Rhode World is going on a summer tour. After debuting at Coachella as an off-grounds festival experience and content playground replete with a claw machine, balloon darts, mini burgers and colorful popsicles in promotion of the brand’s Spotwear pimple patches, Rhode World will travel throughout North America and Europe this summer. This time, it will be celebrating the brand’s newest upcoming product, the Pocket Bronzer and Highlight Milk, available to purchase on June 9.

The list of cities where Rhode’s wave kiosk will pop up is still to be revealed, but founder Hailey Bieber says she’s thinking outside the typical brand destinations. “It’s another Rhode summer, and I want to show up with IRL experiences in new places. It’s one thing to show up constantly in a big, major city, which we’ve done and will continue to do, but I think sometimes turning up in places that feel a little smaller or not typical is important. I want people to be able to have different experiences in different environments,” Bieber tells Vogue Business exclusively over Zoom.

Bieber wants to make Rhode into a legacy brand. The company, now four years old and one year post-Elf Beauty acquisition, has a goal to reach $1 billion in global retail sales, according to CEO Nick Vlahos, though he won’t share the timeline yet. In Elf Beauty’s fiscal year 2026 results, ended March 31, 2026, the group recorded net sales growth of 25% to $1.64 billion, with Rhode reaching $390 million for the year at 80% growth. The brand’s global retail sales currently total $500 million.

That rides on being able to maintain the viral buzz and relevance that has marked the brand’s initial ascent, thanks to Bieber’s prowess, content-friendly activations, and campaigns starring Love Story’s Sarah Pidgeon or Babygirl actor Harris Dickinson.

“My biggest worry with building a legacy brand is that people in this day and age get fatigued and move on from things very easily. There’s always something new, especially in beauty,” she says. “I have a lot of confidence in what Rhode specifically brings to the table, because we are always giving people a new experience and introducing new mini worlds within a world that we’re building — such as our summer experiences. But my biggest challenge that I always face is how are we keeping it fresh? How are we doing things differently than anybody else? How are we keeping true to our specific POV?”

Rhode has created a summer formula to sustain momentum. In the summer of 2024, the brand built a photo booth in Ibiza followed by a Majorca beach club take over centered around a Lemontini theme last year, then during Australia’s summer season in February, it set up shop in retailer Mecca and celebrated with a bakery pop-up. With multiple stops for this year’s Rhode summer, the collection is also bigger: other items in the collection include the Peptide Lip Shape and Tint in three new shades, a pocket brush, a terry cloth bag and towel, as well as the brand’s iPhone lip and snap-on cases in shades of colada and bronze. “We create a whole story and world around summer,” says Bieber.

A summer of global pop-ups is one piece in the brand’s broader growth strategy. Vlahos anticipates there’s more runway growth to be captured within markets that Rhode is already present in such as the US, the UK, Canada and Australia. The brand’s international business accounts for 20% of direct-to-consumer (DTC) sales and 74% of the brand’s social media followers are from outside the US. “We like to run our own playbook and be in a position to methodically build the brand, because we want the brand to stand the test of time,” he says.

Rhode’s next plan of action is to widen its reach through retail partner Sephora. Vlahos says the brand will roll out in Sephora stores in 19 new European markets soon and it’s also breaking into the Latin American market via Mexico and its DTC channel. “The beauty of Rhode is that the world is our oyster when it comes to consumers that are interested in the products. Right now, there are opportunities in Mexico and the consumers have been asking for it, we’re meeting that demand,” says Vlahos.
Latin America is a region with a strong social media presence. According to a Resourcera report, the region has 365.8 million monthly active users on TikTok alone. Plus, Mexico is the world’s 11th largest beauty market, per Euromonitor.

Elf Beauty’s scale has helped the brand run a smooth distribution since the acquisition — Rhode has moved its distribution from London to Elf Beauty’s Netherlands facility, shortening deliveries from five to seven days to three to four. “What’s really important is having the infrastructure and capability to service consumers as we expand globally,” says Vlahos.

Over the next one to three years, Rhode has big plans when it comes to production and category innovation. The brand has a research and development (R&D) lab based in Santa Monica, where Bieber orchestrates the timeline of launches. “We’re not interested in introducing a plethora of products. We want to stay true to that philosophy of one of everything really good,” says Vlahos.

Around the world with Rhode

“What’s so exciting for us about this summer is that we really hope to meet our consumers where they already are in their travels across the world. We want to create fun and surprise moments for them where they can create memories, connect with the Rhode community, and ultimately experience the feeling of Rhode summer,” says Lauren Ratner, Rhode’s co-founder, president, chief brand officer and Bieber’s right-hand.

Entering Sephora and Mecca has been a lesson in global expansion for the brand and how to engage with these consumers. Rhode’s launches at Mecca (in Australia and New Zealand) and Sephora (in North America and the UK) were the retailers’ biggest openings to date, respectively. At Sephora North America, Rhode sold three products per second over launch weekend. “IRL and retail have always been core to how we think about building and evolving the Rhode universe. For us, it’s really never just about selling a product and we never have followed a traditional playbook of placing a product in-store. We remain focused on engaging consumers through all of our touchpoints such as products, storytelling, community, and physical pop-up experiences,” says Ratner.

For Ratner, a big takeaway from collaborating with Sephora and Mecca is to “show up as yourself from a scale perspective”, explaining how consumers want all SKUs of the brand, from skincare to color cosmetics, but still expect a nuanced touch to the experience via a themed cocktail or photo booth moment. Rhode’s Majorca beach club was extended two weeks after its duration following its success.

“Building meaningful connections with our community through these worlds has always been at the core of what we do. Internally we refer to it as surround sound – the idea of creating a 360 world that our consumers can genuinely step into that really begins with a highly visual creative campaign and then is paired with interactive gifting experiences or bite-size digestible content,” says Ratner.

A year post-acquisition, the road for Rhode remains smooth. “When we negotiated with Elf Beauty, what they wanted from us was not to change, but to amplify the brand – they’ve been consistent in letting us be creative and how we introduce ourselves to the market,” says Vlahos.

For Bieber, her mission with Rhode remains the same. “I want to give people experiences, nostalgia and a feeling,” she says.