Makeup

Renee Cosmetics audit: the Beardo founders’ Ahmedabad brand, the Indian contract factories named on its pages, per-gram prices and its FY25 filed figures.

Bare Minerals can prove its five-ingredient foundation claim and cannot prove its clean claim. Owned by Advent’s Orveon since 2021, and about 13% dearer in India.

L’Oréal Paris sells in India at 61–75% of its US prices — at full MRP, on the pages we read. We audit the ₹186.39 crore profiteering order, the shifting wear-hour claims and the most expensive kajal per gram we have priced.

The world’s best-known cheap makeup brand is not cheap in India. Four hero products sell here 24% to 46% above their American list price.

Givenchy Beauty is LVMH-owned with no licensee, but the company importing it into India is a Chalhoub Group arm named on 12 of 13 product declarations.

Fenty Beauty is a joint venture with LVMH’s Kendo Brands and no party has ever published a share. Indian prices run 4.8% to 9.4% above the US list, and the shade ranges shrink at the border.

MAC’s own India webstore permanently stopped taking orders on 15 December 2025. We check who owns the Toronto-born brand, what it costs against the US and UK, and where to buy it safely in India.

India’s advertising council upheld two complaints against Clinique’s Moisture Surge claims in late 2025. Nine months later the struck-down number was still on sale copy, while Indian prices ran up to 24% below the American list.

Chanel Beauty declares origin and importer on every Indian listing and a factory on most of them. Prices run from 12.9% cheaper than America to 24.3% dearer.

Benefit runs brow bars in ten Sephora India stores at published prices, and its products land cheaper here than in the United States. Who owns it, and what checks out.

The Golden Ratio patent checks out on the register and runs to 2033. The brow powder that built the brand costs ₹3,375 a gram in India, and Anastasia Soare still holds the majority.

Estée Lauder has never changed hands since 1946, and its Indian prices sit below American list on every hero we checked. The brand shut its own Indian webstore on 15 December 2025.

Laura Mercier passed from Shiseido to Advent’s Orveon in a US$700 million sale. In India it runs 10% to 20% above United States list price.