Agenda-setting intelligence, analysis and advice for the global fashion community.

Why the Business of Beauty Ingredients Is So Hard to Crack

Calls for more sustainable alternatives have created opportunities for makers, but the capital-intensive, often lengthy process of bringing new materials to market represents a huge challenge — especially when consumer-facing brand ambitions are involved.

Joan Kennedy

31 August 2023

BoF PROFESSIONAL

Just two years ago, things looked rosy for Amyris, the biofuels-maker-turned-beauty-brand incubator. It spun its squalane (a skin barrier-strengthening alternative to increasingly out-of-favour squalene, derived from shark liver) into a successful brand, Biossance, and rolled out lines with model Rosie Huntington Whiteley and hair stylist and

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What Went Wrong at Amyris?

The manufacturer-turned-incubator has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and put its consumer businesses, including lines from Jonathan Van Ness and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, up for sale.

Who Will Buy Amyris’ Brands?

The bankrupt biotech manufacturer-turned-beauty conglomerate has put Biossance, Jonathan Van Ness’ JVN and other lines up for sale. Is anyone buying?

Can Beauty Ingredients Be Brewed Like Beer?

Arcaea, a beauty company that launches today with a $78 million funding round, not only says yes, but wants to enable the entire industry to do so.

Chanel-Backed Biotech Start-Up Raises $120 Million

The company closed a Series C funding round, led by Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the late-stage venture arm of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, and Senator Investment Group. Several existing investors, including Chanel and Mousse Partners, also participated in the round.

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