Tariff refunds are still a boon to e.l.f. Beauty

What do erasers, Wite-Out, and tariff refunds all have in common? Yep, you guessed it: They help you fix things.

At least, that’s how many companies used their one-time tariff reimbursements as they rolled out earlier this year. And for some of those that did, like retailer e.l.f. Beauty, the benefits are still carrying into Q2 2027.

In 2025, e.l.f. Beauty raised prices to offset tariffs, a significant move given that it has “only taken three price increases in the company’s history,” as CFO Mandy Fields told us this month.

When tariff refunds entered the scene, e.l.f. implemented tests to see how consumers would react to price reductions, ultimately landing on permanent price cuts on around 10% of its lineup, the Wall Street Journal reported.

“We paid $60 million in IEEPA tariffs and we’ve received about $52 million back in terms of refunds, which we have reinvested in both marketing, largely across the portfolio, and then also in pricing,” Fields explained.

The move paid off. In Q1 2027, which ended June 30, the company reported net sales climbed 36% YoY to $479.4 million, with its pricing and product mix driving around 39 percentage points of growth, Fields said on the company’s August 5 earnings call.

Those benefits carried into its Q2 earnings report, released November 4; the company reported a 51% increase in net sales for the quarter, marking its 31st consecutive quarter of growth.

Pricing once again played a role in the company’s strong earnings. “On the quarter from a price mix standpoint, we saw about 31 points of benefit from volume, and the rest of that was price mix driven,” Fields said.

Looking ahead to 2027, Fields says the company isn’t “currently planning for [a price increase].”

“We know that it’s always been a lever for us, but are very mindful about that, especially as we think about the consumer climate right now,” she continued. “Affordability is a major topic, a big issue for consumers, and we want to make sure that we’re maintaining that value proposition.”

“Our value proposition is a key differentiator and a strength of ours,” she said. “Historically, we have not used pricing as a lever to just improve margins, like many companies do. We have been very strategic about how we do that, and it’s only been behind these macro moves, whether it be tariffs or when we saw higher freight costs back in 2021, 2022.”