The 22-year-old influencer Emily Lulamay had a confession: her love for Sol de Janeiro was getting out of hand. In a playful video broadcast to her 1.9 million TikTok followers, she mimes chugging its perfume mists from the bottle. “That’s buss,” she stated in one other video sampling its Cheirosa 39 mist, utilizing a Gen-Z time period which means excellent or scrumptious.
Originally based in 2015, Sol de Janeiro has the form of rabid fan base that any magnificence govt covets. They’re additionally loyal.
“We have an amazing, crazy, obsessive consumer,” Heela Yang, the line’s founder and chief govt, advised The Business of Beauty. “Any mist that we launch, they want.”
Walk down any faculty, highschool or elementary college hallway in America, and also you’ll probably move by means of perfumed clouds of Sol de Janiero’s Cheirosa 68, 71 or 40 in your method. Launched in 2017, the $39 fragrance mists soared in reputation in 2020 when youthful consumers found them throughout the pandemic. In 2024, mists alone generated $573 million in gross sales for the model between Sephora, Ulta Beauty and Amazon, in response to YipitData, propelling Sol de Janeiro’s whole US gross sales over the $1 billion mark; the model says globally, gross sales reached $2 billion final yr.
The fragrance mists’ wild reputation helped the model change into world-famous, and little doubt factored into L’Occitane’s resolution to buy the label for $450 million in 2021. While Yang is grateful for the enhance it gave her enterprise, she’s now hoping the model can change into higher recognized for what she considers its core focus: physique care, coupled with scent.
On Dec. 16, Sol de Janeiro will launch the Rosa Charmosa Dew Cream, $48, a physique cream infused with “crystal peptides” and Brazilian botanicals. The launch remains to be youthful, however Yang is hoping to achieve the label’s unique prospects, who usually tend to be of their 30s or older.
“The mist category just overtook the brand,” stated Yang. “Our strategy is to take back the narrative, and go back to our roots.” She stated this yr’s gross sales represented a “plateau” after a few years of double- or triple-digit progress. Per YipitData, its gross sales throughout US retailers are down 14 % to this point this yr.
Getting prospects to see your model in a brand new gentle isn’t simple, however the firm has accomplished it earlier than. When the model launched in 2015, it rapidly grew to become synonymous with its signature Bum Bum Cream, a whipped physique butter with a wealthy pistachio and salted caramel scent, and skin-firming claims. Yang stated she was delighted prospects knew her product, but in addition “horrified” to be referred to as the “bum bum brand.” It reoriented prospects’ focus by operating campaigns that focussed on the model relatively than simply its hero product.
“In order for us to last, we need to be considered in a serious way,” stated Yang.
The Mist Opportunity
When a model creates a class, like perfume mists, it has a first-mover benefit. But in a trend-driven business, that doesn’t final for lengthy.
Some of Sol de Janeiro’s cooling is normalisation, Yang stated, and a few of it’s a comedown from the highs of mist mania. It’s additionally elevated competitors — manufacturers as numerous as Phlur to Kylie Cosmetics, Rare Beauty and Adidas have all launched physique mists.
But the competitors can be with retailers. When a model is now not unique to a retailer, it loses prime placement in its unique house. That’s what occurred when Sol de Janeiro launched with Ulta Beauty in 2024, after working with Sephora for eight years.
Likewise, if a sure product is outperforming, a retailer may understandably encourage different manufacturers to launch related gadgets to elevate its general enterprise.
“We need to get the word ‘defend’ out of our vocabulary, because we have to move forward,” she stated. “Once you start defending, you just spend your life defending.”
Slowing down, she added, will assist So de Janeiro sharpen its focus.
A Return to Form
The success of the mists took the firm abruptly. It had provided them since 2017, however weren’t of a lot curiosity to the model’s unique demographic of ladies over 30.
It’s these older prospects who Yang is eager to reconnect with.
The model’s physique care providing has lengthy been formulated with widespread skincare substances, Yang identified, citing the existence of seven totally different sorts of hyaluronic acid in its Body Badalada Vitamin-Infused Lotion. They simply hadn’t been marketed as having them.
“We just didn’t talk about [the skincare ingredients]. We sort of take it for granted that people should know,” she stated. The model will begin including skincare claims to its packaging, and heroing these parts in advertising. It may even be experimenting with YouTube promoting’ advertising campaigns will function each the scent and skincare profile of its lotions, lotions and gels.
Switching gears is a danger. Fragrance mists comprise roughly 60 % of the model’s whole gross sales, and it owns 71 % of the whole class, per YipitData.
But it’s essential for the firm’s longevity.
“We were the ‘bum bum’ brand, and then we took it back. Now we’re the mist brand, and now we’re going to take it back again,” stated Yang. “Hopefully, we’ll do a good job, and we’ll start to be considered as iconic, and here to stay.”
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