Ashley Tisdale is bopping to the top of the wellness sphere.
Launched in 2022 under brand incubator Maesa and in partnership with Target, her clean self care line, Being Frenshe, has officially exceeded $250 million in sales and $100 million in point-of-sale annual sales at a single retailer.
The milestone is one the actress-turned-entrepreneur couldn’t have predicted, considering the mindset she was in when she started the business.
Ashley Tisdale
Elizabeth Weinberg/WWD
Long before Being Frenshe existed, the Disney Channel star dreamt of being the chief executive officer of her own company.
In pursuit of that dream, she bought the trademark to a makeup line (Illuminate Cosmetics) she designed in collaboration with another brand, thinking she could sustain its success and one day take it to Target. But the task turned out to be an incredibly tall order.
“There were so many red flags, and it was very stressful. I just felt like it was probably the biggest failure in my career thus far,” Tisdale said, during an exclusive interview with WWD. “I was totally turned off about coming out with products ever again.”
Then came the pandemic.
During the days of lockdown, when outsourced wellness was temporarily unavailable, Tisdale launched a blog-style platform (pronounced French-ee, after her married name, French), where she shared at-home rituals and guides to well-being. “Frenshe was a space for me to get excited and inspired again, to just connect with people,” Tisdale said.
Meanwhile, the New York-based beauty brand incubator Maesa took notice. “They reached out and saw what I was doing, and were like, ‘Could you see yourself doing products?’” Apprehensive and fearful of another brand gone bad, Tisdale’s first thought was “absolutely not.” But she eventually gave in, and thus, Being Frenshe was born.
Today, the brand includes body care, hair care, fragrances and home products, with offerings grouped into fragrance families such as Palo Santo Sage, Cashmere Vanilla and Citrus Amber. Most recently, Being Frenshe entered lip care and a new fragrance range, Hinoki, with Maesa doubling down to further fuel growth.
Being Frenshe’s scent range.
Courtesy
Its investment comes at an opportune time, with Being Frenshe well-poised to benefit from the current mass fragrance swell. According to point-of-sale data by Circana, mass market sales jumped 15 percent in 2025, while prestige inched a third of that. Where Being Frenshe stands out is in the ethos and development of its mood science technology, said Piyush Jain, chief executive officer of Maesa, describing the brand as a “disrupter.”
“Most brands enter product first. We entered mood first, which is absolutely unique in the category,” he said. “Fragrance really enhances mood. As we created the brand, we created it with mood science technology and a variety of different products that match to deliver mood for the consumer. So, that’s one big area of win for us.”
The second win is Tisdale’s visibility and influence. “Having Ashley as our collaborator and partner has really added fuel to the fire. She is extremely intuitive,” said Jain. “She’s super participative in how we go about creating the brand. She works very closely with the team to decide where we are going next, how we are innovating, how we are creating products.”
To that end, the pressure to expand weighs on Tisdale. “I want to take my time. I want to make sure we’re making the right moves and not over-saturating the market. We can’t be going into different categories just for fun, right?” she said. “Everything has to be authentic and right for the brand.”
Much of Being Frenshe’s newness today has come from her own need gaps, as well as those of her consumers, though shoppers are usually game for anything so long as it’s in the brand’s cult-favorite Cashmere Vanilla scent. “Cashmere vanilla was the number-one in hair, linen and body in all of mass in 2025, which is huge,” Tisdale said. “It’s literally from me telling my partner I want a scent that captures [the aroma] of my Trader Joe’s jasmine rice cooking in my kitchen.”
Fragrance formulation has become an unforeseen passion. “I just never thought it would be my cup of tea. I’ve been someone who’s obsessed with candles and fragrance, but to create a line that people love and go on TikTok to share how much they love the scent, it just makes you feel so good,” she said.
Since the very beginning, TikTok has been Tisdale’s direct line to consumers; it’s where she gains insights, absorbs feedback and engages with her broader audience. “TikTok is just everyone being themselves in ways, and it’s fun. Some of my favorite, especially for this brand, is people trying to find me, they’re like, ‘I need to talk to Ashley, to talk about this scent.’ And it’s like, that community I am so indebted to.”
Ashley Tisdale
Elizabeth Weinberg/WWD
Her love of TikTok is not surprising, given that the blueprint of Frenshe’s content follows a similar informality. “When I started doing Frenshe, it was something that I was just like, ‘Wow, people connect to this, and understand where I’m coming from,’” she said. “It made me want to connect with them more.”
Over the years, she’s had to establish boundaries, especially as her daughters — Jupiter and Iris, whom she shares with her husband, Christopher French — have gotten older. But when it comes to the trials and tribulations of motherhood, Tisdale is an open book.
Of all the articles she’s published, her most notable is a short essay titled “Breaking Up With My Toxic Mom Group,” in which she detailed her experience being neglected and invalidated by grown women she thought were her friends. The piece, originally shared on Frenshe and then repurposed for a follow-up in The Cut, set the internet aflame upon its release, with readers speculating the identities of the unnamed women.
Despite the controversy it drew, Tisdale is proud of the article. “I think that in the audience it was for, the response I got was pretty amazing. It reached who it needed to reach,” she said.
Fostering Being Frenshe’s close-knit community, and surprising shoppers with new scents, are high on Tisdale’s list of priorities for 2026. Acting, however, is not. “This line means more to me,” she said. “It’s funny when people ask me the question at events, ‘Do you miss acting?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ I love acting. I’ve done it for so long, but I’m acting out someone else’s words, and I’m playing a character.
“With this, I get to be myself, I get to create experiences for people, and it has a more meaningful effect,” she said. “I feel like I’m finally stepping into my power, which I think, I used to be scared of that.”
