Rhode at Sephora, Louis Vuitton Makeup and Other Launches to Watch

Beauty launches are a dime a dozen, but these three are among those WWD is keeping its eye on during the second half of 2025. Here’s why.

Rhode Heads to Sephora

Rhode’s retail debut is finally here.

One of the most rumored, speculated about and anticipated retail partnerships of the year is finally coming to fruition, as Rhode, the beauty brand founded by Hailey Bieber in 2022, heads to all Sephora doors in the U.S. and Canada Thursday.

“Rhode has disrupted the beauty industry with a curated line of skin care essentials, which have driven unprecedented demand and inspired category and culture shifts at large,” said Priya Venkatesh, global chief merchandising officer of Sephora, in August. “This will be our largest North American launch yet, and we see tremendous growth potential as we work together to bring the brand to more consumers around the world.”

It will no doubt benefit both parties, as Rhode — which made $212 million in net sales for the 12 months ending March 31 without any retail partnerships — and Sephora saw 2 million organic searches for the brand on Sephora’s website.

As for what it means for fellow Sephora brands that will have to compete with that level of demand, however, the jury is still out.

“I think it will increase the competition, but I expect it to drive a new consumer into that store. People shop across brands, and I think it will be more additive than competitive,” said one source. “The price point is good, too. I don’t think it’s gonna f–k anybody over. A rising tide lifts all boats, and if more people are going to store because that brand is there, it’s going to be beneficial for the other brands, too.”

That source posited that while Sephora and Ulta Beauty have ceded market share to Amazon, now beauty’s largest U.S. retailer, it could also give the retailer — and other brands on shelf — a boost.

“They should be growing brands the way they used to be able to. They did it for Summer Fridays, they did it for Drunk Elephant and Tatcha. Maybe Rhode is the new one,” the source mused.

Others think it could cannibalize buzzy brands in both the skin and makeup categories, where Rhode plays.

“It will hurt the makeup businesses before it hurts the skin care businesses, since that’s where Rhode’s newness and marketing is coming from — lip and blush shades,” said another source. It’s worth noting that prestige skin care slid 1 percent in the first half, while makeup grew only 1 percent, per Circana.

“The reality is people are buying more skin care on Amazon and that’s what’s hurting the Sephora skin business,” that source said, noting that the impact on other brands is “going to depend on whether or not Rhode ever launches on Amazon.”

Regardless, the source reasoned, “If Rhode brings more people into Sephora, that is going to be a bellwether for the future and how brands should think about launching. Retailers are going to need to woo brands a lot more, especially hot ones.”

Ulta Goes Abroad

Ulta Beauty will be expanding its footprint internationally throughout the rest of this year.

The company will open its first international stores in Mexico and the Middle East very soon, with more markets set to be revealed. At the same time, industry watchers will be waiting to see how its surprise acquisition of Space NK plays out.

In Mexico, Ulta has forged a joint venture with Axo, a global brands operator. The first Ulta Beauty store is expected to open in Mexico City this month, with Axo planning to open numerous doors.

In the Middle East, the plan is to open around a dozen Ulta stores across the region by the end of next year via a licensing agreement with Alshaya Group, which also brought the likes of H&M and Cheesecake Factory to the region. 

The first store will open in Kuwait City, where Alshaya Group is based, in the fourth quarter, closely followed by Dubai.

Kecia Steelman, chief executive officer and president of Ulta, previously told WWD that she is testing various styles of partnerships to see what works best for the company, but ultimately she envisions having a few players operating in multiple markets.

For Space NK, while CEO Andy Lightfoot said it’s still very early days in terms of what it means for scaling the British retailer, the plan is to continue to grow space as a stand-alone business. 

It is not known if Ulta has any plans to bring it back to the U.S.

“It certainly opens the possibility, but strategically, we haven’t got any plans to reenter the U.S.,” said Lightfoot in a previous interview. “It is too early to say.”

The U.S. wholesale division of Space NK, which entails roughly 600 points of distribution across Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Nordstrom Rack, Hudson’s Bay and the company’s shop-in-shop collaboration with Walmart and Beauty Space NK, was acquired by PCA Companies in June 2024 and is now called BeautySpace.

Louis Vuitton Makeup Arrives

Louis Vuitton has gotten in on the designer makeup game as its priciest player yet.

Developed alongside Dame Pat McGrath, who was appointed Louis Vuitton’s creative director, cosmetics, the brand’s La Beauté line includes 55 lipsticks and 10 lip balms priced at $160 each, as well as eight eye shadow palettes priced at $250.

Available online and via 92 Louis Vuitton stores, the range aims to offer high-performance products inspired in part by McGrath’s dives into the archives of Louis Vuitton. “It was important to make a real object of desire, a product that was made to be treasured, like the Louis Vuitton bag — heirloom worthy,” McGrath told WWD ahead of the debut.

In price, the range far transcends those by designer counterparts: Chanel lipsticks hover around the $50 mark, while both Dior’s hero lip oil and Valentino’s lip balms are $42. Hermès lipsticks, meanwhile, retail for $85. But buzz surrounding La Beauté has been high since the line was announced last winter, with the range even being the third top-growing brand by organic TikTok views in June, per Spate. With Louis Vuitton’s fragrance collection, priced around $350 to $440 for a 50-ml. bottle, rumored to be close to a $1 billion business, the brand is betting it can make its mark on makeup, too.