The Panelists

Teresa Lopez, general manager, Pureology, Mizani & L’Oréal Technique at L’Oréal USA

Teresa Lopez is the overall manager of Pureology, Mizani and L’Oréal Technique at L’Oréal USA. She is born of Cuban exiles.

Agnes Landau, chief marketing officer, Shiseido Americas

Agnes Landau serves because the chief marketing officer of Shiseido Americas, a task she took on after almost a decade on the Estée Lauder Cos. She is from Puerto Rico.

Michelle Freyre, global brand president, Clinique

The worldwide brand president of Clinique, Michelle Freyre has held various stints at Lauder. She is Puerto Rican and Cuban.

Marcela Melero, vice chairman, global Dove skin cleansing, Unilever

The leader of Dove’s global skin cleansing business has held various international roles at Unilever, where she began in her native country of Argentina.

Maria Salcedo, senior vice chairman, merchandising, Ulta Beauty

Born in Colombia, Maria Salcedo has risen through the merchandising ranks of Ulta Beauty, having previously overseen color cosmetics prior to her current position.

Put five Latina beauty executives in a room and also you’ll get beauty recommendations from childhood, a volley of anecdotes oscillating from English to Spanish to Spanglish and an quick camaraderie.

That’s what Beauty Inc did earlier this fall to dive into the nuances and opportunities that comprise the Hispanic or Latino population — amongst probably the most diverse and fastest-growing within the U.S. Statistics bear out the chance — currently accounting for about 19 percent of the general population, Hispanics will account for 53 percent of the U.S. population growth in the following five years.

Very like the powerhouses who make up this panel, they’re obsessive about beauty, ranging from a young age, and overindex on spending within the category. NielsenIQ reports that the cohort overall may have an estimated $2.4 trillion in buying power in 2024, an 87 percent increase over the past 10 years and bigger than Canada’s economy. And a great chunk of that cash goes to beauty and private care, where the typical spend is $905 annually, versus $753 for non-Hispanic shoppers.
Despite the clear market opportunity, though, Latinos are largely underrepresented within the corridors of power in beauty, and the range of the cohort is commonly ignored by marketers. Beauty Inc gathered leading Latina executives together to debate how the industry can higher serve a demographic that continues to grow in size and importance. Here, their conversation, edited and condensed for clarity.

Hispanic Americans make up about 20 percent of the population, the typical age is 42, and 47 percent of the cohort is Millennials. Why is that this cohort so underrepresented in the wonder industry?

Agnes Landau: From a consumer standpoint, it is very represented. You could have a heavy involvement in beauty. Almost 18 percent of sales are coming from the Latino customer base, growing at a 13 to fifteen percent rate, faster than the typical basket of the everyday consumer. From a category standpoint, we’re heavily involved in beauty, particularly in hair care, and in addition driving loads of the expansion in fragrance.

Marcela Melero: Beauty is passed from one generation to the opposite in our culture. There’s also a situation where we are saying it’s one cohort, nevertheless it’s not. We’re all Latino, but we’re not the identical, and that’s essential. We’re super involved in beauty, but there’s a struggle from the industry on how you can deliver and cater to our cohort.

Michelle Freyre: There are cultural nuances based on country of origin, whether you were born within the U.S. or not, which generation you might be. We’re underrepresented inside beauty industry leadership. We don’t have people across the table in marketing and inventive to actually understand the culture and the nuances  — the language, the needs, different skin tones.

Teresa Lopez: It’s a journey, nevertheless it’s about representation on the table. That doesn’t mean one person speaking on behalf of the community, it’s having several people on the table who’ve a distinct viewpoint and something to supply. Last 12 months was the primary time I had even heard the acknowledgement that we’re as diverse as we’re.

Maria Salcedo: The underrepresentation comes from the dearth of offering that meets all these varied needs, and there are opportunities for improvement in representation across the entire functions that Michelle mentioned throughout the industry, leadership as well. This pool of consumers over-indexes in consumption, and are the long run of the category by way of age, consumption, the growing equity, acquisitive power. That is the long run of beauty.

Michelle Freyre: One piece that isn’t talked about enough is, beyond all those numbers, our impact on shaping culture. If you look back, whether it’s music, fashion, food — Hispanics have had such an impact and proceed to influence where the general culture within the country goes. Firms don’t fully understand that.

How do you address that diversity of appearance and culture effectively?

Agnes Landau: It starts with having representation and authenticity, and it comes also with understanding the buyer who you’re going after. The Latina in Florida may be very different from in California. It’s worthwhile to understand who it’s that you simply’re going after, what that consumer wants, what’s the culture, what are the insights and what are the looks. Then, you possibly can speak her language and show her that you furthermore may represent her.

Teresa Lopez: You could have to do the work. All of the geographical studies and considerations which can be done for the mainstream must be replicated for this group. It’s that big and that varied.

Michelle Freyre: Now we have to have products that address the needs. You could have to go deep. You may’t just stay on the superficial, generic, Hispanic, one-size-fits-all level. Individuals who have darker skin tones may suffer from manchas [spots, blemishes], to take an example. But in the event you’re a good Latina like me,  it’s possible you’ll suffer from redness. Consumers are super smart, and Hispanic consumers see through when brands are only talking to them in a generic way. It comes across as not authentic and never understanding.

Marcela Melero: For what we’ve just been describing, the word “lazy” involves mind. It’s far more about embedding yourself in the neighborhood, what are those real insights, how have they evolved through generations. It’s going from “lazy” to actually going deep and doing the work and living it.

Maria Salcedo: In our cultures, the connection to beauty starts young, and it’s passed through the mother through generations. That’s a broad commonality. It comes from a spot, the word in Spanish is “vanidosa.” In English, it’s “vanity.” In Spanish, that word doesn’t have a negative connotation — it’s self care, self pride. You ought to be “vanidosa,” to deal with yourself.

Agnes Landau: When you ask each of us, we’d have a distinct beauty hack from our moms. Mine is getting a pot of hot water and leaning over it with a towel over your head. The steam is great for a chilly, nevertheless it also opens your pores and whatever you set on after absorbs higher.

Marcela Melero: Mine is to placed on lipstick the night before. It’s a multitude with pillows and towels, nevertheless it leaves a base tint of lasting color.

Michelle Freyre: The sun was really harsh growing up in Puerto Rico. Nobody knew in regards to the effects of sun and aging, but after a foul sunburn at age 20, my mother saw one wrinkle and said that was it. She drove me to highschool with a magazine on the side of her face facing the sun. There’s this intuition for beauty and for taking good care of yourself that may be very instinctual — not data-driven, very gut instinct.

Teresa Lopez: My grandmother taught me to walk across the house with my eyes closed, putting on lipstick, in case I ever went blind.

Maria Salcedo: I actually have a ton of hacks. One was how you can curl my eyelashes with a spoon. For a very long time, I’d have a small dessert spoon in my makeup bag.

What products and categories are most resonant and why? How are the needs and aspirations different to other sets of consumers?

Maria Salcedo: The consumption is so broad. One which may be very significant is fragrance. Having multiple fragrances, spraying greater than once per day, wardrobing it — as soon as my kids were born I’d rub Johnson’s Baby Cologne on them. Everybody has to smell good.

Teresa Lopez: I did the identical with my children! The thing about fragrance is that it’s an expression of hygiene. When it comes to involvement, it’s every category. The one category we may be rivaled in is hair, by the Black consumer — their involvement is one other level entirely.

Agnes Landau:  I’d say high involvement in lipstick. Once I began in beauty, I didn’t understand why there was such a mystique around red lips and how you can wear red. Just wear it! Now we have a confidence. Latinas don’t feel there may be a color they’ll’t wear. It’s pride also in the way you show yourself, and makeup is super high involvement.

Marcela Melero: I’d have said fragrance. One other hack of my mom — put Vaseline in your wrist under your fragrance so it lasts longer. At Dove, there are specific variants which have stronger smells which can be typically much larger within the Latino community. The salon at-home, too, whatever tools can offer you the look of the hair salon at home, and things that lengthen that facial you only had. All of that may be very big throughout the community.

Michelle Freyre: Skincare is backed by the info. They use more products of their regimen and use them significantly more often. It’s a few of those beauty hacks that we’re talking about, even at home. I actually have a terrific aunt who’s 99 and still asking me to send her skincare. She’s still using her creams within the morning! The skincare piece is as a canvas to makeup, and the way you’re going to indicate up, addressing concerns like manchas, which is a really specific concern.

Maria Salcedo: In Colombia, everyone puts on body lotion each day right after they shower. The evolution of body care has huge potential that shall be tapped into by Hispanics and Latinos.

Marcela Melero: When you have a look at Mexico, that’s where we sell a number of the biggest pots of creams, like Pond’s creams. It has to do with skin, but goes back to the needs of every country.

Teresa Lopez: It’s a source of pride, since it’s almost a representation of your loved ones. And now, of your success. When you present yourself a certain technique to the world, no person must know what’s behind it. What you’re showing everyone seems to be a source of pride.

Where do you see the opportunities, and the way can the mainstream beauty market more effectively capitalize on and cater to those desires?

Maria Salcedo: It’s about understanding these nuances and identifying where the needs haven’t been met. Afro-Latina hair may be very different than Black American hair, et cetera. After we go into market size, it’s not going to be one big bang. It’s like a string of pearls, all of them together. When you cater to those specifically in Texas or Florida, or Afro-Latinos, they’re all going to drive your consumption. There are particular categories primed for growth, like body care, energetic body care, cellulite treatments, firming — all of that is big.

Agnes Landau: There’s also the loyalty of the prize. Because in the event you are in a position to discuss with that audience with authenticity, and to supply product that’s for them, these people keep coming back to you and also you construct inside that audience. That’s the loyalty piece that in our industry is so essential. It’s so fickle, nevertheless it’s multigenerational.

It’s not only brands, it’s retail, too. What can and will retailers do in a different way?

Maria Salcedo: It has to start out first with representation on the associate level. The shop associates are critical within the interaction that happens in-store, in that consultation. All of our guests are on the lookout for that consultation, but Hispanics and Latinos have a good higher desire to interact in that source of education and guidance. Constructing an associate base that represents the population that they serve, and being very deliberate about that, could be primary. Then, the curation of the assortment. For instance, for stores in certain areas, localization must be a part of the curation of the products.

Marcela Melero: If you go to stores, you see loads of curation based on other cohorts, but there’s not a lot curation based on Hispanics. We began by saying it’s not one cohort. The opposite aspect is language. It’s different based on generations, but language is one thing that would assist in the navigation.

Michelle Freyre: Language gets to the center. It gets to the connection. It’s yet another technique to signify that I get you and I’m talking to you. Even when persons are predominantly speaking in English in the course of the day, they possibly grew up with parents and grandparents who were speaking Spanish. It’s still the language in your heart.

Marcela Melero:  There’s this saying, “We speak in English, we live in Spanglish, and we feel in Spanish.” You hear the word “manchas,” and you recognize that’s a product for you.

Do any of you are feeling you’ve had the next hurdle to beat due to your ethnicity or gender?

Michelle Freyre: As evidenced by what number of women are CEOs of Fortune 500 firms, we still have some work to do, and we’re still experiencing hurdles. Personally, due to my skin tone and my hair, people don’t necessarily know that I’m Hispanic. It didn’t necessarily get in the best way, nevertheless it did get in the best way of me in my 20s and 30s showing up as my most authentic self. I used to be trying to evolve to corporate America and never wear the red lipstick, not wear the dress — as a substitute, I’d wear a pantsuit — and never wear big earrings. I used to be told in a presentation class that I spoke with my hands an excessive amount of.

I began realizing that my superpower was being my authentic Latina leader, because I lead with my heart. I lead with passion for my people, for the brands I represent and love. Once I present with my hands, I show up as my full, competent Latina self with the earrings and the dress and the red lipstick. I’m attempting to create an environment where I’m creating shortcuts so people can show up as their authentic selves today, and I attempt to role-model that.

Agnes Landau:  I used to be told to show down my accent, which is not possible. It’s there, it’s what it’s, I can’t take it off. The hands thing is definitely not possible. To your point, it was freeing the day I made a decision that is who I’m. And truthfully, whenever you speak with an accent, people listen more rigorously, and find it charming. It is completely a superpower. It’s what we must do as leaders now, being where we’re, bringing that generation up and ensuring that they feel authentic in doing what they’re doing.

The opposite piece is having mentors, with the ability to have your individual posse, your individual crew where you possibly can have these conversations in a really authentic way. Didn’t you are feeling so lonely coming up within the industry? Find those people who find themselves such as you and scuffling with the identical things because you possibly can really help one another.

Marcela Melero: Once I arrived here 18 years ago, I used to be like, “OK, I want to vary to slot in.” No person was asking that from me, but you begin seeing who’s around you and you are attempting to behave like them. Suddenly, I spotted it was so draining. All my energy was going into that, not into the work. It’s not sustainable. So I used to be stopped. After which people would say, “Oh, you’re so warm.” That is me. It was so liberating. The most effective is other people at work who’re Hispanic saying, “It’s so great that you simply are on the market, talking together with your hands, hugging people,” even after I’m being loud with my accent. By having positive role models, you learn it’s OK to have differences.

Maria Salcedo: The accent can be a hurdle since you don’t want people to simply give attention to that. Once, I used to be presenting in front of a really large audience and any individual very senior got here to me and said it was great, and it was the primary time they’d ever had someone present with an accent. And I used to be like, “wait, you don’t need to talk in regards to the content or the messages I just delivered?” The main focus was on the accent. When it comes to representation, that’s where the worth is taken away.

One time, I presented a brand that we were launching and I couldn’t pronounce the name in English, and three sales associates got here to me and said, “That is one of the best thing, that you simply showed your accent.” It was so impactful, representation does matter.

Michelle Freyre: It makes you think in yourself. If you look up and also you see people such as you, you’ve got more faith.

Teresa Lopez: All of us have hurdles — I’m the daughter of Cuban exiles and loads of hurdles are self-inflicted, in a way. You could have to do higher, you’ve got to do more, to strive, because inherently, you’re striving for something that your loved ones left behind and also you’re attempting to get back to where you were on this sliding scale. There’s something that’s ingrained in you very early that you want to have a seat on the table. I used to be recently asked when  was the last time I experienced imposter syndrome. And I said, “I’m sorry, I’ve never experienced that.” The room went silent. I said, “I fought really hard for a seat at this table, and I deserve to take a seat at this table.” I never felt like an imposter.

Does it surprise you that products being developed by and for Latinas doesn’t motivate purchases?

Maria Salcedo: That warrants a bit more research to grasp what that’s. I believe it has something to do with either being first-generation or being born here. At the tip of the day, we just need to be an element of this country and recognize this a part of the culture, and a part of the social fabric. So, it’s form of like that recognition versus one other form of recognition that will occur in other ethnic or racial groups. If you say something is Black-founded, there’s far more of a for-us, by-us mentality. There’s not that very same response with us.

Michelle Freyre: I actually have a hypothesis. Now we have inherently a culture about respect and authority, and the larger brands which were around for a very long time may encourage more trust. When you’ve used them, in the event you’ve grown up with them, or in case your mother used them — that carries loads of weight for the Hispanic consumer specifically.

Teresa Lopez: On color cosmetics, we did loads of research that at all times indicated this cohort desired to be an element of the broader assortment, at all times wanted the alternatives of shade, wanted the alternatives of look. Not because they necessarily desired to integrate, but because they didn’t need to be pigeonholed.

What does meaningful change appear to be?

Teresa Lopez: A seat on the table.

Agnes Landau: After we don’t have to have a conversation about it. After we don’t need a conversation about it, then we’ve gotten there. No person’s asking, “Hey, do white men need more representation?”

Teresa Lopez: There have been strides made, nevertheless it’s probably taking longer than it should.

Maria Salcedo: Because I guarantee we’re all just about lonely, where we’re.

Marcela Melero: We have already got relationships, bringing people in, and mentorship. But there may be power to find one another and constructing that. We talk so much in regards to the differences in Latinas, but we even have loads of commonalities, and a superpower we want to unlock, together.