By Ramishah Maruf, CNN

(CNN) — Affordable beauty brand e.l.f. has unlocked something that’s mystified many retailers: how to win over the ever-persnickety Gen Z.

E.l.f.’s formula has included low price points for high-quality items, TikTok-viral dupes of products from expensive brands, and popular marketing campaigns that manage not to make its youngest audience cringe. With 28 consecutive quarters of sales growth, the strategy appears to be working.

Last May, however, e.l.f. Beauty made a huge — and hugely expensive — bet on an entirely new type of business. The company spent $1 billion to acquire rhode, a makeup and skincare brand founded by Hailey Bieber. It’s the type of brand e.l.f. typically copies.

The acquisition is a big part of the plan laid out by e.l.f. CEO Tarang Amin, who is trying to build the company into a 21st-century beauty conglomerate: inclusive, built for and by Gen Z, and a creator of trends instead of a follower.

“We want to be a different kind of beauty company,” Amin told CNN at the company’s Oakland headquarters. “We’re going to build brands that disrupt norms, shape culture and connect communities.”

But e.l.f. faces a few raspberry-jelly-tinted flags, including looming tariffs and an administration hostile to even a whiff of DEI efforts. And as sales growth around its dupes begins to wane, the company’s future as a powerhouse hinges on rhode’s success.

Virality as key ingredient

Amin, who was born in Kenya with Indian roots and immigrated to the United States as a child, became e.l.f.’s CEO in 2014. He is the heart of the company’s marketing engine—and in an age when cheap dupes and beauty hacks spread like wildfire on social media, marketing is just as crucial as creating new products.

He told CNN he focuses on building a culture of openness and relies on his young workforce’s expertise. He hosts a biweekly town hall where his largely Gen Z staffers (dubbed e.l.f.z ) partake in communal breathing and stretching exercises. Any employee can join calls to review and test new products, and so far, there hasn’t been a leak.

“Some people who came to us from bigger companies were shocked. They’re like, ‘My God, these are your nuclear codes,’” Amin said. But he’s no makeup enthusiast, so “I absolutely rely on our young, passionate workforce to have a pulse on what consumers want.”

In the early days of his tenure at e.l.f., Amin’s CMO told him the company needed to get on TikTok because that’s where Gen Z was. “And my response is, ‘Well, if that’s where Gen Z, is, absolutely. Now, what’s TikTok?’” Amin said.

The company has changed a lot since then. In 2019, the company reshaped its entire business. It shuttered its 22 brick-and-mortar stores and put that money into marketing, and it solidified relationships with mega-retailers like Target and Walmart.

The company’s dupes also gained traction online around this time. E.l.f. launched a long list of products that quickly went viral as “holy grails” in tandem with the rise of TikTok, including its $11 Poreless Putty Primer (the Tatcha counterpoint retails for $55) and $14 Halo Glow Liquid Filter (compared to Charlotte Tilbury’s $50 Hollywood Flawless Filter).

The dupes, mixed with clever marketing campaigns, sparked success among Gen Z consumers: “We sometimes say we’re an entertainment company that happens to sell beauty products,” Amin said.

A major acquisition

Virality is what rhode and e.l.f. have most in common, and it’s a critical ingredient in creating a modern beauty giant.

Rhode was an instant smash when Bieber launched the brand in 2022, quickly soaring to $212 million in net sales in its last fiscal year with no more than 10 products. The viral

Por Christopher Lamb, CNN

Steve Bannon, exasesor de la Casa Blanca del presidente Donald Trump, discutió estrategias de oposición con el delincuente sexual convicto Jeffrey Epstein contra el papa Francisco, y Bannon afirmó que esperaba “derribar” al pontífice, según archivos recientemente publicados por el Departamento de Justicia de Estados Unidos.

Los mensajes enviados entre ambos en 2019, publicados en la masiva filtración de documentos el mes pasado, revelan que Bannon cortejó al difunto financiero en sus intentos de socavar a Francisco después de dejar la primera administración de Trump.

Bannon había sido muy crítico con Francisco, a quien consideraba un oponente a su visión “soberanista”, una rama del populismo nacionalista que se extendió por Europa en 2018 y 2019.

Los documentos publicados por el Departamento de Justicia parecen mostrar que Epstein había estado ayudando a Bannon a construir su movimiento.

“Derrocaré al Papa Francisco”, le escribió Bannon a Epstein en junio de 2019. “Los Clinton, Xi, Francisco, la UE… ¡Vamos, hermano!”.

El papa Francisco fue un obstáculo importante para el populismo nacionalista de Bannon.

En 2018, el exasesor de Trump describió a Francisco a The Spectator como “indignante de desprecio”, acusándolo de aliarse con las “élites globalistas” y, según “SourceMaterial”, instó a Matteo Salvini, actual viceprimer ministro de Italia, a “atacar” al pontífice.

Por su parte, Salvini ha utilizado la iconografía y el lenguaje cristianos en su agenda antinmigrante.

Roma y el Vaticano han sido importantes para Bannon. Fundó una oficina en Roma cuando dirigía Breitbart News y ha participado en el intento de establecer una “escuela de gladiadores” de formación política para defender los valores judeocristianos cerca de la Ciudad Eterna.

Francisco, por su parte, fue un contrapeso a la visión de mundo de Trump, criticando duramente el nacionalismo y haciendo de la defensa de los migrantes un sello distintivo de su pontificado.

Los archivos del Departamento de Justicia publicados recientemente revelan que Bannon envió mensajes a Epstein en varias ocasiones en sus esfuerzos por socavar al difunto papa.

En sus mensajes con Epstein, Bannon menciona “En el clóset del Vaticano”, un libro de 2019 del periodista francés Frédéric Martel que destapó el secretismo y la hipocresía en las altas esferas de la Iglesia.

Martel desató una polémica con su libro al afirmar que el 80 % del clero que trabaja en el Vaticano es gay, a la vez que explora cómo mantienen en secreto su sexualidad.

La cuestión de la homosexualidad en la Iglesia ha sido un foco de atención para algunos conservadores, quienes la ven como evidencia de una crisis sistémica más profunda en la Iglesia, y algunos la vinculan con los escándalos más amplios de abuso sexual.

La mayoría de los expertos e investigadores consideran que cualquier combinación de orientación sexual con abuso es científicamente inexacta.

Bannon mostró interés en llevar el libro de Martel al cine tras reunirse con el autor en París, en un hotel de cinco estrellas.

En los mensajes, Bannon parece sugerir que Epstein podría ser el productor ejecutivo de la película. “Ahora eres productor ejecutivo de ‘ITCOTV’ (En el armario del Vaticano)”, escribió Bannon.

No está claro cuán seria fue la propuesta de Bannon a Epstein, y, en el intercambio, Epstein no menciona la oferta y pregunta si Bannon filmó a Noam Chomsky, el filósofo e intelectual público.

Martel

HATTIESBURG, Mississippi (KEYT) -It was aces high at Pete Taylor Park on Friday, where the UC Santa Barbara Baseball team played their trump card, Jackson Flora, to hand No. 20 Southern Miss their first loss on opening day since 2014, 5-1. Flora lived up to his Preseason All-American billing with five strikeouts and just three hits against him over six shutout innings, and San Marcos High School alum Chase Hoover marked his return to the Gaucho bullpen with a near-perfect, six-out save. Newcomer Noah Karliner made himself Flora's new best friend, driving in the game-winning runs in his first game for Santa Barbara, and Rowan Kelly smacked his first career home run to seal the result.

HOW IT HAPPENED
Flora's first inning was a statement of intent. After allowing a leadoff double, he took care of the next two Golden Eagles, then punctuated the inning with a pinpoint-accurate, 100-mile-per-hour fastball on the outside edge of the zone for his first strikeout of the day. He allowed just one base runner again in the second (who had the misfortune of wearing one of Flora's pitches), then set the Golden Eagles down in order in the third and fourth, doing it all himself in the latter of those frames with a pair of strikeouts and a well-snagged chopper that he ran to the bag himself.

The offense made a statement in the opening frame too. Kelly led off the game with a double, Cade Goldstein was welcomed to college baseball with a plunking on the fourth pitch he faced, and Cole Kosciusko's hard-hit single loaded the bases. Nick Husovsky guided a sacrifice fly into left field for his first RBI in the Blue and Gold, and the first run that Southern Miss has surrendered in the first inning of the season since 2017. A pickoff and a strikeout kept the Gauchos from getting any more, though, and the promise of a pitcher's duel was still alive.

It took until the fourth inning for Santa Barbara to figure out Southern Miss starter Colby Allen — a Preseason All-American like Flora — again, doing so with a two-out rally. After Jonathan Mendez's single up the middle was in danger of being for naught, Xavier Esquer snuck a double inside the third-base line and Karliner deposited a two-strike pitch into right center to score the two infielders.

Flora had to work through some trouble in the fifth and sixth, escaping a bases-loaded, two-out spot with a popout to Esquer in the fifth, then getting out of a really tough spot in the sixth. After hitting the first two Golden Eagles of the inning, Flora got back on top with his fifth punchout of the day, induced a foul-out to Husovsky at first, then combined with Goldstein on a clutch play to get out of the inning. A chopper got past Flora on the mound but not Goldstein at second, the freshman using his glove to flip the ball to the covering Flora at first. It took all six feet and five inches of Flora's frame to stretch and complete the out before the Southern Miss runner could hit the bag, but he managed it just in time.

That was ultimately Flora's last act of a stellar opening day performance, as Raymond Olivas picked up right where he had left off in the seventh, punctuating the one-two-three frame with a strikeout of his own. A solo home run and a single to lead off the eighth put an end to Santa B

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) -

Division 3: Channel Islands 4, Murrieta Valley 1

Littlerock 1, Oxnard 1 (2OT) (Littlerock advances on PK's 4-3)

Claremont 1, Calabasas 0

Division 4: Santa Paula 1, Montebello 0

Pacifica 3, Baldwin Park 1

Division 5: San Marcos 4, Golden Valley 0

Westlake 3, Bellflower 0

Camarillo 3, Ventura 0

Division 6: Viewpoint 3, Cate 1

Division 7: Poly/Pasadena 2, Laguna Blanca 1

Division 8: Bishop Diego 2, Le Lycee 1

Fairmont Prep 2, Foothill Tech 0

The post CIF-SS Boys Soccer second round playoff results appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (KEYT) -

Division 2: Rancho Verde 84, San Marcos 69 Full story: https://keyt.com/news/top-stories/2026/02/14/san-marcos-knocked-out-of-cif-d2-playoffs-by-hot-shooting-rancho-verde/

Canyon(Anaheim) 70, Oxnard 67 (OT): Mikey Duran-Morales scored 19 points for the Yellowjackets who finish the year 21-9.

Mater Dei 85, Westlake 59: Zack Kalinski scored 15 points for the Warriors who finish 19-11.

Division 4: North Vista 71, Moorpark 69: Logan Stotts scored 23 points for the Musketeers who end the season 21-9.

Division 5: Verbum Dei 42, Rio Mesa 35

Division 6: St. Bonaventure 54, Highland 43: Seraphs used a 19-0 run in the third quarter to advance to the quarterfinals where they play at Valencia of Placentia. Zac Broberg made five 3-points and scored 19 points while Adam Ayla recorded a double-double with 18 points and 13 rebounds.

Division 8: Dunn 64, San Gabriel 56

Division 9: VCA Santa Maria 76, First Baptist/LB 56

Providence/SB 49, Santa Ana Valley 48

The post CIF-SS second round boys basketball playoff results appeared first on News Channel 3-12.