With comparable-store sales positive for six consecutive quarters, the company is feeling confident enough to expand its product purview by reentering beauty initially at Old Navy, its value-focused retailer nameplate, which will roll out a beauty assortment at approximately 150 stores this fall with branded products such as hair and body mist, body lotion and body wash largely priced under $25, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The branded products will be joined by skincare, makeup, haircare and nail products from third-party brands like Mario Badescu, TonyMoly and Mixik. About 45 Old Navy locations will also have beauty shops staffed with advisers. Old Navy, which operates over 1,200 locations across the country, isn’t totally devoid of beauty now and stocks a limited selection of beauty products in its checkout lanes.

Following Old Navy’s beauty dive, Gap is expected to resurrect fragrance next year before introducing additional branded beauty products to its stores. Gap launched a fragrance line in the mid-1990s that included four minimal, gender-neutral fragrances called Dream, Heaven, Grass and Om. The line subsequently extended to body mists, lotions, shower gels and perfumes before being discontinued. Gap relaunched its beauty line in 2006 through a licensing agreement with Inter Parfums.

The Business of Fashion has reported that John Demsey, previously executive group president at Estée Lauder, is consulting Gap on its return to beauty. Old Navy’s beauty assortment will be created by Maesa, the incubator behind Ashley Tinsdale’s Being Frenshe and Mindy McKnight’s Hairitage. It holds the license for Banana Republic’s fragrances. Gap is in discussions with agencies and distributors to relaunch the branded fragrance line. Give Back Beauty, a beauty fragrance licensing and incubation company, produced its scents until September last year.

Under the helm of CEO Richard Dickson since 2023, Gap has once again become cool as it picks up steam with millennial and gen Z shoppers through collaborations with apparel brands Doen and Cult Gaia and campaigns featuring Troye Sivan, Tyla and Katseye. After premiering on Aug. 19, the campaign with Katseye dancing to the song “Milkshake”garnered 400 million views and 8 billion impressions within three days.

Dickson, who previously served as CEO of Mattel, where he was largely credited for reviving the Barbie brand, has been instrumental in saving Gap from irrelevance. In February 2024, he hired red carpet fashion designer Zac Posen as the company’s EVP and creative director. Posen serves as Old Navy’s chief creative officer, too.

Curious to find out what beauty industry insiders think about Gap’s latest beauty play, for this edition of our ongoing series posing questions relevant to indie beauty, we decided to explore what the apparel retail company should do to capture contemporary beauty shoppers. We asked 11 beauty investors, consultants, analysts and executives the following: What will it take for Gap to succeed in beauty? What would be ideal Gap beauty products?