Three big beauty brands found out they had bought the same eye-patch pack

Sephora has launched [Project Hearts Not Hate](https://newsroom.sephora.com/sephora-launches-project-hearts-not-hate-its-first-ever-global-corporate-cause-to-tackle-appearance-based-hate-on-world-mental-health-day/), its first global cause, against people being judged or excluded for how they look. Ipsos surveyed 20,001 adults in ten countries for it in August. Seven in ten said it had happened to them, and 85% of 18 to 24-year-olds. About three-quarters of those affected had changed how they live. From 2027 Right To Be, an American anti-harassment nonprofit, will train Sephora staff and local groups using material it wrote for Sephora. On 9 and 10 October Sephora will donate for every Sephora Collection product sold, up to $350,000 in the United States.

Our read: Sephora is taking a public position on beauty standards at an awkward time. On 25 September we reported that a 13-year-old and a father had sued Sephora, saying its creator programme sold skincare young skin did not need. The survey ran in August, so work on the cause began before that suit was filed on 4 September. One finding points at Sephora's own trade: three-quarters said beauty brands have a particular role in setting beauty standards. Another is that 82% said social media had made this judgement more common, yet the study says nearly 90% of it happens offline. Sephora has not said what the training will cost or how many of its 55,000 employees will take it. Because the study puts most of this judgement in person, the training is what we would judge the cause on, more than the two days of donations.

Britain's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has [banned two paid social media ads](https://www.asa.org.uk/rulings/glow-up-llc.html) for Maxxing, an app that uses AI to scan faces and sell a "glow-up" plan. The ruling came out on 2 September. One ad showed a teenage boy under the words "NEVER look unattractive again". His face was scanned and scored, including "Attractiveness 39" and "Masculinity 32". The other showed a girl and promised a "Glow-Up in 28 Days". The ASA found the ads misleading, because nothing showed the before-and-after pictures were real. It also found them irresponsible: they could exploit young people's worries about their bodies and pushed harmful gender stereotypes. The company did not respond.

The ASA's own AI monitoring system found the ads during a review of how AI products are advertised. Our read: the ruling reaches beauty brands that score skin as well as this app. The ASA objected to scores that rate a young person's looks and rise after using the product. Part of its finding on harm rested on viewers possibly taking the people shown to be under 18. On 17 September we reported that L'Oréal had an algorithm grade signs of ageing on 218 faces of people aged 60 to 70, and called the paper a product plan. An ad using adult faces like those would avoid the concern about young viewers, though not the finding that unproven before-and-after results mislead. An ad that puts a score on a face that looks under 18 now carries both risks in Britain.

On 17 September Fenty Skin [pitched gel eye patches](https://beautymatter.com/articles/who-will-own-the-grinder-eye-patch-inside-the-viral-product-collision) as "first of its kind". The pack works like a pepper grinder: you twist the top and it slices off a fresh patch. Three days later Glow Recipe was sending creators patches in the same pack. Huda Beauty's version surfaced the next Monday, and a fourth brand, Vitamasques, previewed one the day after. Huda Kattan, Huda Beauty's founder, wrote that "we all got screwed over by the same packaging supplier" and that the brands were misled about exclusivity. Glow Recipe's co-chief executive, Christine Chang, told BeautyMatter she did not see it that way.

Our read: none of the brands owned this idea. BeautyMatter reports that none paid for exclusivity, and a packaging expert told it that at least two South Korean manufacturers supply the grinder. Tamar Kamen, a product development consultant, told BeautyMatter that a supplier would probably have wanted orders in the millions of units before granting exclusivity. Babba Rivera, who founded the hair brand Ceremonia, says she paid for exclusivity on a pack and a rival launched it the same month. On 19 September we wrote that MAC credited the creator who named its anti-blush only when a reporter asked. Here the uncredited maker is the supplier. Fenty called the pack "first of its kind", but a manufacturer made it, and a Korean brand, Wonder Bath, had sold it at home since July. The brands now have to win on the formula inside and on how they sell it.

Flower Knows, a Chinese make-up brand known for fairytale packaging, [went into 450 Ulta Beauty stores](https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/flower-knows-marks-10-year-anniversary-with-limited-time-us-retail-expansion-into-ulta-beauty-store-nationwide-alongside-blockbuster-experiential-brand-moments-302886993.html) on 20 September. It is one of four brands in Just Dropped Beauty, a rotating display for new and trending brands. It stays at least until early 2027. Only five of its products made it into stores, priced from $25 to $40. Ulta.com has carried more than 60 of its products since December 2025, priced from $8 to $45. The brand was founded in 2016 and says America is now its largest market outside China. Kaitlin Rinehart, an Ulta merchandising vice-president, called it "a limited-time in-store presence".

Our read: Ulta is testing Chinese make-up in stores at low risk. Five products on a rotating display show how the brand sells in person, without permanent space. On 21 August we reported that Proya, which Bloomberg calls China's biggest beauty brand, would take its main skincare line into 400 Ulta stores in November. That story said Proya owns 51% of Flower Knows. We said that if those Proya shelves held through next year, the rest of Chinese beauty would follow through the same door. Flower Knows has now reached Ulta's stores before Proya's own skincare, but only on a temporary display. If its five products sell, Ulta has a reason to keep a Chinese make-up brand in stores after early 2027. If they do not, Ulta can drop them when the display rotates.

Brazil's federal tax authority, the Receita Federal, and federal and state prosecutors have raided a network they say smuggled perfumes, mostly Arab-style scents, in from Paraguay. [The operation](https://www.gov.br/receitafederal/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/2026/setembro/operacao-conjunta-combate-organizacao-envolvida-com-descaminho-de-perfumes-evasao-de-divisas-e-lavagem-de-capitais) began on 22 September with 16 search warrants in three states and an arrest order for the woman said to run it. The perfumes crossed at Ponta Porã, on the Paraguayan border, and were stored first in Campo Grande and later in São Paulo and Pernambuco. Investigators found more than R$300 million moving through the suspects' accounts.

The legal market is growing fast. Exame, citing Circana, says Arab-style fragrances grew 64% in Brazil in the first half. [Mawwal](https://exame.com/negocios/com-dois-anos-de-mercado-marca-de-perfumes-arabes-de-dubai-mira-r-100-milhoes-no-brasil/), a Dubai brand founded in 2024, sold R$66 million in Brazil to August, more than half its global revenue. TikTok Shop is one of its main growth channels, with about 5,000 affiliates. Our read: the smugglers sold through the same channels as the legal brands. The Receita Federal says the network used social media, marketplaces and influencers, the route Mawwal took to grow. A shopper watching a live stream cannot easily tell a bottle that paid import duty from one that did not. On 22 September we wrote that Gulf perfume houses were selling Latin America what it already wears, through Mercado Libre. This network shows the same demand being served illegally. The Receita Federal says smuggling hurts fair competition. We assume importers such as Mawwal feel that most, because they pay the duty the smuggled bottles avoid.

BASF, the German chemicals group, has approached its rival Evonik about a takeover. [BASF said on 25 September](https://www.basf.com/global/en/media/news-releases/2026/09/p-26-172) that it is in exploratory talks with Evonik and with RAG-Stiftung, the foundation that owns about 44% of Evonik. [Evonik said](https://www.webdisclosure.com/press-release/evonik-industries-ag-etr-evk-eqs-adhoc-evonik-industries-ag-confirms-receipt-of-a-non-binding-approach-from-basf-se-regarding-a-potential-takeover-offer-0i80WWgclXd) the same day that it had received the approach but that no talks are taking place. [Personal Care Magazine](https://www.personalcaremagazine.com/story/52649/basf-exploring-merger-with-evonik-report), citing the Financial Times, says the two had combined revenue of €74 billion last year. Both sell ingredients to beauty brands. On 11 September Evonik said it would close its Hamburg site, where about 50 people make products for cosmetics and personal care. The work moves to Essen.

Our read: a deal would put two big suppliers of beauty ingredients under one owner while both are under pressure. Evonik says its care business, like the whole chemicals industry, faces weak global demand and squeezed margins. Dealreporter, a deal-news service cited by Personal Care Magazine, called BASF "cash constrained". Brands would feel it when they buy, because fewer large suppliers means fewer places for a competing quote. On 10 August we reported Firmenich's $33 million settlement in a US case accusing the four big fragrance houses of fixing prices. We said the industry was consolidating its scent supply into four hands. Care ingredients could go the same way. For now there is only an approach. Our read is that RAG-Stiftung, with about 44% of Evonik, would in practice decide whether any bid succeeds. So far it has said only that BASF showed interest.

Peru's beauty market sold S/5,060 million in the first half of 2026, up 8%, according to [Copecoh](https://gestion.pe/economia/empresas/mercado-de-belleza-en-peru-rumbo-a-s-10800-millones-el-riesgo-que-el-nino-pone-sobre-la-mesa-noticia/), the industry group at the Lima Chamber of Commerce. Imports already make up 75% of the market. Copecoh's president says that could rise to 80% after a July fire at a plant run by Yobel, a contract manufacturer. Belcorp, which sells the ésika, L'Bel and Cyzone brands through consultants, has part of its range made there. He puts the loss at US$40 million of finished product, and says Belcorp had to halve its September catalogue for lack of stock.

Copecoh's president told Gestión that 70% of the companies entering Peru are Asian; El Comercio, citing a Copecoh study, puts it at 58%. Korean cosmetics sold S/4 million in Peru in 2019 and are projected at S/340 million this year. Our read: the fire hits Belcorp in the channel that carries the market outside Lima. Copecoh's president says direct sellers reach the whole country through about 600,000 consultants, while the Korean and Chinese arrivals have stayed in the capital. A Belcorp consultant with half a catalogue has less to sell in the provinces. On 25 September we reported Coles putting Korean skincare in Australian supermarkets, and said grocery shoppers would have one less reason to make a second stop. Peru is a step behind. Copecoh expects fewer new brands to enter this year because Lima's shop shelves are full, and outside Lima the sector's sales still rest on consultants.