PARIS — Oh My Cream, the French clean beauty retailer and product line, has made its first acquisition: French supplements brand Combeau, created to look after skin from the within out.  

Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed.

“Our vision of beauty has evolved toward something more holistic,” explained Juliette Lévy, who founded Oh My Cream, which began selling area of interest skincare brands, resembling Dermalogica, Ren, Grown and Tata Harper, in 2012. “We strongly imagine that supplements are super dynamic and vital.”

Lévy described Combeau as having the “most expert, modern formula there’s in the marketplace.”

“It became a reference in only a couple of months,” she said, of the brand launched in 2020. “Everybody was talking about it.

“So we thought, that is the suitable way for Oh My Cream to integrate this expertise, knowledge and ecosystem of great partners — labs, manufacturers, ingredients and producers,” Lévy continued. “It was for us the most effective technique to speed up on this [category].”

For Combeau, the deal will allow for growth inside and outdoors of Oh My Cream’s retail network — which today counts 26 stores in Europe, of which 12 are in Paris, and an e-commerce site — alongside the chain’s private-label skincare brand, with about 30 stock keeping units, launched six years ago.

A ramping up of the rhythm of Combeau’s product launches can be planned.

Combeau was founded by Erika Fogeiro, whose goals to mix biotechnology-created formulations with natural ingredients within the supplements.

When she began working on the brand, Fogeiro realized the supplements industry has issues with formula quality. She aimed to revise the client experience, through branding, to assist people reconnect with health and wellbeing in the wonder realm.

“The following thing was really to give attention to the formula and modern recent ecosystem we might put in place to reinvent and propose very efficient supplements to our consumers,” Fogeiro said.

She homed in on ingredient sourcing, as an example.

“It was really vital to construct partnerships with biotech start-ups,” and to look for clinically tested ingredients, explained Fogeiro, who has been constructing a team round her including scientists, doctors, naturopaths, biotechnologists and biochemists.

Best-in-class ingredients needed to be combined in a single formula, she said.

Combeau uses recent technologies to develop supplements sustainably. The brand’s responsible dimension includes ethical and transparent ingredient and packaging sourcing, and communication.

“We only launch a product after we understand it’s something recent to the market and something higher [than what’s there],” Fogeiro said.

Combeau’s first product, L’Essential Peau, or Skin Essential, includes seven lively ingredients mixed to focus on skin radiance, signs of aging and imperfections. A one-month “cure” goes for 59 euros.

“It was really vital for me to handle skin’s specific concerns, because skin is the link between the inside and outside,” Fogeiro said. “It was really a technique to embody our vision and the connection of health and beauty.”

Combeau debuted by itself e-commerce platform, Combeau.co, then rolled out at Selfridges within the U.K. and Oh My Cream. That’s how Lévy and Fogeiro met.

Next up for Combeau can be a complement for hair care, slated for September.

“We’re working on collagen, as well,” Fogeiro said. “But we are attempting to do something different, so it takes quite a lot of investment.”

Oh My Cream’s skincare brand launched supplements and sweetness tools almost two years ago, and people now account for 15 percent of its sales.

The private label used to represent 15 percent of Oh My Cream’s overall business, but now it’s greater than 20 percent — and growing. That’s thanks partially to category expansion; over the past two years, the brand also launched into body care, sun care, makeup and a line for men.

“The makeup is incredibly successful,” said Lévy, who explained will give attention to selling Oh My Cream’s products, especially skincare, outside of the brand’s own retail channel starting in 2024.

The Oh My Cream business keeps developing strongly. Since its launch, it has registered between 50 percent and one hundred pc on-year sales growth annually, save for throughout the coronavirus pandemic, when it was around 30 percent.

Lévy wouldn’t discuss sales figures, but in 2019, when Experienced Capital acquired a 41 percent stake in Oh My Cream, the corporate was expected to post sales of 13 million euros.

During lockdowns, the retailer temporarily shut down roughly 20 stores, but then, its online business boomed.

Subsequently, it’s now the inverse, and the brick-and-mortar business keeps expanding.

“Individuals are massively going back to stores,” said Lévy, adding physical retail now makes about 65 percent of the business, versus roughly 40 percent pre-COVID-19.

Following almost a decade of developing in France, she felt her company was strong enough to grow abroad, and at the top of 2022 Oh My Cream opened two stores in London. And earlier this 12 months, it debuted its first location in Brussels.

“The stores have had great performances since they launched, and we’ve got amazing feedback from customers,” said Lévy, explaining Oh My Cream goals to supply a contemporary, holistic approach to beauty, with expert advice.

More stores openings should happen within the U.K., following Oh My Cream’s strategy in France. The following locations could also be in Hampstead and on Marylebone High Street, by year-end.

“Our strategy was to be the choice beauty destination,” Lévy said. “It takes time and quite a lot of stores.”

An ultimate goal is to have 10 to fifteen locations in London before Oh My Cream launches into recent geographic markets.