of beauty looks that name represents. Mob wife, for example, is not so much about a desire to truly take style cues from the mafia, but to create a “feeling of badassery,” said Payne.

Many of these flash trends are not tied to a new technique or product, and some even overlap with one another — 2023′s “strawberry girl” and “tomato girl” are nearly identical, for instance. And even if a trend is linked to a pop culture moment, like the debut of a new TV show or film, it can evolve beyond the original reference.

Many trends are just reworks of something we’ve seen before. “Latte makeup,” for instance, a matte brown smokey eye, has cycled in and out of style since the 1990s. The more trends that share the same visual facets, the more likely those core themes will stick around.

“There’s something quite addictive for the TikTok generation to jump on something from the past and give it a new name,” said Payne.

Taking a nuanced view will also serve brands well, especially as various consumer demographics interpret trends very differently. Experts say, a wise tactic for brand leaders is to think about how a certain trend will land in various geographies or among different age groups.

Ultimately, it comes down to maintaining a product strategy that allows for both viral moments and everyday workhorses. Beyond that, brands should look for the wider meaning in these small moments.

“[Ask] what your customers are going to take from [this moment], how will they apply it to their lives?,” said Payne. “And how can brands use that to their commercial betterment?”

Spanish fashion retailer Mango reported on Monday record sales of €3.1 billion ($3.39 billion) in 2023, beating its forecast after matching domestic rival Zara’s strong expansion in the United States.

The Barcelona-based brand said sales jumped 19 percent last year to exceed its forecast of €3 billion through a focus on party wear and fashion pieces for upmarket shoppers who are less sensitive to higher prices.

That helped it fend off pressure from the rapid growth and bargain prices of online players such as China-based Shein.

Mango has positioned itself more as a premium retailer and has higher prices than Inditex-owned Zara and Sweden’s H&M in some party pieces, retail intelligence company EDITED said.

The biggest price rises are in dresses, where average in-stock prices grew 46 percent for the 2024 spring collection versus two years ago in markets such as the US, according to EDITED.

“For many items prices have not increased, but the price mix of our collection has,” said Mango CEO Toni Ruiz, adding the company has reduced the number of pieces sold at a discount.

Mango’s net profit rose to €172.1 million, from €81 million in 2022, Ruiz said at a press conference. Its gross margin was near 60 percent in 2023 and the company has zero net debt, Mango said.

The family-owned fashion brand is following in the footsteps of the world’s largest listed fast-fashion group Inditex, which is also expanding in the US.

New US Stores

Ruiz said the company plans to open 30 more stores in the United States, and make that market its third largest by 2026, as part of a plan to open 500 new shops worldwide in the next two years to reach 2,700 stores.

The company invested €187 million last year, mainly in new stores and logistics centres.

Around 20 of the 130 stores Mango opened last year were in the United States, where it began an expansion in 2022 with a flagship store in New York.

It aims to reach total annual sales of €4 billion and double its net profit by 2026 as a result of the expansion, Ruiz said.

He said Mango has no plans to list on the stock market and does not need new investors to raise resources for an expansion plan that will require €600 million of investment by 2026.

The company has been carrying out an internal reorganisation, creating a new board of directors led by founder Isak Andic. Ruiz acquired a 5 percent stake in the company last year.

By Corina Pons and Charlie Devereux; Editors: Alexander Smith and Susan Fenton

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Gucci-owner Kering and Ray-Ban parent EssilorLuxottica are among the suitors for Italian eyewear manufacturer Marcolin, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

New York-headquartered eyewear maker Marchon has also expressed an interest, the FT added citing a single source.

Reuters had reported last month that top managers at Marcolin — which produces Tom Ford spectacles — have started meeting potential suitors while they prepare the company for a merger or sale by renewing a series of key licensing accords.

Marcolin’s owner, private equity firm PAI Partners, is seeking a valuation of about 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) for the company, the FT reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

PAI, which bought Marcolin in 2012, has hired Goldman Sachs as an adviser as it prepares the company for sale, Reuters reported, citing sources close to the matter.

PAI declined to comment on the FT report, while Marcolin, Kering, EssilorLuxottica, Safilo and Marchon did not immediately respond to a Reuters’ request for comment.

EssilorLuxottica would be the best fit for Marcolin, the FT said, adding that Milan-listed Safilo had also looked at the company but views it as an “opportunistic add-on” and is the least likely buyer.

Marcolin, which has operations in Italy’s eyewear manufacturing district in the country’s northeast, reported a 3 percent increase in revenue to 422 million euros in the first nine months of last year. Its adjusted core profit rose 28 percent to 65 million euros.

By Mrinmay Dey in Bengaluru; editor: Emelia Sithole-Matarise and David Holmes

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The Body Shop has filed for bankruptcy in the US and Canada and is struggling to pay suppliers in Australia as the group’s most profitable overseas businesses struggle with cash shortages after its UK parent’s collapse last month.

The US arm of the ethical cosmetics group has ceased trading at its 50 outlets. On Saturday, it filed for Chapter 7 insolvency, under which assets are sold off to clear debts, putting about 400 jobs at risk including those in a distribution centre that still holds millions of dollars-worth of stock.

In Canada, 33 of the 105 shops have closed, with the loss of more than 200 jobs.

In Australia, where the group operates almost 100 stores and is responsible for more than 20 more in New Zealand, it is understood that the future of the chain is hanging in the balance as it struggles to cover large debts after its access to funds was cut off.

Sources said the profitable business could cover its day-to-day expenses from cashflow but would need additional funds to cover debts to suppliers such as logistics firms, warehouses and marketing agencies for services during its busy Christmas season.

The Body Shop’s UK arm collapsed in February, only months after a German private equity group, Aurelius, bought the group founded by the late environmental and human rights campaigner Anita Roddick. The deal was completed in January and the UK business was put into administration less than six weeks later.

Sources said that money earned by the key overseas businesses during the peak trading period in November and December was paid into a global account, based in the UK, in a practice termed “cash pooling”. However, funds in the account are now not available to cover debts to suppliers used during that period as access was cut off when the UK parent company called in the accounting firm FRP Advisory as administrators.

It is understood that the North American and Australasian businesses are now counted as creditors to the UK arm and may have to wait months for any payment via FRP.

A spokesperson for FRP said: “The cash pooling ceased upon The Body Shop International entering into administration with funds then remaining with each subsidiary entity.”

It is understood that the Australian business has unsustainable levels of debt which will require new funding.

Since the UK business collapsed, FRP has announced the closure of more than 80 of the ethical beauty retailer’s 198 UK stores while more than 300 jobs have been cut from its head office.

Aurelius is the top creditor of the UK business and, as it controls the brand rights, is in pole position to reclaim The Body Shop from administrators. Other potentially interested parties are thought to include Next, as well as the HMV owner Doug Putman.

The Body Shop’s divisions in Germany, Denmark, Ireland and Belgium have all been put into insolvency, with stores outside Germany closed, after being sold by Aurelius to Alma24. The company is controlled by Friedrich Trautwein, a close associate of Aurelius who has previously helped to shut down unwanted businesses.

The future of The Body Shop’s operations in Spain, Sweden, France and Austria is unclear amid wrangling over ownership.

Filings in Canada reveal that the Body Shop there owed $3.3m (£1.9m) to landlords, logistics, providers, marketing agencies, insurers, utilities and freight service providers when it entered insolvency on 1 March. The company said it no longer had access to its e-commerce platform or the ability to ship to wholesale partners including Amazon or to receive new stocks because of difficulties in paying suppliers.

The problems come as it emerges that Aurelius has so far paid less than £100m of the headline £207m price for The Body Shop.

Only part of the agreed £117m initial purchase price has been so far handed over to the group’s former owner Natura, with the rest due over the coming five years. A further £90m is due only if certain performance criteria are met over that period, and so may never be paid.

Administrators are understood to be investigating a claim that more than £10m was extracted from The Body Shop’s UK arm in December by Natura. The money is understood to linked to debts owed by its former subsidiary which sources said had been laid out in the sale agreement between Natura and Aurelius.

By Sarah Butler

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