Welcome in, today is Tuesday, August twenty-fifth, and we begin with Cosmetics Business reporting that Avon's two halves are back under one owner. Avon North America has been acquired by private equity firm Regent, reuniting it with Avon International under shared ownership for the first time since two thousand sixteen. That is per Cosmetics Business, which reports closing is expected by the first of September. The same account says Lisa Siders, currently chief operating officer of Avon International and Regent's operating partner for Avon, will become chief executive of the combined company at closing. She succeeds Kristof Neirynck. Regent founder and chairman Michael Reinstein said the move gives Avon clearer ownership and a shared strategy, and called North America the brand's largest market. The read straight through for operators is distribution, because one owner across both halves changes how the direct-selling footprint and the North American route to the consumer can be run. Industry reaction leans celebratory on the reunification, though a recurring counterpoint in the trade is that consolidating ownership is the straightforward part, and the harder question is whether a one-hundred-forty-year-old direct-selling brand can be re-made for how beauty is discovered and bought now. Also today, South Korea's National Assembly has passed the Act on the Fostering and Support of the Cosmetics Industry. Global Cosmetics News reports it establishes the country's first dedicated legal framework for developing cosmetics as a strategic national growth and export industry. That account is a headline summary, so what the act obliges, and when its provisions bite, is not spelled out. The statutory footing itself is the change, and exporters and K-beauty suppliers will watch it for what it means for state support and regulatory timelines. Coty has a new finance chief. Global Cosmetics News reports Soraya Benchikh becomes chief financial officer on the first of September, succeeding Laurent Mercier. Per that reporting, she joins from British American Tobacco, where she was most recently chief financial officer and previously president of BAT France, with earlier senior finance roles at Diageo and more than two decades in international consumer goods. This follows our earlier report on Coty returning to sales growth as its Coty.Curated strategy moved into execution, so the finance seat changes hands mid-execution. Reaction in the trade skews to the profile rather than the appointment: some read a finance chief drawn from tobacco and spirits rather than beauty as a signal the mandate leans to balance-sheet repair and cost discipline over category growth. Private equity is still buying into clinically positioned skin care. Cosmetics Business reports Epicutis has secured a twenty-five million dollar minority investment from GroundForce Capital, which will also take a seat on the brand's board. That reporting says the money is earmarked for brand awareness and new skin care development across the professional dermocosmetics channel, where Epicutis says it has scaled revenue at close to a one hundred percent compound annual growth rate over the past two years. The brand builds on patent-protected actives it calls TSC, DSD and HYVIA. Where the funds are pointed is the signal for challenger brands: awareness spend and research budget, funded together. Now, a few more headlines moving the trade today. Cosmetics Business reports Lady Gaga has quietly sat on the board of skin health start-up Outer Bio, and unveiled Yuna on Instagram, an ex vivo platform said to keep human skin alive, and measurable, for four weeks. Also per Cosmetics Business, the National Advertising Division has recommended Dreame Technology modify or discontinue a two-minute hair drying claim on its Dazzle styler and Miracle Pro dryer, after a challenge brought by Dyson. And finally, Global Cosmetics News reports Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting has agreed to buy sixty percent of Dermatouch for three point eight eight billion rupees, about forty-four million dollars, entering India's digital-first premium skincare segment.