Reuters broke the news earlier this month that Wella Company is exploring an IPO in the U.S. this year, and Bloomberg has reported that L’Occitane is weighing one, too. Successful Wella Company and L’Occitane IPOs could loosen a capital markets bottleneck that has constrained beauty exits for years. A reopened IPO window would offer private equity sponsors an additional path to liquidity beyond sales to the limited pool of strategic buyers and introduce newly public platforms with the potential to acquire brands.

Bloomberg suggests L’Occitane, which was taken private in 2024 by founder Reinold Geiger and Blackstone at an equity valuation of about $7 billion, could pursue a public listing at a similar scale. L’Occitane’s portfolio includes L’Occitane en Provence, Sol de Janeiro, Elemis, Erborian, Melvita and LimeLife by Alcone.

According to Reuters, a Wella IPO could value the company well above the $4.3 billion enterprise value of the 2020 transaction in which KKR acquired a 60% stake from Coty. KKR purchased Coty’s remaining 40% stake last year, consolidating ownership ahead of a potential listing.

Headquartered in Geneva, Wella announced Wednesday that Calvin McDonald, former President and CEO of Sephora Americas and CEO of Lululemon, will become CEO in April. Executive chair Glenn K. Murphy, former chair and CEO of Shoppers Drug Mart, has been guiding the company.

Wella’s global haircare and nail-care portfolio includes Wella, OPI, Clairol, Briogeo, ghd and Nioxin. The company operates in more than 150 countries worldwide and employs over 6,000 people. Its annual revenues are estimated to be around $2 billion.

Beauty has a checkered IPO past in the U.S. Olaplex debuted at about $21 a share in 2021, valuing the company at roughly $15 billion, and now trades at a market capitalization closer to $1 billion. The same year, Honest fetched $16 a share to hit a $2.6 billion market cap, which has since shrunk to roughly $300 million. Oddity Tech, the parent company of Il Makiage and SpoiledChild, went public at $35 a share, rallying in its debut, but delivering uneven returns since.

European Wax Center is slated to be delisted from Nasdaq later this year following an all-cash go-private deal by General Atlantic valued at approximately $330 million. The waxing salon chain priced its 2021 IPO at $17 a share, raising roughly $180 million. Recently, its shares have been trading in the $4 range.

E.l.f. has shown, however, that beauty IPOs in the U.S. aren’t doomed to a freefall. In 2016, its shares were priced at $17 for a market cap of around $1 billion, a figure that has grown to about $5 billion. In an adjacent category, hair-loss biotechnology company Veradermics went public in early 2026, raising about $256 million before shares more than doubled on their first day of trading.

Outside the U.S., beauty IPOs have fared somewhat better of late. For example, The Beauty Tech Group listed on the London Stock Exchange at a valuation of roughly 300 million pounds (about $380 million), with shares trading above the offer price on debut. Puig began trading on Spain’s stock exchanges in 2024 at a valuation of close to 14 billion euros (about $15 billion), and its market value in 2026 has hovered around $11 billion.

Goodai Global, a Seoul-based K-Beauty company with around 11 brands, including Beauty of Joseon, Tirtir, Skinfood, SKIN1004 and Round Lab, is expected to seek a listing on the Korea Exchange (KOSPI) at a valuation of roughly $7 billion to $8 billion within the next two years. Another K-Beauty company, Medicube parent APR, went public on the KOSPI in February 2024 at a valuation of around $1.8 billion, and its shares since then have traded above IPO levels, pushing its market cap above $3 billion.

As we gauge the implications of possible Wella and L’Occitane IPOs, for the latest edition of our No Stupid Questions series, we asked 10 investors, investment bankers and consultants the following: After years without a marquee U.S. beauty IPO, what do you make of the possibility of Wella and L’Occitane going public this year? Could it open the door for other beauty platforms to follow, and who would that realistically help or leave behind? What ripple effects could a Wella or L’Occitane IPO have for beauty investors, founders and would-be acquirers?