PARIS — Beauty has tamed the beast here — or, at least, the macho man.
Indicative of a buoyant market for male beauty, Skeen+, a niche men’s derm brand, unveiled a stand-alone store in the Marais neighborhood here last week, and established retailers and manufacturers are increasingly focusing on the segment.
Men’s skin care sales are booming in France, growing by 12.5 percent in 2004 to 47.6 million euros, or $58.4 million at current exchange, according to the French Federation des Industries de la Parfumerie.
In Western Europe, sales have grown by double digits for seven consecutive years, and reached 237 million euros, or $291 million, in 2005, according to London-based tracking firm Euromonitor.
“There’s been talk for so long that the men’s market would explode, and finally, it’s happened,” said Stephanie Vaudaine, marketing director at Clinique France, adding the brand’s Skin Supplies for Men ranks fifth among best-selling men’s lines in France, based on figures from TNS Worldpanel.
“The market is getting bigger and bigger and becoming a category that is worth looking at,” agreed industry consultant Nancy Flavin, based here.
The increasing interest in men’s products is a boon to French beauty retailers, who have been suffering from sluggish demand for cosmetics. According to the Federation, beauty sales in France have been flat since 2003.
Not surprisingly, retailers are backing the men’s segment with gusto, offering not only established names, but introducing niche brands to the mix.
“Men are more willing to experiment with new brands, which before was impossible,” said Fabien Petitcolin, skin care and cosmetics buyer at PPR-owned Printemps department store.
The chain has been scoring double-digit sales gains by mixing indie names, such as Sharps and Baxter of California, with what Petitcolin describes as “classic brands with years of experience, such as Biotherm and Shiseido.”
Sephora, owned by LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is also surfing the male beauty wave. Natalie Bader-Michel, the chain’s European marketing director, said the category was registering double-digit upticks in Sephora stores.
While Sephora’s top-selling men’s skin care brand is Biotherm, owned by L’Oréal, niche lines like Skeen+ are also making strides.
Related Articles
You May Also Like
“The most atypical products — such as the antiaggression [de-stressing] spray from Task Essential, which is a very different product — are selling very well,” she said.
Brands are increasingly offering highly sophisticated products that home in on specific problems. Female shoppers have long had complex skin care regimes, but it would have been inconceivable a decade ago to imagine men buying serums and eye creams, since convincing a man to use a simple moisturizer was considered a challenge at that time.
“Ten years ago, our customers’ demands were very basic,” said Philippe Dumont, founder of Nickel, one of the earliest champions of men’s treatment, which is now majority-owned by Inter Parfums. “Ten years ago, I had one [face] mask that didn’t sell; now, I have four, which are doing well.”
“Today we are seeing a sophistication in the offer, such as eye contour creams, face masks, scrubs and antiwrinkle lines that are ever more performing,” agreed Sephora’s Bader-Michel.
Faced with such interest in innovative items and stiff competition from newcomers to men’s treatment, the industry’s power players are not taking their market share for granted.
Clinique relaunched its Skin Supplies line last year with new packaging and advertising. The new look drove French sales up 26 percent year-on-year.
“Today’s consumer is becoming more and more sophisticated and educated, and he finds himself in front of an ever greater number of brands, which are increasingly targeted,” said Clinique’s Vaudaine. “It’s a question of sophistication of demand and of the offer.”
Skeen+ plans to take on the big boys with its 12-unit dermatological antiaging line. As well as placing the brand in 10 Sephora doors, the brand’s founder, Pedro Garcia Maggi, hopes to target an audience of chic professional men with his Marais flagship.
“It’s exactly the right time to do it,” he said. “We wanted to have a physical presence in a dynamic district for men’s cosmetics.”
It seems the location, a neighborhood that also houses a Nickel spa, is spot-on. Shoppers snapped up over 100 products during the store’s first Saturday of selling.
The brand is the culmination of two years’ collaboration with biochemists, dermatologists and pharmacists on a dozen products designed to be as effective as a pharmacy brand.
“We have only used four or five [key ingredients] because we wanted only to use those that are proven to be effective,” Maggi explained, pointing to the use of retinol.
Prices range from 20 euros, or $24.50, for a 150-ml. bottle of purifying gel, to 65 euros, or $80, for a 30-ml. flacon of antiaging concentrate.
The 807-square-foot Skeen+ boutique, which industry sources estimate will generate 400,000 euros, or $490,900, in its first year, was designed by French architect Emmanuel Fenasse. It was laid out to resemble a library, with products displayed on cabinets clearly defined by product category, such as eyes, body, cleansing and shaving. Each section is color-coded, “to help jog men’s memory as to which one they used before,” Maggi explained.
The store also provides skin services. A consultation area features a sensor machine that is used to measure the skin’s moisture, sebum and elasticity levels, while a microscopic camera photographs and analyzes the health of the skin’s surface.
“There is a big trend toward treatments, spas, exfoliations and massages for men,” said Michel Schwarz, a retail consultant here. “The treatment-service aspect is developing rapidly. Everyone is offering service, finding a balance between treatments and products.”