Bum Bum Cream, Bikini Pics and Body Spray: What’s Behind the Sol de Janeiro Hype

Gen-Z perfume TikToker Paul Fino has a stockpile of Sol de Janeiro lotion and physique sprays in practically each scent. However he nonetheless longs for the one which received 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 most likely will [buy] it will definitely on eBay or Mercari,” he stated.

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,” stated Fino. “It goes farther than, ‘Oh, I actually like this model.’ Individuals are diehard followers.”

Clients’ obsession with the nine-year-old physique care model led gross sales to rise by 199 % yr over yr to succeed in €474 million ($518 million) within the 9 months ending in Dec. 2023, in keeping with father or mother firm L’Occitane Worldwide SA’s most up-to-date earnings report. Gross sales are anticipated to succeed in practically $1 billion for the total fiscal yr. This enhance has blown previous that of others in L’Occitane’s portfolio, together with its namesake line L’Occitane en Provence. On account of its explosive progress, shareholders are calling for Sol de Janeiro to be spun off as a publicly listed firm in gentle of experiences that its father or mother firm could also be contemplating a proposal to be taken personal.

Early to identify demand for rising classes resembling physique care with its cult Brazilian Bum Bum Cream and reasonably priced perfume by way of 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, once we launched the Bum Bum Cream, some sceptics thought, ‘Oh, it’s one other scorching [one-hit wonder]. It is going to be gone in two years.’ However it’s not going anyplace, and it’s impressed a number of different merchandise,” stated Sol de Janeiro co-founder and chief govt Heela Yang. Yang, a former Clinique advertising and marketing govt, 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 method 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 lavatory 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, get pleasure from, make it a sensorial expertise,’” stated Alicia Sontag, a associate at personal fairness agency Prelude Progress Companions, which invested within the model in 2019.

Yang’s inspiration for the model got here from seashore 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 together 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 stated.

Utilizing the hashtag #FlauntIt, the model’s ethos was an ideal match for the proliferation of bikini photographs on Instagram on the time, particularly these taken from behind. Its early feed was full of photographs of swimsuit fashions and peach emojis, conjuring aspirational ideas of trip photographs moderately 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 guess paid off. The Bum Bum Cream rose to change into the primary physique care product at Sephora, which was a giant think about attracting an funding quantity from Prelude, stated Sontag. It has remained the primary physique cream on the retailer for six years, in keeping with the model.

“The speed of the Bum Bum Cream was unbelievable,” stated Sontag.

Because the 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 private by Blackstone Inc., minority shareholder Butler Corridor Capital requested that Sol de Janeiro be spun off and listed on the US inventory alternate. 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 rapidly growing E.l.f. Magnificence.

Defying DTC

Whereas a lot of Sol de Janiero’s predecessors, resembling 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 method.

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 conceited that we expect that they are going to come to us. We wish to be the place they’re,” stated Yang.

As a substitute of everlasting shops, Sol de Janeiro hosts in-person activations resembling its six-city US pop-up tour in 2023. A latest February New York pop-up store noticed strains that lasted for 3 hours and had 18,000 guests, in keeping with 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 distinct trajectory.

The Physique Store has fallen under administration, whereas Bathtub & Physique Works reported a internet gross sales lower of 1.7 % 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 father or mother firm’s portfolio.

For now, everlasting shops aren’t a part of Sol de Janeiro’s near-term technique.

“You probably have a retail retailer twelve months a yr across the nook, it’s exhausting to take care of pleasure,” stated Yang.

PerfumeTok Enters the Image

Right now, Sol de Janeiro is a full-fledged model with bathe gels, hair care and deodorant, however one class has outdated 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 buyers with a vibrant Sephora endcap show and a campaign that includes “Euphoria” star Barbie Ferreira. As its scale has grown, celebrities proceed to be a magnet for the label; subsequent week, the model broadcasts one other Gen-Z star as its newest ambassador.

With 1.6 billion views on the #soldejaneiro hashtag on TikTok, 75 % of the top-viewed TikTok posts concerning the model are centred on its fragrance mists. It has tapped fragrance-specific influencers related to “PerfumeTok” in addition to mainstream TikTokers identified to drive magnificence gross sales, like Alix Earle. Teenagers and tweens are an particularly massive focus. The model has enlisted Katie Fang, identified 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 rapidly 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 photographs 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 id.

“If we launched as a perfume model, I don’t assume we’d be right here by now,” stated Yang. “We’re physique care first.”