The first quarter of 2026 offered an early signal on where beauty dealmaking is headed—and it’s not simply a return to form. Activity picked up, with the BeautyMatter Deal Index tracking 83 transactions, up 40.7% from a year earlier, and growth investments more than doubling off a weak Q1 2025. But the headline numbers only tell part of the story. What stands out is how the mix of deals is changing. Capital is flowing back into the market, but it’s showing up in different places—more interest in the supply side, more emphasis on capabilities and innovation, and more willingness among beauty strategics to reshape portfolios through both acquisitions and divestitures. On the whole, dealmaking during the first quarter points to a beauty market that is being reshaped in real time—less defined by broad expansion, and more by where companies choose to focus and what they are willing to walk away from.Q1 2026 Deal Activity by the NumbersThe BeautyMatter Deal Index tracked 83 transactions in Q1 2026, a 40.7% increase compared to Q1 2025. It appears that the momentum that failed to materialize in Q4 of 2025 showed up in the early part of 2026. In Q1, the Index tracked 47 growth investments, an increase of 104.3% year over year, and 34 M&A transactions, a 2.9% decline. The year-over-year change in growth investments is compared to what was an alarmingly low number of growth investments in Q1 of 2025, a trend that reversed itself during the rest of 2025.