PARIS — A spate of European indie skincare and wellness brands haven’t yet made it to the U.S., but are ripe for the stocking by retailers there.

Consider indies because the mice that roar, and the numbers prove their bite.

Indie skincare sales last 12 months within the U.S. were especially strong, equaling $9.1 billion, a 14 percent year-on-year increase. That followed on from 11 percent growth in 2022. Meanwhile, unit sales in 2023 against 2022 grew by double digits, in response to Circana.

“On this current digital age, indies have quickly risen to be a powerful segment in beauty, representing $30.5 billion in sales and capturing a 32 percent dollar share of the category,” said NielsenIQ in its report titled “The Rise of Indie Beauty,” out in September 2023.

Nielsen IQ found that indies’ sales outpace those of the full beauty and private care market within the U.S., increasing 15.7 percent versus 9.9 percent, respectively, in 2022.

Indies’ upside growth is ongoing on the earth’s largest beauty market, where a powerful product offer tinged with a zesty je ne sais quoi has allure.

Here is a various collection of Europe’s buzziest indie skincare and wellness brands.  

Avea

Avea literally encapsulates two rising trends in the sweetness space today: longevity and ingestibles. 

The Zug, Switzerland-based longevity supplements brand silent-launched its first products — including the NMN and Booster, together called the Vitality Bundle — at the tip of 2021. Then the official marketing began in March 2022.

Sophie Chabloz, chief scientific officer of Avea, cofounded the corporate with three others. They formulated and launched more products, with some addressing specific issues related to healthy aging, comparable to the Stabiliser, to balance blood sugar levels, and the Mobiliser, to support joint health and adaptability. “We’re currently working on a gut-brain axis kind of product,” said Chabloz. 

One other grouping of Avea products optimizes cellular processes, and there’s the saliva-based DNA & Bioage test using epigenetics to assist people improve their biological age rating. Altogether, Avea has six products, with prices starting from 49 euros for Essentials vitamins and minerals to 229 for the test.

Avea’s core markets are Switzerland, Germany and Austria. The brand can be available elsewhere in Continental Europe and the U.K. In Asia, it just entered China.

Avea last 12 months closed an prolonged seed funding round, led by its biggest investor Maximon, for a complete of $5 million.

La Rosée

Nine years ago, Coline Bertrand and Mahault de Guilbert — two pharmacists friends from university — launched La Rosée, which has built a cult following. 

“We desired to create a brand with ultra-natural products — as much as one hundred pc of natural origin — eco-responsible and ultra-healthy, without controversial ingredients,” explained Bertrand. Other essential elements from the outset were having a universal range with reasonably priced price points. Today those average 14 euros.

La Rosée is a dermatology-cosmetics hybrid, which launched with five products and now has 40, including baby care. In January, it introduced a latest category: hair care. La Rosée’s deodorant and sun care stick are its bestsellers. 

The brand first entered 300 pharmacies in France. Fast-forward to now, and that number has bloomed to 9,500. “We’re the sixth brand available on the market in all segments combined [without antiaging] and the fourth brand in our segments,” said Bertrand.  

La Rosée has subsidiaries in Belgium and Spain, and it’s distributed in Switzerland, South Korea and the French overseas territories, representing altogether greater than 10,000 doors. Next steps might be toward Morocco, Canada and the U.S.

FG Bros, the Belgian family office of Ségolène Frère and Ian Gallienne, acquired a reported 20 percent of La Rosée in August 2023.

Respire

Respire is digging deeper into the French pharmacy channel.

Following a health scare, Justine Hutteau teamed with Thomas Méheut to launch the Paris-based natural and organic personal care brand, starting with a roll-on deodorant in May 2019.

That product has develop into a runaway success. The brand said in 2023 its deodorant became the most important contributor to the deodorant category’s growth in French pharmacies and parapharmacies. It’s also the third top-selling deodorant brand within the channel, up from sixth last 12 months.

Respire’s lineup today includes 30 different products, including skincare, body care, shampoo, sun care and toothpaste. All of the products are vegan, sustainable and made in France. A bar soap is 5.90 euros, while a roll-on deodorant goes for 10.90 euros and a dry oil for 22.90 euros.

The brand first sold direct-to-consumer, then entered brick-and-mortar distribution. Its foremost market is France, where Respire is stocked in 3,000 sales points, including 2,000 pharmacies. By yearend, that number is predicted to swell to five,000. The brand is carried in 12 other European countries through Sephora, as well.

Rowse

Rowse pares down traditional skincare routines into natural raw ingredients. 

It was introduced online in November 2018 by Spanish lifestyle influencer Nuria Val and French beauty executive Gabriela Salord. “Every thing is toxic-free and manufactured from plants,” said Salord, who serves as Rowse chief executive officer. 

From Day One, she and Val, Rowse’s creative director, have committed to finding natural alternatives to highly sought-out cosmetics ingredients. The brand is heavily focused on skincare, including for mature skin. 

Its 30-plus product line comprises cleansers, toners, boosters, day serum, night serums, eye-contour serum, body oils, solid shampoos and a body balm. In January, Rowse launched a sleeping mask with melatonin produced from grape plants. It would introduce a capsule collection with two scrubs, a solid soap and candle in May. 

Rowse’s bestsellers are the All-Day Hydration Serum with niacinamide and the Eye Contour Serum with natural hyaluronic acid, which sell for 60 euros and 30 euros, respectively.

Rowse, a direct-to-consumer brand, in February opened its first brick-and-mortar store, in Madrid, where company headquarters is predicated. The brand is in about 40 doors in Europe altogether.

Experience matters to Rowse, which is able to organize yoga and Pilates retreats with hotels. Rowse can be launching an amenities line for the channel next month. “We’ve at all times been more of a wellness and lifestyle brand than simply a beauty brand,” said Salord. 

Sān Wellness 

Sān Wellness is positioned as a premium African ethno-medicinal wellness brand.

The brainchild of Nomshado Michelle Baca, it launched direct-to-consumer in spring 2020 within the U.K., under the name A Complexion Company and with one product: The Organic Moringa Beauty Superpowder. 

Baca’s mission from the outset was to offer women mastery over their health through Africa’s ancestral knowledge.

In early 2021, Reckitt invested within the London-based brand through the group’s Access VC enterprise branch, after which there was a pivot. The brand’s moniker became Sān Wellness, with “sān” coming from the Khoisan tribe from the Kalahari Desert.

“I modified the name to focus more on wellness,” said Baca. “Because wellness encapsulated what I used to be attempting to create for Black women.” 

With Reckitt she coformulated a latest product, Foundation — The Black Woman’s Day by day Multivitamin, which comprises 14 essential nutrients and high-potency ingredients.  Baca characterised it as “the primary singular complement that treats essentially the most common dietary deficiencies amongst Black-identifying people of color.” The bespoke formula is billed to assist with immunity, skin and hair health, sleep, energy and fertility support. 

Foundation launched in April 2022 within the U.K. A bottle of 1 month’s price of capsules is priced at 54.99 kilos.

Seasonly

Seasonly describes itself as “clean beauty that works.”

Fany Péchiodat founded it in 2018 in Paris. A pioneer, she created a regular for clean beauty, specializing in ingredients bad for people’s health and the planet. “We ban all those ingredients from our formulas,” said Chloé Renard, Seasonly’s CEO.

Seasonly now has a variety of about 40 products for hydration, glow, antiaging and anti-blemishes, costing 9 euros to 100 euros, in addition to accessories. 

In September, the brand launched Huile Tensiolift, an oil with effects mimicking Botox that swiftly became Seasonly’s bestseller. Three latest Tensiolift products are due out this 12 months.

“We provide alternatives to invasive techniques for antiaging, because of massage, facials and our products,” said Renard, adding the specified end-result is glowy- and healthy-looking skin. 

Hands-on is vital. In 2019, the brand’s office constructing was transformed right into a skin studio for quick, efficient facials. A second location followed in Paris, then a 3rd, in Galeries Lafayette there. Sephora approached Seasonly in 2021, asking it to develop a fair faster in-store protocol. Seasonly is now sold in greater than 400 Sephora doors, a few of which boast Face Glow Bars, and 35 other retailers in Europe.

France is the brand’s largest market. Up next geographically are Vietnam, China and an acceleration in Europe, with India, South Korea, the U.S. and Canada in Seasonly’s scopes.

Unbottled

 “The goal is to free bathrooms from all plastic bottles,” explained Benjamin Legros, who cofounded Unbottled with Sarah Pouchet. Together, they noted a dearth of solid cosmetics. In order that they launched a solid shampoo, body wash and face wash online in June 2020.

A B Corp company based in Paris, Unbottled goals, too, to propose a suggestion that’s convenient, efficient and nice to make use of without water or plastic bottles. The hygiene and cosmetics products are available in eye-catching colours, comparable to eggshell blue, pink and orange.

 “We found our market pretty quickly,” said Legros. 

Unbottled includes shampoos and conditioners; body, face and intimate wash; makeup removers; face and body scrubs, and deodorants. There are accessories, and more product categories are yet to come back. The brand’s prices range from 9.90 euros for a solid shower gel to 29.90 euros for a set of three products.

 “We’re not dark green, we’re light green,” said Lagros. As such, Unbottled is sold in Sephoras in Continental Europe and the U.K. and a few concept stores, which altogether represent about 1,000 doors. The brand is launching into French pharmacies this 12 months. 

“We’re also constructing our own retail stores,” said Lagros. One already exists in Paris’ Marais district, and that number will grow to seven France-wide this 12 months.

Legros and Pouchet have bootstrapped from the beginning. “We’re profitable from Day One,” he said.

Yepoda

Berlin-based Yepoda sets out to make K-beauty accessible to the Western market. 

The brand was launched direct-to-consumer in 2020 by Veronika Strotmann and Sander van Bladel, who develop clean and vegan product formulas created in South Korea. 

Yepoda’s product lineup, specializing in skincare and the Korean skincare routine, today includes cleansers, serums and moisturizers starting from 8 euros for a single sheet mask to roughly 30 euros for a cream. A cushion foundation, merging skincare and color cosmetics, is the brand’s newest launch.

Yepoda has been popular on social media, which helped spark its rapid growth across Europe, where its core markets include Italy, France, Germany and Spain.

In November 2023, Yepoda closed a series A funding round led by JamJar Investments and involving former Estée Lauder Cos. Inc. executive Chris Good. He joined Yepoda as an adviser. 

On Dec. 5, 2023, Yepoda opened its first brick-and-mortar location, a pop-up in Milan. Strotmann said it was well-received. So there will likely be one other pop-up, starting March 26 in Rome that may run for 2 months.

“Now we’re exploring a bit more what we will do within the retail space in the long run,” she explained. “We really need to deal with the experience.”