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Sometimes the beauty industry has a way of getting ahead of itself.
Violet Grey chief executive Sherif Guirgis confirmed to The Business of Beauty that the retailer has not bought and will not be purchasing Aspen-based luxury retailer Cos Bar, as previously reported by WWD.
“We’re not pursuing an acquisition of Cos Bar and we’re not pursuing any other transactions at this moment,” he said.
While the industry assumed a deal was done, such speculation was premature. A deal between Violet Grey and Cos Bar seemed to make sense due to the overlapping high net customer base and merchandise assortment between the two businesses. The vast majority of Cos Bar’s fleet is found in wealthy locales like Aspen, and Marin County and La Jolla outside of San Francisco and San Diego, respectively. Violet Grey’s push into retail has accelerated following its separation from Farfetch, and includes cosmopolitan cities like Los Angeles and New York. Its Madison Avenue location opened to the public in July; the only outlier is Violet Grey’s partnership with Long Island-based department store Hirshleifers, which opened in November 2024.
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Though an acquisition would have instantly given Violet Grey presence in significant markets, thanks to Cos Bar’s 21 stores, sources have suggested that brand alignment did not match and the former was better off developing its own stores in its target cities. Violet Grey and Cos Bar declined to comment.
Violet Grey did, however, purchase The Detox Market in April, following a lengthy process. The brand and content platform is now operating the clean beauty retailer’s six stores in the US and Canada, but it will continue to trade as The Detox Market. Founder Romain Gaillard is staying on. Tracy Kline, who joined Violet Grey in June as group president, and Guirgis as CEO will oversee both brands. Guirgis would not share financial terms.
The Detox Market gives Violet Grey an immediate foothold internationally. Beyond Canada, the retailer partnered with Chaloub Group-owned Faces, one of the go-to beauty destinations in the Middle East in 2022. The Middle East has become a prime battle ground for beauty, with global business vying to reach its largely young and affluent customer base. Sephora has made a bigger play in the Gulf Cooperation Countries, launching its most impressive indie brands while Ulta Beauty will inaugurate its presence later this year via a joint venture with local retailer Alshaya Group.
Since former parent company Farfetch closed its beauty division — which Violet Grey was a key component of — in 2023, founder Cassandra Grey has aimed to regain the brand’s former glory. Previously an advisor at Farfetch, Grey repurchased the business with Guirgis in 2024 and has been on a diligent path to reestablish Violet Grey as the ultimate curator of the best in beauty. Since the duo resumed control, they’ve launched a number of exclusive brands, such as luxury skincare lines Poiret Beauté and Habelo. Its new incubation arm, Violet Lab, released a $1,100 fragrance under the Madame Grey brand in May.
As department stores in the US still struggle and Sephora and Ulta Beauty have gone more mass both in terms of breadth and depth, both via collaborations with Kohl’s and Target, and more accessible-priced lines, there is a place for Violet Grey and its selective point of view.
The question now is scale.
Guirgis believes there is no limit on that: “There’s a really big white space obviously for Violet Grey in the market. What we do and the experience that we provide is unmatched, and expanding our retail points of distribution is an important part of that strategy. We look at different ways to do that like opening standalone stores in the Upper East Side and acquisitions as a potential accelerant.”
He added, however, “that nothing is active right now.”
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