Pacifica Beauty Announces Strategic Investment from Brentwood Associates and Appointment of New CEO, Beauty Industry Veteran Nathalie Kristo

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 28, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacifica Beauty, the pioneer of 100% vegan, cruelty-free, clean beauty, today announced two strategic moves as a part of its ambitious growth objectives for 2022 and beyond. Fueled by values-driven product innovations prioritizing natural ingredients and sustainable practices, the brand has experienced double-digit growth in key categories over the past several years and is one of the fastest-growing accessible, clean brands. As part of its continued trajectory, Pacifica is excited to announce a new growth partner, Brentwood Associates, and the appointment of Nathalie Kristo as its new CEO and Board Member.

"For the last 25 years, we have pushed to democratize clean, vegan and more sustainable beauty with our accessible price points. The consumer has never been more ready for our brand than they are today," said Founder Brook Harvey-Taylor, who will move to the role of company President. "As we continue to rapidly grow, I am so excited to have Brentwood as our new partner, with their deep bench of talent and capabilities in helping brands scale. With the addition of Nathalie as our CEO, bringing her incredible leadership and experience, I believe we are going to be unstoppable. Nathalie is truly inspirational, and she is aligned with our mission and values. Her global beauty experience and her proven track record will be invaluable as we look to take Pacifica to new heights."

Harvey-Taylor will now dedicate more time to growing key parts of the business where her passions lie – fueling the brand mission, product development, and content generation. With Kristo's more than 20 years of experience building iconic brands – from managing multi-category, billion-dollar brands, to scaling and globalizing digitally-native startups – she will help drive the brand's omni-channel growth strategy, lead its cross-functional teams operationally and support international expansion.

"We are experiencing an important paradigm shift as consumers make more clean, sustainable and compassionate choices," said Kristo. "Pacifica has been true to this mission since day one and embodies today's consumer values. I am excited to help amplify this storytelling mission, grow our global community and drive strong growth and expansion for the company, capitalizing on great momentum and strong potential ahead. I am deeply inspired by Brook, the Pacifica team and our passionate, growing community."

"Nathalie's addition to the team is the first of many impactful decisions to come for Pacifica as it heads into a new year of unparalleled growth," said Steve Moore, Partner at Brentwood Associates. "We have followed Pacifica for nearly five years. Since its inception, the brand has been at the forefront of innovation in clean beauty, and we are excited to help them continue to build on this legacy. We are confident that redefining these internal leadership roles at Pacifica is the first step towards accelerating omnichannel growth at a global scale, and we know we are the right partner to help them do it."

Most recently, Kristo served as Huda Beauty's North America President, then CEO based in Dubai, where she led the brand's omnichannel strategy with rapid acceleration of its direct-to-consumer business, and helped expand the brand into new global markets and product categories. Prior to that, Kristo spent most of her career at L'Oreal, notably as the Global Brand President of NYX Professional Makeup where she scaled and globalized the business, amplifying the brand's unique social and digital footprint to drive explosive growth. She has also held the positions of Senior Vice President of Marketing for L'Oreal Paris USA and General Manager of Maybelline New York and Garnier in Canada.

Launched as a category pioneer, Pacifica has reached tremendous milestones since its first retail partnership with Whole Foods Market. With continued success at its original brick-and-mortar retailer, the brand later launched into Ulta and Target, catching the attention of Alliance Consumer Growth as the brand's first minority investment partner in 2016. ACG's investment supported rapid acceleration, including expansion into eight global markets in Canada, the UK and Europe in 2021, and prioritization in growing its e-commerce business. Today, Pacifica is one of Ulta's Conscious Beauty Brands and Harvey-Taylor serves on the Ulta Conscious Beauty Advisory Council. 

"We have been thoroughly impressed by the stellar business Brook and Billy have built. Pacifica is a true leader of the accessible clean beauty movement, and we are excited to support the brand by helping to drive greater brand awareness, digital optimization and operational excellence across its global omnichannel platform," said Katherine Mossman, Beauty and Wellness Industry Partner at Brentwood, and former Board Advisor of Credo Beauty and Devacurl.

In addition to clean innovation, Pacifica has always been a huge proponent of minimizing waste and the company recently introduced packaging innovations such as biodegradable patches, glass bottles, and PCR. Pacifica also partners with several groups on initiatives focused on sustainability in the beauty industry, such as Plastic Collective, which works with a network of remote community projects turning plastic waste into a recycling profit. Pacifica supports Plastic Net Zero initiatives that collect and recycle plastic equivalent to the total amount of plastic used in Pacifica products each year.

Pacifica's early focus was building a grass-roots community of advocates, starting with fragrance followed quickly by skincare, and it has since expanded to cosmetics and haircare. The company's key product franchises include Glow Baby with vitamin C, Wake Up Beautiful with retinoids, and Stellar Gaze Mascara, which launched in 2013 as one of the first clean mascaras on the market. In addition, the brand has been a leader in embracing new technologies and creating vegan ingredients that have traditionally been animal-based, including the brand's recent launches — Vegan Collagen + Vegan Ceramides skincare lines. Price points in makeup are almost all under $20 and in skincare under $30.

About Pacifica Beauty
Beauty activists since 1996, Pacifica has always been on a mission to make clean beauty more accessible to everyone using the most effective 100% vegan, cruelty-free and plant powered ingredients at the best prices. Pacifica's core value is putting the planet first, protecting animals and never compromising for people. Pacifica abides by its strict Compassion Standards, which includes over 1,800 ingredients the brand will never use in its formulations. Every product is carefully formulated with the strictest standards. Since its inception, Pacifica has strived to do better for our planet — from the ingredients Pacifica sources to the packaging its products come in. Pacifica works to minimize its footprint on the planet by using less packaging, PCR (post-consumer recycled plastic), glass, and/or aluminum. In partnership with Plastic Collective, Pacifica will be providing funding to develop plastic recycling social enterprises and address plastic waste in territories with high environmental leakage. To learn more about Pacifica, visit PacificaBeauty.com or follow the brand @pacificabeauty.

About Brentwood Associates  
Brentwood Associates is a Los Angeles-based private equity investment firm with a 30+ year history of investing in middle-market growth-oriented consumer and business services companies. Since 1984, Brentwood's dedicated private equity team has invested in over 50 portfolio companies with an aggregate transaction value of over $6 billion. With significant experience in both investing and brand building, Brentwood is a value-added partner for entrepreneurs and senior management teams building world-class companies. Learn more at www.brentwood.com.

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SOURCE Pacifica Beauty