Maly Bernstein is aiming high, and in more ways than one.
In the socioeconomic sense, the Bluemercury chief executive officer is doubling down on today’s luxury consumers with a household median income of $250,000; in ambition, she has reimagined the retailer’s visual brand identity, and with the high-touch service she’s also deepening in her existing fleet of stores.
At the 2025 WWD Beauty CEO Summit, Bernstein extrapolated on the behaviors she’s seeing and where she sees the opportunity, based on a survey of thousands of luxury beauty consumers.
Related Articles
“Let’s start with who they are,” said Bernstein. “The largest concentration of modern luxury beauty consumers are between the ages of 35 and 55, they span all ethnicities, they’re highly educated as 90 percent of them have a college degree, and they’re mostly employed.
“They describe themselves as sophisticated, charismatic, passionate, curious and thoughtful, natural leaders, tastemakers. They are our muse,” she continued.
Pointing to research that shows that 95 percent of purchases are made subconsciously, Bernstein shared how Bluemercury is going heavy on emotional appeal. “Emotions drive customers,” she said. “Consumer plummeted 32 percent in April, and this was seen across age, education and income. The modern luxury beauty consumer is anxious too, but what we’re seeing is they’ve evolved from making purchases that are for external validation and more for internal fulfillment.”
That class of consumer is also obsessed with self-optimization. “Two-thirds of them are always thinking about how they can better themselves. In fact, 80 percent of them said that as soon as they have leisure time, the first thing they do is exercise,” Bernstein said.
She posited that in-store connection is vital to appealing to that sensibility.
“We think that’s best achieved through service — empathetic service. In a world where we are more and more connected, are we actually connecting?” she said. “As an industry, we can help consumers keep on moving in a world of growing tech.”
Ranking the top purchase drivers among modern luxury shoppers, the fourth was “a brand that makes me feel good about myself,” Bernstein said. “We’ve taken this feedback and evolved our training and education program.”
Among the 17 stores that Bluemercury opened last year, one anecdote stuck out to Bernstein. “We had a client come in who started tearing up, talking about how her routine just wasn’t working for her. By the end of it, she was crying in the manager’s arms,” Bernstein said. “Our store manager encouraged her to come back the next day with her beauty routine so they could go over what’s working and what’s not, set new goals and identify new products. Our beauty expert knew that what the client needed the most was to be uplifted.”
In a similar vein, the third top purchase driver was “effective products and knowledgeable sales associates,” Bernstein said. “It’s a focus on high quality with science-backed professional grade and craftsmanship.”
The second purchase driver has informed the retailer’s expansion strategy, too, hence its prevalence in neighborhoods and residential areas. “It’s a brand and a place for ‘people like me,’” Bernstein said.
All of that ladders up to the top purchase driver. “It’s a brand that you trust. We know that trust is earned over time,” she concluded. “The modern luxury beauty consumer is now celebrating enduring products with enduring experiences, with enduring relationships, to instill enduring confidence. We work and we focus and we live for building trust.”