The magnificence ecosystem of the 2010s revolved round one query: What would a cool lady placed on her face?
The reply would go on to tell the launches of the period’s most disruptive manufacturers, like Glossier, Fenty Beauty and Milk Makeup. The latter, which launched in Sephora and Urban Outfitters in February 2016, was maybe the final word cool-girl label. Born out of the editorial manufacturing studio Milk Studios, it debuted with pores and skin tints, chubby sticks and pigment tubes designed to be utilized with fingers, and was geared in the direction of a New York-ish, on-the-go sort — somebody likelier to do their make-up at the back of a cab or the reflection of a storefront window than in a lavatory mirror. The model’s authentic tagline? “Milk girls do their makeup quick.”
Perhaps too fast. In the 9 years since, the model has seen gross sales rise, then explode and ultimately, slide. When mum or dad firm Waldencast acquired the model in 2021, it was doing $46 million in annual gross sales. It’s grown considerably since then — final yr, the model introduced in $125 million — however latest months have offered extra of a problem. Milk’s gross sales grew within the first half of the yr, then dropped 20 %, in response to Waldencast’s newest earnings.
In some ways, Milk Makeup is consistent with its friends. The points it’s going through are shared by many within the cohort of Millennial magnificence labels, together with Glossier, Drunk Elephant and Herbivore. While all have grown into new merchandise, codecs and retailers, they’ve strayed from the values that after made them singular. In flip, they’ve been embraced, and later deserted, by fickle Gen Z customers.
While Milk’s state of affairs is much from dire, the gross sales dip was sufficient to immediate some rethinking forward of its 10-year anniversary in 2026. After a few months of dialogue, Waldencast chief govt Michel Brousset recruited co-founder Mazdack Rassi to return in October in hopes of realigning the cosmetics label with its transgressive, artistic roots.
“For me, it was very simple,” Rassi instructed The Business of Beauty. “It’s really back to the studios, the concept of creativity and why we created these products.”
The way forward for Milk — and for any title whose shine has pale since its glory days — relies upon totally on recapturing the magic it initially had whereas creating brand-new relevance in an business all too blissful to maneuver on.
“At this stage, we need to pull back to the roots of the brand,” stated Brousset. “And Rassi is our North Star.”
Strengthen the Core
Perhaps no magnificence model launch of the 2010s was as audacious as Milk Makeup, which arrived to market in February 2016 with a whopping 82-piece assortment, together with a set of blotting papers that doubled as smoking paraphernalia and a cannabidiol-infused Kush mascara, which grew to become an early hit at Sephora.
Looking to its subsequent chapter, Rassi’s prime precedence is to reestablish a clear connection to Milk Studios.
“Milk Studios [gives] us a lot of credibility around artistry, and we want to make sure that our community and our consumer base understand where we come from,” Rassi defined. The model is revisiting its top-of-funnel advertising technique to include content material creators, and rebuilding its make-up artistry programme to strengthen its artistic authority.
Brand advertising may help hold a model related, however the machine has to say constant — and at all times be turned on.
“You have to see a piece of content 11.4 times from a brand before you convert,” stated Sedge Beswick, a client items marketing consultant. Brands at this time want to contemplate “how you keep that ticker of content going through social and storytelling … that builds trust and keeps people coming back.”
Milk Studios has at all times granted its make-up subsidiary entry to a few of the finest editorial expertise on the planet. That lends itself to attractive imagery however doesn’t at all times translate into gross sales.
Art and commerce could be a tough balancing act. Look at Glossier, which sprang to life from the sweetness weblog Into the Gloss; Glossier’s title comes from file, which referenced the vast trove of cool-girl interviews that knowledgeable its early product providing. As these launches grew to become extra frequent, they felt much less impressed. As The Business of Beauty not too long ago reported, new CEO Colin Walsh plans to pare down 2026 launches to deal with its profitable franchises: Boy Brow, Cloud Paint blushes and the You perfume.
Milk has already whittled its assortment earlier than, discontinuing its vary of lipsticks, glosses and stains.
“We don’t compete in many categories,” stated Brousset, providing the instance of liquid basis. “It’s the largest category in makeup. … We’re not just going to launch a me-too liquid foundation. It has to be very special and very charismatic.”
Don’t Forget Your Customer
A standard pitfall for these Millennial labels was a pivot to Gen Z customers, who’re primarily model love bombers.
“They really engage with brands, and then they leave them,” stated Ali Furman, a PwC client analyst.
The hottest launch of Milk’s latest previous was the Jelly Tint Blush, a squat stick method with a gummy texture that took off on TikTok and amongst Sephora tweens in 2023. But as its novelty pale, so did its recognition.
It remembers the destiny of Drunk Elephant, which loved robust gross sales because of demand from the younger customers drawn to its candy-coloured packaging, even when the merchandise inside had been decidedly for adults. Parent firm Shiseido is now gearing up for a model repositioning in 2026, as chief govt Kentaro Fujiwara instructed analysts in November, and one that can nearly actually deal with recapturing defected Millennial customers.
“When you think about the brands who are still relevant, it comes down to understanding who it is that you’re speaking to,” stated Beswick. She provides the instance of Merit, which was based in 2021 and trades persistently on minimalist merchandise which are marketed for his or her ease of software. “The focus became around being foolproof.”
Reintroduce Your Brand’s Best
Sometimes, a model merely falls out of step with the occasions. Herbivore Botanicals, a premium skincare model centered on “clean” formulations, thrived within the 2010s with its shelfie-friendly suite of merchandise just like the Lapis face oil. Recently, although, the label has struggled as “clean” has grow to be much less of a promoting level for buyers.
When former Supergoop CMO Brittany LeBlanc joined Herbivore Botanicals in 2024, with a mandate to refresh the model, her first precedence was to shore up its medical credentials.
“Clean is now table stakes, and something being shelfie-worthy is no longer enough to meet what consumers need,” she stated.
The model has since relaunched its 2019 Bakuchiol Bio-Boost Serum with a souped-up reformulation, and will unveil refreshed branding on Dec. 15 with a 15-piece body-care assortment organised by Herbivore’s longstanding franchises — Coco Rose, Lapis and Nova — in unique partnership with Ulta Beauty. (The physique class nods to the model’s origins as an Etsy cleaning soap store.)
“We weren’t talking enough about the plant, active ingredients, the efficacy, that the products do really work,” LeBlanc stated, including that 98 % of the formulation are “net new in some way” — with added actives or pure perfume. “It was a nice exercise to clean up, elevate, bring consistency, but not lose the beauty of what the Herbivore brand always had.”
Milk, for its half, hasn’t spoiled. Its textures and formulations are nonetheless progressive; even its design codes, just like the Rhode-esque white sort on gray packaging, nonetheless really feel cool nearly 10 years later. One of Milk’s refreshment methods entails hiring regional leaders who can tailor the model’s strategy to completely different markets. The label can be doubling down on in-store gross sales workers in key progress markets like Europe and the Middle East.
The irony of Milk’s global-local technique is that it nonetheless depends on a very particular concept of its core younger Millennial buyer.
“It’s important for our consumer base to have context of where we come from,” Rassi added. “But we don’t want to just live in the past. We want to live in the future.”
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