Despite consumer pullback on discretionary spending across retail categories, beauty is thriving. And L’Oréal, the world’s largest beauty company, is too.

As consumer habits change, the company is eyeing growth within its more affordable mass market segment, its Consumer Products Division (CPD), home to L’Oréal Paris, Garnier, Maybelline, NYX, Thayers, and Essie. With ~$5 billion in its most recent quarterly sales—for reference, that’s more than Estée Lauder’s total quarterly sales—it’s the company’s largest division. And it’s got momentum behind it: Last year, mass beauty outpaced prestige for the first time in years and in Q1, mass sales rose 7% to $18.1 billion, Circana reported.

“I don’t think consumers are thinking about it as a downgrade,” Tina Fair, president of CPD of North America, told Retail Brew. “We’re capturing that prestige consumer that is shopping in other channels and being a little bit more conscious.”

Fair, a company veteran, assumed her role last year, rejoining the division where she first started at L’Oréal 18 years ago, combining an internal transformation at CPD with a new marketing perspective to help its portfolio of popular beauty brands continue to shine.

Keep reading here.—EC

Many LGBTQ+ consumers are pulling back spending at several top retailers due to the perceived lack of support for the community, a new report from the Human Rights Campaign Foundation (HRCF) found.

Target is the top company LGBTQ+ consumers associated with a pullback in spending due to a drop in commitments to the LGBTQ+ community, followed by Walmart, Amazon, Chick-Fil-A, and The Home Depot, according to a survey of 10,000 LGBTQ+ and 5,000 non-LGBTQ+ adults.

Costco was the top brand consumers associated with “visible commitment” to LGBTQ+ consumers and therefore increased spending, with Apple, Ben & Jerry’s, Delta, and Kroger rounding out the top five.

Respondents also most often named Costco as the most “authentically supportive” of LGBTQ+ consumers, followed by Apple, Starbucks, Delta, and Subaru.

Keep reading here.—EC

Kevin Durant is an NBA champion, an MVP, and a gold medalist. Perhaps more importantly, he’s also the face of legs.

Earlier this year, skin care brand CeraVe declared Kevin Durant to be the “new face of legs” in a campaign that riffed on a 2021 viral post from former NBA player Isaiah Thomas about Durant’s long (and apparently dry) limbs. Durant kicked off the campaign with a video responding to the post and its replies on X, a platform where he’s long been active and has developed a reputation for clapping back.

“‘Next time you take a matter into your own hands, make sure it’s lotion,’” Durant reads in the video.

Keep reading here on Marketing Brew.—KH