Naturium
Susan Yara reviewed skincare as a trusted, unbiased voice, then her followers learned she owned one of the brands she was recommending. She survived the backlash and an FTC investigation and sold Naturium to e.l.f. for $355 million.
Susan Yara built a following of hundreds of thousands by reviewing skincare on YouTube as a trusted, seemingly unbiased voice. What her audience didn’t know was that one of the brands she kept recommending, Naturium, was her own. When that came out in 2020 the backlash was immediate, and a Federal Trade Commission investigation followed.
Three years later, e.l.f. Beauty bought Naturium for $355 million. The brand Yara had been building while her credibility took the hit grew to roughly $90 million in annual sales and about $17 million in profit in under four years. She was cleared by the FTC and walked away with one of the fastest skincare exits of the decade, a case study in how far an engaged audience can carry a product, and how quickly it can turn on you.
At a glance:
| Founded | 2019 |
| Founder | Susan Yara (skincare creator) with The Center, an LA brand accelerator |
| Acquired by | e.l.f. Beauty, August 2023 |
| Acquisition price | $355 million (cash and stock) |
| Revenue | ~$90 million net sales (2023), ~$17 million adjusted EBITDA |
| Positioning | Clinically-tested skincare at accessible prices ($12–$25) |
| Sold at | Target, Ulta, and DTC |
The Story
The creator whose whole asset was trust
Susan Yara spent years building Mixed Makeup, a YouTube channel and community where she broke down ingredients and reviewed products with a candor that made her one of the more trusted voices in skincare. That trust was the entire asset. Her audience came to her precisely because she seemed to have no stake in what she recommended.
The brand she didn’t tell them about
In 2019, Yara co-founded Naturium with The Center, a Los Angeles brand accelerator run by Ben Bennett, on a simple pitch: clinically-backed, high-performance skincare at prices that undercut the prestige shelf. In early 2020 she began featuring Naturium products to her audience, on YouTube and in her private Facebook group, as though she were a fan who had found something good. On June 21, 2020, she revealed she was the co-founder.
The backlash and the FTC
The reaction was swift. Followers who had trusted her as an objective reviewer felt deceived, and promoting a brand you secretly own without disclosing it is not only a trust breach, it can break FTC rules. An investigation followed and ran for about two years. Yara apologized, kept building, and was ultimately cleared.
Building through it, to a $355 million exit
Naturium grew straight through the controversy. Its accessible, ingredient-forward products landed in Target, which brought scale and private equity interest, and by 2023 the four-year-old brand was doing roughly $90 million in net sales with about $17 million in profit. On August 29, 2023, e.l.f. Beauty acquired Naturium for $355 million in cash and stock.
The Strategy
Clinical skincare at an accessible price
Naturium’s pitch was prestige-grade, clinically-tested formulas at $12 to $25, in a market where comparable actives from prestige brands cost two to four times as much. That put it in the same value lane as e.l.f. itself, which is exactly why the acquirer fit: an audience that wanted results without the prestige markup.
The accelerator did the heavy lifting
Yara didn’t build the operational company alone. The Center handled formulation, supply chain, and the infrastructure of running a skincare business, which let her focus on brand and audience. It’s the modern creator-brand model: pair a person with reach to a machine that can actually make and ship product.
DTC plus mass retail, not prestige-only
Naturium sold through its own site and through Target and Ulta rather than chasing a prestige-only Sephora footprint. Mass retail matched the accessible price and put the brand in front of far more shoppers, and landing in Target was the signal that pulled in outside capital.
The Marketing
The audience was the launchpad
Naturium launched with the thing most new brands spend millions trying to buy: a built-in, engaged audience that trusted the founder’s taste. That is why it could move so fast on so little. It’s also what made the disclosure failure so damaging, because the launchpad and the liability were the same asset. An audience that trusts you is rocket fuel, right up until it feels used.
Ingredient education as the funnel
Yara’s entire content lane was teaching people how ingredients actually work, which doubled as the perfect top of funnel for a science-forward skincare brand. The earned attention of genuinely useful content is cheaper and stickier than ads, and it pre-sold an audience already fluent in the exact language Naturium’s products spoke.
The Numbers
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2019 | Naturium launches |
| 2020 | Disclosure controversy; FTC investigation begins |
| 2023 | ~$90M net sales, ~$17M adjusted EBITDA |
| Aug 2023 | Acquired by e.l.f. Beauty for $355 million |
The e.l.f. deal: $355 million in cash and stock, announced August 29, 2023. It was e.l.f.’s move into skincare, and it came two years before the company paid up to $1 billion for Rhode. Naturium was the value-priced skincare piece of e.l.f.’s portfolio.
Profitability was the point. The tell in the numbers is the $17 million in profit on roughly $90 million in sales. e.l.f. didn’t buy a story, it bought a profitable brand, which is what let a four-year-old company command $355 million.
What You Can Learn
An engaged audience is the fastest launchpad there is, and the most fragile. Naturium reached scale in under four years because Yara brought a trusting audience with her. The same audience nearly sank it. Reach built on trust is powerful and perishable, spend it carefully.
Disclose, always. The moment you hide a conflict, you start spending the exact thing that made you valuable. A clear “I co-founded this” at the start would have cost Yara nothing and saved her a two-year FTC investigation. Transparency is not the risk, hiding is.
Profit is what gets you bought. e.l.f. paid $355 million for a brand doing about $90 million in sales because $17 million of that was profit. A business that makes money has options a fast-growing but unprofitable one never does.
The creator-to-brand playbook works, but the product still has to. Once the noise died down, Naturium kept selling because the formulas delivered at the price. An audience gets you the first sale; the product gets you the second.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who founded Naturium?
Naturium was founded in 2019 by skincare content creator Susan Yara together with The Center, a Los Angeles brand accelerator run by Ben Bennett. Yara was the public face and brand voice.
What was the Susan Yara controversy?
Yara promoted Naturium to her YouTube and Facebook audiences in early 2020 without disclosing that she co-owned the brand, leading followers to believe she was an objective reviewer. She revealed her involvement in June 2020, apologized after backlash, and an FTC investigation followed.
Did Susan Yara get in legal trouble?
An FTC investigation into the undisclosed promotion ran for about two years. Yara was ultimately cleared. Promoting a brand you own without disclosure can violate FTC endorsement rules.
How much did e.l.f. pay for Naturium?
e.l.f. Beauty acquired Naturium for $355 million in a combination of cash and stock, announced on August 29, 2023.
How much revenue does Naturium make?
Naturium was projected to reach roughly $90 million in net sales in 2023, with about $17 million in adjusted EBITDA, less than four years after launch.
Where is Naturium sold?
Naturium sells through Target, Ulta, and its own website. It deliberately chose accessible mass-prestige retail over a prestige-only footprint, matching its $12 to $25 pricing.
Sources
- e.l.f. Beauty / SEC, “e.l.f. Beauty to Acquire Naturium,” August 29, 2023. The $355 million acquisition terms.
- Forbes, “E.l.f. Beauty Acquires Naturium,” August 2023. Revenue and EBITDA projections, Susan Yara’s role.
- Inc., “How This Beauty Founder Scored a $355 Million Exit”. Target distribution, private equity interest, revenue trajectory.
- Beauty Independent, “Susan Yara, Naturium And The Makings Of An Influencer Controversy”. The disclosure timeline and community reaction.
- indy100, “YouTuber Susan Yara apologises for hiding her involvement with Naturium”. The apology and backlash.
- BeautyMatter, “e.l.f. Beauty Snaps Up Naturium in $355 Million Deal”. Founding details and deal confirmation.