With her newest color palette, Les Dauphins, Sylvie Chantecaille is working to raise awareness of and protection of dolphins, while she expands her beauty company worldwide. “This economy is great — you either fail or get better,” said Chantecaille. “We’ve been quietly building a strong line — and I’m proud that we’re growing at a time when the market is tough.”
While Chantecaille declined to discuss numbers, industry sources estimated that her business generates more than $35 million in revenue — and that it will, based on Chantecaille’s stated initiatives, experience a 50 percent growth rate in the next year. “Our foundation business is strong, our skin care business is up over 50 percent and our color business is solid. Our customer didn’t leave us during the crisis.”
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What that proved, said Chantecaille, was that the brand has huge untapped potential worldwide, as well as on the Web.
“We are in the midst of expanding our retail distribution both here in the U.S. and abroad,” said Chantecaille. Once exclusive to Neiman Marcus in the U.S., the brand is in the process of expanding into 17 Nordstrom doors. “We’ve been extraordinarily faithful to Neiman Marcus for a long time. Then we realized that our business is growing so well internationally that it was time to grow our business here.” Nordstrom doors set to carry the brand include Fashion Island in Newport Beach, Calif., which will get the brand in April, and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, Calif., which will get the brand in June. More are expected to follow this fall.
“We are very excited to offer the Chantecaille brand in our stores and online,” said Laurie Black, executive vice president of cosmetics for Nordstrom Inc. “Our customers have been requesting this brand for years. The quality and product assortment aligns with our customer. We feel a special connection to this family-run business as our vision of focusing on the customer is the same.”
Chantecaille is also carried by Barneys New York, Bergdorf Goodman, Saks Fifth Avenue, Space NK and Frédéric Fekkai salons, for a total of more than 100 doors in the U.S.
The brand has also rolled into Holt Renfrew doors throughout Canada, including the retailer’s doors in Toronto, Vancouver and, most recently, Calgary.
“Our business in the United Kingdom [where the brand is in Harrods and Fenwicks and rolling into John Lewis] has remained very strong. We opened a freestanding store in Taiwan in September 2008, and are in the process of finding the right location for a freestanding store in Hong Kong. Korea and Japan are doing well, and this month we are opening with Takashimaya in Singapore.”
Chantecaille has also seen a 50 percent increase in her skin care sales over the last year.
She is also passionate about her causes, and each year does a limited edition color cosmetics palette with proceeds going to a particular charity. This year, she is focusing on dolphins; in the past, causes devoted to endangered coral, tigers and whales benefited from Chantecaille. “We always work with scientists, and over the years we are proud to have supported and raised awareness for some of the world’s most vital environmental causes,” she said. “Dolphins are magical creatures who were once plentiful and now reside on the IUCN Red List of Endangered Species. They need immediate help, and we have partnered with Giovanni Bearzi, who heads up Tethy’s, a nonprofit for the study and conservation of the marine environment in the Mediterranean.” The palettes routinely raise $25,000 to $30,000 for the chosen cause.
The palette contains four pans of color, each with two shades to be blended — and each is embossed with two dolphins. Eye colors in grays, beiges and pinks and cheek colors in pink comprise the palette, which retails for $77. It is rolling into stores now.