Hermès subverts the cosmetics game and operates its first beauty line in the country

The billionaire cosmetics and personal care market in Brazil wins this Wednesday (10) the brand that can be treated as one of the most exclusive on the shelf. French company Hermès, the third most valuable luxury brand in the world according to Interbrand’s ranking, starts sales of its first beauty line launched in the country in 183 years of history.

Fruit of two decades of speculation and industry questioning about why the group has never embarked on this $380 billion slice of the segment, lipsticks, pencils, nail polish and blushes are the kickoff of “a game that Hermès has entered to play, not to be left out”, according to the executive president of perfumery and beauty of the brand, Agnès de Villers.

In an interview with sheet, the executive explains that the delay in relation to the biggest competitors among luxury houses, notably Chanel and Christian Dior, of the LVMH group, has to do with the brand’s idea of ​​”not surrendering to external pressures” and the attempt of “delivering functional products, but that carry our values”.

Under these guidelines, Hermès’ obsession with keeping around 70% of its products made inside the company, with its own raw materials and production, is understood to be two factors that keep the myth of its name in the wheels of the elite of luxury consumption.

If customers line up for a Birkin bag because it’s handcrafted inside the brand’s ateliers on the outskirts of Paris or buy one of the silk scarves produced in Lyon for the top-rated yarns made from Brazilian cocoons, the brand worked so that they pay R$420 for one of the 24 shades of red from the first lipstick collection or R$360 in a nail polish bottle for similar reasons.

Villers highlights that one of the first concerns was to transform these products into fashion items. The designer of accessories for the brand, Pierre Hardy, added to the work of creating the jewelry and shoes that of developing the packaging, made of aluminum and which would have seven times more durability compared to the plastic used by competitors.

“Even though women sometimes keep more than 15 lipsticks, we wanted refill packs because they can be recycled indefinitely”, he says, adding that, from a sustainable point of view, “there are no formulas on the market that mix chemicals and natural actives like we did “.

It is known that biocosmetics products, a thriving industry chain whose worldwide revenue is estimated at US$35 billion per year, do not carry many actives in the recipe due to the weight of the molecules.

Much of the time spent by Hermès in the laboratories, then, was dedicated to research to create formulas that harmoniously combine chemical technology with natural actives, which gave the products differentiation and the seal of the global organic certifier Ecocert.

Efforts such as maintaining its own sandalwood plantation in Australia or a unique formula of blackberry extract not only position the brand at the forefront of sustainable production in the luxury industry, but also create a new entry product based on the myth of exclusivity.

“You have to remember that Hermès is primarily a house of objects. So we wanted to bring something that really made sense. At the same time, we didn’t want to launch objects that were 20 times the price of lipstick. “says Villers.

Whether it will be seen as fair in Brazil, the fourth largest consumer of cosmetics and perfumes in the world, is still too early to say, but since it was launched in Asian countries and the United States, the division opened in March 2020, that is, in the The start of the Covid-19 pandemic helped push the brand’s numbers up.

In the fantastic luxury quartet, a position shared with first place, Louis Vuitton, vice versa, Chanel, and fourth place, Italian Gucci, Hermès was the only one that did not lose market value last year. The last quarter ended with a growth of 31% in sales compared to the same period of the previous year and 40% compared to two years ago, in a total of more than 6.6 billion euros (R$ 42 billion) generated in cash registers. stores and on the ecommerce platform.

The report points out as one of the performance drivers the launch, in July, of the beauty line in China – a market where men account for 20% of sales of the brand’s hand cream. Villers indicates that this is a reflection of what she expects for next year, when she plans to integrate a project for the male market into her beauty portfolio.

“We are not an essentially female brand, we are more for gender. We do not choose who will consume our products. The ‘lip balms’, for example, are successful among men”, he reveals, without giving details about consumption by region.

She adds, however, that it is possible to predict that one of the attractions of the new line in the Brazilian market will be the colors, taken from the nuances printed on the silk “carrés” and the tones of the company’s iconic leather items. A manicurist from São Paulo based in Paris, Villers reveals, has tested the highlighted nail polishes. And approved.

“Unlike other brands, we don’t do market research, as we prefer to focus more on the creative spectrum than on the market’s benchmarks. But, of course, we consult experts from different backgrounds to assess the texture and usability of the products. that the colors, more intense, will please Brazilians,” he says.

And even in a competitive industry like that of the tropics, where dozens of small beauty brands flourish, Villers, who has already headed operations at MAC and L’Oreal, bets on differentiation to play the game that even celebrities play. Singer Rihanna, for example, has Fenty Beauty, and model Kylie Jenner, billionaire Kylie Cosmetics.

“Today, makeup is the playground of the world, because almost anything is possible to be launched. What I learned is that it takes time to cultivate expertise. We are not in this to do ‘fast beauty’ [beleza rápida], but maybe a ‘slow beauty’, which takes time. That doesn’t mean being ‘low profile’, it means doing things our way.”