Our investment expert Anne Ashworth makes YOU money by scouring the stock exchange for the very best funds and shares. She exposes how you can capitalize cosmetics ...
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Looking great can be expensive. Lotions, potions, makeup and creams: they are all costly. But for investors, they can also be highly rewarding.

The target of among this summer season's most talked-about takeover offers is a cosmetics organization developed just 3 years earlier by an American design who's married to a pop idol.

This business's items, a huge success amongst Gen Z, include a 'glazed-doughnut result' lip treatment.

The $6.41 bn e.l.f. Beauty group, celebrated for its discount 'dupe' - or copycat - creams and comprise, is paying $1bn in shares and money for Rhode, a charm business whose sales in the year to March were $212m.

Rhode is led by Hailey Rhode Bieber, a business owner and influencer with 55.1 m Instagram fans, an important in a market being interrupted by social networks. She is the better half of singer Justin and child of actor Stephen Baldwin, sibling of Alec.

The excitement around the deal recommends that, if your portfolio needs a glow-up, maybe you ought to aim to the international appeal service, whose sales are anticipated to reach $600bn by 2028.

Rhode, a beauty company owned by design Hailey Bieber, is being gotten by e.l.f. Beauty (below) for $1bn

New research from Barclays shows that the 'lipstick index', still applies.

Under this theory, in difficult times women will continue to treat themselves to a small extravagance such as a lipstick - or nowadays, a peptide lip treatment.

Gerrit Smit of fund supervisor Stonehage Fleming thinks the human desire to look better will always be with us - and therefore guarantees returns for investors.

'Beauty is a sector with indefinite sustainable development, as the desire for appeal is a forever aspect. Everyone is aging and wish to look great doing so.'

Smit highlights the sector's innovation, with its concentrate on progressing creams and cosmetics for various markets, varying from 'tweens', the 13-year-olds with intricate skin cleansing routines, to older females combating the repercussions of ageing.

Such was the excitement about Rhode's prospective to attract all ages that there was a 24pc bounce in it shares.

The purchase of Rhode will also enable e.l.f. (the name means eyes, lips, face) to diversify its supply chain. The business, that makes 75pc of its ranges in China, is presently based on 30pc tariffs in the US, and has already been forced to raise rates.

News of the Rhode acquisition was accompanied by the statement of 28pc boost in e.l.f.'s sales for 2025 to $1.3 bn. This seems like an excellent rise. But sales jumped by 77pc in 2024.

Ms Bieber and e.l.f. Beauty chairman and CEO Tarang Amin

The slower development highlights the industry's numerous difficulties - such as Chinese customers' hesitation to spend.

This disinclination to splash the money has hit the shares of the charm power homes: Coty, Estee Lauder, L'Oreal, Shiseido and Puig, the Spanish owner of Charlotte Tilbury.

Estee Lauder shares reached $365 in December 2021. They are now back down at $68, partly due to management and other issues - however likewise because 26pc of its incomes come from China.

Other forces are also bringing modification, as Will McIntosh Whyte, fund manager at Rathbones, points out: 'Brand loyalty is on the decline, given that social media enables start-up brand names to reach large audiences and proliferate.'

But e.l.f.'s move to purchase Rhode could suggest self-confidence is returning and there is a chance for investors to benefit.

At least one influential and hard-headed US financier appears convinced this the case.

Michael Burry, the hedge fund manager whose bet in 2008 on mortgage-backed securities was illustrated in the movie The Big Short, is backing revival at Estee Lauder.

His Scion Asset Management fund now holds a $13.3 m stake in Estee Lauder, owner of brands like Bobbi Brown, Clinique, Jo Malone London and Le Labo.

Who knows if Burry is a routine user of Estee Lauder Advanced Night Repair Serum? But there can be some benefit to committing a few of your financial investment budget plan to the business that make the things you like. This familiarity provides you extra insight. Here are your alternatives.

THE BEAUTY PARADE

Among L'Oreal brand names are CeraVe, Garnier, Maybelline and the more upmarket Aesop and Lancome

L'Oreal, a EUR200bn Paris-based business, is the titan of the industry. The founding family, the Bettencourt Meyers dynasty, have a 35pc stake.

Among L'Oreal brand names are CeraVe, Garnier, Maybelline and the more upmarket Aesop and Lancome. Demand for these pricey lines helped first-quarter sales to rise by 3.5 pc to EUR11.73 bn.

Smit notes L'Oreal's strengths. 'Its success is based on extreme research: it spends about EUR1bn a year. Its gross profit margins can be as high as 70pc on some items; it also has prices power.'

Smit likewise likes the company's slogan: 'We do only appeal however all of beauty.'

McIntosh Whyte relates to L'Oreal as 'the quality play' in the sector due to the fact that of its early recognition of social networks's significance.

He adds: 'L'Oreal is skilled at acquiring brand names popular with more youthful consumers such as the skin care brands Dr G and Youth To Individuals. The company uses its scale to turn these brand names from niche players into worldwide names.'

L'Oreal shares have increased by 15pc over the previous 6 months to EUR384. Estee Lauder shares started to surge a month back, spurred by hopes that the $20bn group can stage a turn-around. For the moment, experts rank the shares a hold.

E.l.f., by contrast, is ranked a 'purchase', although the shares are 564pc above their level of 5 years back. The view seems to be that, although other celebrity charm brand names are for sale, Rhode is the most appealing.

Investment guru (and cosmetics lover) Anne Ashworth states she'll be investing - on the basis that it can pay to put your cash where your mouth is

E.l.f. does not seem discouraged by the so-so experience of Coty's financial investment in two Kardashian brand names. Coty maintains a 51pc piece of Kylie Beauty, the Kylie Jenner brand, however her sis Kim Kardashian has redeemed her firm.

Coty shares are 81pc lower than a decade ago, and 34pc down over the previous six months at $5. But analysts appear to reckon that Coty should take advantage of the upturn in the sector and recommend that the shares are worth holding.

Most experts also think about shares in Ulta Beauty to be a 'hold', although this chain of American appeal stores and hair salons reported better-than-expected very first quarter sales late last month, triggering an 18pc bounce in the shares to $467.

Ulta's primary executive Kecia Steelman, summed up the state of mind that is sparking the healing: 'Many customers show that they are leaning into charm as a comfort and escape from the stress of macro uncertainty.'

shares soared 62% in a year - and a crucial minute looms: ANNE ASHWORTH asks it time to invest?

Shares in Shiseido, the Japanese group, are 65pc down over 5 years at 2,441 yen. Nevertheless, analysts think about Shiseido to be a 'hold' obviously hoping the company is attending to issues such as bad performance of its whimsical Drunk Elephant skincare brand.

For a while, Drunk Elephant was a favourite among teens. But these are unpredictable consumers, and there was some controversy regarding whether this age group requires potions to take on wrinkles. The London activist financier Independent Franchise Partners has a holding in Shiseido which must add to push for modification.

More optimism surrounds the Spanish group Puig which is viewed as 'buy' on the basis of more demand for its Paco Rabanne and other aromas. The shares stand at EUR17.

One analyst predicts a rise to EUR30 - which would be excellent news for Charlotte Tilbury, the founder of the eponymous brand. She keeps a minority shareholding in her development until Puig presumes complete ownership in 2031.

A tube of Charlotte Tilbury's bestselling Pillow Talk lipstick costs ₤ 29. A tube of W7 Naked Desire lipstick (in a similar gold-fluted housing) is ₤ 4.

On the basis that lots of will choose an inexpensive reward, shares in the W7 business - the ₤ 388m Warpaint London - look attractive buy at 455p. Analysts have set an average target rate of 666p.

As an unashamed lover of creams, makeup and fragrance - I have drawers loaded with the stuff - I am going to take a bet on a spread of appeal stocks.

I will be spending for the basis that it can pay to put your cash where your mouth is. Or should that be what you place on your eyes, your lips and your face?