Business rarely sees a self

Slate Magazine • November 11, 2026 • entertainment

Key Points:

Hailey Bieber’s skincare brand Rhode, launched in 2022 with the tagline “One of everything really good,” became a major success and was acquired by e.l.f. beauty for $1 billion in 2023, influencing a trend of unconventional beauty brand slogans.
Maybelline, owned by L’Oreal, recently replaced its iconic slogan “Maybe she’s born with it, maybe it’s Maybelline” with a confusing new version: “Maybe. We’re born with it. Maybe. It’s Maybelline,” which has been criticized for lacking clear meaning.
The new Maybelline slogan attempts to shift from a question to a statement to reflect modern values of self-expression, but critics argue it results in contradictory phrases that confuse rather than clarify the brand message.
Maybelline also updated the slogan’s subject from “she” to “we,” possibly to embrace inclusivity and contemporary social trends around pronoun usage, though the overall execution has been widely viewed as ineffective.

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