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Gen-Z perfume TikToker Paul Fino has a stockpile of Sol de Janeiro lotion and physique sprays in almost each scent. However he nonetheless longs for the one which obtained away: a special-edition physique spray made with pop star Anitta that got here out nearly three years in the past.
“That’s the one spray that I completely remorse by no means grabbing. I in all probability will [buy] it will definitely on eBay or Mercari,” he mentioned.
Initially $19, the 90-ml mist he seeks is now on Mercari for $130 because the resale marketplace for the model’s sold-out merchandise thrives on-line. Sprays and physique lotions within the discontinued scent Coco Cabana are featured in eBay listings from $80 to over $200, typically exceeding the price of a bottle of Chanel or Dior perfume.
“Sol de Janeiro followers are insane. They’ll simply pay these resale costs,” mentioned Fino. “It goes farther than, ‘Oh, I actually like this model.’ Persons are diehard followers.”
Clients’ obsession with the nine-year-old physique care model led gross sales to rise by 199 p.c yr over yr to achieve €474 million ($518 million) within the 9 months ending in Dec. 2023, in response to dad or mum firm L’Occitane Worldwide SA’s most up-to-date earnings report. Gross sales are anticipated to achieve almost $1 billion for the total fiscal yr. This improve has blown previous that of others in L’Occitane’s portfolio, together with its namesake line L’Occitane en Provence. Because of its explosive progress, shareholders are calling for Sol de Janeiro to be spun off as a publicly listed firm in gentle of stories that its dad or mum firm could also be contemplating a suggestion to be taken non-public.
Early to identify demand for rising classes similar to physique care with its cult Brazilian Bum Bum Cream and inexpensive perfume through physique sprays, the model has cultivated a loyal Millennial, Gen-Z and more and more Gen-Alpha buyer base with on-trend product and a wholesale-centric retail mannequin. It has expanded to a full-fledged physique care model with a rising variety of classes, together with its Rio Radiance sunscreen, which launches this month.
“Early on, after we launched the Bum Bum Cream, some sceptics thought, ‘Oh, it’s one other scorching [one-hit wonder]. Will probably be gone in two years.’ But it surely’s not going anyplace, and it’s impressed plenty of different merchandise,” mentioned Sol de Janeiro co-founder and chief government Heela Yang. Yang, a former Clinique advertising and marketing government, co-founded the model with Camila Pierotti and Marc Capra in 2015.
Cellulite Cream’s Seashore Day
Earlier than its perfume frenzy, Sol de Janeiro’s preliminary rise got here from its novel strategy to physique care. It mixed tropical scents and vibrant branding to upend the concept that cellulite lotions had been an embarrassing secret meant to be hidden in a single’s toilet cupboard. Touting skin-firming advantages, the Bum Bum Cream was its sole first product.
“The magic is, with Sol, it’s not simply ‘problem-solution.’ It’s ‘problem-solution, however have enjoyable, take pleasure in, make it a sensorial expertise,’” mentioned Alicia Sontag, a companion at non-public fairness agency Prelude Progress Companions, which invested within the model in 2019.
Yang’s inspiration for the model got here from seaside life in Brazil, the place “so many shapes, all sizes, all colors, all ethnicities” readily flaunted their figures. She relocated to Rio de Janeiro in 2008 together with her husband, who took a job along with his household’s enterprise there.
“My ardour was not, ‘How can I create essentially the most wonderful firming cellulite cream?’ That was not my intention. We ended up there as a result of we determined that physique care was the proper class to assist us actually unfold this message about this positivity head to toe,” she mentioned.
Utilizing the hashtag #FlauntIt, the model’s ethos was an ideal match for the proliferation of bikini pictures on Instagram on the time, particularly these taken from behind. Its early feed was crammed with pictures of swimsuit fashions and peach emojis, conjuring aspirational ideas of trip pictures slightly than one’s drawback areas. That daring branding additionally helped it stand out on retailer cabinets at a time when magnificence startups had been choosing minimalist direct-to-consumer web sites. Sol de Janeiro closely prioritised wholesale, launching in Sephora lower than a yr after its debut.
That wager paid off. The Bum Bum Cream rose to turn into the primary physique care product at Sephora, which was an enormous consider attracting an funding quantity from Prelude, mentioned Sontag. It has remained the primary physique cream on the retailer for six years, in response to the model.
“The rate of the Bum Bum Cream was unbelievable,” mentioned Sontag.
For the reason that funding, the model greater than doubled its gross sales yearly. When gross sales reached $60 million in 2020, it attracted the eye of L’Occitane Worldwide, which bought a majority stake in 2021, valuing it at $450 million. Following a February report that L’Occitane Worldwide was contemplating a bid to be taken non-public by Blackstone Inc., minority shareholder Butler Corridor Capital requested that Sol de Janeiro be spun off and listed on the US inventory change. The shareholders estimated in a letter to the board that the model could possibly be price over $8 billion, stating that it has “sooner progress, higher margins, and much decrease penetration” within the US than the quickly rising E.l.f. Magnificence.
Defying DTC
Whereas lots of Sol de Janiero’s predecessors, similar to L’Occitane, The Physique Store and Bathtub & Physique Works, have banked on standalone shops for his or her distribution, the model has taken a starkly completely different strategy.
Sol de Janeiro has no standalone shops, with wholesale companions driving its progress. Following its success with Sephora, the model expanded to Ulta Magnificence in January.
“We’re not so boastful that we predict that they are going to come to us. We need to be the place they’re,” mentioned Yang.
As an alternative of everlasting shops, Sol de Janeiro hosts in-person activations similar to its six-city US pop-up tour in 2023. A current February New York pop-up store noticed strains that lasted for 3 hours and had 18,000 guests, in response to the model. An Austin pop-up in August had equally lengthy waits in additional than 100-degree warmth.
Established body-care manufacturers have seen a unique trajectory.
The Physique Store has fallen below administration, whereas Bathtub & Physique Works reported a web gross sales lower of 1.7 p.c to $7.4 billion for the 2023 fiscal yr ending Feb. 3. L’Occitane’s US department filed for chapter and closed 23 shops in 2021; it has had the slowest progress in its dad or mum firm’s portfolio.
For now, everlasting shops usually are not a part of Sol de Janeiro’s near-term technique.
“If in case you have a retail retailer 12 months a yr across the nook, it’s laborious to take care of pleasure,” mentioned Yang.
PerfumeTok Enters the Image
Immediately, Sol de Janeiro is a full-fledged model with bathe gels, hair care and deodorant, however one class has outmoded the others: physique spray, a relic of the late ‘90s however up to date for the TikTok technology.
Launched in 2017 with the scent utilized in its Bum Bum Cream, Cheirosa ‘62, the model’s fragrance mists are available a number of fragrances that followers eagerly accumulate. Final yr, the model ramped up advertising and marketing of the mists to youthful customers with a vibrant Sephora endcap show and a marketing campaign that includes “Euphoria” star Barbie Ferreira. As its scale has grown, celebrities proceed to catch the attention of the label; subsequent week, the model pronounces one other Gen-Z star as its newest ambassador.
With 1.6 billion views on the #soldejaneiro hashtag on TikTok, 75 p.c of the top-viewed TikTok posts in regards to the model are centred on its fragrance mists. It has tapped fragrance-specific influencers related to “PerfumeTok” in addition to mainstream TikTokers recognized to drive magnificence gross sales, like Alix Earle. Teenagers and tweens are an particularly massive focus. The model has enlisted Katie Fang, recognized for her affect over Gen-Alpha magnificence purchases, and Earle’s youthful tween sister, Ashtin, for social content material.
Sol de Janeiro’s signature scents have been related to a number of viral traits, together with movies itemizing the Cheirosa ‘68 mist as a dupe for Baccarat Rouge, or including glitter to spray bottles. In December, TikTokers unfold and shortly debunked an odd Sephora overview claiming {that a} physique butter within the model’s latest scent, Delícia Drench, attracted spiders.
As its buyer base has expanded from millennials posting their swimsuit pictures on Instagram to teenagers displaying vibrant physique spray collections, Yang attributes the model’s progress to its agility. However that doesn’t imply altering its core identification.
“If we launched as a perfume model, I don’t suppose we’d be right here by now,” mentioned Yang. “We’re physique care first.”
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