The competition is heating up for cosmetics brands trying to win a coveted spot in your 10-step nightly skincare routine.
Driving the news: Popular luxury U.K. skincare brand ELEMIS has expanded to Canada and will now be sold at Sephora locations across the country. The L'Occitane-owned brand is part of a recent flood of entrants to Canada’s cosmetics market.
- This year has seen a wealth of buzzy beauty brands come to Canadian stores, including person of colour-focused brand Ami Colé and Naomi Watts-backed Stripes.
Why it matters: Global beauty brands have set their sights on Canada as a prime expansion target, and for good reason. The market continues to flourish even as other retail segments falter — growing 18% between January and September of last year, per Circana.
- Skincare products, in particular, have been taking off (we blame “skinfluencers” for making us all self-conscious about the lack of magical serums in our lives). Skin products are now the fastest-growing product category for Sephora in Canada, per Glossy.
Zoom out: Domestic brands have also been benefitting from the industry’s glow-up. Luxury giant Estée Lauder bought out Toronto-based Deciem for US$1.7 billion in June, while Swiss chemicals firm Clariant sealed its $810 million purchase of Québec-based Lucas Meyer Cosmetics in April.—QH