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 in Manchester, England. It sells own-brand and third-party cosmetics and dietary supplements online. In January 2025, it demerged its technology and logistic ...

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

History

Cult Beauty was established in 2007 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. DeLuca came up with the idea while shopping for beauty products. 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 (businessman), Federico Marchetti ...

and Mark Quinn-Newall, a co-founder of Net-a-Porter.

Carmen Busquets Carmen Busquets is a Venezuelan entrepreneur, philanthropist and investor who was an early champion of the fashion-tech space. She was the co-founder and founding investor in Net-a-Porter. Since 1992, Busquets has invested £50 million in fash ...

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 and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. 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

History

See also

References