“We aren’t going to make Russian women beautiful, we are going to keep them beautiful,” Estée Lauder said over a microphone on Nov. 16, 1989, at the inauguration of her eponymous company’s first store in the Soviet Union, just a few blocks from Moscow’s Red Square.

The outdoor temperature might have registered as freezing, but the crowd of onlookers sizzled with excitement. This was the first freestanding boutique in which Russian women could buy Western cosmetics with rubles, an important step in the Estée Lauder Cos.’ international expansion.

That push began in 1960 with the Estée Lauder brand’s launch in Holt Renfrew in Toronto. Soon after, it hit Harrods in London and then Puerto Rico. That decade saw other international debuts, including Sweden, Hong Kong, Australia, France and Japan — places that would enhance the awareness and international visibility of the brand — all by 1968.

In 1973, business contracts were started in the then-Soviet Union, where Lauder products became available in hard-currency shops. Four years after the Moscow shop, the company opened doors of an Estée Lauder Perfumery in Warsaw.

Other key years included 1993, when the group entered China with corners for the Estée Lauder and Clinique brands at the Isetan department store in Shanghai. That helped set the expansion in the country, and elsewhere in Asia, in motion. The next year, the group unveiled its first freestanding store in Prague.

Global reach expanded through other means, too. Some international brands were snapped up by the Estée Lauder Cos., such as MAC Cosmetics, with a minority stake in the Canada-based makeup brand in 1994, followed by a full-out acquisition in 1998; the purchase of Jo Malone London in 1999, and the acquisition of Darphin in France in the early 2000s.

The Estée Lauder Cos. has become a global powerhouse, with its business outside of the U.S. comprising $11.3 billion, or 75.1 percent, of the overall sales of $15.05 billion, in the fiscal year 2026 ended June 30.

The company has bestselling brands, including La Mer, which is the first ranked luxury skin care brand globally, and MAC Cosmetics, which holds the top prestige makeup position worldwide.

Now, as it retrenches after a difficult few years, Lauder’s turnaround continues to gather pace, having just registered one of the strongest fourth quarters in many years, driven by successes all over the world. As the company celebrates the 80th anniversary of its founding, executives from around the world shared how the Beauty Reimagined strategy devised by chief executive officer Stéphane de La Faverie is positively impacting the company’s businesses around the world.

The Americas

The Americas — the Estée Lauder Cos.’ birthplace — remains its largest geographic region sales-wise, generating $4.46 billion in fiscal 2026.

The group’s North America business returned to volume-share growth in calendar year 2025 and fiscal year 2026, after a significant period of decline. “It was absolutely by design, and so just in time for our big birthday party,” said Tara Simon, president, the Americas.

There, the group trades in a buoyant category. In the U.S., the prestige beauty industry has been growing in the mid-single digits for some time and outpacing global growth.

Each of the company’s more than 20 brands is distributed in North America, with many earning the top spot in key categories. In the U.S., Clinique is the first-ranked brand in prestige beauty, and the Estée Lauder Cos. has four of the top 10 brands in prestige skin care and four of the top 10 brands in prestige makeup.

The continent’s dynamics, particularly in the U.S., are “wild” — with numerous channels, such as specialty-multi, freestanding and department stores, plus digital that’s rapidly emerging — according to Simon. All play a significant role.

“The Estée Lauder Companies is historically very bespoke in the way that we work with our retail partners within the channel,” Simon said, describing the company as “consumer-obsessed.” “We want to meet the customer where they are. We’re shifting more into fast-growth channels.”

In North America, that translates into more specialty-multi and digital, such as Amazon and now TikTok Shop. Take as an example Bobbi Brown. For years before Simon arrived at Lauder, in January 2025, the brand was overdistributed. “Then you’re just slicing the pie up too much,” she said. “We need to grow. The charter is: gain market share, dominate.”

So each business was looked at through a bespoke lens to align what’s right for the brand and for its consumer. To turn Bobbi Brown’s growth around, the brand was pulled back into specialty-multi stores — Sephora and Ulta — as well as the higher-end department store Nordstrom. Bobbi Brown launched on Amazon last year.

Altogether, the brand went from about 11 distribution points to four, with bespoke programming in each retailer.

“It’s back to growth now, which is amazing,” Simon said, adding the same strategy can be applied to most any brand in the company’s portfolio. The equation includes getting the brand in the right place, understanding consumer insights for that retailer, then building the brand out in partnership with them to achieve success as fast as possible and delight the consumer the most.

MAC Cosmetics is another example. For the past 40 years there was no talk of MAC entering Sephora.

“We just crafted it — it happened very organically,” Simon said. “That’s how you gain market share. MAC is an amazing business at Ulta Beauty. Happy to report, it’s still very, very healthy and growing steadily there, even since the Sephora launch. MAC has always had a very large footprint of freestanding stores. Those are healthy. The department store business — healthy.”

Lauder often partners with retailers “in the kitchen.” In such meetings, a retailer might note white space in a brand’s assortment for the consumer that can be created by the Lauder product development team also present. Such products often become regional and afterward global.

The regions work hand-in-hand with the brand’s marketing teams. In fragrance, Kilian Paris — Lauder’s fastest-growing brand overall — wasn’t growing quickly enough in America. “So we partnered with the global brand and Kilian, and developed a more prestige-tier fragrance, called Kilian Cocktails,” Simon said, explaining the trio of scents launched at Sephora in late summer and “blew out.”

“In 48 hours, we were completely out of stock,” she said. “That’s another great example of identifying a need in the market where we felt we had room to capture more of the consumers that were shopping in that prestige fragrance tier instead of the high, high-luxury tier. We built that out, and built all the programs.”

Social commerce is another big piece of the retail ecosystem today, particularly in the U.S.

“This region is such a complexity, with multiple flywheels going on,” Simon said. Something might happen on Amazon or TikTok that lifts business at Ulta, Sephora or the department stores.

“These channels are part of the 360-approach to how we look at our business,” she said.

There’s also a blurring of product categories lines, with American beauty consumers shopping across mass, prestige and luxury. “We can’t look at the business just looking at prestige,” Simon said. “Because you’ve got to keep up with the consumer, and they’re everywhere.”

Demographics are shifting, too. In the U.S., the Latina population is increasingly dramatically. (Latinos already make up approximately 20 percent of all denizens.) “Their beauty consumption is far greater than other populations,” said Simon.

Men are an additional growing beauty demographic. Another notable shift is that people are becoming beauty buyers younger. “Thirteen-year-old boys have a fragrance collection that is to be envied,” she said. Plus, people overall are taking care of themselves more, with a focus on longevity.

Geographically speaking, Mexico has been among the fastest-growing emerging markets for Lauder. It’s a major fragrance market, with an emphasis on makeup, too. “Brazil is like unchartered territory in some ways with prestige, because it’s such as mass-market business,” Simon said, describing both Latin America markets as quickly growing and dynamic.

Trading up is important. “We’ve gotten really skilled at learning and knowing how to migrate a consumer,” Simon said. A consumer might be buying a $12 entry-price mass mascara, for example. “There are levers that you can pull with your retail partners to migrate them up into a MAC mascara or into a Clinique mascara or into a Too Faced Better Than Sex mascara,” Simon said. Ditto for department stores, within the prestige brand assortment.

Looking ahead, the priorities in the Americas remain: “Growth, growth and more growth — and market-share gains,” Simon said. She highlighted how group organic sales rose 5 percent, driven by North America’s significant return to growth, in the fourth quarter of Lauder’s 2026 fiscal year.

“My clear charter is that we’ve got to have stair-step growth quarter over quarter, and deliver that constantly,” Simon said. “We have, and we are, and we will.”

Europe and Emerging Markets

Europe, the U.K., Ireland and emerging markets were confederated as “EUKEM” under Beauty Reimagined.

“It reinforces how we go to market, and how we’re accelerating growth across those markets,” said Nadine Graf, president of the zone.

In fiscal 2026, EUKEM’s sales grew 6 percent in reported terms to $3.79 billion.

Emerging markets are one of the biggest growth opportunity for the Estée Lauder Cos. To date, they generate around 10 percent of the company’s sales.

“Their sales are growing two- to three-times faster than the average prestige beauty growth,” Graf said. “If you have it at 15 percent in the foresmieeable future, it makes a big impact on the growth algorithm that we have for the corporation. The way we’re operating and bringing our catalyst markets — the markets that really move the needle for the corporation — closer to the source of the global brands, this is ultimately where the magic happens.”

Beauty Reimagined is already bearing fruit in EUKEM in many ways.

“You have global scale that we always had, but now paired with speed and excellence in execution,” Graf said. “What has changed in the last 18 months? We are moving where the consumer is.”

Also in EUKEM, Lauder is adapting to how people shop in a world where the prestige beauty channel does not exist anymore. Social commerce is a game changer. Southeast Asia is very strong in that, from discovery to experience to transaction. Amazon has been a key growth accelerator, too, as has TikTok Shop, where MAC is successful in the U.K.

“TikTok Shop is extremely influential for really capturing that new consumer,” Graf said, adding with such platforms in mature markets Lauder can lasso market-share gains.

Pivoting to different retail channels has proven successful in emerging markets, too. An example: MAC in the Middle East was historically a freestanding store business. It recently launched at Sephora, since that’s where the young consumer is.

“You immediately see how the entire ecosystem of the brand starts to be relevant again,” Graf said. “This is not one channel diluting the other.”

To be consumer-centric, there needs to be an operating model that enables teams to act at the speed of the consumer. Today, Lauder operates as one team — including the global team, the regional team and the local teams. “That’s what excites me the most,” Graf said.

Another example: Lauder takes locally pertinent insights to create a locally relevant campaign that becomes almost global, since it is created by WPP, now the group’s global media partner. But the execution ultimately needs to come from the bottom up, and that’s being prioritized.

“This global scale paired with the speed and local relevancy is the winning formula for what we believe is going to make a difference,” Graf said.

In the emerging markets, there’s recruitment at scale, thanks in part to mini-sized products and other different formats. The Ordinary brand is a lever, as well, due to its accessible price points.

Lauder has noted major possibilities for fragrance in Europe, the U.K. and emerging markets. Conversely, perfume is part of the heritage of the Middle East. “It’s in their culture more than anywhere else in the world,” Graf said. “It’s deeply embedded into gifting and rituals.”

Alongside India, Lauder considers the Middle East as having major long-term growth potential. Already, the region has a very sophisticated beauty culture, with a strong local and global influence. Hospitality is ingrained there, making cultural moments and personalization a key focus. “This is where we have to play to win,” Graf said. “Not play to play. It’s very high-touch also and very luxurious.”

Lauder’s skin care category is underdeveloped in the Middle East, but the group noted it is becoming among the fastest-growing categories.

“Turkey is an absolute value and unit growth-driver,” Graf said. “It has been the case for the company over the last two years and continues to be very sophisticated.”

Europe, the U.K. and Ireland are some of the most developed heritage markets, with Lauder winning some leading skin care and makeup market shares. The zone represents the biggest value pool in the EUKEM region.

“Even single-digit growth in those markets is critically important for the balance of the growth and the contribution for the company overall,” Graf said. She underlined mature doesn’t mean static, since consumer behavior in London or Paris is changing as quickly as in Mumbai.

“We have done a lot in pivoting to be where the consumer is,” Graf said. “Not as a follower, but as a leader — being at the forefront.”

That includes Amazon and TikTok Shop. In Europe, MAC is pivoting from a freestanding store network more into a specialty, multichannel network, including Douglas and Sephora.

“It’s a huge, huge opportunity for us to continue to build business and that’s not to dilute the rest, because we see that it’s entirely incremental,” Graf said.

More than 50 percent of prestige beauty sales in Europe are made by fragrance. “And we have just started,” Graf said, adding Lauder’s perfumes are gaining market share there. “But we are still tapping in in an underpenetrated way compared to the leadership position we have in skin care and in makeup.”

More than one-third of global fragrance sales come from Europe, so winning there can be disproportionate. “It’s an exciting place to be,” Graf said.

In October 2025, Lauder debuted its fragrance atelier at La Maison des Parfums in Paris to accelerate the company’s growing luxury and prestige perfume business. It builds fragrance capabilities in one place and firmly sets Europe as leading the category for the group.

“Ultimately, this is really for us to make sure that we are at the forefront of building breakthrough innovation,” Graf said. “This is a very focused way of building that fragrance muscle…as a portfolio of brands at the very same time. What is the outcome? We’re seeing faster idea creation and ultimately product launch into market.”

Overall, in Western Europe and the U.K., Lauder has been historically challenged versus the market growth.

“We’ve been catching up in Q4 to be ahead of the market across Western Europe and the U.K., which is a massive achievement,” Graf said.

China and Asia

As part of Beauty Reimagined, there has been a delayering of the company to create a nimble organization closer to the consumer. For the travel retail worldwide and Asia-Pacific domestic business, a Western Hemisphere office was established in London and an Eastern Hemisphere office in Singapore. The New York global office was eliminated.

The consumer profile has changed in travel retail, which generates about 15 percent of company sales. Japan is now a popular destination, while South Korea keeps rising.

“It’s important for us to have quite an agile organization that’s close to the consumer,” said Matthew Growdon, president, Asia-Pacific and travel retail worldwide. “We can deploy resources and activation based on where we’re seeing these traffic elements pick up and subside, depending on the location.”

The Chinese consumer remains prominent but contained within China more than before. For 25 percent of those purchasing Lauder products in Hainan, the Chinese duty-free island, it is the first time they are physically exposed to the company’s brands.

The group’s travel-retail business returned to growth in fiscal 2026. That was helped by Lauder deploying more of its brands — especially in fragrance — and investing significantly in major retail activations there.

Traditionally, fragrance is the biggest beauty category in the West, while in the East it is skin care. But now there’s more overlap, with high growth coming from luxury fragrances in the East and skin care showing muscle in the West. So the Estée Lauder Cos.’ portfolio, in all product categories, is being flexed in different zones to answer shifting demand.

“What that’s resulted in is us doing quite a big expansion of our fragrance brands,” Growdon said. “Whilst continuing to offer all of our great skin care brands with a lot of prominence in the East.”

Lauder was underrepresented in North American travel retail, so has been expanding its footprint there over the past year and a half.

The travel-retail business is expected to continue rising due to a confluence of other factors, including the 4 to 5 percent yearly increase of travelers. Lauder also benefits from infrastructure investment poured into renovation of airport terminals, such as John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York.

Overall, a key part of Lauder’s transformation is to be highly focused on its retail execution and experience — building stores that create services for consumers in makeup, skin care and fragrance, as well as unique products. Jo Malone is launching a retail concept, with exclusive London-themed branded products, in Heathrow Airport’s terminal 5.

Lauder operates its travel-retail activity in synergy with the domestic business units, looking at the whole consumer journey. In Japan and Korea, for instance, the consumer insights team is embedded in the operational teams, working with the regional office and global brands.

“We’re in a constant cycle — and I would almost call an obsession — with trying to understand what’s happening with the consumer,” Growdon said.

The Estée Lauder Cos. has been implanted in Japan, Korea — two trendsetting beauty markets regionally and now globally — and Hong Kong since 1967, 1971 and 1991, respectively, although its products were sold in those markets earlier.

Japan is among the biggest beauty markets worldwide volume-wise and is competitive due to the strong domestic brands in prestige and mass. The domestic consumer is discerning and the tourist component robust, too.

“It’s a true flagship market in terms of the way we operate there,” Growdon said, explaining the standard needed to win in Japan regarding service is extremely high. Often, the company sets its standards based on Japan’s service protocol, counter design and product innovation.

The first global Jo Malone flagship was built in Tokyo, for instance. Some Estée Lauder brand product lines are developed specifically for Japan, such as Aqua Charge skin care, then exported.

The Estée Lauder Cos. is top ranked in prestige fragrance in Japan.

In Korea, the service standards and beauty execution are also high, but there it is more about trends that can globe-trot. The first new MAC Cosmetics global flagship opened in July in Seoul. Today, Lauder ranks first in prestige beauty in Korea, according to Beauté Research.

Nearby, Hong Kong srves predominantly a Chinese consumer coming in, but it is also a major transit hub. “Hong Kong is also a showcase for our brands with a high level of retail,” Growdon said, adding Lauder’s focus is on elevating service levels there and creating brands that speak to all the tourists.

The business in Hong Kong has evolved over the past few years. “But we feel that it’s in a good position now, and we’re starting to see some growth again,” Growdon said.

Mainland China is another land of opportunity, where people are increasingly buying brands on and offline. The group has physical stores, plus trades online with TikTok, Douyin, Tmall and JD.com.

“These platforms give us the opportunity to reach consumers in over 600 cities in China,” said Joy Fan, president and CEO, China. There, Lauder has a state-of-the-art distribution system, which allows for same- or next-day deliveries.

The country remains a powerful skin care market, with an increasing number of young people using makeup, too. Consumers are entering the category at an earlier age, too, and skew toward more modern and trendy products. “This is a huge opportunity for the company,” Fan said.

So is fragrance, a category whose penetration is at only 3 percent in China today. Niche fragrances are a powerful category.

Although the post-pandemic decline of China was one of the main causes of Lauder’s slowdown in growth in 2023, today the broad demographic scope augurs continued growth. “On the one hand, we have the first generation of consumers who are beneficiaries of the reform and opening-up policy in China,” Fan said. “These consumers have higher income. They also aspire to a high quality of life. What’s different in China is that the Gen Z generation also has a very strong purchasing power, because they are most likely the only child in the family. They are supported by their family.”

The rising middle class is powerful.

Within premium products, there is a focus on longevity attributes in skin care and elegant, sophisticated makeup products among mature middle-class consumers. “Apart from the functional requirements, consumers also aspire to have more emotional connections with the brands,” Fan said.

In China, Lauder trades with 17 prestige brands, spanning skin care, makeup, fragrance and hair care, at different price points. “In fiscal-year 2026, 11 of our brands enjoyed excellent growth, six of which achieved double-digit growth,” Fan said, who added the company has gained market share there for six consecutive quarters.

In mainland China, with Estée Lauder and La Mer, the Estée Lauder Cos. has two of the three top prestige beauty brands. Clinique and The Ordinary are also especially strong sellers.

Fan’s team partners with Lauder’s local scientific and technology teams to be sure the group can expand and accelerate innovation to bring better-localized products to the Chinese market. “At the same time, we have a very active collaboration with our global team to make sure that we keep this unique and distinctive Lauder brand personality or persona,” Fan said.

Chinese consumers have some specific skin care needs. One is for sensitive, post-procedure skin as nonsurgical aesthetic procedures rise. So last year, Lauder launched Clinique CX products after less than a year of development.

“At the same time, we have kept the Clinique brand’s positioning as a dermatologists’ recommended brand,” Fan said.

To cater to Chinese consumers’ dry skin in wintertime, the Estée Lauder brand developed a longevity product, Re-Nutriv Ultimate Diamond Age Reversal Essence Oil.

“We are actually accelerating these innovations categorized as being in China for China,” Fan said. Some then travel the world, and today 30 percent of the Lauder group’s innovations were born in that country.

That is part of the Estée Lauder Cos.’ renaissance unfurling in real time.

“It’s a milestone occasion in terms of the company, an 80th anniversary,” Growdon said. “But for us, there’s also been a fairly big reset of the company strategy under the theme of Beauty Reimagined, through our CEO Stéphane, which is a big initiative to position the company for future growth.”