The Estée Lauder Companies is moving to full ownership of Indian prestige beauty brand Forest Essentials, announcing an agreement to acquire the remaining shares in the luxury Ayurvedic skin care company it first invested in in 2008. The deal—expected to close in the second half of 2026 pending regulatory approvals—builds on a minority stake expanded to 49% in 2020. Founded in 2000 by Mira Kulkarni, Forest Essentials has grown into the top-ranked prestige skin care brand in India, operating nearly 200 standalone stores and positioning Ayurveda within the global luxury beauty conversation. Kulkarni will continue to oversee the brand alongside executive director Samrath Bedi, with headquarters and vertically integrated operations—including Ayurvedic R&D, botanical sourcing and manufacturing—remaining in New Delhi.
For Estée Lauder, the move underscores intensifying competition among global beauty players for exposure to India’s fast-expanding market. While growth in China has softened in recent years—a dynamic highlighted in 2024 by Nicolas Hieronimus of L’Oréal when he tempered global beauty growth expectations—India has increasingly emerged as a strategic alternative growth engine. The shift is reflected in L’Oréal’s own plans to build a $383 million AI-driven beauty tech hub in Hyderabad, designed to develop advanced digital beauty solutions and create roughly 2,000 tech jobs by 2030. Market forecasts have reinforced the pivot: India’s beauty sector has been projected to expand nearly 15% annually through 2026, reaching roughly $28.9 billion, with consultants at McKinsey & Company describing the country as a “new hot spot” for global beauty investment. Against that backdrop, Estée Lauder’s full acquisition of Forest Essentials positions the company to deepen its presence in one of the world’s most dynamic prestige beauty markets while scaling the brand’s “luxurious Ayurveda” positioning through its global distribution and brand-building infrastructure.
