Sephora Announces 12 Brands Selected for Its 2026 Accelerate Program

On July 21, Sephora North America announced the 12 brands selected for the 2026 edition of Sephora Accelerate, its incubator program designed to support founders of emerging beauty brands.

The latest cohort spans skincare, makeup, haircare, and fragrance. From performance cosmetics engineered to withstand sweat and movement to scalp-aging solutions, textured-hair care, and fragrances rooted in cultural identity, the selected brands reflect the wide range of ideas currently reshaping the beauty market.

Summary

A Founder Support Program Entering Its Tenth Year

Sephora Accelerate supports early-stage brands as they navigate the challenges of growth and work toward building sustainable businesses in the prestige beauty market.

Participants gain access to industry experts, experienced beauty founders, and Sephora executives. In addition to learning about business strategy and retail readiness, each founder receives personalized mentorship tailored to the specific needs of their brand.

Priya Venkatesh, Global Chief Merchandising Officer at Sephora, commented: “Since we’ve launched Accelerate, every year we’re introduced to a volume of talented, emerging founders with strong visions, differentiated products, and fresh perspectives that will shape the future of beauty. We are excited to welcome this latest cohort of brand visionaries and help this talented cohort build up the community, confidence, and capabilities needed to successfully navigate the complex journey of growing a brand in the prestige beauty industry.”

The 12 Brands Selected for 2026

FORTA Cosmetics, cofounded by Sarah Guller and WNBA player Lexie Hull, is a performance cosmetics brand created for active women. Its products are designed to withstand sweat, movement, and long hours of wear.

Founded by Krys “Deal” Lunardo, Dealbodies develops clinically driven body concentrates formulated with four times the active strength of standard body care. The brand aims to address recurring body-skin flare-ups.

MOWE Beauty, founded by Tatiana Ramuth Glezer, is a makeup brand designed with movement in mind. Offering breathability and sweat-adaptive performance, the brand describes its products as makeup engineered like performance wear.

BASE-K, founded by Kristin Lim Duckworth, is a scalp-first haircare brand inspired by Korean head spa traditions. Through a refined daily ritual, the brand aims to support healthier, denser-looking hair over time.

Pepper Pout, founded by Elysia Chen, brings a contemporary East-meets-West perspective to beauty. Its products combine playfulness, personal expression, and a culturally fresh point of view.

Reference, founded by Christina Eison, is a fine fragrance and personal beauty brand. Through its proprietary Syncretic Beauty framework, which draws inspiration from seven global terrains, the brand creates original fragrances and body essentials.

Omora Beauty Lab, founded by Jenna Morales Ledbetter, is a clean beauty brand focused on complexion products for acne-prone and sensitive skin. Its formulas are developed without pore-clogging ingredients, fragrances, or common irritants.

Everyday Chemist, founded by Flavia Zhamo, approaches skincare as a form of craft. Its products are formulated and handmade by a mother-daughter engineering studio.

MORÉ, founded by Mimi Koné, offers a premium, science-backed haircare ritual developed specifically for textured hair. The brand positions itself as the first premium ritual of its kind created exclusively for this hair category.

EAUSO VERT, founded by Tanya Gonzalez Chandhok and Faye Harris Wood, is a women- and Latin-owned fine fragrance brand. It places culture and lived experience at the center of scent creation.

Manuscript, cofounded by Ye Jin and Nick Burns, is a clinical-grade hair longevity brand focused on scalp aging. Its once-daily serum addresses thinning, graying, and long-term scalp health, with a cost of less than $1 per day.

Innae Beauty, founded by Hannah, creates thoughtfully designed beauty products intended to help customers feel their best from the inside out.

Performance and Personalization Emerge as Key Themes

One of the clearest themes across the 2026 cohort is a desire to make beauty products more responsive to everyday life and physical movement.

FORTA Cosmetics and MOWE Beauty are bringing sweat- and movement-resistant functionality into makeup. BASE-K and Manuscript, meanwhile, look beyond the surface appearance of hair by addressing scalp health and age-related changes over time.

The cohort also reflects a broader shift toward product development shaped by individual skin types, hair textures, cultural backgrounds, and lifestyles. Rather than promoting a single standard of beauty, these founders are building brands around specific consumer needs and lived experiences.

Supporting Brands From Establishment to Sustainable Growth

The redesigned 2026 curriculum focuses on three phases of modern business building: establishing a new brand, scaling the business, and creating a sustainable long-term future.

In addition to the core program, participants will gain access to the Sephora Impact Summit, an initiative designed to inspire and support the next generation of beauty brands within Sephora’s network.

Founders will also have the opportunity to apply for the $100,000 Sephora Beauty Grant, awarded in partnership with the Fifteen Percent Pledge.

Since launching in 2016, Sephora Accelerate has supported emerging and often underrepresented founders across the beauty industry. Alumni include EADEM, Kulfi, Topicals, Bounce Curl, and OLIVIAUMMA, many of which have gone on to launch at Sephora and build loyal customer communities.

The 12 brands in the 2026 cohort were selected from a competitive pool of applicants across North America in spring 2026. Sephora evaluated each brand based on its vision, innovation, and stage of product development, continuing its effort to help cultivate the next generation of prestige beauty founders.

Copyright © 2026 Oui Speak Fashion. All rights reserved.

The post Sephora Announces 12 Brands Selected for Its 2026 Accelerate Program appeared first on Oui Speak Fashion (OSF)®.