New Wave of Brazilian Beauty Brands Go Global | BoF Professional, News & Analysis

Whenever she has a “loopy concept” for a brand new magnificence product, Bruna Tavares says she has to faucet into her powers of persuasion. Having over ten years of expertise within the Brazilian magnificence business and virtually three million followers on Instagram provides her extra credibility than most, however buyers in her house nation can nonetheless be cautious.
When Tavares launched her BT Velvet liquid matte eyeshadow in 2019, backers of the namesake model had been sceptical. “They didn’t assume prospects would adapt to it as a result of the feel was so completely different from what prospects had been used to, [but] in the end my buyers believed in me.” The product offered out in 24 hours and continues to be a bestseller, she provides.
With a powerful home foothold anchored by 3,000 factors of sale and pharmacy large Farmaervas as a producing accomplice, the 35-year-old entrepreneur is prepared for her “spicy” Brazilian model to go world. Having secured a take care of Sephora in Brazil, Tavares’ ambition is to be stocked by the retailer’s US, Mexico and European shops by subsequent 12 months.
Bruna Tavares cosmetics. Bruna Tavares.
Brazil has a observe report for producing magnificence behemoths like Natura & Co. and Grupo Boticario, whereas offering fertile floor for worldwide conglomerates equivalent to L’Oréal, Procter & Gamble and Estée Lauder Companies to both open R&D centres or arrange hubs for manufacturing and distribution.
But now, a brand new era of so-called B-beauty manufacturers — Bruna Tavares, Simple Organic and Hela Beauty amongst others — are using a wave of clear magnificence, bombastic influencer tradition and the enduring enchantment of “model Brazil”, to prepared themselves for the following part of enterprise. For these with severe export potential, which means making overtures to companions overseas.
The Global Appeal of B-Beauty
Brazil’s scale, dynamism and popularity as a centre of magnificence innovation means the sheer quantity of manufacturers and merchandise that emerge from the nation is prone to be larger than others. Though it has been one of the toughest hit by Covid-19, Brazil’s financial system returned to pre-pandemic ranges within the first quarter of this 12 months, stunning analysts. Less stunning, maybe, is the truth that the Brazilian magnificence sector demonstrated indicators of resilience all through the disaster.
The fourth-largest on the earth, Brazil’s magnificence and private care market grew 4.7 p.c between 2019 and 2020, in line with Euromonitor International. Currently estimated to be value $24.67 billion, it’s set to rise by 6.2 p.c subsequent 12 months. By 2022 Brazil will account for nearly 42 p.c of the broader $62.44 billion Latin American magnificence market and 4.7 p.c of the $552.21 billion world market.
Several intangible elements assist Brazilian manufacturers achieve a sure cachet within the world context. Thanks to the nation’s tropical local weather and vigorous seashore tradition amongst different issues, Brazilians are recognized internationally for putting particular significance on magnificence, hygiene and the looks of their our bodies.
It’s no coincidence that bum lifts, keratin hair therapies and waxes branded as “Brazilian” have turn into standard around the globe. Brazil ranks as one of the best amongst international locations for the quantity of surgical and nonsurgical beauty procedures, in line with the International Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery.
All this has helped strengthen the affiliation between Brazil and aesthetics within the minds of worldwide shoppers, suggesting that skincare and beauty manufacturers from the nation additionally stand to learn.
“We’ve had this factor with magnificence for a very long time. In normal, Brazilians prefer to take care of their physique and uncover merchandise that might assist in that method,” stated Luanda Vieira, magnificence and wellness editor of Vogue Brazil.
Home to the world’s largest rainforest, Brazil is seen as a wellspring of pure, pure and unique components which might be more and more within the highlight for his or her ostensible beautification properties. Plants native to the nation equivalent to acai, ucuuba, castanha and murumuru have made their method into magnificence merchandise.
“We have a bossa [nova quality] to our merchandise, particularly in skincare,” stated Helena Bordon, style entrepreneur and co-founder of Hela Beauty. “We use tons of uncooked, pure components which might be very particular to Brazil; they add an additional one thing to the product.”
Natura makes use of pure components, many of that are native to Brazil. Natura.
Though many of the pure components discovered within the Amazon have been utilized by indigenous peoples for hundreds of years if not millennia, Antonio Luiz Seabra was one of the primary to advertise them in a contemporary cosmetics model when he based Natura in São Paulo in 1969. Over the years, the corporate’s efforts in sustainable innovation and product improvement leveraging Brazil’s biodiversity led it to turn into, in 2014, the primary, and largest, publicly traded firm to achieve B Corp certification.
Though the model had been rising internationally since its first foray exterior of Brazil in 1982, its acquisitions of Aesop, The Body Shop and Avon boosted Natura’s world standing over the previous decade. Today, Natura & Co, which contains all 4 manufacturers within the namesake group, stands as Brazil’s — and Latin America’s — largest cosmetics multinational with operations in 110 international locations together with France, the place it opened a boutique within the Marais district of Paris.
Staking a Claim in Clean Beauty
As the quantity of world shoppers prioritising pure, vegan and sustainably sourced magnificence merchandise continues to develop, Brazilian manufacturers that helped pioneer the so-called clear magnificence motion at house discover themselves on the lookout for alternatives overseas.
“At the start, Brazil represented an enormous alternative for us,” stated Patricia Lima, founder of Simple Organic. “The clear magnificence market was so new that we felt that there was rather a lot of room for innovation.”
The model has grown swiftly since its launch in 2017. Lima studies that 2020 was their finest 12 months but, as turnover rose by 300 p.c year-over-year. The model was just lately acquired by a significant participant, Hypera Pharma, a backing which she is now planning to make use of to go worldwide “with the identical energy that now we have in Brazil.”
Vieira notes that the acquisition is “a turning level for the business,” as pharmacies are key to validating manufacturers within the eyes of Brazilians. “The arrival of a clear magnificence model to a pharmacy is an indication that Brazilians’ behaviour is altering.”
Many different Brazilian skincare manufacturers have launched in recent times: Creamy, Elemento Mineral, Quintal Dermocosmeticos by vegan magnificence model Feito Cosmeticos, Sallve Almanati and Care Natural Beauty, to call a couple of.
According to a report by analysis agency Kline, the pure phase of the Brazilian magnificence business grew 10 p.c in 2020, on par with 2019 ranges.
We use tons of uncooked, pure components which might be very particular to Brazil; they add an additional one thing to the product.
Local retailers additionally took benefit of the rising tide to diversify their classes. Dominique Olivier, founder of the direct-to-consumer retailer Amaro, recognized 2020 as the precise time to increase into magnificence and wellness after launching with style eight years earlier.
Olivier recounts that round 60 p.c of the sweetness manufacturers offered by Amaro have at the least one or two labels related to clear magnificence. “We see a extra purpose-driven, progressive client, and much more significance is being positioned on that.” Though Olivier believes it’s nonetheless a small half of Brazil’s general market, “it’s getting in that course.”
The Bombastic Influencer Boost
“Makeup is on the spot gratification; you placed on lipstick or an eyeshadow, and also you immediately really feel stunning. But skincare is a long-term dedication,” stated São Paulo-based founder of magnificence website Belezinha.com.vc, Vania Goy.
Goy believes that “the isolation interval made skincare really related to self-care” and that the native business was fast to grab the second to attach with shoppers on that foundation. Data from Euromonitor confirms that Brazil’s skincare phase grew 13.6 p.c in 2020, a price that’s greater than twice that of the broader Latin America area (6.4 p.c), and much larger than the determine worldwide (0.0 p.c).
Local influencer advertising helped speed up that development. “With the financial disaster, the influencer market took on a complete new dimension,” explains Brazilian journalist Jorge Grimberg.
Mirroring what occurred in different markets around the globe, a number of distinguished influencers in Brazil began their very own magnificence companies earlier than or throughout the pandemic. Last 12 months, Julia Petit launched skincare model Sallve in collaboration with Marcia Netto and Daniel Wjuniski, specializing in the skincare considerations of a youthful buyer base, pitched at extra reasonably priced worth factors.
Other Brazilian influencers — some hailing from the style business — are aiming for status positioning, like US-based Camila Coelho, who this 12 months launched her magnificence line Elaluz, which is offered via Net-A-Porter and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Back in Brazil, influencer Helena Bordon and dermatologist Alessandra Fraga, created Hela Beauty, a premium skincare model containing what they name “excessive concentrations of pure energetic rules”. After debuting in Sephora Brazil in December 2020, Bordon stated she hopes to increase to Europe and the US after gaining extra traction domestically.
Simple Organic marketing campaign picture. Simple Organic.
For her half, Camila Coutinho, creator of the well-known weblog Garotas Estupidas, determined to deal with Brazil’s prolific haircare market with customised merchandise she branded GE Beauty.
Beauty journalist and founder of the weblog Dia de Beauté, Vic Ceridono, believes that many of these manufacturers exemplify the shift in priorities amongst shoppers who’ve turn into extra desirous about how merchandise are made and communicated. “They wish to really feel like they’re half of the dialog,” she stated.
Ceridono provides that, previously, magnificence gamers like Natura, for instance, “didn’t have to advertise [values] that had all the time been on the coronary heart of the model … however this has modified.”
Diversity’s Role in Future Exports
In latest years, a number of manufacturers based by Brazilians overseas have been banking on Brazilian-ness to set themselves aside or create model fairness.
Costa Brazil, the sweetness firm based by Calvin Klein’s former artistic director Francisco Costa, was acquired by biotech agency Amyris earlier this 12 months. Also in New York, a trio of founders made their model Sol de Janeiro internationally well-known because of its best-selling Bum Bum cream, a moisturiser for a component of the physique synonymous with Brazilian magnificence beliefs: the underside.
Launched in 2015 by Korean-American Heela Yang, Marc Capra and Brazilian-born Camila Pierotti, Sol de Janeiro “was constructed across the physique inclusivity we skilled whereas dwelling in Brazil, and now we have mirrored Brazilian range and all physique varieties from the start,” stated Yang.
Diversity and inclusion will play an more and more necessary position for the following wave of Brazilian magnificence companies. In addition to prioritising sustainability, Vieira believes that “large gamers will [also] want to search out methods to supply extra customisation choices for shoppers” with a purpose to keep within the sport.
She cites Brazilian manufacturers within the hair care market like Meu Q or Just for You which have developed customisable merchandise catering to the numerous hair varieties and textures within the ethnically numerous nation. “Why would I wish to have the mannequin’s hair after I should purchase a product that may give me the perfect model of my very own hair? That’s the gamechanger. It’s the identical for make-up,” Vieira stated.
Grimberg, nonetheless, stated there may be nonetheless a good distance for Brazilian firms to go because the latest progress made by some gamers to create extra inclusive advertising campaigns is simply surface-level change. “We don’t know the way numerous they’re from the within out.”
Rita Carreira, a Black Brazilian curve mannequin who has appeared on the quilt of Vogue Brazil, agrees. “Unfortunately, manufacturers right here wish to speak about range, have interaction in a discourse that’s ours however the individuals behind the scenes and making choices will not be numerous,” stated Carreira, including that there have historically been fewer Black magnificence and style model founders in Brazil than there are in different international locations just like the US.
Why would I wish to have the mannequin’s hair after I should purchase a product that may give me the perfect model of my very own hair?
Industry consultants counsel that there’s a largely untapped alternative for genuine Brazilian magnificence manufacturers with numerous founders and product ranges to export to worldwide markets throughout Africa, the Middle East and India. Given future demographic forecasts, these areas could also be simply as engaging long-term as exporting to North America and Europe within the shorter time period.
Brazilian cosmetics and private care merchandise are at the moment exported to 174 international locations. For the primary time in a decade, Brazil posted a commerce surplus of $23.4 million in 2020 within the private hygiene, perfumery and cosmetics (HPPC) sector. According to knowledge from ComexStat and Brazil’s Ministry of the Economy, this is because of a 1.9 p.c rise in exports from the earlier 12 months totalling $609.3 million.
It is necessary to notice, nonetheless, that the excess was the consequence of distinctive circumstances introduced on by the pandemic, in line with the Brazilian Association of the Personal Hygiene, Perfume and Cosmetics Industry (ABIHPEC), together with a slowdown in imports and the depreciation of the Brazilian actual.
Multi-brand Retailers Provide International Launchpad
Arguably, Natura stays Brazil’s most well-known magnificence export however O Boticario, based by Bolivian-Brazilian Miguel Krigsner in 1977 in Curitiba, Brazil additionally has world ambitions. Its dad or mum firm Grupo Boticario already has places of work in Portugal for Europe and Colombia for Spanish-speaking Latin American markets. In all, the group operates in 15 international locations together with Middle Eastern markets.
Hela Beauty merchandise. Hela Beauty.
Breno Cavour, head of worldwide enterprise at Grupo Boticario, explains that whereas Brazil at the moment constitutes 95 p.c of O Boticario’s market, the agency now “has the sources, money and construction to speed up worldwide enlargement.”
Meanwhile, the 150-year-old pharmacy Granado, with its eponymous model and perfumery Phebo, has been in Paris since 2013. In the hair care phase, Embelleze, which is as outdated as Natura, is one of the most important magnificence firms exporting internationally and Cadiveu, based in 1993, exports hair straightening keratin merchandise to 85 international locations.
When Sephora entered Brazil in 2012, it grew to become an outlet for upmarket and specialist native gamers to sit down alongside world manufacturers. Though its arrival supplied a priceless showcase for home gamers, it compelled native manufacturers to up their sport and world manufacturers to raised adapt to the Brazilian client who, in flip, grew to become more and more refined and demanding within the course of.
“There was an enormous shift; it opened a complete universe of manufacturers for Brazilian shoppers,” stated Ceridono.
The shifting panorama motivated Boticario to open Beauty Box in 2012, a multi-brand bodily retail chain, to compete with Sephora. And in 2019, the group acquired Beleza Na Web, one of the most important e-commerce multi-brand magnificence gamers within the nation. Online giants like Epoca Cosmeticos, owned by Brazilian retail behemoth Magazine Luiza, are additionally evolving quick.
As Brazil’s magnificence business continues to develop in dimension and affect, it’s possible that these and different multi-brand retailers will turn into more and more engaging locations for worldwide gamers to scout and signal native manufacturers. Even in the event that they don’t find yourself changing into the following large factor in Europe or the US, B-Beauty manufacturers can be utilized successfully to diversify a European or American retailer’s merchandise combine or as a strategy to differentiate themselves from rivals.
For her half, Bruna Tavares is feeling cautiously optimistic. If she succeeds in leveraging Sephora Brazil as a launchpad to propel her model into the retailer’s shops overseas, she hopes it “will carry prime sellers that contribute to the worldwide market as a complete, and additional spotlight the message of Brazilian magnificence.”
But like many on this new era of magnificence entrepreneurs, she stated she’s going to solely do this on her personal phrases. Asking her to compromise her model identification to create a worldwide enterprise is a non-starter.
Related Articles:
Boticario Eyes Cosmetics Acquisitions at Home and Abroad
Natura Fourth-Quarter Net Profit Beats Expectations
African Entrepreneurs Are Banking on ‘A-Beauty’

https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-markets/new-wave-of-brazilian-beauty-brands-go-global

Recommended For You

About the Author: Jessica