Luxury cosmetics brand Aesop, which has nearly 400 stores in America, Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Asia, will be bought by French company L'Oréal for USD 2.5 billion.

Founded in 1987 by Melbourne hairdresser Dennis Paphitis, the Aesop brand has gained a loyal following for its skin, hair and body products that are made without animal ingredients such as honey or beeswax. The distinctive dark, apothecary-style bottles with black-and-white labels have become a fixture in upscale restaurants and the bathrooms of interior design enthusiasts. Sales of the brand soared in 2009 after it regained control of its global distribution from independent distributors, and in 2017 the Aesop brand was sold to Brazilian cosmetics company Natura & Co, which owns Avon and Body Shop, for $68 million.

In the last twenty years, L'Oréal, the world's largest cosmetics company, which owns brands as diverse as Kiehl's, Maybelline and Lancôme, has expanded its portfolio to include other natural skincare brands such as Sanoflore in 2006 and Thayers Natural Remedies in 2020. The acquisition of the Aesop brand, which has already achieved sales of over $500 million, represents a change in strategy for L'Oréal, as its typical approach is to acquire smaller brands and expand them globally to increase sales.

Between 2012 and 2022, Aesop, whose gross revenues increased from USD 28 million to USD 537 million during this period, became Natura's main source of revenue. The sale of the Aesop brand will help it deal with declining margins and reduce debt while allowing it to focus on its South American business.