Estée Lauder Companies Sales Grow 2% in Q3
Fragrance was the group’s biggest sales driver, while skincare, haircare and makeup remained flat.
Reported by Vogue.
Estée Lauder Companies is finally catching its breath. After a brutal stretch of stagnation, the beauty behemoth reported a modest 2% bump in organic net sales for Q3, landing at $3.61 billion—evidence that its overhaul strategy, dubbed Beauty Reimagined, is actually moving the needle. The company even bumped up its full-year outlook, signaling that leadership believes the worst is behind them.
The real story here is fragrance. While skincare, makeup, and haircare flatlined, the fragrance division surged 10% to $628 million, buoyed by marquee names like Le Labo, Kilian Paris, and Tom Ford Beauty. It's a reminder that in a market saturated with serums and setting sprays, scent remains the category with real momentum—and the margins to prove it. According to Vogue, CEO Stéphane de La Faverie credited fragrance's "double-digit" growth in the first nine months of fiscal 2026 as a primary engine of the turnaround.
Geography tells the real tale
Geography matters here. Mainland China—ELC's pressure point for years—actually grew in high single digits and outperformed the prestige beauty market overall, a feat that matters psychologically as much as financially. EMEA inched up 3%, while Asia-Pacific dipped 1% and the Americas stayed flat. The China win feels significant because it suggests the brand has clawed back some credibility in a market where younger consumers had begun treating it as tired.
Looking ahead to fiscal 2027, ELC is eyeing accelerated sales growth and an adjusted operating margin approaching 13%—the first meaningful margin expansion in four years. De La Faverie called next year "pivotal," which is corporate-speak for "we're not out of the woods yet, but we're moving in the right direction." The company's pending merger with Spanish conglomerate Puig remains unresolved, though both parties confirmed no deal is locked in.
The takeaway: Beauty Reimagined isn't a miracle cure, but it's working just enough to suggest that Estée Lauder's period of irrelevance might actually be ending.
Read the original at Vogue.
