The company has been a mainstay on store shelves since its founding 90 years ago in New York City, overseeing a stable of household names, from Almay to Elizabeth Arden.
Already weighed down by rising debt, Revlon’s problems only intensified with the pandemic as lipstick gave way to a new era in fashion, this one featuring medical-grade masks. There may be more corporate restructurings in the consumer products sector ahead with the threat of a recession and the rising costs of borrowing money.
Her father, billionaire Ron Perelman, backs the company through MacAndrews & Forbes, which acquired the business through a hostile takeover in 1985. Revlon went public in 1996. Revlon became the first beauty company to feature a Black model in 1970, Naomi Sims. In the 1980s, the company energized the cosmetics industry by putting both famous and yet-to-be-discovered models like Iman, Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford and Christy Turlington front and center, promising to make all women "unforgettable."
Probably because the Masks and Make Up didn't mix.