Cult Beauty is a web store which sells cosmetics and specialises in independent brands. It was acquired by

THG plc THG plc, formerly The Hut Group, is a British e-commerce retail company headquartered at Manchester Airport, England. It sells own-brand and third-party cosmetics, dietary supplements, luxury goods, and licensed and personalised products onlin ...

for £291.3m in 2021 and migrated into the company's Ingenuity e-commerce platform.

History

Cult Beauty was established in 2008 by Jessica DeLuca and Alexia Inge with the aim to simplify hair and beauty retail online. The brand had a focus on sustainable beauty and transparency within the industry. Inge reportedly became frustrated while working as a model by the "illusion" of brands not being accurately represented in celebrity makeup endorsements. The website offered a curated list of around 250 products based on a panel of unaffiliated experts’ recommendations. In 2011, the brand received the first round of investment from Murray Salmon, former Chief Financial Officer of

Net-a-Porter YOOX Net-a-Porter Group S.p.A. is an Italian online fashion retailer created on 5 October 2015 after the merger between Yoox Group and Net-a-porter Group (NAP). Yoox was originally founded by Federico Marchetti in Milan in 2000, and Net-a-Porter ...

and Mark Quinn-Newall, a co-founder of Net-a-Porter. Carmen Busquets was appointed chair of the board in October 2020. Although based in the UK, most of the Cult Beauty's business was from international sources. The company recorded sales growth to £123.4 million in 2020, citing the surge in online shopping during the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. In August 2021, Cult Beauty was acquired by

in a £275 million deal.

References

{{reflist THG (company) British companies established in 2008 Online retailers of the United Kingdom Cosmetics companies of the United Kingdom Beauty stores