OCTOBER 8, 2021

Fragrance RoarsSales of luxe scents are on fire in China, making the category one of

beauty's hottest globally. For more, see pages 8 to 10. Plus: Wende Zomnir’s new brand and fantastical backstage beauty from Paris.

THE BIGPIVOT

presents

After years pointing to more digital world — where bricks and clicks are combined and the walls between consumer and brand are nonexistent — fashion and retail have made a hard-turn and are now rushing into that future.

In this special report, WWD peers into that future and unpacks how consumer demand changed during the pandemic, pushed brands to adopt a direct-to-consumer mindset, and challenged the C-suite to lead through change and build better businesses.

Featured stories include: • How data helps retailers determine

what to make, who wants it and how to sell it.

• Lessons from d-to-c pioneers such as Bonobos, Glossier, Allbirds, and others.

• How “buy now, pay later” payment options has emerged as a new battlefront in the fi ght for consumers.

• What it takes to navigate the social commerce boom.

• Plus: The role of setting “objectives and key results” in this new environment.

To download this exclusive report

CLICK HERE

S P O N S O R E D B Y :

3

OCTOBER 8, 2021

THE BUZZ

Beauty Bulletin

¬ From IFF to Function of Beauty, beauty companies have made a new round of executive hires.

Function of Beauty has made a slew of C-suite hires, including a new chief executive officer.

Alexandra Papazian has becwome the customizable hair care brand's new CEO, replacing chairman and cofounder Zahir Dossa. Papazian most recently served as the global president of Laura Mercier, and before

that, led luxury brands at L'Oréal such as Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Viktor & Rolf and Shu Uemura.

The company has tapped four other veterans to round out its leadership team. Brian O'Neill will serve as chief operating officer, Martin Layding is its new chief financial officer, Jolie Loeble is its chief procurement officer and Tim Gaughan is its first chief digital officer.

Henkel has promoted David

DiBernardino to run the North America region of its consumer beauty division. Now the new regional head, consumer beauty care, North America, DiBernardino most recently served as the general manager of consumer beauty care, U.S. at the manufacturer.

IFF has chosen a finance executive to serve as executive vice president and CFO. Glenn Richter will fill the slot after serving as CFO of TIAA,

the financial services provider.Jinjoo Labs has also picked its new

CEO. Louise Caldwell will be helming the CBD skin care brand. Caldwell previously worked as the senior vice president of sales at Revlon and Elizabeth Arden, as well as the same role at Drunk Elephant. She also worked as a consultant to Dr. Barbara Sturm's eponymous skin care line and served as the U.S. president of Birkenstock's skin care range.

Katherine Power's Powered Brands has selected a new COO. Mito Yamada has joined the SPAC, having most recently worked as the vice president of global mergers and acquisitions at Shiseido, since 2016.

The Latest Beauty Executive Moves Function of Beauty has a new CEO, while IFF and Henkel have also hired new C-suite executives. BY JAMES MANSO

Alexandra Papazian

David DiBernardino

Louise Caldwell

NETRUSH, the retailer and distributor that helps brands optimize their Amazon storefronts, uses sales rankings and third-party tools to estimate unit and dollar sales for beauty on Amazon, said

By the Numbers: Estimated Skin Care Sales on Amazon Mass market skin care brands are still ahead of the curve in sales on Amazon, new data shows. BY JAMES MANSO

HERE, THE TOP 10 SELLING BRANDS ON AMAZON IN SEPTEMBER, RANKED BY ESTIMATED MONTHLY REVENUE.

6. cetaphil $3,544,152.49

7. la roche-posay $2,874,965.83

8. dr. squatch $2,614,279.77

9. mighty patch $2,602,002.04

10. truskin naturals $2,258,122.23

1. neutrogena $7,909,656.74

2. cerave $7,431,782.70

3. eltamd $6,230,649.07

4. dove $3,944,841.15

5. olay $3,876,185.19

brands in the mass market are still winning

in one of beauty's biggest categories.

The company, which estimates the

marketplace's skin care sales for its top

10,000 products at around $201 million for

September, said the brands that perform

the best have a few key criteria in common.

"People discover brands through search

on Amazon, so we always say for brands to

raise awareness make sure you have great

images, great search engine optimization,

things you need to get done before you

invest behind it," said Sara Davis, senior

director, growth strategy at NetRush.

Davis added that beyond search visibility,

consistent pricing and brand control

against third-party sellers is key to gaining

consumer trust. Convenience is also king,

and making products eligible for free two-

day shipping can also attract shoppers.

"We've been doing a lot of research on

beauty in general, and skin care is the

largest category, at about a third of the

overall beauty market on Amazon,

followed by hair care," Davis said.

More sensory categories like

fragrance have room for growth, but

Davis cautioned that consumers use

Amazon more as a replenishment tool,

adding that 84 percent of consumers of

fragrance on the platform search for a

specific brand and product.

Neutrogena SOURCE: NETRUSH

4

OCTOBER 8, 2021

NEWS FEED

HIGHLANDER PARTNERS has acquired a majority stake in clean beauty brand RMS, founded by Rose-Marie Swift.

Swift, a makeup artist for celebrities including Gisele Bündchen and Miranda Kerr, launched her line in 2009, and gained traction for her Living Luminizer, $38, an early highlighting product. Today, the RMS lineup includes Un-Cover Up, $36, Lip2Cheek, $36, Eye Polish, $28, Beauty Oil, $78, and other products.

The brand is sold with Sephora North America and Europe, as well as Bluemercury, QVC, Credo, Nordstrom, Net-a-porter and Violet Grey. Terms

of the deal were not disclosed, but industry sources said RMS has about $30 million in sales.

David Olsen, who was formerly chief executive officer of Cos Bar, global vice president at Net-a-porter, and is currently a managing director at Highlander, will step into RMS as CEO. He launched RMS on Net-a-porter, and he and Swift kept in touch through quarterly lunches at ABC Kitchen in New York, they said in an interview over Zoom. 

Swift said her sister, who is a psychic, told her years ago that Olsen would invest in her. “She said to me years and years and years ago that, ‘David Olsen will be investing in you.’ [I was ] like, ‘don’t be ridiculous, he’s my friend,’” Swift said. 

“[That happened] before I was even an investor,” Olsen added. 

“When I got the job at Highlander, my first call was literally Rose-Marie. I was, like, ‘Rose-Marie, I know you’ve got an allergic reaction to investors.…Two years ago, they weren’t ready.’” 

Swift, who has openly spoken about her aversion to investors over the years since she launched her business, said the partnership with Highlander is “gonna be fabulous.” 

“I still didn’t want an investor,” Swift said — but she said yes to Highlander because she felt like she and Olsen were on the same wavelength. “It’s not this huge firm with all these people giving their opinions,” she added. 

Highlander, which Olsen joined in 2019, operates more like a family fund, Olsen added, and doesn’t have specific hold periods or any limited partners. 

“Private equity doesn’t have a great reputation for building brands and what we wanted to do was have the ability to continue to grow with Rose-Marie’s foundation and build a really strong brand,” Olsen said.

The plan to continue growing the brand includes cleaning up the company’s infrastructure, building out marketing and deepening relationships with retail partners, the two said. 

“It makes it easier on me,” Swift said. “I don’t want the pressure of everybody saying, ‘OK, look at this excel sheet.’ I just want to be left alone to do my creativity and do what I want to do without…all these ideas from 10

million people. So this is kind of genius, actually. I’m very happy about it.” 

Swift will remain a shareholder in the business, and current CEO Elaine Sack will move into a role as chief strategic officer. Swift will remain the company’s face on QVC.

“I’m a bit of a comedian when I do my Zooms and all that stuff, and even on QVC, the audience loves me. I’m right up their alley because I’m real — I’m not fake and pretentious,” Swift said.

Swift will continue working on product development, and will focus on creating new refillable options, similar to the Re-Evolve Radiance Locking Primer, $40, the brand just launched, she said. 

“The consumer can be comforted in knowing that Rose-Marie and the ethos behind the brand are always striving to be the cleanest as possible. We’ve giggled around here that maybe our marketing tag line should be, ‘We’re actually clean,’ because we do strive to be as clean as possible," Olsen said.

Olsen said since he started at Highlander, he’d met with about 200 brands and was looking for one that was clean and profitable. The firm is considering building out a clean beauty platform, and making other acquisitions in the clean beauty space, he said. 

William Blair advised Swift on the deal.

RMS Beauty Sells Majority Stake to Highlander PartnersDavid Olsen, the former global vice president at Net-a-porter, will become CEO of RMS. BY ALLISON COLLINS

WENDE ZOMNIR is California dreaming.

For the past few years, Zomnir, who is best known as Urban Decay's founding partner, has been working on a beauty brand, Caliray, inspired by California living. Caliray marks Zomnir's first beauty venture since Urban Decay, which L'Oréal acquired nearly a decade ago. Zomnir remains involved with various aspects of Urban Decay's business, including product development, design, strategy and team building.

Caliray, which Zomnir described as "beauty on a wellness bender," is born out of what she identified as a "fascination with the West Coast" and the "archetypal freedom that it implies." She met her business partner, Jenna Dover, while playing volleyball on the beach. Dover now leads Caliray's brand and marketing; her official title is "vibeologist."

"[Dover] was a total muse for me," Zomnir told Beauty Inc via Zoom. "We wanted to do something that was clean and sustainable [and] wrapped up in this California lifestyle that we love. A lot of times, clean can be serious, and sustainability can be serious. We wanted to bring some joy to that and

have fun with beauty, as I always do."Caliray will soon launch a long-wear

mascara and eyeliner pencils, priced from $13 to $24, via its own website. New product launches will likely occur on a seasonal basis, though Zomnir maintained that Caliray's launch cadence will be "flexible." She said she is also "looking outside the beauty space" to supplements, for example, for future launches.

Caliray's product formulations adhere to the "clean" standards set forth by Sephora's Clean at Sephora campaign.

"Mascaras that I found in clean aren't long-wear, they're not quite as volumizing," Zomnir said. "I wanted to create something that would give our customer performance within the clean space. I also wanted to bring a hard-core sustainability aspect — I think that's a real differentiator for us. The mascara case is 100 percent upcycled ocean plastic. It's sprayed with low-impact decoration and inks so that it can be recycled again."

Zomnir and Dover funded Caliray via financing from friends and family. Zomnir declined to offer a sales projection, but industry sources estimate Caliray will reach $10 million

in first-year retail sales.A legend in the beauty industry,

Zomnir knows the cosmetics space well. She pioneered makeup as a form of self-expression at Urban Decay, building out the brand's signature Naked franchise and launching unconventional products such as edible body powder. Under Zomnir's guidance, Urban Decay mushroomed beyond its indie beginnings to become one of the largest makeup brands in the U.S.

Prior to building a team for Caliray, Zomnir approached L'Oréal executives about the brand concept.

"I said, 'How would you guys feel about me working on entrepreneurial

projects? Of course, it would be beauty, I just need a creative outlet," she said. "They were completely supportive."

With Caliray, Zomnir is applying lessons she learned at Urban Decay, such as how to temper creative exploration with a business mindset.

"I look back at Urban [Decay], and I was like, 'If I make cool stuff, people are going to want to buy it.' Obviously, that's not the case," she said. "One of the things I did [with Caliray] was invest in a strong operational person from the get-go. The other thing I did was involve my husband, [Doug Collier], the ex-chief financial officer of Volcom, in the process. It has been great to have him as part of our team."

Wende Zomnir Dreams Up California-inspired Beauty BrandUrban Decay's legendary founding partner is bringing her vision to a new beauty brand inspired by California living. BY ALEXA TIETJEN

RMS Beauty products.

Caliray is the brainchild of Wende Zomnir, Urban Decay's founding partner.

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BOLOGNA, ITALY — "This is the first step toward a full restart,” said Cosmetica Italia’s president Renato Ancorotti at OnBeauty by Cosmoprof Worldwide Bologna, the special format the beauty trade show hosted Sept. 9 to 13.

While the official fair has been postponed until next year for March 10-14, to be followed by the first edition of the Milano Beauty Week slated for March 15 to 21, revealed Ancorotti — Cosmoprof’s organizers decided to stage a smaller, physical event to encourage and restore IRL business opportunities among beauty operators.

Yet many exhibitors and visitors considered this more a symbolic moment rather than a real business occasion. Entering the halls of the Bologna fairgrounds confirmed the feeling, as the size of the show was even more scaled back than expected and a considerable number of key beauty companies were missing at the only five pavilions dedicated to the show.

On the other hand, organizers smartly created critical mass by combining and running OnBeauty by Cosmoprof simultaneously with two other fairs: the Sana exhibition of organic and natural products and the Cosmofarma ReAzione show spotlighting health care, beauty care and all services related to pharmacies.

The move proved to be strategic in

facilitating an exchange of contacts and new synergies across different channels, enabling buyers of different shows to discover new brands. The three platforms combined involved 1,150 exhibitors and attracted roughly 50,000 attendees. In comparison, the 2019 Cosmoprof event alone registered over 3,000 exhibitors and 260,000 attendees from 154 countries.

Travel restrictions and strict regulations — the fair was accessible upon the showing of the “Green Pass” certifying that the holder has been vaccinated, received a negative test or recovered from COVID-19 in the previous six months — didn’t stop international guests from gathering in Bologna, including a strong presence of visitors hailing from Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East.

“I’ve attended Cosmoprof for seven years and this time couldn’t be an exception,” said Nader Ali Al-Abed, executive manager of Al-Abed Cosmetics, a Saudi Arabian distributor of natural skin care and hair care products. Al-Abed said that the pandemic hit his business hard, as sales almost halved over the last two years, but he was at the fair to look for innovative natural products to offer to a “wider and increasingly competitive market for this specific sector.”

Bouchra Motaqrine, managing partner of the Moroccan wholesaler

Cos-Mell, echoed his words as she was on the hunt for new, clean formulations in both makeup and hair products to sell in the country.

While an entire pavilion was dedicated to professional hair care, the trade show lacked a compelling offering in terms of makeup brands compared to its usual standards. The absence of areas such as Cosmoprime — in which organizers spotlight a selection of international emerging beauty brands — significantly impacted the format.

Although it might have mirrored the general hit color cosmetics’ sales took during the pandemic in favor of skin care — a very strong category at the fair, too — the scarcity of the offering didn’t correspond to a lack in its demand, as a number of buyers didn’t only look for makeup brands but also expressed interest in creating their own ones. One young Moroccan entrepreneur, Soukaina Rguibi, attended the fair for the first time to meet manufacturers to develop “an accessible, sort of Kiko-inspired” private label makeup and nail polish products to launch next summer, for example.

Not coincidentally, the pavilion showcasing cosmetics and packaging manufacturers was the buzziest one. Chromavis’ senior vice president of marketing and business development Cecilia Schena was positively

impressed by the number of new businesses and indie brands she had appointments with, hailing from the U.K., France, Germany and Poland.

The company is in a favorable position to answer to these new players’ demands thanks to its Atelier project introduced earlier this year, which enables clients to create a customized product or an entire makeup range in one day and take it to market in just three weeks. “This project is going well, the schedule is already intense and the demand is significant,” said Schena, underscoring that it targets different types of clients, encompassing “big brands that want to test the market and start-ups, celebrities or influencers keen to launch their brand but with a small initial investment.”

“This is like a school for us, we can learn by doing and apply these lessons on a bigger scale, even for more established brands,” she continued. “The way of launching a product has completely changed… Now all launches are one-shot, with little to no prevision: You launch a product online, see how it goes and then scale up the production. There’s no longer a classic timeline and there is no way going back to before,” she said, adding “This is becoming an increasingly fast industry, and speed is now a central necessity.”

Boosted by the online push, such a process has repercussions on the sourcing of raw materials — leaving all companies at the fair dealing with skyrocketing prices, as well as on the image of products.

“Now more than ever you have to deliver an emotion visually through the product itself, and not just the pack,” said Schena, referencing customized lipstick bullets and pencils and revealing the company is investing in developing patented solutions, including one for a holographic effect on a lipstick. “Trend-wise, there’s a return to vibrant, strong colors, like neon ones. It’s all about the rebound effect,” she said.

“There’s been an odd curve in terms of consumptions. Now everything has to be very Instagrammable and easy to use,” echoed Eleonora Tauriello, marketing manager of Italian beauty manufacturer Pink Frogs. The company presented 12 new skin care formulations in a

Cosmoprof Marks Return to Physical Format With Special EditionThe ever-increasing speed of time-to-market, natural cosmetics and synergies across distribution channels were the main topics at the OnBeauty by Cosmoprof event. BY SANDRA SALIBIAN

OnBeauty by Cosmoprof.

OCTOBER 8, 2021

5NEWS FEED

The Venoir cream by Hino.

►

6

OCTOBER 8, 2021

NEWS FEED

MILAN — Three to four minutes is the time it now takes Marionnaud's customers to get a new bespoke liquid foundation at the perfumery chain's stores in Italy.

The retailer has just launched its private label Skin Shades developed in partnership with U.K.-based company Trigenex, which is behind the AI technology at the core of the brand's customization system.

Using a patented AI system, the Trigenex technology analyzes customers' skin type via a lipstick-sized scanner run on different areas of their face and neck, matching the data registered in the process with the preferences in terms of coverage, texture and finishes that clients express via a questionnaire on a tablet.

The information is then studied and processed by a compact blending machine installed in the stores, which creates the personalized mineral based, vegan and cruelty-free formulation on the spot and completely from scratch.

“The machine has all the individual ingredients... There's no base or a bottle of non-colored foundation that's been colored but we're actually creating it, meaning that we can make hundreds of thousands of different combinations,” said Adam Triantis, cofounder and chief executive officer of Trigenex. The company launched in late 2020 following an investment of one million pounds aimed at developing the concept and technology.

Triantis also underscored the project’s benefits in terms of tackling stock limitations as well as of reducing waste, energy consumption and carbon footprint during shipments.

In addition to personalization, speed and the enhancement of the shopping experience in the brick-and-mortar channel, Skin Shades also comes with sweet-spot price points as each foundation retails at 34 euros.

“We believe that customized products are the future of cosmetics and it’s all about making it accessible for as many people as possible,” said

Triantis. Trigenex commercial director Ross Beagrie added that customers are now willing to pay more for a customized product and are more likely to be loyal to a brand or retailer offering this service.

Launched at a selection of Marionnaud stores in Italy, Skin Shades will roll out in the chain’s units in France later this year, but the plan is to introduce the range also in other markets starting from 2022.

While the product is not available on e-commerce platforms yet, Beagrie underscored that Trigenex has “the capability to offer the same process online, too.”

“Rather than having a physical scanner in store, we have a piece of technology that scans your face without recording the image but

just taking a reading of it. Then that [information] goes into our system, we produce the product and we ship it wherever the customer will be… or if you're a retailer, we can send it to your warehouse and you forward it, in quite a quick period of time,” he added.

Product-wise, the technology can be applied to other categories, too, said Triantis. “As long as it's liquid, we can customize it. So going forward, it could be things like concealers, liquid lip color, but also personal skin care and, at a more complex level, potentially hair color,” he noted.

On the collaboration front, the company is looking to flank the partnership with Marionnaud — the first with a retailer for Trigenex — with projects developed with beauty brands, too.

Marionnaud Launches Customizable Foundation Under In-house Label Skin ShadesThe perfumery chain has teamed up with Trigenex to develop the cosmetics product created via AI technology. BY SANDRA SALIBIAN

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The Skin Shades brand by Marionnaud.

variety of colorful textures through a concept targeting the needs of four different generations — encompassing Gen Z to Baby Boomers.

While Schena forecasted sales to return to pre-pandemic levels next year, Tauriello said Pink Frogs managed to increase revenues of 30 percent to around 10 million euros last year, thanks to mainly focusing on skin care and the successful combination of natural formulations and eco-friendly packaging.

Attention toward more sustainable practices was also core for packaging suppliers. For one, Cosmei developed a whole range of practical, mono-material compacts in polypropylene, crafted without glue and refillable. “Agility and refillable packaging are what the market is demanding, as well as the possibility to give second life to objects,” said Cosmei’s business development director Catherine Duraj while showing other compacts in which mirrors could be easily disassembled and repurposed as purse ones.

The company also introduced micro lipsticks intended as mono-use testers for stores — since COVID-19 impacted the way customers can experience products — as well as samples on e-commerce platforms, enabling end

consumers to try new items without committing to full-sized products.

The increasing switch from plastic to glass encouraged Baralan to enhance its offering of glass packaging, including a new airless, refillable option that answers the need of keeping clean formulations intact. Elsewhere, aluminum and paper were seen as more resistant and lighter materials compared to glass, often perceived as too fragile, unsafe and possibly problematic for shipments.

Italian company La Saponaria opted for including all these options in its vast assortment of products, ranging from skin and hair care to oral care, which also comprise solid formulations

that further help tackling packaging issues. Founded in 2007, the company was showcased as part of the Sana show due to its natural ingredients sourced from small local farmers.

“In 2007, only a few fundamentalist consumers were demanding this kind of products and they were willing to accept a lower level of performance for it. Now the market share is exponentially growing and consumers are expecting the same results as other cosmetics,” said the brand’s founder Luigi Panaroni.

Sana displayed plenty of options for this target of consumers, ranging from L'Erbolario, an Italian institution for natural products counting 180

stores in the country and 5,000 doors globally, to emerging brands that are increasingly eyeing new distribution channels to add to their presence at herbalists stores and pharmacies.

For newcomer Alia, a natural skin care brand based on ingredients solely sourced in Sicily, the goal is to grow internationally and “bring a piece of this region abroad,” said founder Debora Pollina.

This mission was shared by hair care brands Nerà and Riàh Sicilia, showcased at Cosmofarma. “In Italy being distributed at pharmacies is useful because it confers credibility and prestige to a brand, but elsewhere we’re aiming to spas and beauty salons,” said Mattia Gattolin, export manager of both brands' parent company Azienda Agricola Zighidì.

One of the highlights at Cosmofarma, Hino — a skin care label with a highly scientific approach to formulations — was also eyeing other distribution channels to add to its 1,000 premium pharmacies across Italy and Switzerland, while the digital marketing strategist of the Rougj makeup brand Clarissa Pirillo rejected the idea underscoring that “pharmacies are the most democratic place at the world, so we will continue to be extremely loyal to this channel.” ■

OnBeauty by Cosmoprof.

Pink Frogs execs showing formulations

to buyers.

KEEPING UP WITH sales swells can pose business challenges, but hair care company Not Your Mother's, is counting on something less tangible than new categories and segments to boost growth.

The brand, which purports to be the largest independent hair care

brand sold on the mass market, is rethinking how it teaches consumers about its value proposition in order to keep pace with its own steep growth trajectory.

"Our brand awareness is still relatively low as fast as we've grown, and that we know the only way it can

go is up," said Bethany Pagliarulo, founder of Not Your Mother's.

Not Your Mother's is introducing its first media campaign this week, and is plotting a rebrand, too, to reignite consumer interest ahead of a robust launch calendar for 2022.

"We're revamping our website and visual identity for the brand to stay relevant and up-to-date with consumers," elaborated Nelson Miranda, chief executive officer of Not Your Mother's. "We did disrupt categories in the hair benefits space, and we also have a new one launching in January of this year."

Executives declined to comment on sales, although industry sources said the brand should hit $150 million in retail sales in 2022.

The brand, which was founded almost 11 years ago, banked on the white space in the market for hair care marketed to younger consumers. "Quite frankly, the saying 'overnight success' doesn't apply to us," Pagliarulo said. "We realized there was a hole in the market in hair care for the tween to college-age customer. They wanted effective and inexpensive products. Now, we've grown that category, we've grown that customer, and that customer has grown up with us."

The brand's bright packaging and nomenclature help it stand out on shelves — "The colors are vibrant and attention-getting, but it does start

with thinking back to listening to the consumer and entering categories and benefits spaces that they're really passionate about," Pagliarulo said — but Not Your Mother's is betting on its web redesign to keep its foothold in the digital realm.

"Our brand naturally skews digitally, but we still believe we have a lot of room to grow. There's a lot of changes that are happening in the digital world," Miranda said.

The brand, which was an early arriver to the dry shampoo craze, is hoping to forecast other niche segments in the market for growth.

"Our brand started with understanding where there is a real passion point with the consumer that we serve," Pagliarulo said. "We actually started 29 years ago distributing hair care and beauty products, and 11 years ago was when we were discussing where we wanted to go and what we wanted to do."

"We see opportunities within our lines for the customer that we need to address at the same time. We all want our hair to look good, so we're always looking outside our segments, such as in the professional market," Miranda added. "[Pagliarulo] has always had this knack of entering areas where the consumer is engaged. We want to continue to be an inclusive brand, and there are new benefits that we believe have an opportunity to be disrupted."

7

OCTOBER 8, 2021

NEWS FEED

SOCIAL SELLING’S latest newcomer is shooting for the smoothest shopping experience possible — and brands are taking note.

Called Flip, the shopping app was quick to gain traction among investors, with a $28 million series A round, and consumers alike. The app sees over 4 million minutes of video content viewed monthly, and gains over 2,000 downloads daily, according to the company.

This week, brands like Too Faced, Cover Girl, Murad, Living Proof, Ren Clean Skincare and Philosophy signed on. Already on the platform include Youth To The People, Supergoop!, Hourglass and Kate Somerville, among others.

“We live in a sea of products that are available, ones that come out in the industry on a daily basis. It has made it really hard for the consumer to know what really works,” said Noor Agha, founder of Flip. “For the younger generation, the way they make decisions is definitely through other people's recommendations. I would refrain from saying influencers, but more recommendations from people they relate to.”

The brand’s value proposition starts with the buying experience, Agha said. “If we look at your experience when you try to buy or discover new products, you’re either starting on Instagram or YouTube, then you’re looking at what people are saying about the product. Then, you search where it’s being sold and you make a purchase,” he said. “When you see how fast the cycle is on Flip compared to everything else

in the industry, you will see we’re on a very different level of service.” The app also offers free shipping and returns.

Agha has also rethought how to compensate creators on the app. Brands aren’t able to employ creators for reviews as they are on similar platforms, which Agha hopes will build consumer trust and encourage honesty from reviewers.

“All of the content is organic from

shoppers, so every person that buys a product can make a review. In order to contribute to the ecosystem, you have purchased that product from the app,” Agha said.

Products may garner negative reviews on the app, but Agha reasoned that it’s really a positive in terms of Flip’s business model.

“There are a lot of negative reviews on Flip, and that is what will make us the first and only honest e-commerce destination in the world,” he added, saying that despite lower costs to brands hoping to get on the app, it also provides executives with real-time, unfiltered feedback.

“This is the way brands work with us: think of our commerce as a service, and the content is organic from shoppers and people who buy products,” he said. “All the brands need to do is ship the products to our warehouse.”

Flip still believes in incentivizing creators, however. Creators’ earnings, instead of coming from the brands, come from the app directly, based on the level of engagement or quantity of sales their reviews accumulate.

Not Your Mother's Plots Next Growth PhaseThe hair care company is embarking on a hearty campaign to boost brand awareness — and, by effect, sales — ahead of a robust season of launches. BY JAMES MANSO

Flip aims to centralize beauty shopping for users.

Not Your Mother's is launching a fresh campaign to bolster awareness.

How Beauty App Flip Streamlines Social SellingThe new app has already signed on brands from Kate Somerville to Cover Girl. BY JAMES MANSO

8

OCTOBER 8, 2021

THE BUZZDEEP DIVE

CHINA IS THE NEXT frontier for fragrance, according to industry experts.

“The sky is the limit of what can be done in this market,” said Xavier Renaud, global head of fine fragrances at Swiss fragrance and flavors supplier Givaudan.

While the size of the perfume market still pales in comparison to China’s colossal color cosmetics and skin care sector, perfume provides an attractive and much less crowded field for brands. For consumers, it offers a relatively new and exciting product category.

Laurence Ma, general manager of L’Oréal Luxe in China, said prior to her generation, or the “post '70s,” the luxury fragrance market didn’t exist, and skin care represented 76 percent of the beauty business’ overall sales.

But times have changed radically. “As Chinese consumers develop

their beauty routines, they are paying more and more attention to nonessential categories like fragrances, especially after the pandemic,” said Alice Li, Mintel associate director, beauty and personal care. “In China, wearing fragrances used to be closely associated with social activities, but

now it's more about self-care, about having an emotional lift. So I don't think fragrance is still, or will remain, overshadowed by skin care and color cosmetics.”

“After COVID-19, if I look at the market data from April 2021, we see a clear uplift of the total fragrance market,” said Ma, who also noted a booming category of home and car fragrances, which hadn’t formerly been on Chinese consumers’ radar. “Suddenly it becomes one of the growth drivers.

“Culture-wise China is very open toward fragrance,” said Ma.

The market is burgeoning. In 2019, the country’s perfume business registered 11 percent revenue growth, according to Mintel data. Renaud estimated sales of $1.2 billion for 2020, and most analysts estimate the business grew 1 percent in 2020, during the pandemic, versus everywhere else in the world where fragrance posted negative gains.

“That really goes to show that [China has] a pretty resilient market,” said Renaud.

Swiss fragrance and flavors supplier Firmenich believes the overall Chinese fragrance market expands at roughly the same pace as

the country's gross domestic product, and China GDP this year is forecasted to clock about 8 percent growth.

Over the next five years, Mintel predicts China’s fragrance industry will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent, with market sales reaching 15.44 billion renminbi, or $2.39 billion, by 2025.

“We estimate that the market will double or triple over the next five years,” said Renaud.

"Fine fragrance in China, the category itself, is growing double-digit," said Paul Andersson, Firmenich China president. "But there are other, more established categories, like flavors, where we expect much slower growth."

Givaudan estimates that no more than 5 to 7 percent of people in China wear fragrances today. (That compares to 42 percent of the population in France wearing scent daily and 50 percent of the population in the U.S. buying at least one perfume per year.)

“So out of 1.4 billion people, you still have a lot of room to grow,” said Renaud.

For its part, Givaudan estimates 12 percent of the Chinese population applies perfume daily, and that 32 percent are frequent users who spritz fragrance at least four to five times a week, while 40 percent are moderate users who use it one to three times a week, according to Firmenich. Meanwhile, 16 percent are occasional users, applying scent less than once a week.

Givaudan asked people in China why they wear perfume. Thirty-six percent said it makes them feel trendier, 33 percent said it makes them feel beautiful, 32 percent said it’s to express their own personality, and 31 percent said it’s to make them feel stronger and self-confident.

“They’re wearing it for themselves, and that’s the key,” said Renaud.

There’s been an olfactive shift noted in Chinese consumers’ identity.

“This is what we’re focusing on now today,” said Agnès Lagrange, senior regional commercial director fine fragrance, greater Asia at fragrance and flavors supplier IFF. “IFF is working with local brands to help capture a new olfactive identity. The time of the copycat market in China is over.

“When you look at these new brands that are flourishing and the local brands that we’re partnering with today, it’s totally new,” she said. “They don’t want to do the same as before, because consumers want to have their own identity, and want always to have this rebirth of Chinese sentiments and Chinese pride. This is influencing the way we create on a daily basis.”

Michael Wang, president of Diptyque China, pointed out there are certain olfactive notes that are deeply rooted in the culture that brands can and do leverage.

China’s Fragrance Boom “The sky’s the limit of what can be done in this market,” said Givaudan’s Xavier Renaud. BY JENNIFER WEIL,

TIFFANY AP

AND TIANWEI ZHANG

Inside Firmenich's studio

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DEEP DIVE

“Scents like bamboo, tea, jasmine and Osmanthus are familiar to Chinese consumers, and we see a lot of local brands that incorporate this into their scents,” he said. “If shopping for the older generation, it’s the kind of gift that you can’t go wrong with.”

“Familiarity is very important for Chinese consumers,” agreed Daniel Li, senior perfumer at IFF, explaining that’s why the supplier has created notes such as Chinese magnolia, Chinese osmanthus, Chinese winter honeysuckle and specific fruits.

“It’s still not common to see people routinely using fragrance in China,” said Hong Zeng, founder of the Chinese fragrance brand Aromag. “Most of the time, people wear them for special occasions. A reason for this is that many fragrances are considered too intrusive by Chinese standards. So if you are a commuter, you very likely won’t wear perfume. That’s why when we develop a new scent, we make it a more private and self-indulgent product, while abiding by Chinese etiquette.”

Since 2017, Aromag has collaborated with fashion brands such as Neiwai, JNBY Home and Me&City on bespoke scents. Its bestseller Inkcense is inspired by the smell of ink, incense, kumquat, lotus flower, patchouli, ambrette, white musk and amber.

China’s fashion publishing maven Chuxuan Feng, the founder of Huasheng Media, which runs the Chinese editions of T Magazine, WSJ Magazine, Wallpaper and Nylon, is also betting on China’s booming fragrance market.

Last year, his company invested in the French perfume label Ormaie, founded by mother-and-son duo Marie-Lise Jonak and Baptiste Bouygues.

“The market is saturated in the sense that all the major global players are here already, and their local operating partners are doing an amazing job in introducing the product to the market, which means the cost of running a mass market perfume brand is high,” said Feng.

Prestige fragrance brands such as Dior, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Armani are the most well-known brands to Chinese consumers. However, there is a big shift toward niche labels — both western, such as Tom Ford, Dyptique and Jo Malone, and homegrown, like Boiton.

“More and more Chinese consumers, especially young people and those living in tier-one cities, prefer professional perfumery brands,” said Mintel’s Li. “Jo Malone from Estée Lauder and L'Oréal's Atelier Cologne are two very typical examples that

have experienced fast growth. More niche brands, such as L'Artisan Parfumeur, Serge Lutens and Penhaligon's are still small, but are also growing very rapidly in China.”

“I often hear Gen Z consumers mention they ‘don't want to smell like their moms,’ referring to the classic masstige fragrances,” said Will Lau, chief executive officer of Bonnie and Clyde, a multibrand retailer that distributes niche lines such as Juliette Has a Gun in China. “New consumers today are looking for scents, social status and brand identity that they can uniquely connect with, driving this leap-frog effect from mass fragrance used by the past generation, directly into the niche selections.”

Feng believes what sets Ormaie apart is that it’s positioned as a high luxury brand.

“Everything is natural, from the ingredients to the packaging,” said the executive. “It’s very costly, but I think this is what attracts its target audience: those who are sophisticated and well-educated about perfume. They will appreciate what the brand is trying to do.”

Among the domestic brands working with IFF are Xue Lei and Scent Library.

“[Scent Library] is mostly linked to the national memory,” said Jin Wang, IFF account manager, citing as an example one of the brand’s fragrances with its name meaning “boil water in a metallic kettle.”

Floral and fruity scents, with notes such as rose, jasmine and orange blossom, are still popular options in China. Miss Dior, for example, has been among the top-selling fragrances in the country for many years. But changes are afoot.

“We are moving from the traditional, floral transparency — so fast — [even if ] it’s still 50 percent of the market,” said Renaud.

Tom Ford’s Oud Wood, for instance, is a bestseller.

Renaud said consumers “need to perceive long-lastingness, that there is a story behind the ingredients,” he continued. “So if you give them all that, you don’t have to be a transparent floral. You can be very daring in the choices you make. But you need to make sure that you tell them a story, especially online, where 35 percent of perfume sales are made in China. If you don’t tell the right story, then it’s not going to fly.”

It’s also about how the fragrance names are being translated into Chinese. “All the names tell a story,” said Renaud, adding naturalness is also key.

“Nature, ingredients, storytelling — it’s a triangle that works,” he said. “You’ve got to be able to talk about [consumers’] individuality and empower who they are through the fragrance.”

From Scent Library.

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OCTOBER 8, 2021

Boitown (冰希黎) is among the biggest Chinese fragrance brands, offering Western-st yle fragrances at affordable prices. It mainly targets novice users, who aspire brands such as Chanel and Dior, but with l imited budgets.

To Summer (观夏) is positioned as an aroma lifestyle brand and presents Chinese-style fragrances in a modern way. ( It's famous for osmanthus fragrance.) The brand attracted consumer attention because most of its products are only available in a small quantity and sold out quickly. Now, it's considered as creative, high-quality product design.

Scent Library (气味图书馆书 书 ) is a t ypical fragrance brand that expanded into personal care and home care categories after successful ly bui lding brand awareness. It leveraged nostalgia marketing and col laboration to create fragrances. Its most iconic fragrance is based on the f lavor of a historic beloved candy in China, White Rabbit , and it 's used in a broad range of products, including shower gel , hand cream, air freshener, etcetera.

Scentzoo ( 书三兔) has a ver y clear target, the post-1995 gir ls, that is specif ied in its brand posit ioning. The brand tends to engage these young gir ls emotional ly, so its product communication focuses on what the fragrances mean in ever yday l ife — love/dating, surprises, luckiness, etcetera, whi le the scents themselves are being less addressed.

China's Homegrown Scent Brands Among the emerging domestic fragrance brands, the following are some of the largest, according to Alice Li, Mintel associate director, beauty and personal care.

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Storytelling drives sales of scents in China.

A scent from To Summer.

DEEP DIVE 10

OCTOBER 8, 2021

Among the hits in China are Elizabeth Arden Green Tea and L’Occitane products, as well.

“YSL is highly successful, because then the Chinese consumer is brought to a different world,” said Renaud.

He believes there is space for any brand that is smart enough to bring value to the consumer.

The Chinese fragrance consumer really knows about scent. He recalled doing a visit in Shanghai, pre-COVID-19, to the home of a married woman with two children. She had three or four perfumes, each for a different time in her life.

The same fragrance lover probably buys mass and prestige scents.

Renaud’s priorities for Givaudan in China are far-reaching.

“I don’t care about 2021 or 2022. I want to build the right setup for what the Chinse market will look like in 2030 — except that I don’t have a crystal ball,” he said. “This is my biggest challenge.”

Still, he believes that digital will be key on all levels.

“That’s also the reason why we are trying to partner with or be part of an ecosystem that taps into consumer data that will enable us to speed up our creative process,” said Renaud. “It’s not just going to be a commercial platform. We need to make sure that digital is everywhere.”

In June, Givaudan announced it had partnered with Alibaba’s Tmall for accelerated scent creation in China.

“Tmall is just the beginning, but we certainly enjoy the speed that is associated to the ecosystem that we built,” said Renaud. “So this is a great experience, and there will be more.”

According to The NPD Group, research, online sales of fragrance in China grew 39 percent in the 12 months through August 2021, versus the same prior-year period.

“Top local brands were growing

faster [online] than the overall average fragrance market. Body care products with fragrance, such as lotion and cream, and bath and shower gel, contributed greatly to category growth,” said Samuel Yan, NPD China’s beauty industry analyst. “Fragrance eau de parfum and cologne are becoming more popular, and men’s fragrance sales are also booming and growing faster than women’s fragrance in China.”

Pia You, marketing director at Diptyque China, said that it pays for brands to start investing in the market because the pickup comes fast. “Chinese consumers don’t have the sort of heritage or sentimentality that Europeans might have associating their mothers wearing a certain scent,” she said. “At the same time, it doesn’t take them decades to learn and take something up. It takes just a few years.”

“The opportunity is huge in China because of its sheer volume of population. It’s also easier to set your own standard at an early stage,” said Aromag’s Hong. “But at the same time, it also means that the education cost is high, and also most famous noses are foreigners, [so] it takes time for them to truly understand China’s own scent culture and to develop products for this market.”

Increasingly, though, fragrance suppliers are upping the multinational profile of their perfumer teams.

“We are making a very conscious effort to make sure that we are not plugging European or American perfumers into a market, but we’re really combining very strong traditional, cultural, historical heritage and understanding of cultural specificities from perfumers raised in China, with a deep understanding of the Chinese heritage, as well as working with some international perfumers and benefiting from

the international network of IFF,” said Judith Gross, vice president of creating and design, branding and marketing fragrances at the American fragrance and flavor supplier.

Firmenich in late September debuted a new studio in southern China, bringing the group's commercial, marketing and creative teams under one roof in Guangzhou. They’re focused on servicing customers in emerging trends and technologies. "It's much more discovery, what we do here is much more downstream," said Paul Andersson, Firmenich China president, at the opening. "What we want to do is be the finger on the pulse of the market and the customers. Shanghai is more focused on medium- to long-term technology. Here, it is about agility, which our customers here, even the more established ones, want because in China everything

moves so quick. By being here, we can give them quick access to consumer insights, what's going on in the market, what's coming."

Firmenich, which has been operating in China for more than 30 years, plans to double its China business by 2025 organically, although mergers and acquisitions are on the books, too.

The group plans to outpace China’s GDP growth this year.

"Our strategy is to focus on new categories of the future — fine fragrance, plant-based proteins, sugar reduction and home fragrance — because they're the ones that are going to boom,” he said.

Home fragrance, particularly in the form of reeds and candles, is a big opportunity, spurred on by a stronger interest in well-being and lifestyle after the pandemic.

"In China, when they launch a fine fragrance and they ask you for an extension, the line extension usually is a candle or reeds," said Olivier Viejo, Firmenich China’s head of fine fragrance. "When you go to the rest of the world, the line extension is a lotion or something for the shower."

One way western companies are gleaning know-how from the Chinese fragrance market is through investments. Givaudan, for instance, has invested in a company called Next Beauty, an incubator for niche brands, both domestic and international. Givaudan has been involved with, for instance, Reclassified, the niche brand born in Shanghai in 2013. “They don’t need to learn from anyone; they have their own conviction, and they take risks,” said Renaud.

In mid-September, it was announced that Puig had invested in Scent Library, the Chinese fragrance brand.

“Partnering with Scent Library was a very appealing opportunity to participate in the development of the Chinese fragrance market with a Chinese-based company and a Chinese-founded team,” Marc Puig, CEO of Puig, said in a statement at the time.

Both Chanel and Diptyque invested into exhibitions in Shanghai recently. Chanel’s “Correspondences” opened on Aug. 23 at the West Bund Art Center and ran until Sept. 23, providing visitors the opportunity to play and learn about the French house’s fragrances.

Meanwhile, Diptyque also brought its Le Grand Tour exhibition to the city from Sept. 9 to Oct. 7, after which it will move Chengdu.

“The Chinese local [fragrance] customers have ambitions, as well, to create some iconic brands for the future,” said IFF’s Li.

What the future of the Chinese perfume market holds might be informed by the past.

“It’s like makeup 10 years ago; we’re still knocking on the door,” said Ma. ■

Fragrance total:U.S. , Brazi l , Germany, the U.K . , France and China. Premium fragrances:The U.S. , U.K . , France, Germany and China. Mass-market fragrances:Brazi l , U.S. , Germany, Mexico and Spain. (China ranks 24th)

Source: Euromonitor / 2020

The World's Top Fragrance MarketsThe world’s largest fragrance markets, from largest to smallest.

Firmenich Guangzhou.

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OCTOBER 8, 2021

Les Créatifs To the Max

BY JENNIFER WEIL

¬ Paris Fashion Week was back, not least when it came to the uber-creative beauty looks heading down the runways.

For the Dries Van Noten show, Sam McKnight gave models’ tresses a multihued effect.

“The inspiration was the colors and patterns of Dries’ collection,” explained McKnight. “When he sent me the pics of the clothes, I immediately thought we had to match the colors in hair, then took it a step further by actually recreating the prints, hand-painting them with hair colors onto wefts of human hair, which we placed in unexpected ways on top and underneath the models’ own hair to contrast. Almost like a hat.”

Makeup artist Lucy Bridge said she worked with McKnight, Van Noten and stylist Nancy Rohde “to find the right balance of clashing colors, textures and full-on faces to coincide with the collection. We had fun mixing neon shades with bold, powerful shades.”

“Embellishments from the clothing were taken onto

the face — and nails — to pull the looks together,” she continued. “This season was about experimentation and excitement after the last year of the pandemic. It was a celebration of life, which was translated onto the face.”

Over at Kenneth Ize, makeup artist Fara Homidi created a beauty look that included swathes of gold color on a model’s eyes or nose.

“We were inspired by the epic makeup of Fela Kuti’s wives and knew we wanted to do something major with the makeup,” she explained, adding gold pieces in Ize’s collection immediately led them to think of gilded details in the makeup, “but done in a way that hasn’t been seen before.”

“I knew I wanted to do different shapes on the eyes and face, but I was really excited about going for it with the painted gold nose,” she added.

Original beauty looks were also seen from at likes of Loewe, Givenchy, Maison Margiela, Rochas, Germanier, Issey Miyake and Acne Studios.

Acne Studios

Dries Van Noten

Maison Margiela

Issey Miyake

Rochas

Loewe

Kenneth IzeGermanierGivenchy

EYE CANDY

FAIRCHILDLIVE.COM

A World Changed,

A Business Transforming

C E O S U M M I T

November 17-18, 2021Cipriani South Steet, NYC

B U Y T I C K E T S

Event Details or Attendee Assistance: Sue Jin Lee

slee@fairchildfashion.com

Sponsorship Inquiries: Amanda Smith

asmith@fairchildfashion.com

SPONSORS

Speakers include:

AMANDA CHANTAL BACONCEO & FounderMOON JUICE

KORY MARCHISOTTOCMO, E.L.F. BEAUTYand President, KEYS SOULCARE

NANCY TWINECEO & FounderBRIOGEO HAIR CARE

TARANG AMINChairman & CEOE.L.F. BEAUTY

VIOLETTECEO & Founder, VIOLETTE_FR, and Global Creative Director, Makeup, GUERLAIN

TRACY ANDERSONFounder & CEOTRACY ANDERSON and CreatorTRACY ANDERSON METHOD

JUE WONGCEOOLAPLEX

R. ALEXANDRA KEITHCEOP&G BEAUTY

DAVE KIMBELLCEOULTA BEAUTY

GENA SMITHSVP, Human Resources, Global Executive & Creative RecruitmentLVMH MOËT HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON INC.

TRACEY T. TRAVIS EVP, Finance & CFOTHE ESTÉE LAUDER COMPANIES

RON GEEPresident & CEOSHISEIDO AMERICASand Global M&A LeaderSHISEIDO GROUP

DAVID HUANGChairman, CEO & Founder YATSEN HOLDING LTD.

TIM COOLICAN CEO MILK MAKEUP

JONATHAN VAN NESSFounder JVN

MUSAB BALBALEMerchandising Vice President, BeautyWALMART

CARLA VERNÓNVP, Consumables Categories AMAZON

TAYLOR HAMILTONCEORECOMMERCE

BRIAN MCDEVITTManaging Director, Home & Personal CareGOOGLE

NYAKIO GRIECOCo-founderTHIRTEEN LUNE

PATRICK HERNINGCo-founderTHIRTEEN LUNE

JEREMI GORMANChief Business OfficerSNAP INC.

Violet te photo by: Lydie Bonhomme