Estée Lauder is coming full circle with its new launch.
The beauty brand, which over the decades has had big fragrance hits with the likes of White Linen, Pleasures, Beautiful and more, is hoping to return to its blockbuster days with the launch of Glimmer Eau de Parfum on Aug. 6, priced at $160 for a 100ml bottle and $130 for 50ml.
Crafted by perfumers Dominique Ropion, Anne Flipo and Jean-Marc Chaillan of IFF, Glimmer is an amber, floral fragrance with a gourmand twist — notes of macaron rose accord, raspberry mousse accord and vanilla bean.
“We’re moving to a new territory and a new space for Estée Lauder. We actually have not played in gourmand notes before,” said Justin Boxford, Estée Lauder’s global brand president, of the gourmand fragrance trend, which is particularly popular among younger generations. “It is a white space for the Estée Lauder brand today, but I also feel it captures so perfectly this Glimmer concept.”
The fragrance is housed in a rectangular bottle, which the brand says embodies femininity and strength, with debossed semi-circles that catch and reflect each ray of light. Lined up next to each other, these semi-circles create whole circles.
Of the name, Boxford said: “One of the big insights today is that consumers are seeking more and more joy, optimism, connection, and this idea of being together in community and what we’re calling glimmers.”
The campaign will be fronted by actress and singer Hailee Steinfeld, who most recently won acclaim for her role in Ryan Coogler’s “Sinners.”
Estée Lauder Glimmer Eau
Janelle Jones/WWD
“She represents this contagious sense of joy, and really understands the power of connecting with community,” Boxford said. “She’s also someone that we’ve all grown up with, from a very young actress where she’s extremely accomplished to being what she is today — a cultural force in so many ways. Beyond her amazing acting and her music, she has this amazing deep connection with her audience.”
Asked if this is part of a strategy to reach a younger audience, Boxford said: “We have this incredible loyal consumer that continues to buy and love our iconic fragrances. This is the moment for Lauder to really recruit this new generation consumer and win in a big way with Glimmer.”
This launch comes after a fairly quiet few years for the brand on the fragrance launch front; its last launch was Beautiful Magnolia in 2021.
Its parent company, the Estée Lauder Cos., has been diving deeper into fragrance and the category is a positive one for the business. Fragrance net sales increased 10 percent in its fiscal third quarter, driven by double-digit growth from the company’s luxury brands, led by Le Labo, Kilian Paris (the fastest-growing brand in the entire portfolio), Balmain Beauty and Tom Ford.
Last year, the Estée Lauder Cos. also opened a fragrance atelier in Paris.
“Fragrance is a critical arm to the brand, and we see this as a big growth driver over the next few years. If you look at the next three years in beauty, we see roughly about 50 percent of beauty being driven by fragrance,” Boxford said.
“What’s quite exciting is about three quarters of that is being driven by prestige fragrance. It’s a big recruitment moment for us,” he continued. “So where we can get a whole new consumer and a consumer that we believe are looking for fantastic fragrances, but really want to connect with a fragrance that connects with them. This is why we see Glimmer as such a cultural movement in so many ways. It will resonate very strongly with the next generation consumer.”
The brand declined to provide revenue forecasts for this launch. Industry sources speculated that it could hit $60 million in retail sales in its first year on counter.
“What I can tell you is we have big ambition,” said Boxford, who declined to comment on the figure. “We have amazing support from all of our retail partners, and we believe this is going to be a very big success, and will be a new era of prestige fragrance for Estée Lauder as we connect in a very differentiated way through this wonderful positioning of Glimmer.”
To begin with, the launch will focus on markets in the West, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
“We’re launching in the West because it’s where we see prestige fragrance growth. That’s important. We’re really going to where we see the growth, where we see the consumer, where we see the opportunity,” Boxford said.
It will be distributed in a mix of specialty retail and department stores, which Boxford believes still have a very loyal fragrance customer.
Estée Lauder Glimmer Eau
Janelle Jones/WWD
For marketing, Boxford described a full 360 campaign, including TV, print and social. “The whole concept of sharing the glimmer, of passing that on, plays so well on the social platforms. You’re going to see a lot of that in terms of what is your glimmer, how do we share that, how do we ignite a spark.”
The fragrance launch follows changes that Lauder made to its makeup line this year, the February 2026 launch of its next-generation Double Wear Stay-in-Place Longwear Matte Foundation, supported by the global “Made for More” campaign. This helped boost the brand’s makeup net sales by double digits.
As for fragrance, Boxford believes it’s in the brand’s DNA.
“From all of our learnings, understanding how consumers are looking at fragrance, what they’re looking for, why certain fragrances are being so successful, we’ve created a fragrance and a campaign that we believe will connect emotionally in a very strong way. We have something that is very, very special,” he said.
