NOMI Beauty Inc. is an on-demand service app that allows hotel guests to request stylists and makeup artists for services. Through the app, guests can select and book various services directly from their hotel rooms. [1] Nikki Robinson, the founder of NOMI Beauty and a former makeup artist, created the brand in January 2015 to improve the luxury travel experience through pop-ups and available travel retail. [2] The beauty company, which utilized artificial intelligence (AI) models to create the on-demand services, is now allegedly out of business following a recent suit against Estée Lauder, one of the world’s leading manufacturers and marketers of skin care and makeup. [3]
On January 16, 2026, NOMI Beauty sued Estée Lauder in Manhattan federal court, accusing the cosmetics company of putting them out of business by stealing technology to boost sales from travelers and misappropriating company trade secrets. [4] NOMI alleges that the cosmetics group improperly launched rival programs using confidential information. [5] NOMI Beauty has since been wiped from the App Store, and its social media presence has declined. The competing companies were once parties to contracts in 2018 and 2020, helping Estée Lauder generate more revenue through in-room hotel purchases rather than retail stores and building NOMI Beauty’s online platform. [6] Estée Lauder instead allegedly neglected to provide its products to NOMI partnerships and created competing programs throughout the world, which benefitted Estée Lauder but harmed NOMI’s brand. [7]
The complaint states that Estée Lauder’s success in the hotel segment is built on the trade secrets that NOMI Beauty had been training their company to use since the beginning of their contract. [8] Estée Lauder argues that it took the lead on the joint project, creating a more digitalized, media friendly marketing strategy, something that NOMI Beauty had been working towards for years. [9]
The January 2026 Lawsuit
NOMI and Estée Lauder entered into a confidentiality agreement that allegedly restricted Estée Lauder’s use of NOMI’s confidential information. [10] Over the course of the few years that NOMI and Estée Lauder worked together, NOMI disclosed private company information including but not limited to marketing strategies, consumer data collection methods, and system functions. [11] The parties entered into a supply agreement in 2020, still containing confidentiality provisions, which allowed NOMI to distribute Estée Lauder products throughout their hotel partners. [12] One year later, Estée Lauder began diverting from the contract, creating its own individual strategies allegedly utilizing NOMI’s trade secret strategies. [13] In addition to misappropriating NOMI’s trade secrets, the complaint alleges that Estée Lauder breached the 2020 supply contract when it stopped providing products to hotel partners and instead sold its products to competing companies. NOMI is seeking compensatory, punitive, and triple damages and injunctive relief. [14]
As AI begins to expand into the beauty industry and marketing strategies, NOMI Beauty has been at the forefront of learning how to properly use AI to its strengths and to increase revenue. As Estée Lauder builds its digital platform, NOMI has taken its platform down. The lawsuit raises questions and suspicions regarding Estée Lauder’s credibility, reliability, and approach to partnerships and risk management. [15]
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[4]See Shallcross, supra note 1.
[5] See Tfl., supra note 2.
[10] See Tfl., supra note 2.
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