This week, I checked in on the wave of revamped and relaunched hero products from heritage beauty brands. Additionally, Saltair gets new ownership, and Victoria Beckham’s 15-year-old daughter is rumored to be launching a beauty brand.
In a saturated beauty market, legacy brands are looking to hero products to save the day
On Friday, Nars launched a New York City pop-up centered around National Orgasm Day to celebrate — what else — its famed Orgasm blush. The Manhattan pop-up offered product giveaways centered around the slogan “Remember your first with Nars.”
Most beauty consumers don’t need to be told what Nars Orgasm is. The shimmery, peachy-pink blush has been a staple in the makeup aisle since its original launch in 1999 and has been adapted from its original powder formula to everything from lip balms and nail polish to, most recently, an on-trend liquid blush. But Nars would still like to give its consumers a gentle reminder to revisit the shade.
“We definitely are pushing into that nostalgia,” said Jennifer Jackson, deputy general manager of global marketing for Nars. “It’s a reminder of, ‘Oh yeah, I loved that one. Let me try that again,’ or ‘I already have it in my makeup bag.’ But then that’s where we also really make sure that we have that innovation, because maybe somebody loved Orgasm, but they just wear liquid blush now.”
Hero products like Nars Orgasm have long been a key part of brand building. But in a competitive beauty market with countless upstart brands capturing consumers’ desire for novelty, legacy brands are increasingly going back to what works.
In June, Clinique expanded its Black Honey franchise, which has grown from the original sheer berry lipstick into shade expansions, eye products and blush, into nail polish. In July, Bobbi Brown relaunched its Vitamin Enriched Face Base. That same month, Benefit teamed up with True Religion to launch a dual-ended lip gloss version of its famed Benetint.
“It’s a shrewd strategy for them, where they can’t be quick to innovate newness and provide new products that then become cult. It’s more about doubling down essentially on what you know does well,” said Lisa Payne, head of beauty at trend forecaster Stylus. “There is just so much saturation on the market at the moment. … [Legacy brands] are just not going to have an impact in the market in the same way as a Haus Labs.”
While new brands like Hung Vanngo or Rhode are tasked with experimenting with new categories and formulations, legacy brands owned by large conglomerates often lack the agility to keep up. But hero product expansions or revamps can tap into one element newer beauty brands can’t offer: nostalgia.
“When you see a new generation discovering [Benetint] today in a new format, a lot of people love the fact that their mom used to wear it, or that, ‘I used to steal this out of my sister’s makeup bag,’” said Lou Bennett, vp of U.S. marketing at Benefit Cosmetics. “There’s always a story, and that’s one of the things that makes for us a hero product: the storytelling and the emotion it evokes.”
On its 30th anniversary in May, Laura Mercier relaunched its hero product, the Secret Camouflage concealer, and announced a collective of tastemakers-slash-influencers that, rather than chase the Gen Z market, represent the generation of women that have grown up alongside the brand.
“We’re in a space where all brands want to compete for the Gen Z dollar,” said Payne. “Smarter brands are the ones that are remembering the millennials and the Gen Xers that helped build them.”
Those Gen Z consumers have plenty of products catering to their tastes with new and innovative products. But no matter how exciting a new brand may have once been, novelty wears off for everyone.
Under new CEO Colin Walsh, Glossier, now 12 years after its founding, is getting back to basics. That means trimming its portfolio — the Wowder setting powder and Brow Flick pen were among the products to get the axe — to focus on best-sellers, like the Cloud Paint liquid blush line and the You perfume franchise.
But even while they are no longer the new kid on the block producing the latest hits, Glossier doesn’t yet have the longevity to solely lean on a Black Honey or Orgasm franchise.
“There are too many brands that are doing the Glossier type of beauty really well — Rhode being one of them, Merit being one of them,” said Payne. “They need to work out exactly what these other brands aren’t producing and do it in a very Glossier type way. … They’re not in a precarious position at all, I just think no one at the moment is looking at them for innovation, and so they need to address that.”
Legacy brands are not abandoning new products altogether. In July, Estée Lauder launched Glimmer, its first new perfume in five years. The Hailee Steinfeld-backed fragrance is meant to appeal to Gen Z consumers with a gourmand scent profile built around rose macaron, vanilla and raspberry — but whether the scent can make inroads in a market that has already moved on to more avant-garde gourmand notes like matcha and banana remains to be seen.
But while consumers may purchase those matcha or banana milk perfumes once, that doesn’t mean they’ll return to the scent once the trend is over. Legacy beauty brands have become legacy brands thanks to the customer that keeps coming back to those hero products.
“When you think about a lot of the heritage brands, in order to have that really successful business model long term, you need people to come back and want to repurchase,” said Jackson. “It’s easy to have a big flashy launch. It’s hard to get that person to repurchase that product again, because you have so many options.”
Executive moves:
- Procter & Gamble names CEO Shailesh Jejurikar as chairman of the board. He succeeds Jon Moeller, who will retire from the company in August. Jejurikar, who assumed the CEO role in January, joined P&G in 1989.
- Madison Reed appoints Jay Sammons to its board of directors. Sammons is a co-founder of private equity firm Skky Partners and former global head of consumer, media and retail at Carlyle. Sammons will be responsible for guiding the hair-care brand to its next phase of growth.
News to know:
- TSG Consumer takes a majority stake in Saltair. The investment comes four years after model Iskra Lawrence launched Saltair as a body-care brand built on fragrance and active ingredients. The private equity firm has previously invested in the likes of Phlur and Summer Fridays.
- David and Victoria Beckham’s daughter, Harper Beckham, is expected to launch a beauty brand. The 15-year-old will reportedly launch Halo by Harper, a beauty brand targeted at the Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumer. Her mother Victoria Beckham’s namesake fashion and beauty brand cleared $170 million in sales in 2025.
- Zendaya is named ambassador of Prada’s Paradoxe perfume. The announcement comes after the actress’s red carpet glam for the New York premiere of “The Odyssey,” featuring Prada blush, went viral across TikTok.
- Unilever reports a 4.8% growth in sales for the first half of 2025, following its sponsorship of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. That included a 5.9% growth in its Beauty & Wellbeing division, which includes brands like Dove and Paula’s Choice, and 4.8% growth in Personal Care, which includes the likes of Axe.
Stat of the week:
According to Reddit’s The People’s Beauty Index, surgery-related searches in the subreddit r/HoodedEyes declined 40% year-over-year for the twelve months leading up to June 30. “Eyeliner” replaced “bleph” as the subreddit’s No. 1 search term in that same period.
In the headlines:
A completely smooth forehead is out. “Strategic wrinkles” are in. Wellness influencers are pushing “natural” and unproven alternatives to Adderall. How do small beauty brands compete in the labor-intensive world of live selling?
Listen in:
In this week’s episode of the Glossy Beauty Podcast, host Lexy Lebsack is joined by Glossy international fashion reporter Zofia Zwieglinska and senior beauty reporter Emily Jensen to unpack the growing teen boy fragrance market and how Ulta Beauty is tapping into the trend.
Need a Glossy recap?
Peach & Lily brings “zombie cell” innovation to Ulta’s skin-care assortment. Laura Mercier is replacing traditional influencers with tastemaker-consultants. Wellness Briefing: The peptide pipeline gets new legal momentum, plus news.
