The Acquisition Spree Nobody Talks About
Between 2015 and 2020, Unilever went on a quiet buying spree through the "natural" personal care aisle. They didn't launch competing products. They didn't invest in R&D. They simply bought the brands that consumers already trusted — and then kept the indie branding intact.
The result: when you stand in the shampoo aisle today, a significant chunk of what looks like "independent natural hair care" is actually owned by the same company that makes Dove, Suave, TRESemme, and Axe. Here's the full breakdown.
SheaMoisture: A Cultural Institution, Acquired
SheaMoisture's origin story is real and it matters. In 1991, Richelieu Dennis, Nyema Tubman, and Mary Dennis founded Sundial Brands, selling shea butter products on the streets of New York City. The recipes came from the Dennis family's shea butter trade in Sierra Leone, spanning four generations. SheaMoisture grew into one of the most beloved personal care brands in the Black community — a cultural institution built on natural hair care traditions.
In November 2017, Unilever announced the acquisition of Sundial Brands, which included SheaMoisture, Nubian Heritage, and the Madam C.J. Walker Collection. The deal fully closed in 2020. Richelieu Dennis initially stayed on and created the New Voices Fund — a $100 million commitment to invest in women of color entrepreneurs. That was a meaningful gesture.
But by 2024, Dennis was no longer involved. The brand that was born from a family's Sierra Leonean heritage and built to serve the Black community is now managed entirely by Unilever's corporate structure. SheaMoisture sits in a portfolio alongside Dove, Axe, and Suave — brands designed to capture market share across every demographic, not to serve a specific community.
Longtime users have reported changes in texture, scent, and performance since the acquisition. Whether those are confirmed reformulations or batch variations is debated. What isn't debated is who makes the formulation decisions now.
Read our full SheaMoisture ownership breakdown →
Living Proof: From Jennifer Aniston to Unilever
Living Proof was founded in 2005 by biotech scientists from MIT. The brand's pitch was science-driven hair care — products developed using biotechnology rather than traditional cosmetic chemistry. Jennifer Aniston became a co-owner and spokesperson, giving the brand instant credibility and celebrity cachet.
In December 2016, Unilever acquired Living Proof. The MIT origin story, the biotech positioning, the Aniston connection — all of it became Unilever marketing assets. Jennifer Aniston reportedly exited her ownership stake as part of the deal. The scientists who founded the brand moved on. What remains is the branding, now managed by the same company that formulates Suave 2-in-1.
Living Proof products are still marketed as "science-backed" and "prestige" hair care. The price point remains high. The packaging still looks premium. But the company making the formulation decisions, managing the supply chain, and optimizing the margins is Unilever — not a team of MIT biotech researchers.
Love Beauty and Planet: The Brand Unilever Built From Scratch
This one is especially worth knowing because Love Beauty and Planet was never an independent brand. It was created by Unilever in 2018 — purpose-built to look, feel, and market like an indie natural brand.
The recycled bottles. The botanical ingredients. The "ethical" positioning with planet-friendly messaging. The Instagram-ready packaging. All of it was designed by Unilever's internal brand development team. There was no founder. There was no garage startup story. There was no community that organically adopted it. Unilever manufactured the entire narrative.
Love Beauty and Planet is what happens when a $60 billion company decides it's cheaper to build a fake indie brand than to buy a real one. They studied what consumers wanted — sustainability messaging, natural ingredients, aesthetic packaging — and reverse-engineered a brand to capture that demand. If you bought it thinking you were supporting an independent company, you were buying Unilever from day one.
REN Clean Skincare: Bought, Then Killed
The story of REN Clean Skincare is perhaps the most telling of all.
REN was founded in London in 2000 by Antony Buck and Robert Calcraft. The name means "clean" in Swedish. The brand pioneered the "clean skincare" category before it had a name, focusing on bioactive ingredients and removing skin-unfriendly synthetic chemicals. It built a loyal, passionate following over 15 years.
Unilever acquired REN in 2015. For a few years, the brand continued to operate, benefiting from Unilever's distribution network. But in early 2025, Unilever announced it was shutting down REN entirely. The brand is being discontinued. Fifteen years of clean skincare innovation, a loyal customer base, a respected name in the industry — and Unilever decided it wasn't worth keeping.
This is the endgame that acquisition defenders don't like to discuss. A conglomerate buys a beloved brand, extracts what value it can, and when the numbers don't justify the portfolio slot, kills it. The founder's vision, the customer relationships, the community — none of it matters when the quarterly report doesn't hit targets.
Beyond Unilever: P&G and Estee Lauder Join the Party
Unilever isn't the only conglomerate buying up "natural" hair care. The pattern is industry-wide:
Mielle Organics → Procter & Gamble (2023, $640 million)
Mielle Organics was founded by Monique Rodriguez in her kitchen in 2014. The brand — known for its Rosemary Mint Strengthening Shampoo, which went viral on TikTok — became one of the most successful Black-owned hair care brands in America. In January 2023, Procter & Gamble acquired Mielle for a reported $640 million.
P&G is the world's largest consumer goods company. They make Pantene, Head & Shoulders, Herbal Essences, Aussie, Old Spice, Tide, Gillette, and Pampers. Mielle is now a subsidiary of a $84 billion corporation. Rodriguez has stated she'll remain involved, but the ownership — and the final say on formulations, sourcing, and strategy — belongs to P&G.
Aveda → Estee Lauder (1997)
Aveda was one of the first "natural" hair care brands to go mainstream. Founded by Horst Rechelbacher in 1978, it built its reputation on plant-based formulas, environmental activism, and Ayurvedic principles. Estee Lauder acquired Aveda in 1997 for a reported $300 million. That was 28 years ago. Rechelbacher left the company in 2003 and publicly criticized the direction of the brand before his death in 2014. Aveda today bears little resemblance to what its founder envisioned.
The Pattern Is Always the Same
Every one of these acquisitions follows the same playbook:
- Independent founder builds brand on authentic values — clean ingredients, community connection, transparency.
- Brand earns consumer trust — often over years or decades of consistent quality and messaging.
- Conglomerate acquires the brand — paying a premium for the trust that took years to build.
- Indie branding is preserved — the acquisition is buried in press releases, not on the packaging.
- Founder exits within 2-5 years — sometimes voluntarily, sometimes not.
- Formulations and sourcing shift quietly — optimized for margin, not for the founder's original standards.
- Consumers keep buying — because the shelf appearance hasn't changed, even though the decision-making has.
The conglomerates aren't buying products. They're buying trust. They're buying the years of credibility that an independent brand earned through consistent, values-driven decisions — and then leveraging that trust to sell products made under a fundamentally different decision-making framework.