ASOS reported to be considering bids for beauty etailers Cult Beauty and Feelunique

ASOS is reported to be considering placing bids for online beauty retailers Cult Beauty and Feelunique, both of which are on the market.

According to Sky News, the online fashion giant is looking to expand into the rapidly growing beauty space through the potential purchase of one of the sites, though a bid for either is not a certainty.

Founded by entrepreneur Jessica DeLuca in 2008, who was then joined in the business by co-founder and current CEO Alexia Inge, Cult Beauty is a firm favourite among beauty junkies giving them access to previously hard to find "cult" brands, as well as curated edit of the best products from well-known brands.

The site is known for its story telling and takes into account the opinions and reviews of customers when deciding which products to stock and keep on the site.

Feelunique was founded in 2005 by Aaron Chatterley and was a trailblazer in the online beauty space. Its website attracts around 140,000 visits a day and it ships 18,000 products a day.

Both businesses are said to be in talks with advisers over a potential sale with interested parties expected to make bids in the coming weeks.

ASOS already has an extensive beauty offer on its website including make-up, skin and body from a wide-range of brands including Huda Beauty, Caudalie, Mac, Murad, Sunday Riley and The Ordinary.

Whether ASOS makes a bid or not, interest in the two sites is expected to be high with fast-growing THG likely to be in the race.

ASOS rival Boohoo is making more serious inroads into beauty via the Debenhams.com platform, which it acquired from the liquidators on the collapsed department store. Debenhams had a highly successful beauty business before the business failed at the end of last year.

Boohoo has since relaunched the Debenhams platform to include its own clothing brands, such as Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing, Oasis, Karen Millen and Dorothy Perkins, as well as a range of beauty brands including Trilogy, Elizabeth Arden, Lancaster and Philosophy.