Six things you didn't know about e.l.f.

e.l.f. Beauty dazzled traders when it made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange this week.

 

The drug store brand priced its public offering at $17 per share, but the price soared 55 percent and closed at $26.50. Net sales from the first half of this year hit $96.8 million, far oustripping the previous year’s sales of $75.19.

e.l.f. has become popular with millennials – an age group which makes up 70 percent of e.l.f.’s workforce – due to its products’ high quality and low prices. Its ranges cost between $1 and $6, and it launches new products almost weekly. e.l.f. is also a big employer of women: although the company’s founders are male, 80 percent of the staff are female.

e.l.f. came out of left field in 2004 and is slowly expanding into more and more territories – so what do we know about this little business which appears to have done everything right? Here are six facts you may not have known about e.l.f.

- e.l.f. stands for ‘eyes lips face’.

- Co-founder Scott Vincent Borba was inspired by seeing women with expensive cars buying their makeup in dollar stores to create an affordable quality brand.

- At just 31 years old, Borba had already launched Hard Candy cosmetics when he teamed up with 23-year-old Joseph Shamah, whose father helped to launch e.l.f.

- e.l.f. sales struggled until the company evolved its website, which was initially only used to showcase products, into an e-commerce site. Online sales still account for 50 percent of overall sales.

- e.l.f. gives to charitable causes, including breast cancer research and natural disaster funds, and supports PETA’s Fur Free Campaign.

- The website doubles as a social media platform for members – all two million of them.

 

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