LONDON — Australia’s largest prestige beauty retailer, Mecca, is making its first foray into Europe and the western market with the launch of its number-one bestseller, a multitasking SPF cream from its in-house label, Mecca Cosmetica.

To Save Face SPF50+ Superscreen will launch on Monday within the U.K., and is a milestone for the retailer, which was founded by Jo Horgan in 1997.

The sunscreen, which is made in Australia, will probably be sold direct-to-consumer on Mecca’s latest U.K. site, and retails for 35 kilos.

The plan, in line with Marita Burke, the corporate’s “chief Mecca-maginations officer” is to roll out related SPF products, corresponding to a serum and body care, in the subsequent six to 12 months.

In an exclusive interview, Burke said Mecca is launching with To Save Face “since it’s our greatest product, and we wish to place our greatest foot forward into this market. SPF is becoming a category with quite lots of momentum behind it because we’re all conscious about the damage the sun can do.”

Burke added that the lively skincare individuals are using now could be making their skin much more sensitive to the sun.

Launching with a single sunscreen will give Mecca a “really good sense of how well our product can stack up against the needs of the U.K. customer, who may be very much like the Australian customer in some ways,” Burke said.

It’s a key moment for Mecca.

The retailer celebrated its twenty fifth anniversary last yr, while Mecca Cosmetica, a group of high-end essentials developed in tandem with in-house experts and consumers, turns 10 years this yr.

It has 109 stores in Australia and Recent Zealand and a 25 percent share of Australasia’s 4.2 billion Australian dollar prestige beauty market.

Late last yr, Horgan told WWD Beauty Inc. that Mecca’s goal is to be “the world’s most loved beauty destination.”

She added that if Mecca has a suggestion “that appeals to customers and that customers love, which appears to be the case, then it’s our responsibility to take that more broadly.”

Horgan suggested that it was time to explore latest hemispheres, and described Europe specifically as a “thriving market. We might clearly have to contemplate it together with other markets. That’s the phase we’re in,” she said.

To Save Face offers broad spectrum SPF50+ UVA and UVB protection. Mecca describes the cream as “practically weightless” and with no white forged. It was designed with makeup-wearers in mind, and may double as a moisturiser because it’s almost undetectable on the skin, in line with the corporate.

Key ingredients include Vitamin E; Glycerin; Maritime Pine Bark extract, an antioxidant; and Sodium PCA, meant to hydrate the skin.

“In Australia, SPF is a lifestyle. It’s like brushing your teeth within the morning. We wear it our entire lives, ant it’s a day by day step inside our skincare routine,” Burke said. “The explanation we launched [To Save Face] was because we were all pretty bored with the clumpy, gooey, gluggy products that we were putting on our skin.”

She added that To Save Face was the results of much in-house research and plenty of consultations with Mecca customers who had been asking for an SPF that might work harder, and disappear into the skin like a moisturizer.

“And so, over time, we found ourselves developing a product that was actually greater than the SPF. It has a capability to sit down underneath makeup, which made it the right primer” Burke said.

Burke declined to detail Mecca’s sales targets for the U.K., but noted that the SPF category here is in double-digit growth. “I do think that there’s need for SPF that may actually deliver on the skincare advantages,” she said.

Asked about an extra rollout in Europe, Burke said Mecca sees the U.K. as a testing ground and desires to gauge the product’s popularity here before moving into other markets. “Ultimately, we see this as a launch across the U.K., and the EU,” she said, adding that the plan — eventually — is to feed more Mecca Cosmetica products into Europe.

“There are a lot of top sellers in Australia from the Mecca Cosmetica line that I believe the U.K. would embrace. I believe there’s an actual opportunity here,” she said.

The U.K. is one in every of Europe’s best beauty arenas. Based on Euromonitor, it’s the second largest European beauty market after Germany, and is in the highest 10 worldwide.

Sephora reentered the market with a long-awaited opening in March, while Harrods has launched a latest, stand-alone beauty concept called H Beauty, which has stores in cities including Edinburgh, Bristol and Newcastle.

Boots, meanwhile, has ramped up its beauty offer in major retail hubs, while Space NK can also be in expansion mode, having opened its biggest unit at Westfield London, not removed from Sephora, earlier this yr.

The sweetness floors at retailers such Harrods, Selfridges, Fenwick, Harvey Nichols and Liberty are buzzing with customers of all ages looking for latest products, and personalized experiences across a variety of price points.

Asked whether Mecca might eventually open a physical store in Europe, Burke said “never say never,” although the main focus for the moment is direct-to-consumer, online distribution.

To support the launch, Mecca has arrange an area website and fulfilment centers. Mecca may also profit from the brand new Australia-U.K. Free Trade Agreement, which got here into effect on May 31. It eliminates tariffs on greater than 99 percent of Australian goods exports to the U.K.

The To Save Face launch won’t be splashy. Burke said Mecca plans to depend on a gaggle of name alumni living in London who’re “perfectly placed to find a way to bring the product to life” as soon because it lands next week.