He argues the tighter timeframe of brand life cycles has profound implications for beauty investors and conglomerates building and managing brand portfolios. Speaking of strategic beauty players’ approach to mergers and acquisitions, he explains, “You need to get in earlier and be much more cognizant of the prices that you’re paying and your terminal value assumptions. Most important, you need to be more aggressive on portfolio management and resource allocation, including divestiture.”

We were wondering if other investors agree with Ross’s assessment. So, for the latest edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we asked 10 of them: Is the lifespan of beauty brands shortening? If beauty brand lifespans are shortening, how does that impact your investment strategies? How do you expect beauty companies to handle their brand portfolios differently as a result?