Celebrity hairstylist and social media influencer Kristin Ess is suing beauty brand incubator Maesa to reclaim her rights to her eponymous brand, and be free from “unreasonable restraints” on her business.

Ess, the cofounder of educational site Thebeautydepartment.com who codeveloped the Kristin Ess Hair line in partnership with Maesa and launched exclusively in Goal in 2017, revealed the lawsuit in a series of Instagram posts.

“I’m suing my partners for several reasons, but the first one being that I used to be misled during this partnership,” she wrote. “They sold themselves to me as a beauty brand incubator, touting their ability to launch, grow [and] eventually sell my brand to make sure its continued success. As an alternative of holding true to their commitments, they’ve continued gripping onto my brand, using it as a piggy bank to fund their many other ideas. Their actions aren’t fair to me, or to the long-term growth of Kristin Ess Hair.”

Ess continued that she hoped that they might take care of this privately, however the time has come to take a special approach. “The one thing I do know obviously is — if I don’t fight with every part I’ve got on this moment, the Kristin Ess hair brand will proceed to suffer and deviate from the trail I’ve at all times dreamed for it. I can’t just sit back and watch that.”

The suit alleges that Maesa has “deprived” Ess of each her creative control over and ownership of her own brand, in addition to threatening to forestall her from pursuing recent opportunities for herself, including threatening to sue her if she pursued other product categories with one other partner using her own name.

“Maesa has shirked its other duties under the present agreements and treated the Kristin Ess Hair collection as a money cow that may keep Maesa’s other, underperforming brands afloat,” the suit said. “In the method, Maesa has, amongst other things, pushed Kristin Ess Hair into down-market retailers

without consulting Ms. Ess first; rebranded the Kristin Ess Hair brand over Ms. Ess’ objections and in a fashion that’s incongruent with the overarching brand image and story, and pressured Ms. Ess and existing retail partners to simply accept lower-quality products.”

It also detailed that in exchange for exclusive rights to fabricate, sell, distribute and market Kristin Ess Hair products, Ess received limited sales royalties and a modest annual guarantee. The parties agreed that after Maesa and Ess grew the business and positioned it for a sale in excess of $40 million,

it was of their mutual best interest to sell the business and Ess only stood to appreciate equity proportionate to her contribution once the business was sold, at which era she would receive 25 percent of the proceeds from the sale. But up to now a sale has not happened, despite there having been interested parties.

“Counting on the guarantees and affirmative statements of Maesa, Ms. Ess agreed to this in lieu of direct equity within the business since it created an obligation for Maesa to pursue a transaction with sales proceeds in excess of $40 million,” the lawsuit said. “Despite this, Maesa has already taken advantage of

Ms. Ess’ position by reaping significant value from the Kristin Ess Hair business by selling a majority interest in Maesa to Bain Capital in 2018, structured in a method to circumvent any obligation to Ms. Ess. The time has now come for Ms. Ess to receive a commensurate profit for her efforts in creating value for Maesa, Bain and Kristin Ess Hair.”

The suit also alleged that Ess learned that a representative from L’Oréal contacted Maesa to inquire a few potential purchase of the Kristin Ess Hair business, a possibility that Maesa didn’t pursue.

Based on the suit, the road is now sold online and at retailers across Canada, Europe, Southeast Asia, South Africa, Australia, and beyond, and is expected to generate greater than $250 million in retail sales this 12 months. The business represents greater than 50 percent of Maesa’s revenues, it said.

In addition to general and compensatory damages, Ess is looking for a judicial declaration that the illegal non-compete and exclusivity provisions within the brand and license agreements are unenforceable, null and void and that Maesa provide Ess with a full accounting of all royalty payments.

In a press release, Maesa chief executive officer Piyush Jain said: “Since its inception, Maesa has been dedicated to the expansion and expansion of the Kristin Ess brand. Maesa appreciates the early insights and contributions Ms. Kristin Sivesind made to the brand. We’ve provided various reasonably priced salon quality luxury hair care products to consumers worldwide.

Unfortunately, the parties have several disagreements about points of our industrial agreement. We adamantly disagree with Kristin’s allegations about Maesa and the parties’ relationship. Nonetheless, even during this time of disagreement, Maesa stays committed to specializing in and continuing

the success of the Kristin Ess brand and providing consumers with exceptional hair care products worthy of the trust of the Kristin Ess community and consumers. We cannot comment any further on this matter at the present time.”

Maesa started off manufacturing private label brands, but moved into incubating brands similar to Drew Barrymore’s Flower Beauty in addition to Kristin Ess Hair. In September, Gianni Pieraccioni, the corporate’s CEO since 2021, stepped down for private reasons. He was replaced by Jain, a Unilever alum of greater than 20 years.

Ess didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment beyond social media and the lawsuit.