E.l.f. Cosmetics sits among beauty’s biggest success stories of the past decade.
The brand has grown from a startup selling $1 makeup to a $2 billion business that now ranks as the fourth-largest mass beauty company in the US. When you look at who owns e.l.f. Cosmetics today, the answer is clear: e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. serves as the parent company behind this fast-growing beauty giant.
The numbers tell the story. e.l.f. Beauty has become the market’s fastest-growing major beauty company, with $1.3 billion in sales for fiscal 2025—a 28% jump from the previous year. The brand now holds the fourth position in mass makeup across the UK and Canada, having pushed past established players like Revlon.
What makes this growth particularly interesting is where it started. e.l.f. launched with just 13 makeup products, each priced at $1. That first year brought in $1.5 million in sales and roughly 18,000 daily orders. The real acceleration came after Tarang Amin stepped in as CEO in 2014.
Today’s e.l.f. Beauty looks nothing like that original startup. The company has built a portfolio through strategic moves like acquiring Naturium for $355 million and announcing plans to buy Hailey Bieber’s Rhode for $1 billion.
You’ll learn how e.l.f. Cosmetics evolved from a simple direct-to-consumer brand into a publicly traded company with multiple beauty brands. We’ll walk through the ownership structure, key players, and strategic decisions that built one of beauty’s most successful growth stories.
Who owns e.l.f. Cosmetics?
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. owns e.l.f. Cosmetics today. This publicly traded company, headquartered in Oakland, California, represents a major shift from how the brand originally started.
The current owner: e.l.f. Beauty, Inc.
Joseph Shamah and Scott Vincent Borba founded e.l.f. Cosmetics in 2004, but the ownership story changed dramatically in February 2014. TPG Growth acquired a majority stake in the company, marking the moment when Joey Shamah stepped aside for Tarang P. Amin, who became president, CEO, and director.
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. now operates as a multi-brand beauty company focused on inclusive, accessible, clean, vegan, and cruelty-free products. The portfolio has expanded well beyond the original e.l.f. Cosmetics line to include e.l.f. SKIN, Naturium, Well People, and Keys Soulcare.
The company has built a global footprint across 17 countries through retail partners like Target, Kmart, Dollar General, and Walmart. They’ve maintained strong direct-to-consumer capabilities through their own e-commerce channels and other online platforms.
Public listing and stock symbol (NYSE: ELF)
After TPG Growth’s acquisition, e.l.f. Beauty went public on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker symbol “ELF”.
The numbers show impressive growth. As of mid-2025, e.l.f. Beauty maintains a market cap of approximately $6.92 billion with 56.33 million shares outstanding. This valuation reflects strong investor confidence in the company’s business model and growth strategy.
Here’s who owns the largest stakes:
- Baillie Gifford & Co – 14.09% (7.94 million shares)
- Blackrock Inc. – 9.56% (5.38 million shares)
- Vanguard Group – 9.52% (5.36 million shares)
- JPMorgan Chase – 4.96%
- Champlain Investment Partners – 4.73%
Insiders hold 2.56% of the company, with CEO Tarang Amin owning 1,183,400 shares. Other key executives with significant holdings include Head of Sales & Marketing Kory Marchisotto (131,977 shares) and General Counsel Scott Milsten (111,870 shares).
Why this ownership structure works
Going public has given e.l.f. Beauty access to capital markets, enabling continued expansion and strategic acquisitions.
The distributed ownership structure provides stability while supporting aggressive growth strategies. This has helped e.l.f. Beauty achieve something remarkable—growth for 25 consecutive quarters, a feat accomplished by only six public consumer companies out of 546 tracked.
The results speak for themselves. The company delivered a 28% increase in net sales and a 26% rise in adjusted EBITDA in fiscal 2025. They also maintain an industry-leading gross profit margin of 71.11%.
This ownership model balances shareholder accountability with the flexibility needed for innovation in product development, marketing, and international expansion. It’s positioned e.l.f. Beauty for continued success in the competitive beauty industry.
Inside e.l.f. Beauty: The parent company
e.l.f. Beauty operates as more than just the owner of its flagship cosmetics brand. The company has built a multi-brand portfolio designed to capture different price points and consumer segments across the beauty market.
The brand portfolio: e.l.f. SKIN, Well People, Keys Soulcare
e.l.f. SKIN sits at the core of the company’s skincare strategy. The line offers dermatologist-developed formulas that target specific skin concerns while keeping prices accessible—staying true to the original e.l.f. approach.
Well People represents the company’s move into clean beauty. e.l.f. Beauty acquired this brand in 2020 for $27 million, bringing in approximately 100 EWG VERIFIED™ products. Dr. Renée Snyder co-founded Well People with a focus on “high-performing, accessible, plant-powered beauty for all”. The brand deliberately avoids over 2,500 restricted ingredients, positioning itself as a clean beauty pioneer.
Keys Soulcare takes a different approach entirely. Launched in 2020 through a partnership with Alicia Keys, this lifestyle beauty brand connects skincare with wellness. Board-certified dermatologist Dr. Renée Snyder guides the brand’s development. Keys Soulcare combines “the best of modern skin science with ancient botanicals and minerals”, built around the philosophy that “the glow starts inside”.
Strategic acquisitions: Naturium and Rhode
The company’s acquisition strategy has accelerated recently. In October 2023, e.l.f. Beauty acquired Naturium for approximately $333-355 million. This skincare brand focuses on “unlocking the benefits of natural botanicals and powerful actives through innovative skincare technology”.
The Naturium deal doubled e.l.f. Beauty’s skincare presence and brought in millennial consumers who favor Naturium’s higher price points—averaging $18 compared to e.l.f.’s core Gen Z audience.
The Rhode acquisition represents e.l.f. Beauty’s biggest bet yet. In May 2025, the company announced plans to acquire Hailey Bieber’s Rhode for up to $1 billion. This “powerhouse alliance brings together two like-minded disruptors” and includes $800 million at closing plus a potential $200 million earnout. Rhode generated $212 million in net sales in the 12 months ending March 2025.
How the growth strategy works
e.l.f. Beauty’s multi-brand approach allows it to compete with giants like L’Oréal and Estée Lauder. The company takes a disciplined approach to extensions that build on existing strengths.
The strategy works across three key areas:
Portfolio diversification spreads the company across price ranges. e.l.f. products average $6-9 each, Naturium sits at $18, and Rhode targets the prestige market.
International expansion offers significant upside. Despite 115% growth in international sales, they still represent only 16% of total business. Most competitors generate 70% of sales internationally.
Channel expansion opens new distribution opportunities. The Rhode acquisition specifically helps e.l.f. Beauty enter prestige channels and retail partners like Sephora.
The company unifies these diverse brands through shared values. e.l.f. Beauty maintains double Cruelty Free certifications from both Leaping Bunny and PETA, offers clean and vegan products, and was the first beauty company to achieve Fair Trade certification across its supply chain. This values-driven approach delivered more than $1 billion in sales from March 2023 to March 2024—77% growth year-over-year.
The founders and the early days
Joseph Shamah and Scott Vincent Borba met at a party in 2002. Shamah was just 23, studying business at NYU, while Borba brought industry experience from launching brands like Hard Candy cosmetics. Two years later, they launched e.l.f. Cosmetics in June 2004.
Who founded e.l.f. Cosmetics?
The founding story involves more than just two entrepreneurs. Joseph’s father, Alan Shamah, played a crucial role in getting the business started. According to one account, the father-son duo of Joey and Alan Shamah got the idea after Joey’s wife came home with five makeup products that cost around $200.
That experience revealed something important: there was a clear gap between quality and affordability in cosmetics.
The brand started small. Just seven people made up the entire internal team. But the vision was clear from the name itself—e.l.f. stood for accessible makeup for every eye, lip, and face.
The $1 product strategy that changed the game
Before e.l.f., affordable makeup usually meant lower quality. The founders decided to challenge that assumption.
They launched with 13 makeup products, each priced at exactly $1. This wasn’t just competitive pricing—it was radical for the beauty industry.
The results came quickly. That first year brought in $1.5 million in sales. Suddenly, shoppers realized they didn’t need to spend more than $10 for quality makeup. The strategy worked so well that by 2022, e.l.f. had become the fourth largest mass beauty retailer in the US, pushing out established players like Revlon.
How the brand grew through e-commerce
Getting into retail stores proved challenging in 2004, even dollar stores wouldn’t stock their products. Then Glamor magazine called.
The magazine wanted to feature an e.l.f. product but needed it to be nationally available for their 2 million readers. This created a problem that became an opportunity.
The founders transformed their basic website into a full e-commerce platform. Orders started flowing in by the thousands. Glamor ended up featuring e.l.f. products more than seven times.
By 2008, their website was driving roughly 50% of all sales. The brand expanded to over 300 products, including skincare, bath products, and tools—all while maintaining cruelty-free and vegan standards.
Who really owns the shares?
e.l.f. Beauty trades publicly, but institutional investors control nearly all the shares.
About 93-97% of e.l.f. Beauty’s stock sits in institutional hands, showing strong confidence from major financial players. This concentration of ownership among large institutions shapes how the company operates and grows.
Top institutional shareholders: Blackrock, Vanguard, Baillie Gifford
Three major investment firms lead e.l.f. Beauty’s shareholder base as of March 2025:
- Baillie Gifford & Co. holds the largest stake at 14.09% (7.94 million shares)[163]
- BlackRock, Inc. owns 9.56% (5.38 million shares)[163]
- Vanguard Group controls 9.52% (5.36 million shares)[163]
JPMorgan Chase (4.96%), Champlain Investment Partners (4.73%), and William Blair Investment Management (4.04%) round out the major institutional holders. The top 25 shareholders collectively own nearly 77% of the company.
This creates a concentrated ownership structure where major financial institutions have significant influence over company decisions.
Insider ownership: CEO Tarang Amin and others
Company insiders own a smaller but meaningful 1.5-2.56% stake. CEO Tarang Amin leads insider ownership with 1,005,196-1,183,400 shares[163].
Other key executives with notable holdings include:
- Head of Sales & Marketing Kory Marchisotto (131,977 shares)
- General Counsel Scott Milsten (111,870 shares)
Executive ownership signals confidence in e.l.f.’s direction. When leadership puts their own money behind the company’s future, it often reflects their belief in the growth strategy.
How ownership has shifted over time
Major shareholders made notable moves throughout 2024-2025:
- Baillie Gifford increased its position by 52.66% between late 2024 and early 2025
- BlackRock reduced its holdings by 40.54% during the same period
- JPMorgan Chase decreased its stake by 1.75%
These changes happened while e.l.f.’s stock price dropped 41.25% from $213.73 in June 2024 to $125.57 by June 2025. Some investors saw opportunity in the decline, while others took profits or reduced exposure.
Retail investors and other entities hold the remaining 5.5% of shares, completing an ownership picture that has supported e.l.f.’s growth into a multi-billion dollar beauty business.
Strategic moves that built a $2B brand
Three key strategies separated e.l.f. Beauty from every other beauty startup trying to make it big. The company didn’t just create affordable makeup—it rethought how beauty brands operate from product development to marketing to retail expansion. These strategic decisions explain how e.l.f. went from selling dollar makeup online to competing directly with industry giants.
Fast-fashion approach to product development
Most beauty companies take 18 months to bring a product from concept to shelf. e.l.f. saw an opportunity to move faster.
The Shamah family studied Zara’s 15-day concept-to-store model and believed beauty could work the same way. While traditional beauty companies stuck with lengthy product cycles, e.l.f. implemented 26-week turnarounds. This speed advantage became crucial for responding to trends and consumer demands.
Project Unicorn, launched in 2018, took this approach even further. The initiative streamlined product packaging for better retail visibility and focused on hero products like the Camo Concealer. More products could fit in the same shelf space, increasing sales per square foot.
This fast-fashion model let e.l.f. capitalize on beauty trends while competitors were still in development phases.
TikTok and influencer marketing success
e.l.f. recognized social media’s potential before most beauty brands understood what was happening.
Their #EyesLipsFace TikTok challenge featured an original song created specifically for the platform—the first beauty brand to do this. The campaign generated 1.2 billion views and 5 million user-generated videos. That kind of reach typically costs millions in traditional advertising.
The results speak for themselves. By 2024, e.l.f. had 7.1k creators producing 26.8k posts about the brand, reaching 1.6 billion potential customers. Their Beauty Squad loyalty program grew from launch in 2018 to 3.5 million members by 2022.
Recently, e.l.f. introduced “color e.l.f.nalysis”—a digital tool that analyzes users’ features to recommend personalized makeup shades through Pinterest boards. It’s the kind of innovation that builds deeper customer relationships beyond just selling products.
Retail expansion and global reach
e.l.f.’s expansion strategy focused on finding the right retail partners rather than being everywhere at once.
The brand operates in 14-17 countries with non-U.S. sales growing 66-91% year-over-year. Germany became their largest international retail debut with 1,600 Rossmann stores. The UK saw even more dramatic results—e.l.f. climbed from 8th to 4th position in mass makeup within one year.
What makes this expansion work is partner selection. e.l.f. partners with retailers who share their values of accessibility and inclusivity. Recent examples include 776 Kruidvat and 183 Trekpleister stores in the Netherlands plus 271 Kruidvat locations in Belgium.
This approach builds sustainable market presence instead of just distribution numbers.
Building a beauty empire through smart ownership moves
e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. owns e.l.f. Cosmetics today. That simple answer tells just part of a much bigger story.
The brand’s evolution from Joseph Shamah and Scott Vincent Borba’s $1 makeup startup to a $2 billion public company shows how the right ownership structure can accelerate growth. When TPG Growth stepped in during 2014, they brought the capital and strategic thinking needed to scale beyond those original 13 products.
Going public changed everything. Access to capital markets enabled the acquisitions that built today’s multi-brand portfolio—Well People, Keys Soulcare, Naturium, and the upcoming Rhode acquisition for $1 billion. Institutional investors like Baillie Gifford and BlackRock now hold most shares, while CEO Tarang Amin’s insider ownership keeps leadership aligned with long-term success.
What makes this ownership story particularly interesting is how it enabled innovation. The fast-fashion approach to product development, viral TikTok campaigns, and rapid international expansion all became possible because the ownership structure supported bold moves rather than restricting them.
The numbers speak for themselves. Twenty-five consecutive quarters of growth puts e.l.f. Beauty among just six public consumer companies to achieve that milestone out of 546 tracked. The company hit $1.3 billion in sales for fiscal 2025, with a 71% gross profit margin that outpaces most beauty competitors.
There’s still room to grow. International sales represent only 16% of total business, compared to 70% for established beauty giants. The Rhode acquisition opens prestige channels like Sephora, while the core e.l.f. brand continues gaining market share in mass retail.
If you’re interested in following e.l.f. Beauty’s continued expansion, keep an eye on their quarterly earnings reports and acquisition announcements. The company has proven that the right ownership structure, combined with smart strategic moves, can build something remarkable in beauty.
FAQs
Q1. Who currently owns e.l.f. Cosmetics?
e.l.f. Cosmetics is owned by e.l.f. Beauty, Inc., a publicly traded company listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “ELF”.
Q2. What other brands are part of e.l.f. Beauty’s portfolio?
In addition to e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. Beauty’s portfolio includes e.l.f. SKIN, Well People, Keys Soulcare, Naturium, and most recently, Rhode.
Q3. How did e.l.f. Cosmetics start?
e.l.f. Cosmetics was founded in 2004 by Joseph Shamah and Scott Vincent Borba. They initially launched with just 13 makeup products, each priced at $1, revolutionizing affordable cosmetics.
Q4. What is e.l.f. Beauty’s approach to product development?
e.l.f. Beauty employs a fast-fashion approach to cosmetics, with rapid 26-week turnarounds from concept to market, allowing them to quickly respond to trends and consumer demands.
Q5. How has e.l.f. Beauty expanded internationally?
e.l.f. Beauty has expanded to 14-17 countries, partnering with leading retailers aligned with their values. They’ve seen significant growth in markets like Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, and Belgium.