Lake & Skye is starting the year off under new ownership.
The fragrance brand known for hero scent 11 11 has been acquired in full by Tru Fragrance & Beauty, which has held a minority stake in the business since 2018.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Industry sources estimate that Lake & Skye is expected to reach at least $25 million in retail sales in 2025.
“It hits all the key attributes of what we look at for an acquisition target. It has attractive unit economics, it has a clear and differentiated consumer value proposition in a crowded marketplace demonstrated by a loyal following and attractive d-to-c metrics,” Eric Bilenko, chief executive officer of Tru Fragrance & Beauty, said of Lake & Skye. “It also has a strong history of growth and profitability. It nearly doubled sales this past year.”
Courtney Somer founded the brand in 2015 and was an early arriver to the clean movement in fragrance following a health issue that arose in her early 20s. “I was working in fashion and branding, so this was a side project,” she said. “I studied all these modalities with the intent to help people heal the way they helped me, and I loved fragrance and knew it had that power. It’s essentially tying wellness to scent.”
The brand’s hero product, 11 11, has since spawned both Vanilla and Azure line extensions and garnered a loyal following. “We have an excited customer who loves 11 11, but also our other offerings like our candles, and we’ve been intentional on how to expand the business around personal fragrance, our key category,” Somer said.
In Tru Fragrance & Beauty’s existing portfolio are Le Monde Gourmand, Undone Beauty, Yellowstone and Wrangler. The company was acquired by Monogram Capital Partners in 2024. That same year, Monogram had also snapped up D.S. & Durga.
“When you’re scaling a business, especially as founder, it’s not a linear function. There are level-ups that have to occur to get to the next stage of growth,” Bilenko said. “The opportunity for Lake & Skye was going to require some infrastructure investment to take it to that next level.”
As for Somer’s priorities, the top one is “to concentrate on our retailers,” which include Ulta Beauty, Nordstrom, Blue Mercury, Bloomingdale’s online and Anthropologie online.
“We plan to give them a lot of support. International expansion is top of mind for me, we’ll be introducing new categories, and with talent, expanding the team,” Somer continued. Europe and Australia, she said, were among her top targets abroad.
“We want to maintain the focus on the core super fan that we have already,” Bilenko added, with the caveat that new scents won’t deviate too far from the bestseller. “11 11 has a way of someone being proud of it without it being in everyone’s faces, and that’s been a key aspect we want to maintain with new scent expansion.”
