Brand story: Updates from L’Oréal, SK-II, La Prairie and more top beauty brands

L’Oréal on Aesop: ‘Huge prospective growth’ in Asia led by China​

L’Oréal’s CEO has expressed excitement over the prospect of acquiring Australian luxury brand Aesop, which he believes holds tremendous potential in Asia, and in particular, China.

CEO Nicolas Hieronimus, said Aēsop was in line with the current trends in the beauty and personal care market, as evident in its performance.

strong>He said the firm could help Aēsop “unleash its massive growth potential, notably in China and travel retail.”​

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SK-II performance hampered by sluggishness in travel retail – P&G​​

The lack of Chinese shoppers in travel retail has hit the growth of luxury skin care brand SK-II, says Procter & Gamble (P&G).

CFO Andre Schulten said that the brand had not observed a rebound from the increased traffic of Chinese travellers specifically.

“We're not yet seeing is any return of Chinese consumers to travel retail. That is a significant negative for us in the SK-II business specifically.​ Hopefully, we see a more positive trend there in the near future.​

La Prairie sales slump by 12% with China’s zero-COVID policies – Beiersdorf​

Beiersdorf’s luxury brand La Prairie saw sales hampered in the first quarter (Q1) due to challenging market conditions in China caused by ongoing COVID-19 pain points.

La Prairie sales fell by 12% in the first quarter ending March 2023 during its earnings conference on April 26.

“With our La Prairie business, we faced a challenging start to the year due to the low traffic in China after the change in COVID policies by the end of 2022,”​ said Beiersdorf CEO Vincent Warnery.

Beauty consumers seeking out strong lip colours with balm-like comfort – Shiseido​

Japanese beauty brand SHISEIDO is releasing a new lipstick that will tap into post-pandemic consumer demand for both strong colours without compromising on comfort.

SHISEIDO is set to launch the TechnoSatin Gel lipstick which will cater to these new demands.

The brand claims that the new product is a long-wearing, highly pigmented lipstick that has a “stress-free feel like a lip balm.”​

The Body Shop’s aims to move away from the ‘idealisation of youth’ with Edelweiss​

The Body Shop’s Edelweiss skin care range is moving away from anti-ageing language and instead focuses on the message of building skin resilience to help consumers in their quest to ‘age gracefully’.

With Edelweiss, the company focused very strongly on one keyword: resilience.

With the rise of the inclusivity movement, brands like The Body Shop are moving away from terms like ‘anti-ageing’ and choosing more positive terms like ‘pro-ageing’ and ‘well-ageing’.