MILAN — After hosting editions in Atlanta, Shanghai, Dubai and Paris, Sephoria fever came to Milan last weekend.
The three-day event that closed on Sunday drew more than 4,000 attendees at the The Mall venue, which was transformed into a 32,291-square-foot beauty funhouse featuring 34 brand booths, four beauty stations, 10 masterclasses and playful corners devoted to photo and video ops.
That the vibrant format was successful is no surprise: Italy is one of Sephora’s biggest markets and tickets for the event sold out in just 11 minutes back in January. Priced at 60 euros each, they granted access for a three-hour slot at the festival.
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“We believed that the beauty community in Italy was ready for this event and the enthusiasm with which they welcomed Sephoria proved it,” said Fenisia Cilli, marketing director of Sephora’s in Italy, where the retailer has 130 doors. “This is a country where beauty has a heritage and it is very important. We knew that over the years the community around Sephora was becoming bigger and more and more engaged, so this is also a bit of an answer to all that ‘love brand’ that we have built over time.”
Cilli said the goal was to offer an experience that could go beyond shopping. “We wanted to engage with our community in a deeper way through a playful, joyful and immersive interaction,” Cilli said.
For the occasion, the retailer displayed a selection of the 500 brands it carries globally as well as its private label Sephora Collection, across different categories.
The makeup brands showcased included the likes of Benefit Cosmetics, Charlotte Tilbury, Fenty Beauty, Haus Labs, Huda Beauty, Hourglass, Kosas, Make Up For Ever, Makeup by Mario, Milk Makeup, Natasha Denona, Rare Beauty, Tarte and Too Faced.
Skin care ranged from Byoma and Laneige to Paula’s Choice and Sol de Janeiro, while the hair care offering encompassed Dyson, Fenty Hair, GHD, Gisou, K18, Kérastase and Olaplex. Kayali was the main brand when it came to fragrances.
Each brand came up with fun ways to engage with the audience, ranging from old-school photo booths to games tied to their products, like the boxing arcade game Make Up For Ever installed to promote its Super Boost Collection. Other popular options were spin-the-wheel-inspired formats at Huda Beauty and claw crane machines at Dyson. All garnered long queues of people eager to try their luck to win samples to fill their Sephoria canvas bag with.
Neon lights and fancy drinks secured buzz around the colorful stand of Yepoda, the Europe-born K-beauty brand founded in 2020 by Veronika Strotmann and Sander Joonyoung van Bladel which launched at Sephora across Europe this month.
Charlotte Tilbury’s booth was also crowded, with the brand promoting the releases of its new Pillow Talk collection.
Global artistry director Sofia Tilbury said the line is one of the most popular in Italy. “At the moment everyone is just enhancing their natural beauty and Pillow Talk is a great look that people are gravitating towards because you can really achieve that certain look with that,” she said.
Tilbury demonstrated how to apply a soft glam makeup look in one of the masterclasses that were part of the event’s program. These offered key moments of interaction, with the audience encouraged to ask questions, many of which centered on bridal looks.
A couple of hours earlier, makeup artist Natasha Denona shared an anecdote about a puzzling request she received from a bride “who loved green eyeshadow, with gold, eyeliner and a red lip.”
“But as a makeup artist, when you work with a client you have to take your ego and put it aside,” she said when asked about tips on staying true to her artistry in this industry. She also underscored the importance of being flexible. “Days are changing, trends are changing, styles are changing: so adapt to what is fitting your client,” she said.
Thematical booths added to the branded ones, such as the “Hot on Social” corner focused on viral trends; the “Minis & More” area dedicated to travel-size formats, and the “Only at Sephora” one displaying exclusive products carried by the retailer.
Beside the Instagram- and TikTok-friendly corners, crowded areas included the beauty stations where people could try different treatments. The most popular was the hair care one, followed by the nail station powered by the Manucurist brand. Further services and gifts were offered to Sephora’s Gold Card holders in a dedicated private lounge, too.
“We don’t know where Sephoria will go next but for sure our commitment in looking for opportunities for interaction in Italy doesn’t stop,” said Cilli, teasing that the retailer is working on creating events in summer destinations to keep engaging its local community in the coming months.