PARIS — French natural beauty purveyor Aroma-Zone keeps broadening its reach and raising the bar.
“We can be one of the top brands in Europe — and one day in the world,” said Sabrina Herlory Rouget, Aroma-Zone’s chief executive officer, who is taking a considered strategic approach.
When she arrived at Aroma-Zone in 2021, after its acquisition by Eurazeo, the brand had just four stores. Today, there are 33. Also in 2021, 80 percent of Aroma-Zone’s business came from essential oils and a DIY business. Now, such oils are the smallest category in the group, which has expanded into other areas to great success.
Related Articles
Aroma-Zone was launched in 1999 by the Vausselin family as an aromatherapy information website. By 2000, it became the first online seller of essential oils. Company offices were set up in Provence in 2005, and that year everything needed for do-it-yourself cosmetics was launched. Cut to 2026, and Aroma-Zone’s remit is holistic.
“We are the natural, safe, efficient, eco-conscious solution to take care of yourself and your loved ones,” Herlory Rouget, a L’Occitane Group and Estée Lauder Cos. alumna, said. “It’s everything under one roof. We’re coming from a very strong scientific expertise and knowledge of plant ingredients.”
She explained Aroma-Zone’s charter of formulation is more demanding than European legislation, and that its business is not marketing-led. That and the fact the brand is directly in touch with consumers — in its own stores and through its websites — help set Aroma-Zone apart from other beauty brands, Herlory Rouget added.
“We know what people are looking for,” she said. Aroma-Zone categories comprise beauty, wellness and household products. There is skin care, hair care, body care and nutrition. The latter was introduced two-and-a-half years ago and nowadays generates 15 percent of company sales.
The executive said the brand doesn’t put limits on what it might offer and has a speedy product go-to-market timeline that lasts eight months to 14 months. Everything is made in France.
At Aroma-Zone today, people can shop raw ingredients, a finished product or find a recipe to make one themselves. “You have that flexibility within the brand,” Herlory Rouget said.
Aroma-Zone products are priced at less than 10 euros and going up to just about 20 euros.
“All our marketing, all our communication is the product,” she said.
The company is in steady expansion mode retail-wise, too, opening about 10 doors per year. This includes a London store that debuted in November 2025, a boutique in Belgium and 30 in France. The door that opened on Paris’ Avenue de l’Opéra in October 2025 houses the brand’s first treatment rooms.
“The expansion speed is very limited, and I want to keep it that way,” Herlory Rouget said, adding that the new stores have been incredibly successful.
Aroma-Zone began opening more boutiques in 2022, just after the pandemic, when many experts believed the future of beauty was online, not in brick-and-mortar. She said the brand’s consumers shared they wanted physical spaces where they could interact and learn, however.
Generally, the brand focuses on spaces of at least 2,690 square feet each.
This year will be about France, where 12 more doors are set to open. Another could debut in the U.K., as well, and a local warehouse should be established in the country probably in May, allowing for 24-hour shipping there.
“The U.K. is going to be a very important market for us,” Herlory Rouget said. “We have so much demand.”
Aroma-Zone launched a website in Italy in late 2023. “We’re already quite a big player online in Italy,” she said. A physical store should open in the country in 2027.
This year is also about preparing to expand in other European countries, with Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Belgium and Germany in Aroma-Zone’s sights.
After France, Belgium is the brand’s second-largest market, followed by Switzerland. “We want to become a very strong pan-European player,” Herlory Rouget said.
Her vision is long-term. “If you establish something for the very long run, you can’t go too fast,” she said.
Altogether, the retail expansion plan for 2026 includes opening 12 doors
“Everybody wants us abroad,” Herlory Rouget continued. “People are approaching us to go everywhere — in Europe, the U.S., Canada, the Middle East and Asia. And for now, it’s a no, it’s a no-go, because we can’t do things beautifully if we go too fast.”
Aroma-Zone boasts a robust portfolio, with approximately 1,600 stock keeping units. Around 85 percent of the business comes from less than 200 skus. The others are maintained to address consumers’ wide-ranging needs.
Currently, dermocosmetics is Aroma-Zone’s strongest product category, which comprises facial serums, creams and cleansers. Hair comes in second.
Herlory Rouget said the brand is among the biggest players in France in both serums and hair care.
Aroma-Zone’s third-largest product category is nutritional supplements, followed by raw ingredients. The brand is just starting out in color cosmetics, which is Ecocert-certified and priced between 4 euros and 11 euros.
“It’s probably the cleanest makeup out there,” Herlory Rouget said. She believes it will become an enormous category for Aroma-Zone in some geographies.
The brand is starting to develop products to respond to hormonal issues, due to consumer requests. “We are working on solutions to live better, but in a very, very natural way,” Herlory Rouget said.
Aroma-Zone is not just for women. Men are 20 percent of the brand’s consumer base.
“Our mission is to answer everybody’s personalized needs,” she said.
In 2021, Eurazeo and its partners invested around 410 million euros in Aroma-Zone, making it the company’s main stakeholder. At the time, industry sources estimated that the brand made about 100 million euros in sales in 2020.
Herlory Rouget would not discuss sales figures, but said Aroma-Zone’s growth was 56 percent in 2024 and 42 percent in 2023.
It was reported some months ago that Eurazeo is considering exit options for Aroma-Zone. A Eurazeo spokeswoman had no comment Monday on the speculation.
Aroma-Zone keeps a keen eye on rising beauty needs. Oils — especially vegetable oils for body and face — are increasingly being sought after these days.
“In a very crowded and highly technical world, at the end of the day some people are really getting back to things that they can master — that is not out of reach in terms of understanding,” Herlory Rouget said.
Aroma-Zone’s consumers look for what is safe for health, she continued, adding that “is getting massive.” Concurrently, they’re searching for efficient products.
The brand’s finger on the pulse has borne fruit, with Aroma-Zone’s retention rate at 60 percent.
“The product is the hero,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s a platform of trust.”
Last year, the French federation of e-commerce operators, known by the acronym Fevad, ranked Aroma-Zone as France’s number-one e-commerce site, beating out Amazon, according to feedback from the public. Meanwhile, the OC&C Strategy Consultants’ Retail Proposition Index 2024 ranked Aroma-Zone first in both its “value for money” and “product quality” listings.
Aroma-Zone’s online business generates half of its overall sales. “We think of ourselves as a hybrid omnichannel business,” Herlory Rouget said.
It keeps developing.
“In 20 years, in 30 years we want to be the number-one everyday companion for beauty and well-being of everybody, in each and every single market we entered,” she said.