Estée Lauder sales rise 7% to $3.7 billion as fragrance jumps 19%

The Estée Lauder Companies, the American group whose brands include La Mer, The Ordinary, Le Labo and Jo Malone London, reported on Monday, 2 November 2026 that its net sales rose 7% to $3.715 billion in the first quarter of its fiscal year 2027. Organic sales, which strip out currency moves and deals, grew 6%, with growth in every region. Fragrance was the fastest-growing category, up 19% to $861 million, and the company raised its full-year sales forecast.

Estée Lauder is one of the largest prestige beauty groups in the world, and its results are read across the industry as a signal of how shoppers are spending on higher-priced make-up, skin care and perfume. A rise in sales in every region, and a higher forecast, suggest that demand for premium beauty held up in the quarter.

The clearest trend in the numbers is the strength of fragrance. The company said brands such as Le Labo, TOM FORD, Jo Malone London and KILIAN PARIS drove the growth. The 93% jump in fragrance operating income shows that this growth is also profitable for the group. Make-up, by contrast, grew only 2%.

Skin care remains the company's biggest business. Growth there came mainly from La Mer, the luxury cream brand, and from The Ordinary, a lower-priced brand known for simple, ingredient-led products. The pairing shows how one group now sells at very different price points to reach different buyers.

Beauty is a business in which women are the main customers and a large part of the workforce, from product development to store counters, so the health of its biggest groups matters to jobs across that chain. For readers in India, where global prestige brands compete with fast-growing local labels on beauty platforms and in malls, the direction of a group of this size shows which categories international companies are likely to push hardest.

Peepals calculation: Skin care, make-up and fragrance together brought in $3.56 billion of the $3.715 billion total (1.651 + 1.048 + 0.861 = 3.56), or about 96%. Skin care was about 44% of sales (1.651 / 3.715), make-up about 28% (1.048 / 3.715) and fragrance about 23% (0.861 / 3.715). Working back from the growth rates, fragrance sales were about $724 million a year earlier (861 / 1.19) and total sales about $3.47 billion (3,715 / 1.07). So fragrance added about $137 million of the roughly $243 million total rise, or more than half of the quarter's growth (137 / 243 ≈ 0.56). Our calculation from the reported figures.

Short-term: The higher forecast signals that the company expects demand for premium beauty to stay firm through fiscal 2027, with fragrance leading.

Long-term: The gap between fragrance growth (19%) and make-up growth (2%) shows where the group's sales are now coming from; whether that pattern holds will be visible in the next quarterly results.

Who is affected: Beauty shoppers, workers and suppliers in the prestige beauty industry, rival beauty brands, and retailers that stock Estée Lauder brands.

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