Welcome in, today is Thursday, July thirtieth, and we begin with L'Oréal, where Reuters reports a better-than-expected quarter led by haircare and mascara. L'Oréal's sales for the three months to the end of June came to eleven point six billion euros, up six point three percent on a like-for-like basis once adjusted for the phasing of its new IT system, Reuters reports. That was ahead of a Visible Alpha analyst consensus of five point seven percent growth, and it marks a slowdown from six point seven percent in the first quarter against tougher comparisons. The mass-market unit, the company's largest, grew more than expected, helped in Europe by hair products and what the company called a remarkable outperformance online. Europe, its biggest region, rose six point seven percent on an adjusted like-for-like basis. North America rose five point nine percent. Luxe, about a third of sales, lagged forecasts at four point seven percent, with problems in China's travel retail sector still curtailing growth even as the division posted double-digit gains in China, per that reporting. That split is the clearest read the sector has had this season on where prestige demand is holding and where it is not. Shares are up four percent year to date. In the company's own half-year statement, sales reached twenty-three point seven seven billion euros, up five point eight percent reported and six point five percent on an adjusted like-for-like basis, with a record first-half operating margin of twenty-one point three percent and brand investment up seventy basis points. Professional Products led the divisions at eleven point six percent, driven by premium haircare. Chief executive Nicolas Hieronimus invoked the lipstick effect back in April, the idea that shoppers buy cosmetics to feel better in stressful times. For a comparison point, Unilever reported eight percent underlying sales growth in its beauty and wellbeing unit for the quarter, according to that same Reuters account. Also today, a United States federal judge has raised questions over the scientific evidence behind roughly sixty-nine thousand lawsuits alleging that Johnson and Johnson's talc-based products caused ovarian cancer. Global Cosmetics News has that ruling, and we have not seen it matched elsewhere. Per that account, US Magistrate Judge Rukhsanah Singh ruled that plaintiffs must put forward admissible expert evidence, the causation threshold in what the same reporting describes as one of the cosmetics industry's largest product liability cases. That account frames the ruling as potentially reshaping the litigation, but it does not set out how many of the claims the requirement would narrow, and no date is given for the next stage. The allegations remain allegations, and nothing in that reporting indicates the causation evidence itself has been decided. The reason it travels beyond one defendant is that an evidentiary standard set here would feed into how ingredient liability and claim substantiation get priced across the category. Industry reaction leans toward treating the case as a risk being retired rather than an open evidentiary question, with much of the visible commentary pairing the legal news with the company's pipeline and dealmaking rather than with the causation question. A recurring counter-view is that the durability of any resolution would depend on high plaintiff participation, and that any headline figure would look modest once spread across tens of thousands of claimants and a decade of litigation costs. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. The European Commission has fined Alibaba-owned AliExpress five hundred and fifty million euros, about six hundred and twenty-nine million dollars, under the Digital Services Act, for failing to adequately prevent the sale of illegal, unsafe and counterfeit products on its marketplace, Global Cosmetics News reports. YSL Beauty has named Alisha Boe ambassador for Black Opium Pink Glaze, the newest addition to its flagship fragrance line, per Cosmetics Business, with WWD Beauty carrying global brand president Yann Andrea on the casting and the strategy behind it. Shiseido says cilantro fruit extract may offer a dual anti-ageing benefit, selectively eliminating senescent skin cells while increasing healthy fibroblasts to support collagen production and skin regeneration, according to Global Cosmetics News. PVH has appointed Alexis Rollier, Sephora's global chief operating officer, as chief financial officer from early September, reporting to chief executive Stefan Larsson, per Modaes and Pulse two point zero. Gerresheimer said Wednesday it has agreed to sell its global Primary Packaging Plastics business, along with its US business Centor, to Apax Funds, Premium Beauty News reports. One last headline. easyJet has partnered with Luneia Brands on an exclusive multi-brand K-beauty skincare box, which Global Cosmetics News describes as a first for a UK or European airline's inflight retail programme.