With the Estée Lauder Cos.’s turnaround strategy well underway, its flagship brand has kicked off 2026 with a dual approach to growth, including the naming of new global brand ambassador Daisy Edgar-Jones and now, the renovation of hero product Double Wear Stay-in-Place Foundation.
Both initiatives follow the 2025 debut of North America brand ambassador Nia Long, as well as the debut of Double Wear’s concealer.
The brand ended its fiscal 2025 year with some challenges, according to the parent company’s financial results for the time period. Estée Lauder skin care net sales dips in mainland China contributed to declines in the geography portfolio, fragrance franchises Pleasures and Beautiful slid and makeup fell in Asia’s travel retail business. New makeup launches, such as those under the Double Wear franchise (powder and concealer), offset the waning category sales at least in part, and results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026 point to a changing of the tides.
“The brand is absolutely resonating with both new consumers, which is obviously important for us as we drive recruitment, but also existing consumers. And what we’re seeing is actually numbers that are broadband across the world,” said Justin Boxford, Estée Lauder’s global brand president. “As we look at the West, the East, our key emerging markets and North America, our home market, we’ve actually now delivered three consecutive quarters of total [retail sales] market share growth from January through September 2025, which is extraordinary.”
For the same time period in retail sales, the brand had “very strong growth and market share growth to date through September as well,” Boxford said.
Indeed, financial results from the parent company indicate that for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2025, the brand gained share across all three axes in North America; globally in skin care with Revitalizing Supreme+, Re-Nutriv and Advanced Night Repair ranges, and higher makeup net sales in Asia travel retail.
“The brand globally, specifically in makeup, we’ve gained [retail sales] market share,” Boxford said. “This is across five consecutive quarters.”
For Boxford, it’s part of a strategy that capitalizes on brand equity in key areas, such as sleep with the Advanced Night Repair in skin care. “We own the night, and we are cementing our leadership in skin longevity, another big platform we are actively driving, and then we’re continuing to reinforce our complexion authority in makeup,” Boxford said. “In January of 2025, we launched our Double Wear concealer, which has actually become a top-three prestige makeup launch in North America, and in units through November, the biggest makeup launch. This has a great halo on the whole Double Wear franchise.”
All of that ladders up to Boxford’s aim of “elevation of the brand desirability,” he said, in addition to “accelerating new consumers and driving that acquisition geographically, in our home market, but East, West and emerging, too. When you take all of that innovation, winning across channels, driving our platforms, and accelerating the new recruitment, this is obviously a great reason for momentum.”
Double Wear is the brand’s top product in many markets globally, and in some, the largest foundation market-wide. “So as we thought about leveraging this amazing moment, how do we connect with new generations of consumers as well as existing ones that feel fresh and modern, it’s such an opportunity for us,” Boxford said. “We’ve taken everything that Double Wear was known for, and now, it’s made for more.”
The franchise’s concealer launch is capturing younger shoppers, and he’s expecting the relaunched foundation to follow suit. “Consumer needs in the last few years have evolved, and technology has advanced tremendously,” Boxford said. “The idea was how to take Double Wear Stay in Place Foundation, have it meet the needs of both our existing users, but also think about new, multigenerational consumers, and how do we connect with them.”
That’s where Edgar-Jones comes in.
“The Estée Lauder brand has a strong legacy of identifying iconic ambassadors that really meet the moment and capture the zeitgeist, and remain synonymous with the brand over the long term,” Boxford said, pointing to Carolyn Murphy and Paulina Porizkova. “And now we have the utmost confidence in Daisy Edgar-Jones as a talent who resonates and authentically connects with a Gen Z and young Millennial audience, and can help recruit a whole new generation of Double Wear users.”
