Laura Mercier Ditches Mega-Influencers for Tastemaker-Consultants in Gen X Pivot

Quick Facts

Laura Mercier launched ‘The Laura Mercier Collective’ in May 2026, a paid group of tastemakers who act as internal consultants and external brand promoters.
Parent company Orveon Global estimates Laura Mercier’s annual revenue at $378.9 million, with e-commerce representing 37% of total sales.
The brand has shifted influencer volume from mega-creators to micro-creators, averaging 947 sponsored posts per month with TikTok accounting for 75% of sponsored content.

Laura Mercier is 30 years old and rebuilding its marketing playbook from the ground up. In May 2026, the brand launched ‘The Laura Mercier Collective,’ a curated group of tastemakers paid to advise the brand internally and promote it publicly.

The founding members include author and former InStyle editor-in-chief Laura Brown, celebrity makeup artist Georgie Eisdell, interior designer Brigette Romanek, and beauty editor and podcast host Amy Chang. The brand pays each member for their time, structured similarly to an outside consulting arrangement.

‘While influencers and content creators are great, and they do influence purchase, at the end of the day, the authenticity and the trust factor rises infinitely when it’s your best friend, or your sister, or your mother, or your brother, or whoever saying this product is amazing,’ said Ginny Wright, global CEO of Orveon, which acquired Laura Mercier from Shiseido in 2021.

Beyond Promotion

Collective members are not just posting. They co-create products and host events on behalf of the brand. Their first visible assignment was promoting the relaunch of the Secret Camouflage Complexion Perfector, celebrated in May with a London dinner co-hosted by British Vogue.

The Collective sits alongside a broader affiliate program called Society Mercier. That program segments creators into three tracks: Devotees, who are loyal product fans; Artisans, who are working makeup artists; and Tastemakers, who produce social content. Members earn commissions on sales and receive early access to launches.

Targeting Gen X

The strategy is also a deliberate bet on an older consumer. Wright said Laura Mercier had drifted from its core identity in recent years, losing touch with the Gen X women who discovered the brand in their teens and 20s.

‘A lot of brands are going after Gen Z, and there’s nothing wrong with that. There are very few brands that are recognizing [Gen X] are women of value and women we want to be a part of our world,’ Wright said.

Wright joined Orveon in 2025 after serving as one of the few female CEOs in the luxury watch industry at Audemars Piguet Americas. There, she grew the share of women purchasing watches for themselves from 14% to more than 30% in four years. She is applying that same consumer lens to Orveon’s premium portfolio.

Broader Industry Shift

Laura Mercier’s move reflects a wider rethink happening across the beauty sector. Brands are pulling back from high-follower influencer deals as consumer skepticism toward sponsored content grows. Micro-creators and niche voices are drawing more trust from audiences than celebrities with millions of followers.

The brand’s top sponsored content platform is TikTok, which accounts for 75% of its influencer output. The United States leads by volume with an estimated 4,200 sponsored posts, followed by Brazil at 1,200 and the United Kingdom at 914.

Orveon acquired Laura Mercier alongside bareMinerals and BUXOM from Shiseido in December 2021 as part of a $700 million deal led by Advent International. The brand has changed hands several times since Neiman Marcus bought a 51% stake for $6.7 million in 1998. Shiseido paid approximately $260 million for it in 2016.

Competitors including Sarah Creal and All Golden are also targeting the 40-plus beauty consumer, making Laura Mercier’s Gen X focus a competitive differentiator rather than a default position.