e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (ELF) Q3 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

e.l.f. Beauty, Inc. (ELF -0.01%)
Q3 2022 Earnings Call
Feb 02, 2022, 4:30 p.m. ET

Contents:

• Prepared Remarks
• Questions and Answers
• Call Participants

Prepared Remarks:

Operator

Good afternoon, and welcome to the e.l.f. Beauty third quarter fiscal 2022 earnings conference call. [Operator instructions] Please note, this event is being recorded. [Commercial break]

Melinda Fried -- Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations

Thank you for joining us to discuss e.l.f. Beauty's third quarter fiscal 2022 results. I'm Melinda Fried, head of corporate communications. With me are Tarang Amin, chairman and chief executive officer; and Mandy Fields, senior vice president and chief financial officer.

We encourage you to tune into our webcast presentation for the best viewing experience, which you can access on our website at investor.elfbeauty.com. Since many of our remarks contain forward-looking statements, please refer to our earnings release and reports filed with the SEC, where you will find factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. In addition, the company's presentation today includes information presented on a non-GAAP basis. Our earnings release contains reconciliations of the differences between the non-GAAP presentation and the most directly comparable GAAP measure.

With that, let me turn the webcast over to Tarang.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thank you, Melinda, and good afternoon, everyone. Today, we will discuss the drivers of our Q3 results and our raised fiscal 2022 guidance. I am proud of the e.l.f. Beauty team for achieving our 12th consecutive quarter of net sales growth.

We delivered Q3 net sales of $98 million, up 11% versus a year ago, and 20% on a two-year stack basis. Adjusted EBITDA of $22 million was up 18% versus prior year. We delivered these results with a significantly smaller holiday program. As a reminder, we proactively scaled back our holiday program to prioritize container capacity for our core products, which continue to be in high demand.

With our continued momentum, we are raising our full year guidance, which Mandy will discuss. Our innovation, digitally led strategy, core value proposition and ability to adapt at e.l.f. speed continue to fuel our performance. In Q3, e.l.f.

had 5.7% market share, up 86 basis points on a two-year stack. For calendar year 2021, we were the only top five color cosmetics brand to grow share above pre-pandemic levels by a wide margin. Our relentless focus on our five strategic imperatives is driving results across our brand portfolio. Let me provide a few highlights from the quarter.

Our first strategic imperative is to drive brand demand. We continue to find innovative ways to engage and entertain our community, moving beyond traditional beauty boundaries. This approach has driven strong ROI and business momentum. This quarter, we created our first-ever TikTok native movie to celebrate the holiday season.

Big Mood, Big e.l.f.ing City recap some of the biggest tick-tack trends of the year with an innovative twist. The movie garnered 400 million press impressions, over 32 million campaign views, and built upon our many first on the platform. We also joined forces with Enthusiast Gaming to find the next gaming superstar. The competition called Rising Stars seeks up-and-coming creators from colleges across North America and e.l.f.

is the first brand to co-create the series. This builds upon our track record of first while also supporting our mission of empowering others to reach for the stars. Our brand-building efforts continue to gain recognition. TikTok recently named e.l.f.

to their Culture Drivers list for 2021 for our Gamers Got Talent campaign. We are among 14 other brands that TikTok highlights is doing the best, most engaging and entertaining work on the platform. Building upon our entertainment shops, we recently teamed up with TikTok and American Idol creator, Simon Fuller, to find the next big music group. Together, we launched a search culminating the creation of a first-of-its-kind pop group called The Future X.

We're working side-by-side with TikTok's vibrant, creator universe via Hashtag challenge to search for makeup artists to work with the group. This collaboration represents another moment where e.l.f. is leading to bring together two things our community loves, beauty and music. Key Soulcare, our groundbreaking lifestyle beauty brand with Alicia Keys, garnered 7 billion global press impressions this quarter.

In November, Alicia dropped a much anticipated eighth album, Keys. Keys Soulcare product offerings were prominently featured as Alicia promoted the album and held special one-night only concert events. We also celebrated the album by having it available to download on keyssoulcare.com. The buzz was timely as we recently celebrated the one-year anniversary of keyssoulcare.com.

We're incredibly proud of what we're building with this brand, which has been recognized across the industry with over 20 awards this past year. Our second strategic imperative is a major step-up in digital. Our digitally led strategy continues to serve us well with our digital consumption trends up triple digits on a two-year stack. We continue to see a channel shift between digital and brick-and-mortar in Q3, in line with our expectations.

Digital channels drove 14% of our business in Q3, as compared to 16% a year ago and 10% two years ago. Our follower base across social and digital platforms is now over $12 million, helping to fuel our growth. On elfcosmetics.com, approximately 50% of our shoppers in Q3 were new consumers. Our Beauty Squad Loyalty Program now has over 2.7 million members, up over 20% year over year.

Beauty Squad is an integral source of first-party data, and we'll continue to look for ways to enhance the consumer experience. Our Keys Soulcare loyalty program called Soulcare Rewards continues to grow. Loyalty members made up 45% of sales this quarter on keyssoulcare.com. We also developed a new first in Beauty digital gifting experience on the site for the holidays.

Gift givers were able to create and send a personalized video to their loved ones while gifting them Keys Soulcare care offerings. [Commercial break]

Our third strategic imperative is to lead innovation. Our superpowers centered on our ability to deliver 100% cruelty-free premium quality beauty products at accessible price points with broad appeal, continue to resonate with consumers. e.l.f. cosmetics saw ongoing success in our core segments, brushes, primers, concealers, brows and sponges, which make up approximately half our sales.

We have the No. 1 or 2 position in all five segments and continue to drive sales growth in each. We are proud of our newest holy grail innovations, which launched online at the end of Q3, and will be hitting retailer shelves in the coming weeks. Our Power Grip Primer builds upon our strength in the primer category.

Its jaw-dropping value of $10 versus the prestige equivalent at $34, already propelled it to become the No. 1 selling product on elfcosmetics.com and a viral sensation across social media. [Commercial break]

We continue to build upon the success of our Camo franchise. We recently launched a Camo Powder Foundation in 30 shades, packaged in a sleek compact with a mirror and sponge, and priced at $11 versus its prestige equivalent at $38. The Powder Foundation is on its way to become a top-selling holy grail. [Commercial break]

Building upon our strength in brows and tools, we recently launched Brow Lift and an accompanying Brow Lift applicator, priced at $6 versus the prestige equivalent at $23. The Brow Lift features an extreme hold, clear wax formula that lifts and sculpt brows for a feathered effect. This item quickly sold out online and over 15,000 e.l.f. fans signed up for Notify Me, anxiously awaiting its return.

[Commercial break]

Our newest lip products are attracting consumers looking for a color moment. Our new Glossy Lip Stain are there to meet the call, priced at just $6 versus the prestige equivalent at $38. They feature a unique glossy-stained finish that is long-wearing and won't transfer. [Commercial break]

We remain bullish on the color category. These four holy grail launches are generating incredible buzz across social platforms, even before being widely available at our retailers. Skin care remains a major focus across our brand portfolio. In Q3, e.l.f.

skin consumption was up 29%, compared to a category that was up 9%, propelling e.l.f. skin into the top 20 for the first time ever. Our recently launched Pure Skin line is a three-part regimen designed to meet our consumers' daily needs. Dermatologists' developed, clean, vegan and cruelty-free.

Pure Skin nurtures a skin with ingredients like oat milk and Niacinamide, the Pure Skin line initially sold out on elfcosmetics.com. We also launched our W3LL People skincare collection online this quarter. Skin care is the largest category in Clean Beauty, and we're excited to start with five plant-powered, derm-developed, clean skin care products. The line will also be available in Ulta Beauty and Target stores this spring.

We're proud of the progress we're making with W3ll People and color as well with our top-selling products now available in more inclusive shade ranges. Our bio tint moisturizers and bio stick foundations both extended to 14 shades, and our bio concealers available in 20 shades. We plan to further extend the W3LL People shade ranges to bring plant-powered high-performance clean products to a wider audience. Turning to Keys Soulcare.

We innovated further in the body category of three new offerings to praise your body, a Melting Body Balm, Mind-Clearing Body Polish and Energizing Dry Body Brush. Our core body care products continue to be named to coveted beauty award list. This quarter, we were recognized by POPSUGAR and Refinery29. Awards included best and celebrity beauty for our Rich Nourishing Body Cream and Beauty Innovator Award for our Sacred Body Oil.

Our fourth strategic imperative is driving productivity and space expansion with our retail partners. Productivity was strong this quarter, with consumption ahead of our expectations. Consumers bought more of our core products during the holiday season in lieu of our traditional holiday kits. We're also quite pleased with our spring resets, which will be rolling out in the coming weeks.

We believe our innovation is strong, and our visual merchandising is more impactful than ever. We continue to see shelf space opportunities. As previously reported, we're pleased with the space expansion we secured with CVS in fall of 2021, and Walmart in spring 2022 in a subset of their doors. Internationally, we're expanding our shelf space with Boots and Superdrug in the U.K.

this spring. International represents major white space at just 11% of our business today. Our performance in the U.K. gives us confidence on further geographic expansion.

The latest Nielsen data ranks e.l.f. at No. 8, up from No. 12 last year and continues to be the only top 10 brand to post growth.

We continue to drive differentiation with our retail partners. Inspired by the success of last year's Mint Melt collection and after pulling our community for what they wanted next, we launched Cookies N' Dreams. This is an indulgent limited edition 13-piece collection featuring cosmetics and skin care products. Cookies N' Dreams will be available exclusively at Walmart in the U.S., at Superdrug in the U.K.

and in select Douglas markets in Europe. Keys Soulcare is elevating and accelerating our global retail strategy. We've launched a brand in 10 countries to date with four major retail partners. In the U.S.

with Ulta Beauty, in the U.K. with Cult Beauty and H beauty, and in eight countries across Western Europe with Douglas. We're excited to announce our newest retail partner, Sephora. We'll be launching Keys Soulcare in Sephora Canada online and in stores this spring.

This marks e.l.f. Beauty's first brand entry into Sephora. We're also pleased that W3LL People will gain its first in-line placement in a subset of Ulta Beauty stores in spring 2022. Our fifth strategic imperative is delivering cost savings to help fuel brand investments as we spoke about in recent quarters, and like many other companies, we're facing a global container imbalance and port congestion, which are slowing shipments and increasing our transportation costs.

I'm proud of the e.l.f. Beauty team for how we've navigated these challenges. Our operations team has executed with excellence, managing SKUs at the store level to sustaining stock rates around 95%. Given the uncertainty around how long the supply chain challenges will persist and the inflationary environment, we made the decision to increase prices on the majority of our portfolio effective mid-March.

These price increases will impact approximately two-thirds of the e.l.f. cosmetics SKUs, as well as certain items within Keys Soulcare and W3LL People. We balanced our approach between offsetting elevated costs and maintaining our value proposition with consumers. While this round of pricing is broader than previous rounds, our opening price points in e.l.f.

remain unchanged, enabling us to continue to deliver high-quality products at an extraordinary value. Before I turn the call over to Mandy, I want to give an update on our clean and sustainability efforts. Both W3LL People and Keys Soulcare are launched as clean and sustainably minded brands. Over the past several months, our team reformulated over 350 SKUs on the e.l.f.

brand. There are now over 1,650 ingredients on our Do Not Use list. While we'll take a number of months for these new formulations to roll out, we're excited to add clean to our existing superpowers. With e.l.f., consumers can have premium quality beauty products at accessible price points that are clean, vegan and cruelty-free.

On the sustainability front, we reached another milestone this quarter with Project Unicorn, eliminating more than 1 million pounds of packaging materials since launch. Project Unicorn has streamlined packaging for 500 SKUs across multiple categories. We are evolving Project Unicorn to Project Green unicorn with a focus to eliminate even more packaging, adopt friendlier environmental practices, and explore sustainable materials. Project Green Unicorn is a long-term initiative.

Our clean and sustainable practices will continue to rise in importance, and I'm glad that we're positioning e.l.f. Beauty to excel in this area. I'll now turn the call over to Mandy.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thank you, Tarang. I'm pleased to share the highlights of our strong third quarter results and raised fiscal 2022 guidance. We delivered Q3 net sales of $98 million, up 11% versus prior year and up 20% on a two-year stack, driven by strength in our national and international retailers. Consumption was strong this quarter as well, up 17% year over year and up 15% on a two-year stack basis.

This exceeded our expectations and is an encouraging trend as we head into the fourth quarter. Gross margin of 66% and was up approximately 100 basis points compared to prior year. We saw gross margin benefits from cost savings and margin accretive mix, specifically from consumers switching away from holiday kits into higher-margin core products. We also benefited from the price increases we implemented on a subset of our SKUs in May.

These gross margin benefits were partially offset by FX and elevated transportation costs, which flowed through the P&L at a lesser rate than previously expected. Given the rate of flow-through on these freight costs and overall favorable mix, we now expect gross margin for the back half to come in flat to last year. On an adjusted basis, SG&A as a percentage of sales was 50%, up approximately 70 basis points versus prior year. The increase was mainly driven by investments in marketing and digital.

Marketing and digital investment for the quarter was approximately 15% of net sales, slightly ahead of Q3 last year. We continue to expect marketing and digital to come in at 15% to 17% of net sales for the year. Q3 adjusted EBITDA was $22 million, and adjusted EBITDA margin was approximately 22% of net sales. Adjusted net income was $13 million or $0.24 per diluted share, compared to $12 million or $0.22 per diluted share a year ago.

Our liquidity remains strong with the combination of our cash balance and access to our revolving credit facility sitting at approximately $130 million. We ended the quarter with $33 million in cash on hand, compared to a cash balance of $35 million a year ago. Our current cash balance reflects a complete paydown of our revolving credit facility, reducing our overall debt by $13 million in the quarter. Our ending inventory balance was $85 million, in line with our expectations, as compared to $69 million a year ago.

As a reminder, last quarter, we spoke about carrying higher inventory levels due to the combination of longer lead times, higher transportation costs, the addition of Keys Soulcare and W3LL People, and our continued business momentum. We expect our cash priorities to remain on investing behind our five strategic imperatives and supporting strategic extensions. Now let's turn to our fiscal 2022 guidance. We now expect net sales growth of approximately 17% to 19% versus fiscal 2021, up from 14% to 16% previously.

We expect adjusted EBITDA between $70 million and $72 million, adjusted net income between $40 million and $42 million and adjusted EPS of $0.73 to $0.76 per diluted share. We still expect a fully diluted share count of approximately 55 million shares and our fiscal 2022 adjusted tax rate to be approximately 22% to 23%. Our raised top line guidance largely reflects our outperformance in Q3 relative to our expectations and an improved outlook for Q4. As Tarang mentioned, our business momentum remained strong throughout Q3, up 20% on a two-year stack basis, despite not having most of our holiday program.

We expect Q4 to look similar to Q3 on a two-year stack basis at approximately 23% growth. As a reminder, in Q4 and into Q1 of next fiscal year, we will be lapping the largest round of stimulus-related spending we've seen to date. This has implications on our net sales, as I just noted, as well as what you'll see in the Nielsen data. In the four weeks ending March and April of 2021, we posted 40% and 52% growth, respectively, in tracked channels, and we expect cycling these numbers to cause volatility in Nielsen data during those periods.

Therefore, we're anchoring on a two-year stack comparison to better capture trends. We remain mindful of the industrywide container imbalance and the continued elevation in costs as a result. We're proud of how our team has navigated these logistics to date, and it remains a dynamic environment. That said, given our sales momentum, we are raising our adjusted EBITDA expectations to $70 million to $72 million, up 15% to 18% year over year.

As we discussed earlier in the call, we're taking pricing actions next month to mitigate the impact of elevated shipping costs and inflationary pressures on our financial performance, which we believe will help us as we enter fiscal 2023. We plan to provide more color on the expected impact of these pricing actions when we provide our fiscal 2023 guidance in May. This should allow time for us to better assess consumer response as it will take a few weeks for our retailers to reflect pricing in the market. Overall, we're very pleased with our Q3 results and are excited about the opportunities ahead in fiscal 2023.

Our performance over the last 12 quarters, both on an absolute basis and relative to the category, demonstrates how our five strategic imperatives are driving results and we remain confident in the long-term growth potential for our portfolio of brands. With that, operator, you may open the call to questions.

Questions & Answers:

Operator

[Operator instructions] Our first question is from Andrea Teixeira with JPMorgan. Please go ahead.

Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

Thank you. Good afternoon, and congrats on your quarter, both on innovation and distribution. I have a question to Tarang, and another one to Mandy. First to Tarang.

On the Keys Soulcare entrance in Sephora Canada, again, congrats on that. Is there a plan to expand into the U.S. and Europe, given obviously, Alicia's strong international following? And then for Mandy, it's obviously great to see you raise guidance for the top line, but it doesn't flow into EBITDA and EPS. And of course, we all appreciate what's happening in the cost pressures and labor and distribution.

Is this a function of these costs or a timing of marketing or just being more conservative given the moving pieces ahead of you? Thank you.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Good afternoon, Andrea. On your question on Keys Soulcare, we're really pleased with the progress on the brand, including entering Sephora Canada. We have high hopes for our launch in Sephora Canada, and we definitely see Sephora U.S. as a potential future partner.

We're still -- as a reminder, we're still in the exclusivity period with Ulta Beauty in the U.S. So we're starting with Sephora Canada and I think the prospects of additional distribution on Keys are quite bright, particularly given the level of engagement we're seeing with that brand.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yup. And then to answer your question, Andrea -- did you have a follow-up there, Andrea, on Keys?

Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

No, no, no. I was just saying that I would just follow up if I may. Thank you. On entrance -- the W3LL People entrance on Ulta, is that a separate shelf from e.l.f., I am assuming it is, because it's mostly skin and it's going to be side-by-side to e.l.f.

itself or it's going to be a separate display?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, no. The Ulta distribution on W3LL People is incremental to e.l.f. and in a different part of their store. W3LL People has been part of the Conscious Beauty program within Ulta, a separate kind of dedicated merchandising vehicle.

This is our first in-line placement within a subset of the Ulta doors. And again, we're quite excited about that as well given the momentum that we have on W3LL People after our brand -- our rebranding, as well as the innovation program we have on that brand.

Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

Perfect. Thank you.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

All right. And then your question on the raised guidance and the flow-through on EBITDA and EPS. So essentially, we've taken our guidance up from 14% to 16% on the top line, up to 17% to 19%. And that's roughly $9 million incremental on the top line.

And on EBITDA, we've raised our guidance from $66.5 million to $68 million in up to $70 to $72 million. So $4 million on the top end on EBITDA as well. Q3 beat by roughly $4.5 million, $5 million. And so we are flowing through most of that to the full year.

So we feel really great about our EBITDA guidance. Actually, it translates to 15% to 18% growth on the year even with the cost headwinds that we're seeing. So really proud of that EBITDA expectation.

Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

And then the Ulta exclusives, when it runs out, do you -- just sorry for going back to that, is that an exclusivity that may run out any time?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

It will run out at a certain point. Obviously, we continue to discuss Keys Soulcare with Ulta. They've been a terrific partner and supporter as we launched the brand in U.S. with Ulta Beauty.

And so I think that will be an ongoing conversation. But at some point, that exclusivity will run out, and we'll evaluate whether we extend it or whether we continue to expand distribution on Keys Soulcare.

Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

OK. That's perfect. Thank you, both. I'll pass it on.

Operator

The next question is from Steph Wissink with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Steph Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone. We had two follow-up questions as well. The first maybe trying is best for you.

This is on pricing. Just curious, your comments on price gaps to Prestige kind of being maintained even with your planned mid-March price update. Can you just share a little bit about how you're thinking about that gap to Prestige pricing? And then also on space gains. I'm wondering if you can quantify, help us think through the gains in the domestic market with CVS and Walmart and internationally, any quantification around how much those might benefit 2022 calendar year? Thank you.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Sure. Hi, Steph. So on the pricing actions, we're using a very similar approach that we used in 2019, which proved quite successful, where we've really gone SKU by SKU and really taken a look at the SKUs that we have the most pricing power on. And when you take a look at a lot of our range, the comparable product is a prestige product.

So I'll give you an example -- a couple of examples of things we just launched. Our Power Grip Primer, which I talked on the call, is already our top-selling new item or actually top selling item period on elfcosmetics.com. That's priced at $10. The comparable prestige item is $34.

So still quite a big gap there, as are many of our other core holy grail. So our approach is taking many of those products up $1 each in price. Equally important, we are not taking pricing up on many of our opening price point items. So the ones that we have the most extraordinary value on, many of our $2, $3, $4 items remain at that price point.

So we feel that strategy is much better than, I'd call it, the peanut butter approaching to a general price increase. It allows us to really focus on where we feel we have pricing power while maintaining that strong value equation. And we saw great things after our 2019 pricing. Even the more limited pricing we took back in 2021 in the U.S.

with broader pricing in international also did quite well aiding our gross margin. So we always are cautious with pricing given the extraordinary value we have, but we feel we're well-positioned for the pricing we're going to take in mid-March. And then on your second one on the space gains. We're not quantifying the percent space gains, but what I will tell you to give you a little bit more color.

On the CVS space gain that we had in a subset of their doors, we went from a three-foot end cap gondola, to six and 10-foot of inline space, a pretty sizable increase in space. And we've been really pleased with the productivity of that space gain. So I think it bodes well for future gains within CVS. Walmart is currently being set right now in a subset of their doors as part of their spring resets.

And again, many of those sets went to eight feet of space within Walmart. And then Superdrug and Boots, both have had a pretty good continual increase in space. And so I think beyond kind of building out full chain, we're also seeing pretty sizable space gains there as well. So we haven't quantified the percent of our sales.

We'll perhaps give more color on that when we give FY '23 guidance in May. What I'll tell you, our first focus is always going to be on our productivity, the space that we currently have, making that work harder. And we've got a really good track record with project now Green Unicorn being able to aid that. I'm particularly excited about our spring sets that are being set right now.

Steph Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Thank you. Very helpful.

Operator

The next question is from Dara Mohsenian from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.

Dara Mohsenian -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Hey, guys. Good afternoon. So Tarang, can you spend some time discussing cosmetics category growth trends in calendar Q4 and then perhaps just a bit of an update on category growth so far this fiscal year? Any thoughts around if there's any risk to category growth from weaker consumer spending, perhaps, is that fiscal support and stimulus benefits fade? And also beyond the category maybe potential impact on e.l.f. if we do see weaker consumer spending there.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So Dara, I remain very bullish on the category. I'd say in Q4, we saw mixed results on the category. We had six weeks where the category was above pre-pandemic levels, six weeks where it was below pre-pandemic levels.

But the overall trajectory in terms of the category is definitely more positive. And we're seeing that in consumer behavior even when you look at the subcategory level. Lip is having a moment right now as consumers seek more color. For e.l.f.

specifically, we're seeing strength across all of our core segments. So I talked about the five segments where we have the No. 1 or 2 position. We're growing sales and share in all five of those segments, as well as within skin care.

As I mentioned, our skin care consumption for e.l.f. skin for the quarter was up 29% versus a category that was plus 9%. So I like what I'm seeing from a category standpoint. In terms of the relationship of consumer spending, particularly kind of the inflationary environment, I feel we're well-positioned within that.

I mean, I think we've proven that over the last three years, growing 12 consecutive quarters regardless of where the category was. And I'm feeling really quite bullish on our business even relative to the category, particularly given, I think we have a much richer portfolio now with not only e.l.f. skin, W3LL People, Keys Soulcare and then even better presence between color cosmetics and skin care, which continues to be a major white space opportunity for us.

Dara Mohsenian -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Great. And then on supply chain, can you give us a bit of update there if you were able to fully service demand in the quarter and where you stand? And any forward thoughts, if you continue to see strong consumer demand going forward in terms of your ability to supply that demand.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, no. I feel great about what we were able to do in the quarter. And as we look forward, I mean, we were able to maintain 95% in stock. And a lot of that had to do with the proactive decisions we made earlier in the year, kind of forgoing a lot of our holiday kits for our core items, proved to be a very good decision.

We saw migration from kits to our core products, which also aided gross margins. We've talked before taking up our inventory levels, which really gave us that insulation on the longer lead times that we're seeing. So I feel better about our supply situation now than I have at any time during our fiscal year, and I feel it will continue to get better. Now we're still seeing longer lead times and normal volatility that I think others are experiencing right now, but a great deal of confidence of our ability to continue to meet the demand that we have, which has been quite strong.

Dara Mohsenian -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Great. Thanks.

Operator

The next question is from Olivia Tong with Raymond James. Please go ahead.

Olivia Tong -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Great. Thank you. First question is just around helping us understand, if you could give a finer point on what drove the revenue upside this quarter and the sustainability of that over the next few quarters. Maybe if you could give us a range of -- an idea on the range of price increases you're planning to take.

And if you've seen any impact from Omicron whether the January sales or costs and your ability to drive efficiencies. Thanks.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

So I'll start, Olivia. So on the revenue upside in the quarter, as we talked, really, Q3 exceeded our expectations on the consumption side of the equation, and really saw consumers shifting from our holiday kits, which we had a very scaled back program this year into our core product. That core business momentum has really improved our expectations for Q4 as well. So implied in the guidance is that better outlook on Q4 as well.

And still, both quarters -- second half is going to be very strong for us, we expect from a two-year stack basis as well. So we do think that those -- that trend is sustainable evidenced by taking our guidance up to 19% on the top end for the year. In terms of the price increases, so this round of price increases that we're taking in March, it covers about two-thirds of our portfolio. And it also includes a portion of Keys and W3LL People in that as well.

So it's a pretty broad price increase. But as Tarang mentioned earlier, really balanced that with wanting to maintain the value proposition for our consumers. So we're not touching our opening price points and really want to make sure that we stay -- continue to deliver that value proposition for our consumers. In terms of Omicron, I would say that's hard to parse out from the data, given all the moving parts.

I think we saw more of an impact from Delta earlier on versus what we're seeing now with Omicron.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. And then I would say one of the other things that gives us a lot of confidence in the business is the strength of our spring innovation. It bodes well for what you're going to continue to see from a consumption trend standpoint. I mentioned the Power Grip Primer, particularly excited about our building on our Camo franchise with our Camo foundations.

Even as Lip is having a moment right now, our Glossy Lip Stains, all of them are phenomenal values relative to the prestige equivalent, as well as our Pure Skin line. And so we've seen really good results on our own website and are really hopeful as we hit spring sets. Now you will see some volatility in the Nielsen data, as we said. The stimulus-driven kind of consumption that we saw in March and April was quite high.

So there might be some noise in the Nielsen data, but overall consumption trends are actually stronger than what we expected for Q3, and I think bode well for the rest of our fiscal year.

Olivia Tong -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Thanks. That's helpful. And then quite frankly, given how strong the December quarter was, does this in any way change your view longer term on how to run holiday in future years, how to run promotions, the magnitude or extent that you have to do or that you want to do kits and other promotion type products just on a longer-term basis?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yes. I'd say longer term, we're really pleased with what we saw in Q3 this year, and I think we'll carry forward those learnings into future holiday programs. And the nature of that is we will still have some holiday kits. They definitely have a role and there is consumer excitement, particularly as we're able to engage them online and with some of our key retailers, but a much bigger focus on our core products.

Those products come at a better gross margin. We see consumers really gravitated toward them. And so I think that will be our -- at least for the time being, our plan for the future is much more focused on our core with some limited holiday kits to drive excitement.

Olivia Tong -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Great. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Bill Chappell with Truist Securities. Please go ahead.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Thanks. Good afternoon. Just first question on maybe a little bit around W3LL People. I guess we're two years into that deal.

I'm just trying to understand what you've learned, what's expanded from here and how it looks in terms of future M&A? Would you continue to look for stuff of that size? Or would you like a bigger platform? Just kind of learnings 24 months in? I think that's right.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Well, thanks, Bill. We're really pleased with our acquisition of W3LL People. We acquired the brand, really the thesis there was, it was a real pioneer in plant-powered clean beauty.

And we felt we could add a lot of value to that brand, both with the innovation platform we have, certainly our distribution footprint and our ability from a marketing standpoint. And we very much have kind of executed against that plan. We did a rebranding of W3LL People. It's almost a completely new brand from a consumer presentation standpoint.

We really energized the innovation program, getting W3LL People into skin care, and we're seeing really good momentum. And in addition, what W3LL People brought to us was real capability in clean beauty. W3LL people came -- one of the co-founders of W3LL People is Dr. Renee Snyder, a board-certified dermatologists.

She was instrumental with our innovation team to launch Keys Soulcare as a clean brand, replatforming W3LL People, gave us a lot of knowledge where in the last six months, we've reformulated over 350 SKUs on the e.l.f. brand, where all of our formulations are now clean. So it'll take a few months to roll out, but we feel great the progress we've got, both in terms of what we could do for W3LL People and the knowledge we learned. In terms of future M&A, I'd say we continue to be interested in other brands that we can bring on to the platform under a similar construct of being able to bring capabilities into the company that we don't have, as well as leverage the incredible platform we've created here.

In terms of scale, I would say W3LL People was intentionally small when we did it as our first acquisition. We're highly disciplined. We wanted to make sure we could do the integration and get the plan going. I'd say future acquisitions, we would look for them to be a bit larger, but we're highly disciplined.

I mean you'll see in the notes as you take a look at some of the adjustments, there were some M&A costs in Q3. It was a target we looked at, but we did not submit a final bid. So we remain highly disciplined in terms of what we look at. And I'd say the things that appeal to us are other high-growth brands, not only on the top line, but also on the bottom line.

We have a great profile as a company in terms of being able to deliver both top and bottom line. And so any potential acquisition target, we have that. And then, again, something that would complement our portfolio. We feel great about our portfolio.

That's our first priority. But either in an adjacent category or something that will bring a different capability to the company, I'd say we remain open to that, but we'll remain disciplined in taking a look at potential targets.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Thanks for that color. And then just back on supply chain. I mean now that we're through the holidays and seeing that you get shipped most from Asia, do you feel like most of the supply chain risk is, I guess, behind you in terms of getting containers, getting supplies and moving forward? Or is there still some bumpiness over the next few months that you just kind of, not cross your fingers, but that you just still worry about?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

No, I would say we're feeling good about the supply chain from a risk standpoint. I'd say over the last few months, we've been able to get all the containers we wanted. Now they are coming at an elevated cost. It was one of the impetus for us to decide to take pricing is we expect some of those elevated costs will be with us for some time.

So that's one of the reasons we priced. But in terms of overall availability, our capacity, our ability to get products, we are highly confident of our ability to do that and meet the demand that we're seeing.

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Great. Thanks so much.

Operator

The next question is from Linda Bolton-Weiser with D.A. Davidson. Please go ahead.

Linda Bolton-Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Yes, hi. So I was just wanting a little bit more detail or quantification on the gross margin, because it was really a spectacular performance, even accounting for the holiday mix issue that you talked about. Is there any way of explaining or quantifying what came out so much better than you expected that drove the gross margin? Because you had expected it to be down sequentially, and it was up and it was up very strongly. And is this new level kind of something going forward? Or is that still going to fluctuate but you're taking more price, so it seems to me that that gross margin has even higher to go? Thank you.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Hi, Linda. I'll take that question. So gross margin, as we talked in the quarter, I think what came in better than we expected, two things. One, I would say the shift into our core product from not having that holiday mix.

The holiday product is at a lower margin. So people shifting into our core product actually drove a benefit for us on a year-over-year basis. So that was great to see. The other part is, I think, generally, we're mixing out a little bit better.

Even with the higher freight costs, we're not seeing that impact the P&L in the way that we expected. And so that's why for the second half, I've now called out that we expect gross margin to be flat to last year. So that implies coming down a little bit versus last year in Q4. So not -- because we won't have that holiday benefit in those numbers.

But I think that our outlook has improved from that standpoint just based on what we're seeing from a mix perspective. In terms of pricing and how that's going to impact gross margin, I think we'll have more color to give on that once we give our fiscal '23 guidance in May. We really want to allow time for our retailers to reflect the pricing in the market and get a real feel for how consumers are responding before we go any further on giving color there.

Linda Bolton-Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Great. And can I just ask about the top line performance. According to the guidance, you're still kind of guiding to down a little bit year over year in the fourth quarter against the kind of hard comparisons. But that prior year comp gets even harder in the first half of -- for the next -- for the first half of FY '23.

So just in a very qualitative way, how should we think about that? Because that comparison is going to get harder, even though you've got a lot of drivers, maybe expanding Keys Soulcare and other things going on. So how should we just generally think about that in terms of the growth in the first half of fiscal '23?

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So let me start with Q4, because that's what we've given guidance for. So Q4, we're really anchoring on a two-year stack number. So to your point, even the guidance implies a little bit negative for Q4, but on a two-year stack basis, still very strong, up 23%, is what's implied.

And then when I look at the full year of fiscal '22, 19% on the top end is still north of 30% on a two-year stack basis. So a very strong overall performance. In terms of what to expect when we get into the first half of next year, again, we're just going to have to wait until we give guidance for fiscal '23. But what I can say, and to Tarang's earlier points, we do feel very confident on our spring innovation.

The signals that we're seeing is that that will continue to be strong even before it's in broad distribution. Our Power Grip Primer is the No. 1 item on our elfcosmetics.com. So really seeing some positive signals there.

And things may be volatile, as we talked about. In March and April, very strong consumption results in Nielsen data. And so we expect some volatility there. But I don't think that's reflective at all of our core business momentum.

We really feel that that still remains very strong.

Linda Bolton-Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

OK. Thank you very much.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Linda.

Operator

The next question is from Oliver Chen with Cowen. Please go ahead.

Jonna Kim -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst

Hi. Thank you for taking our question. This is Jonna on for Oliver. Just curious if it looks like e.l.f.

skin care is really gaining a lot of momentum. And how do you balance the shelf space between skin care and cosmetic at different retailers? And another question is, I know you're expecting 15% to 17% range for marketing spend, with Keys Soulcare starting this year. But going forward, do you think that's sort of the right level to think about, especially as you're sort of lapping Keys Soulcare launch? Thank you so much.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Thanks. I'll take the first part of that question. In terms of skin care, we are seeing great momentum. So I mentioned our consumption trends for the quarter.

It was also the first quarter that e.l.f. skin became a top 20 skin care brands. So that was a pretty good milestone for us. In terms of how we manage shelf space, I'd say we are dramatically under space at pretty much every retailer we do business with.

So the way we manage it is basically seek greater shelf space and get more of our skincare assortment in. And that varies customer by customer. I would say our most developed skin care business is probably at Target where we've been the longest, and we have the biggest footprint. We're able to shelf e.l.f.

skin within our existing sets, and this target over time has given us more space. It's given us greater opportunity to get more skin care in, as well as many of our other products. At Ulta Beauty, they've given us incremental space for skin care in their skincare set. And so we'll be taking a look there depending on what happens with space over time, whether we integrate it in within our existing e.l.f.

set, where we do keep it in a separate spot. So I think we're going to continue to learn our way there. But the unifying theme is we -- as we pick up more space, it gives us even more opportunity to get more skin and more of other innovation into retailers, and that's what our real focus is.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

And then on your question on marketing spend, we feel great about that 15% to 17% range. We have a number of high ROI activations that really support that level of investment. And I think what you'll see from us is continuing to balance investing in marketing and digital with our desire to grow EBITDA, just as you've seen us do this year. And so that 15% to 17% feels right to us right now.

Jonna Kim -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Jon Andersen with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Jon Andersen -- William Blair -- Analyst

Thanks. Hi, Tarang. Hi, Mandy. Congrats on the quarter.

My first question is about the elfcosmetics.com business. You mentioned Beauty Squad membership is up, I think, 20% year over year. You're approaching 3 million members. And Tarang, you talked to the importance of the first-party data that that provides.

How are you using that first-party data to kind of support or enhance your targeting and conversion efforts? Just in a kind of a big picture way trying to understand what that's helping you do maybe better, faster than you've done in the past? Thanks.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Hi. Jon. Well, Beauty Squad is a critical program for us. We're proud of the 2.7 million members.

We have the 20% growth year over year. But also the experience that program is generating for our core users. These are the consumers that make up 70% of our sales on elfcosmetics.com. They also are the source of core insight and inspiration for all of our various activities.

So we've often talked about many of our unique collaborations that we do, whether it be the e.l.f. Chipotle collaboration or one I'm particularly excited about right now is the partnering that we've done with Simon Fuller and finding the next big pop group on TikTok, the Future X. Our latest hashtag challenge there, #elfitup in a week after placing that hashtag challenge, I think, is up to 7 billion views. A lot of the inspiration for the things we do come from that Beauty Squad Loyalty Program and what we're hearing our core user base wanting.

So it's not just the behavior that we're seeing them from a shopping standpoint, but we also engage them, part of how they earn points is the level of engagement with the brand, including insight on our new products, including some of the things that they're most interested in. So you'll continue to see us nurture that program, build in additional functionality in it, and enhance the data set that we get. Because it really drives well beyond elfcosmetics.com. It really drives all of our activities, including with our national retailers.

Jon Andersen -- William Blair -- Analyst

That's helpful. With respect to the digital shift, you mentioned earlier that the digital portion of the business has come down a little bit, I think, to 14% in the current quarter versus 16% a year ago. Not unexpected, I guess, given the kind of consumer behavior changes. But does that have -- remind me, what are the margin implications or are there margin implications in that channel mix shift as that kind of plays out?

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So we've talked before about a shift in digital. It really is a benefit from a gross margin standpoint. But by the time you add in marketing and some of the warehousing and things like that, it's a pretty neutral impact to operating margins.

So it would be a benefit as we shift more into digital on the gross margin line. That's how I think about that.

Jon Andersen -- William Blair -- Analyst

Great. That's helpful. Last one for me is on portfolio management. And Mandy, you pointed out the kind of the -- the strength of the balance sheet, the strong liquidity position you're in.

How do you think about using capital for supporting your -- the extensions, adding brands versus reinvestment in kind of the five strategic initiatives around the three brands you own? I mean what should we expect? Is it purely kind of opportunistic on the M&A side? Are there some very targeted things you're looking to fill within the portfolio? Just trying to get a sense for how that liquidity or capital may be applied going forward? Thanks.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yeah. So you're absolutely right, Jon. We'll be focused on our strategic imperatives and continuing to support those and then also on the strategic extension side. And so as Tarang gave a little bit of color around, we have looked at targets more recently, and we'll continue to do so.

I think that anything that expands a capability or bring this new capability like we picked up with the W3LL People or allows us to go into different category adjacencies would be interesting to us. I think the great thing is that we have such strong organic growth across our current portfolio of brands, we're not in a rush to add to our portfolio. We will be very choiceful and very disciplined for whatever brand we decide to go after. And so I think that you'll continue to see that from us.

We're going to be looking at things, but only where it makes sense, cultural fit and things of that nature are super important to us, and we don't want to move too quickly on something and take a look back and not love it. So we are very disciplined in this area. And as Tarang mentioned, W3LL People was intentionally small. As we look forward, we may look at things that are a little bit bigger than that.

Something with more scale and really looking to kind of expand our top line and bottom line with any other acquisition that we kind of bring into the portfolio.

Jon Andersen -- William Blair -- Analyst

Yeah. Well said. The strength of the core business affords you the ability to be patient. So thank you very much.

Appreciate it. Congrats again.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Jon.

Operator

The next question is from Wendy Nicholson with Citi. Please go ahead.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Hi. I just wanted to follow up on that sort of line of questioning on the M&A front. I mean I think discipline is great. But just for me, can you talk about sort of the managerial bandwidth, if you will.

I mean the acquisitions you're making, it's not like you're bringing in brands that then you just incubate and they operate independently. I mean, Tarang and Mandy, it feels like you've got your fingers and tentacles in each of these brands. And I think W3LL People has taken a little while to really ramp up. So just in terms of how important it is to you, because I don't think of you as a serial acquirer.

Is that a bigger part of the story going forward? I think it would be helpful to just clarify how much of a priority that is or is not? Because I think there's a risk, obviously, that you get too broad and you expand yourself too far afield and you got too much going on, and you lose focus on the core, if you will. So can you just clarify kind of how important M&A is to you right now?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah, Wendy. So I'll take this one. I would say, look, our predominant focus is on our core business and e.l.f. pays all the bills, e.l.f.

is the thing that we have a tremendous amount of white space on, both e.l.f. Cosmetics, e.l.f. skin. So I'd say the vast majority of our company managerial attention is on those.

In terms of our strategic extensions, the way we manage them is very similar to other consumer environments I've been in. Most of us have multi-brand experience of portfolio of brands. And we make sure that the consumer-facing part of those brands we've resourced for. They have distinct kind of brand managers, distinct kind of innovation talent associated with it, but then leveraging the rest of the chassis that we have.

We have an incredible operations chassis, same with kind of our innovation platform, where we feel we could take on a few more brands without any serious issues from a managerial standpoint. But from a focus standpoint, you obviously see the momentum over the last three years on the e.l.f. brand and that becomes our biggest area of focus. But we like what we've seen in the strategic extensions we've done.

We've been able to manage them well, be able to leverage the chassis where it makes sense and then let them move on their own on the other hand in terms of how they go to market and what we're able to do.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Fair enough. Fair enough. That's reasonable, certainly. But the other question I had just in terms of that statement, e.l.f.

pays the bills. Just a question on the pricing. I mean I remember the days, I think, once upon the time, you guys priced everything out of the e.l.f. brand at $3.

Obviously, the brand has just exploded in terms of consumer awareness and relevance, and you've done a phenomenal job on the innovation side. In contemplating the pricing that you're taking on the e.l.f. brand specifically, how much flexibility do you have? I know that it's cost driven, but how much flexibility do you have to pull back on pricing or step up promotion? What's your visibility that, gosh, if you're raising the prices just a little bit too much and you start to see some market share erosion, how quickly can you react? Or are you willing to seed some share to protect margins?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. Well, like everything at e.l.f., we move at e.l.f. speed, so we can react quite fast. And I'll take you back to our 2019 price increase, which I mentioned, was quite successful.

This is a brand that definitely has pricing power. We -- in that price increase, we had some items we had taken up $2 and quickly concluded that was too big a price increase and we quickly rolled those back down. And we did not actually lose market share in that process. We gained market share throughout that.

And so if we found that we overextended ourselves on certain items, it's very easy for us to adjust those items back to where they need to be, and we can move -- we're not afraid to kind of say what -- based on what the consumer experience is. Now our hope is the way we've approached this, which is really looking item by item relative to its key competitor, and where we can go $1 up on each of these, we'll see how they do. But if we found that we -- there is a segment of our portfolio, we went too far on. It's easy enough for us to roll it back.

But our intention is to continue to gain market share. We've been able to prove that even in a bad market. We are going to want to do that in a good market as the category improves. And so we feel done right pricing can be a good tool in that.

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Terrific. Thank you so much.

Operator

The next question is from Mark Astrachan with Stifel. Please go ahead.

Mark Astrachan -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Yeah, thanks. Good afternoon to everyone. Two questions. One is, could you help us a bit in trying to understand the reported sales in the context of track versus untracked growth? I think if you look at the last couple of quarters before the December quarter, your growth was decently in excess of what we saw in the scanner data.

This quarter, it was below even taking into account the holiday set. So can you just kind of talk to how to think about that? What sort of dynamics grow a bit of relatively slower growth in the overall numbers versus the scanner data versus untracked, I guess, is probably the better way to think about it in the December quarter? Thanks.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yup. So the difference this quarter is really a function of what we saw in the base last year for both net sales and consumption. So in Q3 last year, we posted a positive 10% net sales growth with consumption down 2%. And that's why I anchored on the two-year stack in our prepared remarks.

So when you take Q3 on a two-year stack basis, we were up 20% and up 15% of consumption. So sales pacing a bit ahead of consumption, which I think is more in line with what folks expect to see. I think over the long term, shipments and consumption will balance out, but sometimes there are those nuances between quarters.

Mark Astrachan -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Got it. And so just following up on that, anything to point out from an international standpoint? I know you called it out in the press release, but is relative growth kind of similar to what you saw last quarter?

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yes. International growth still remained strong for Q3, and we continue to see growth in those markets with those customers.

Mark Astrachan -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Got it. And one more before the dog barks at me again. Do you expect any pull forward of sales for the pricing that you just announced? Is that contemplated in the guidance for the next quarter?

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

We don't typically see anything like that or a forward buy or anything like that from our customers. So no, we don't really expect to see anything like that.

Mark Astrachan -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Great. Thanks, all.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Yup.

Operator

The next question is from Korinne Wolfmeyer with Piper Sandler. Please go ahead.

Korinne Wolfmeyer -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Hi. Thanks for taking my question, and congrats on the quarter. So I wanted to dig a little bit on pipeline and R&D investments beyond what you have going on this spring. Just where do you think you'll be focusing the bulk of that spending going forward? Like which brands, which products? And then how should we be thinking about the cadence of the new product introductions going forward?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So hi, Korinne. Our innovation program is one of the key strengths of our company. And part of the strength of that innovation beyond being able to have prestige quality, the extraordinary prices is we innovate pretty broadly.

As I mentioned, we innovate across each of our core segments and skin care, W3LL People and Keys Soulcare. The -- so I would say the cadence of that innovation, you typically see, it's really continuous throughout the year. The big seasons or spring season when spring resets happen, but we're launching new products all the time on elfcosmetics.com, keyssoulcare.com, wellpeople.com. And that, in turn, gives us the data from which to make a lot of our core assortment decisions for the big resets between the spring and fall.

So I would say our innovation program has never been stronger. I take a look at the pipeline across really all four of our brands, and they're quite robust. It gives me a lot of confidence not only for this innovation we just launched in the spring, but I mentioned on a couple of other brands, W3LL People, our first entry into skin care with the first five plant-powered products. We have additional products behind that.

Keys Soulcare continues to do a phenomenal job on an innovation standpoint. We launched more innovation in the body category. There'll be other categories that you'll see come out later this year. And so I feel it's an area we've really focused on over the years and I'd say particularly in the last three years really strengthened the innovation capabilities, not only in skin care, but our ability to have the breadth of innovation that we do have as we go forward.

Korinne Wolfmeyer -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Got it. Thank you. That's really helpful. And then just one more quick one.

With the rebound of color cosmetics, is there any specific product or a group of products that have surprised you in terms of bouncing back or seem to have come back sooner than others?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

I would say it's along my expectations. We knew Lip would have a moment right now as people took off their mask and could express more color. But at least for our business, we're seeing strength across each of our core segments. And so the trajectory I talked about earlier of when I take a look at the category beyond just kind of trends relative to pre-pandemic, what is the slope or what we're seeing, and we're seeing pretty good things across the category.

Certainly, I think we're well-positioned. We have strength in the face category, particularly with our latest innovation on Power Grip and our Camo foundation. I like what we're doing on eye, our Brow Lift is off to an incredible start. And even in lip, our Glossy Lip Stains, I think, again, phenomenal value at $6 versus a prestige equivalent at $38.

And you'll continue to see us make sure that we can also jump on any emerging trends that we see out there. We're starting to see good things on contouring. We have a very good business from our contouring palettes and a number of things there. So we'll stay close to the trends.

But overall, I feel great about the portfolio of items we have.

Korinne Wolfmeyer -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Rupesh Parikh with Oppenheimer. Please go ahead.

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my questions. So two questions on the pricing front. So first, in the mass category, have you seen others starting to take pricing? And then secondly, just on the philosophy in terms of, I guess, on gross margin front and raising prices.

Is it goal to maintain the gross margin rate and then other initiatives can help to drive expansion? Or could it be similar to last time where you guys took pricing and you ended up having very strong gross margin expansion as other initiatives also helped to drive the margin improvement?

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Yeah. So Rupesh, similar to what happened in 2019, we led pricing. And so I don't think that many people followed us in 2019. We've heard more discussions, at least in our retailer discussions of a number of people taking pricing.

So I don't have specifics on who else is potentially taking pricing, but we were not the first and nor I believe we will be the last. But the way we do our analysis is not really dependent on others having to take pricing. It really is on that relative value that we see in the marketplace even if no one took their pricing. And then on the second question, I'll turn it over to Mandy.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

And on the gross margin point, so as we talked in our prepared remarks, and I'll take it back actually to 2019. When we take pricing, it is usually in reaction to something, a macro event. So in 2019, when we decided to take pricing, it was in response to tariffs. In May 2021, when we decided to take pricing, that was in response to some of the FX headwinds that we were feeling.

So this time around, it has been driven by those elevated freight costs that we're seeing and overall cost inflation that we anticipate will be with us for a little while longer. And so that was the driver behind us taking pricing. So our goal really is to help to offset some of those costs that we're seeing. How that builds an overall gross margin? Again, I think we'll have more color on that when we come back in May with our fiscal '23 guidance.

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

OK. Great. Thank you.

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Thanks, Rupesh.

Operator

This concludes our question-and-answer session. I would like to turn the conference back over to Tarang Amin for any closing remarks.

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Well, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. Again, I'm so grateful to the incredible team we have at e.l.f. Beauty for again delivering outstanding results. We look forward to seeing some of you at some of the upcoming investor meetings and speaking with you in May, when we'll talk our fourth quarter results and fiscal '23 outlook.

Thanks, everyone, and be well.

Operator

[Operator signoff]

Duration: 69 minutes

Call participants:

Melinda Fried -- Head of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations

Tarang Amin -- Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

Mandy Fields -- Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Andrea Teixeira -- JPMorgan Chase and Company -- Analyst

Steph Wissink -- Jefferies -- Analyst

Dara Mohsenian -- Morgan Stanley -- Analyst

Olivia Tong -- Raymond James -- Analyst

Bill Chappell -- Truist Securities -- Analyst

Linda Bolton-Weiser -- D.A. Davidson -- Analyst

Jonna Kim -- Cowen and Company -- Analyst

Jon Andersen -- William Blair -- Analyst

Wendy Nicholson -- Citi -- Analyst

Mark Astrachan -- Stifel Financial Corp. -- Analyst

Korinne Wolfmeyer -- Piper Sandler -- Analyst

Rupesh Parikh -- Oppenheimer and Company -- Analyst

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