For L’Oréal Paris, the red carpet isn’t just an awareness-raising opportunity — it has become a sales channel. On 14 May, Mexican actress and L’Oréal global ambassador Renata Notni stepped onto the Cannes Film Festival red carpet in a beauty look by the brand’s new global makeup artist Harold James. The brand simultaneously posted a “Get the look” guide via a TikTok live stream, inviting customers to purchase the products.
“Events like Cannes and Le Défilé during Paris Fashion Week [the brand’s runway event] are part of L’Oréal Paris’s communication system,” says Delphine Viguier-Hovasse, global brand president of L’Oréal Paris, during an interview in the brand’s suite at Hôtel Martinez in Cannes. “On these occasions, we activate very different types of social media strategies, and notably e-commerce, because e-commerce has become the main sales driver [for the beauty market] in Indonesia, Thailand, India and China.” She went on to share staggering social media figures garnered during the film festival: four billion reach, 52 million engagement and 2,000 posts by the brand and its guests (ambassadors, VIPs, KOLs and press).
L’Oréal Paris’s firepower at Cannes — of which it has been an official partner for 28 years — has been driven by its ambassadors. A highlight of the festival this year was the celebration for Andie MacDowell and Eva Longoria’s 40th and 20th anniversaries as L’Oréal Paris global ambassadors, respectively. Fellow L’Oréal Paris ambassador Heidi Klum, as well as jury members including Halle Berry, Jeremy Strong and Alba Rohrwacher, turned up to celebrate MacDowell and Longoria’s milestones during a dinner held at local seafood restaurant Fred L’Écailler. “I was 30. Now I am 50. When we age with L’Oréal, it’s actually fun,” Longoria says, before diving into her cake.
Ambassadors including Viola Davis, Alia Bhatt, Gillian Anderson, Elle Fanning and Simone Ashley will also be present this Friday when L’Oréal Paris awards its Lights on Women prize. (For its fifth edition, Davis will be the one presenting the award to a rising female filmmaker.)
“Ambassadors are historical and inseparable from the brand,” says Viguier-Hovasse. “Also, L’Oréal Paris is present in many countries, and we felt the need for diversity — age, skin colour, body shape — to enrich the brand equity. What better way to represent diversity than through ambassadors who express their own uniqueness?”
The brand has around 30 ambassadors. “It’s not a numbers game,” Viguier-Hovasse stresses. “It’s about what story we want to tell and when, and which woman will help us tell it.” When the brand further expanded its haircare line, Elvive, in Brazil, it tapped Brazilian actress Taís Araújo as ambassador. “It was necessary to have someone representing the brand, by speaking directly to Brazilian women with a genuine connection,” Viguier-Hovasse explains.
“As a general rule, L’Oréal Paris signs very long-term contracts where we support women throughout the different stages of their lives — from youth to motherhood, to menopause, to ageing, to grey hair, ” she adds. Jane Fonda, 87, will celebrate her 20th anniversary with the brand in 2026. “The relationship with an ambassador is never just about money; there is a relationship of trust, and that trust is a sign of quality,” says Viguier-Hovasse.
L’Oréal Paris, being the world’s largest beauty brand, takes on a large responsibility when choosing who to elect as ambassador. “There’s not a lot of companies that have the global reach that L’Oréal Paris has, which means they have a direct connection to women all over the world. And so what L’Oréal Paris says matters and who is saying it matters,” Longoria tells Vogue Business. “ I have had an amazing relationship with L’Oréal because we share the same DNA. Our goals are very much aligned in feminism and what we wanna show the world and tell the world, do for women in the world,” she adds. L’Oréal Paris co-produced Ben Proudfoot’s documentary The Final Copy of Ilon Specht, telling the story of the woman behind the brand’s “Because I’m Worth It” slogan, which debuted in 1971 and resonated with the women’s rights movement of the period. The documentary, released in March 2025, has already been streamed 200 million times on Prime Video.
L’Oréal Paris’s revenue passed the €7.5 billion mark in 2024, according to estimates by Kepler Cheuvreux analyst Charles-Louis Scotti. (L’Oréal Group doesn’t break out sales for individual brands within the consumer products division.) Scotti said the makeup market in general is hard hit by a drop in demand, notably in the US, as well as fierce competition, notably in China, where local makeup brands are gaining market share.
Viguier-Hovasse is bullish on China, where L’Oréal Paris sees double-digit growth in makeup. “We’re the number one mass-market brand in China, but I still say that L’Oréal Paris is the best-kept secret. We have around 85 million consumers, and China should have 400 million,” she says. “We will have 400 million. There will be more and more Chinese consumers entering the middle class, who will be able to afford L’Oréal Paris products. We haven’t even really entered the Tier 2 and above cities yet. We’re going to quadruple our business in China in the coming years.”
She emphasises the need to stay focused, despite the downturn. “You really have to stay calm, make good, innovative products, the best formulas. The market is at zero,” says Viguier-Hovasse. “Some brands are declining 20 per cent, some are up 20 per cent — you just have to be on the right side.”
Less than a week before Cannes, L’Oréal Group announced that Viguier-Hovasse will assume new responsibilities: chief innovation and prospective officer, a newly created role effective 1 July, which will give her oversight of innovation on products, tools and technologies across the group. She will also join the conglomerate’s executive committee. Laetitia Toupet, who is global president of La Roche-Posay, will succeed her. “We are very sad to see you go,” Longoria tells Viguier-Hovasse during the Cannes dinner.
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