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Last week in Paris, Sephora hosted the latest edition of ‘Sephoria’, its two-day beauty festival, at the city’s conference centre, Maison de la Mutualité. Some 30,000 people logged into the ticketing platform a month before, with tickets priced at €85 selling out in just six minutes (tickets at €55 for ‘Gold’ or loyal clients, sold out in 10 minutes). Concert-level enthusiasm? “Yes, but I don’t sing very well,” Sephora president and CEO Guillaume Motte jokes.
There were brand activations by around 40 labels including Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty, fragrance brand Kayali, Ariana Grande’s R.e.m. Beauty and Charlotte Tilbury, plus masterclasses with brand founders, glam sessions and DJ sets. There was an area dedicated to K-beauty, including skincare brands Laneige, Aestura and Yepuda, and a booth dubbed “The next big thing”, featuring brands due to launch at Sephora in 2026, such as haircare line Authentic Beauty Concept. You could spin a wheel at Fenty Beauty and win a mascara; play a vintage video game at Sephora Collection to win a face mask; and be greeted by a giant Byoma hydrating milky toner strolling through the aisles.
“We’re trying to create the beauty industry’s version of fashion week — to showcase all the innovation and richness of this sector together with our partner brands, and to make this event a truly experiential one,” Motte says during an interview at the retailer’s headquarters in Neuilly-sur-Seine, just outside Paris. Experience is key, whether it’s at Sephoria or in its stores, he says. “Boring retail is dead, but exciting retail, people love it.”
Sephoria’s popularity is a testament to the retailer’s growing influence and appeal in a highly competitive sector. As a global player present in 35 countries, it has the potential to expand to markets where it’s not yet present, while pushing deeper into those it’s gaining ground in, like China.
Sephora is part of LVMH’s selective retailing division, which grew 7 per cent in the third quarter of 2025. Sephora represents the lion’s share of the division, which also includes travel retailer DFS, and Parisian department stores Le Bon Marché and La Samaritaine. “Sephora is growing twice as fast as the beauty market,” LVMH chief financial officer Cécile Cabanis said during LVMH’s Q3 earnings call. (The beauty sector is anticipated to grow between 4 and 5 per year in the coming years, according to Charles-Louis Scotti, head of luxury goods equity research at Kepler Cheuvreux.)
The group doesn’t usually disclose figures of individual houses, except when they hit milestones. During the LVMH annual general meeting in April 2025, LVMH chair and CEO Bernard Arnault said of Sephora: “We paid around €100 million for it [in 1998], and today it generates €16 billion in revenue and €1.6 billion in profit.” That makes Sephora — which has 50,000 employees globally — LVMH’s second-largest brand after Louis Vuitton.
Motte joined LVMH in 2018 as president of Sephora Europe and the Middle East, returning to the retailer in 2023 as president and CEO after a two-year stint as deputy CEO of the LVMH fashion group. He joined the LVMH executive committee in January 2025.
What’s behind Sephora’s growth? Is it the ‘lipstick effect’? According to the concept coined by Estée Lauder heir Leonard Lauder, when the economy gets bad, people spend on small indulgences like lipsticks. “For the past four or five years, we’ve seen remarkable growth,” says Motte. “I don’t know if it’s the lipstick effect or the Sephora effect, but we’re gaining market share and the numbers are a consequence. Our sustained trajectory of growth exists precisely because the numbers are the consequence, and what should drive us is the offer and the differentiation we create.”
Present and relevant
Part of Sephora’s success can be attributed to its retail expansion in strategic markets, which has helped to turbocharge awareness. The retailer counts 3,400 stores, with plans to expand further. “Our aim is to open around 200 stores each year,” says Motte. Sephora closes approximately 20 stores per year, “a normal rhythm for a retail network, where most closures are actually relocations within cities”, says Motte. “We’re continuing to strengthen our footprint in North America, accelerating our growth in Latin America — especially in Mexico and Brazil — and stepping up our expansion in the UK.”
Sephora re-entered the UK market in late 2022 by acquiring British prestige beauty e-tailer Feelunique. It has since opened 10 Sephora stores in the country, has plans to open two more by the end of the year, and to have around 20 by the close of 2026. In the US, its biggest market, Motte still sees “a lot of potential”. “Today, in North America, we have more than 700 stores, and we have a partnership with [department store chain] Kohl’s, where we offer our beauty products — they have 1,100 stores,” the CEO says.
It’s a competitive landscape. Ulta Beauty operates around 1,450 stores in the US. “Ulta is very active in the US and they acquired British beauty retailer Space NK in July. Sephora caters to more premium consumers in the US, but now they overlap more,” HSBC global head of consumer and retail research Erwan Rambourg explains.
There’s also Amazon Beauty. “The rise of Amazon Premium Beauty in the US is shaking up bricks-and-mortar drugstores and beauty retailers. But Sephora, [which is] strong online, is resisting well,” says Kepler Cheuvreux’s Scotti. (Globally, Sephora generates approximately 30 per cent of its business through e-commerce, notably via the app.)
“Sephora is everything Amazon is not,” Cabanis stressed during the Q3 earnings call. “The model of Sephora is very different. Sephora is a destination where you can find brands — one [in] two are only at Sephora — where you have beauty consultants, where you have stores.”
Rambourg adds: “Sephora has a very good job at being present and relevant in many different countries. And some of the challenges are linked to the ecosystem of different countries: they exited South Korea [in 2024] where you have [beauty retailer] Olive Young, which is difficult to compete against. The Chinese market is discount-driven and Sephora’s whole concept is exclusive.”
Sephora has 300 stores in China, where it sees “interesting successes” with Chinese beauty brands, like C-beauty label Mao Geping, according to Motte. Could Sephora return to South Korea? “We left the UK in 2007 and came back with incredible success, so never say never — but not in the short term,” he adds.
Curating a unique mix of brands
Sephora’s brand curation is another cornerstone of its growth strategy.
During LVMH’s third-quarter earnings call on 14 October, Cabanis noted the record launch of Rhode at Sephora. Hailey Bieber’s beauty brand (which was acquired by Elf Beauty for $1 billion earlier this year) was until last month focusing on its direct-to-consumer (DTC) channel. It launched at Sephora in North America early September. “It’s the biggest launch we’ve ever done, by far,” says Motte. “It benefitted everyone by driving in-store traffic. We’re seeing a great halo effect.” It’s now the number one brand across Sephora stores in terms of sales, with the rollout to UK outposts slated for November.
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Around 55 per cent of Sephora’s assortment is made of exclusive brands. They include Lady Gaga’s makeup line Haus Labs, Makeup by Mario and Glow Recipe. “We continuously identify new brands and build partnerships with them to help them grow alongside us. Our merchants have strong product skills and collaborate with these brands to co-develop products,” Motte says.
Famously, Drunk Elephant founder Tiffany Masterson started from scratch at Sephora in 2013, before eventually selling her brand in 2019 to Japanese beauty group Shiseido for $845 million. “We have never taken equity in a brand with the aim of helping it grow and making a financial return if and when it’s sold. That’s not our model,” Motte says. “What we want is to offer our client the very best.” That can be incubating brands that are just starting, like Drunk Elephant, or accompanying those that are already established in the DTC channel, like Rhode or Glossier.
Sephora wants to accelerate the incubation of brands out of Europe. “Of course, I want us to keep looking around the world for the brands that are in demand, but also to be able to develop new gems right here in Europe,” Catherine Spindler, president of Sephora Europe and the Middle East, told reporters at Sephoria. Two such gems, French beauty brand Glowery and UK brand Byoma, were showcased at the Paris event. Incubation at Sephora “is not not about taking equity stakes, but about supporting brands in refining their formulation, their marketing mix and distribution”, Spindler noted.
There’s also Sephora’s own label, which founder Dominique Mandonnaud launched soon after creating Sephora in 1969. Remember the bath bombs? Today, it’s called Sephora Collection, and it represents a “significant and growing” share in the business, according to Motte. “This allows us to be part of the prestige beauty category. We are in control when it comes to product development. We are particularly very strong in makeup,” he says.
Motte dismisses any risk of cannibalisation with other brands in the assortment. “If we were to remove Sephora Collection, our in-store traffic would decrease and every brand would suffer as a result,” he says.
Alongside the offer and experience, Sephora’s community and its inclusive values are key, according to the exec. It currently has 74 million clients worldwide enrolled on its Sephora loyalty programme. “We are driven by our purpose — ‘We belong to something beautiful’ — and we live our values with great authenticity,” says Motte. As part of the partnership with Gaga’s Haus Labs and Gomez’s Rare Beauty, Sephora supported the artists’ respective foundations Born This Way and Rare Impact Fund, which both focus on youth mental health.
“Sephora has its rightful place within the group,” Motte says. “We are driven by the brand’s desirability, offering unique products that resonate with our customers, an amazing in-store experience, and a strong commitment to our teams and our culture — that creates a lot of common ground with the other houses of the group.”
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