West Lane Capital Partners is diving deeper into beauty by acquiring Mented Cosmetics.
Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. It marks West Lane’s second beauty transaction this year. Earlier this month, the Los Angeles private equity firm that’s made over $250 million in capital investments across six sectors, including distribution, food and beverage, manufacturing and business services as well as beauty and wellness, announced it bought haircare brand Seven.
Mented will be joining West Lane’s portfolio company Blooming Brands, which houses beauty brands Blossom, By Blossom and Blue Cross Nail Care. Simply Organic and Body Spa are other beauty companies in West Lane’s portfolio, and the firm is scouting the beauty industry for future pickups.
KJ Miller, co-founder and of Mented, decided West Lane would be a good fit for the brand because of its bench of beauty assets. “They have extensive knowledge of the beauty industry. Beyond that, I respect and admire the team,” she says. “We have seen a number of brands in the consumer space either not make it or be left from what I hear with deals that they didn’t feel great about, and I’m lucky to say I feel really great about our partner.”
Michael Wentz, VP at West Lane, says, “Mented is a brand with a strong reputation in what is a really competitive market in the color cosmetics space. Coupled with the success it has had on social media and the trajectory of the business, we saw a lot of opportunities to broaden it with the infrastructure we have at Blooming Brands to take it to the next level.”
Blooming Brands’ first order of business is getting Mented back up and running. In January, Mented stopped selling through its website due to a lack of inventory to fill e-commerce orders. This summer, it plans to relaunch and start filling e-commerce orders again.
“From our perspective, an immediate need is regaining the trust of the customer base so they know the product will be there, and they will have access to it going forward,” says Wentz. “It’s on us to get product to customers and have it be available as soon as possible, and we are working hard to do that. It just takes time and communication.”
Miller is staying on board on an interim basis to guide Mented through the relaunch. After the relaunch, she anticipates turning her attention to teaching and content creation. She’s active on TikTok, where she posts on everything from Beyoncé to pickleball, and hosts a podcast called “2 Queens 2 Crowns.” Miller began on TikTok to promote Mented and has 92,500 followers on it. Mented has 243,000 Instagram followers.
Mented is currently sold at retailers such as Ulta Beauty, Target, CVS and Walgreens, but in the near term it will be concentrating on its direct-to-consumer channel. While’s she grateful to retailers that took a chance on the brand, Miller acknowledges that retail distribution is challenging for an upstart like Mented.
“Growing in retail requires a lot of capital because it’s not just getting placed and that initial inventory, but it’s all of the costs that come with staying on shelf,” she says. “There can be markdowns in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, and there can be shrinkage and damage in the tens of thousands of dollars every month.”
Miller launched Mented in 2017 with fellow Harvard Business School graduate and co-founder Amanda E/J Morrison, now CEO and co-founder of Julie, and the brand exploded out of the gate with nude lipsticks designed for women of color. To this day, lipstick remains Mented’s bestseller. Foundation is its second-best seller. Mented’s prices are primarily from $16.50 to $30.
“We wanted all women and particularly women of color to see themselves in the world of beauty,” says Miller. “I’m happy to say that I believe Mented pushed the industry forward, and we are continuing to do that with this partnership with West Lane and Blooming Brands. It’s giving us a chance to continue to do the work we set out to do.”
Prior to selling to West Lane, Mented raised $9 million in venture capital funding, including a $5 million series A round in 2022 led by Corazon Capital and CircleUp Growth Partners. The brand stuck to DTC distribution for about four years before it landed at retail. In recent years, it’s been impacted by the shifting DTC and funding landscape.
“My co-founder and I weren’t in a place where we could have bootstrapped this brand and raising venture capital means that growth is going to be an expectation, and we did realize rapid growth, but at that time the focus was not around profitability,” says Miller. “It would be easy to say I wished we had focused profitability sooner, but that’s not the time we raised in.”
According to Wentz, West Lane typically invests in brands generating at least $10 million in annual revenues, but will consider brands such as Mented under that amount. Backed by a family office Wentz declined to divulge, he mentions West Lane isn’t as driven by exit strategies as some private equity firms because it can hold on to companies for extended periods as long as they’re profitable.
“Once we enter an industry, we want to stick around in that industry, develop an expertise in it and understand how the best businesses operate as opposed to other funds that are more generalist,” he says. “We’re looking at brands where we can add value by access to our team and infrastructure.”
