Another beauty brand is stepping into the sports arena. On Wednesday, Ipsy announced a new partnership with the WNBA as the official beauty partner of the Las Vegas Aces.
“With women’s sports finally having its moment, we really wanted to be a part of that cultural conversation,” said Ipsy chief marketing officer Stacey Politi. “The WNBA really is leading the way in women’s sports in this moment.”
The three-year partnership will see Ipsy’s logo show up on the Aces’ jerseys, on the free-throw line of the court and on the backboard of the Aces’ home court, the Michelob Ultra Arena located at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. The beauty subscription box service will also sponsor the Aces’ media day later in the spring and host activations at four home games throughout the season. The 2026 WNBA season, representing the league’s 30th, will run from May 8 to September 24.
According to Politi, Ipsy worked with Klutch Sports, the sports agency founded by Rich Paul and backed by United Talent Agency, to find a WNBA team to sponsor. Politi said the Las Vegas Aces’ dedicated fanbase made it an attractive partner, citing the team’s sellout of every home game in 2024 as a sign of high engagement.
“We wanted to partner with a team that had the same values as us, which is supporting women and expression and confidence and celebrating your unique self,” she said.
It helps that many eyes will likely be on the Aces in the 2026 season. The 2025 WNBA season averaged 1.2 million viewers across ESPN networks, a 5% year-over-year increase, making it the most-viewed full season ever on ESPN networks. In October, the Aces defeated the Phoenix Mercury to become the 2025 WNBA champions. Its star player and 2025 WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson is slated to attend the Met Gala in May as a member of the host committee.
Ipsy is far from the only brand taking notice of the opportunities in women’s sports. According to WPP Media’s Women’s Sports Playbook Report, investment in women’s sports is estimated to be up nearly 70% year over year as of 2026 to roughly $127 million. The report also found a 79% year-over-year increase in ad impressions for women’s sports, with engagement 20% higher than on non-sports channels.
Partnering with the Aces is part of Ipsy’s strategy to reach consumers at the “upper funnel” of awareness after focusing its marketing efforts on more direct calls to action like paid ads. Those efforts helped Ipsy become the third-most visited beauty website after Sephora and Ulta, Politi said, with 22.87 million monthly visits from U.S.-based shoppers.
“We’re not forgetting that upper-funnel awareness, and so, this fits into that,. While maybe something like this isn’t as easily traced as a direct response ad, we are going to see a halo off of this and a brand affinity that comes from this,” said Politi.
The announcement also comes on the heels of numerous other beauty and sports crossovers. In March, Sephora announced a partnership with F1 Academy, while WNBA player Lexie Hull launched her own beauty brand, Forta.
Ipsy declined to share its specific membership counts, but described its audience as consisting of more than “20 million hyper-engaged beauty fans” across subscriptions and social media channels. Its membership tiers include the likes of the $14-per-month Ipsy Original box to the quarterly $65 Ipsy Ultimate box, consisting of full-sized products.
The Aces partnership represents Ipsy’s first sports partnership and, at three years in duration, the longest-term partnership the brand has done to date. While Ipsy is hoping to accrue more subscribers as a result of the partnership, the ROI on such a deal is harder to directly quantify.
“The core value is really awareness. We always want to bring in more members, but this is a long play,” said Politi. “We want to make sure that people have an affinity for our brand, that our mission is clear and that we are here to support all people, particularly women, throughout every aspect of their lives.”
