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French skincare brand Sampar is seeking expansion into the Asian travel retail market, with a particular focus on the inflight sector.
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“A unifying theme in all of my work has from the beginning been the dream to awaken and reveal a woman’s natural beauty, as if it were simply hibernating“ |
Patrick Sounigo Founder Sampar |
Sampar is the brainchild of Patrick Sounigo, who in 1984 inaugurated the Institut Samuel Par in Paris, offering a line of skin treatments developed with active natural ingredients. In 2002 Sounigo, together with designer Antoine Bouillot created Sampar, built on the foundation of Samuel Par and around the modern lifestyle of the Parisian woman.
Launched in 2004 at a single Sephora store in France, Sampar is today present in over 1,000 select beauty locations in the world. In Europe the brand has 600 doors and is exclusive to Sephora in nine countries (490 stores). In January this year, Sampar became the number one exclusive brand in Sephora France, where the brand has 290 doors. It is also ranked among the top 10 skincare brands in Sephora.
Outside Europe, Sampar counts 100 doors in the US and 300 doors in Asia and the Middle East combined.
“We’re experiencing really good growth in Asia,” Sampar International Director Olivier de Broucker told The Moodie Report at the TFWA Asia Pacific exhibition last month. “Asia makes up 45% of our total turnover – roughly half our business. We are in all the key markets, the biggest ones being Korea, Japan and China.”
Elsewhere in Asia, Sampar is in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan, and Malaysia – primarily in department stores, beauty clinics and perfumeries. It will likely launch in Thailand next year, De Broucker revealed.
In travel retail, the brand is listed on several airlines in Europe. These include British Airways (where Sampar sells 500 units per month), EasyJet, Thomson Airways, Jet2, Flybe, and Edelweiss. “We started off onboard British Airways in 2010, and we will be on Iberia very soon,” De Broucker said, adding that the brand is finalising negotiations with several Asian airlines.
“˜Smart Skin’ concept
Patrick Sounigo developed the “˜Smart Skin’ concept designed to reset the skin’s intelligent response system and support its natural healing actions. This is based on his belief that the skin is an intelligent organ whose ability to rebound is weakened by age and external environmental aggressors.
Sounigo developed an exclusive complex, Urban Advance, which acts at the heart of cells to “˜wake up’ and reactivate the skin’s vital functions. As a result, the skin recovers a state of equilibrium, which in turn allows care efficacy to be optimised and boosts the performance of Sampar’s active ingredients.
The Urban Advance complex, which is present in all Sampar products, is made up of probiotic sugar, Shea butter serum, and mint endorphin.
Sampar started off with the basic “˜Essentials’ line in 2004, comprising just five products. Today the brand’s portfolio numbers around 28 items across six product lines, with two to three new products being introduced every year, according to Sampar Export Manager Asia Sylvie Archain.
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Some of Sampar’s star products (clockwise from top left): Equalizing Foam Peel, Glamour Shot Eyes, Nocturnal Rescue Mask, Glamour Shot, 3 Day Weekend Body, and Prodigal Pen |
Essentials – Basic skincare for all skin types. This line comprises six simple steps to purify, cleanse and moisturise the skin. Star products include the Equalizing Foam Peel, said to be the first bio-enzymatic peeling treatment on the market that resets the skin in only two minutes, and the Ultra Hydrating Fluid, which provides 12-hour moisturisation, stimulates cellular regeneration and defends the skin against early wrinkle formation.
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Sampar’s new So Much To Dew Midnight Mask will launch in September 2012 |
Pure Perfection – A line of purifying, repairing and soothing products for blemish-prone skin. Star products include the Nocturnal Rescue Mask which works overnight to create a “veritable reparative film” and accelerate the skin’s natural regenerative processes, and the Prodigal Pen, a roll-on blemish-tracker that disinfects pores, balances oily skin and soothes inflammation and redness. Millions of these have been sold, according to Archain.
Cosmakeup – Combines the instant results of makeup with the simplicity of face care products. Launched just last year, Cosmakeup includes Glamour Shot, a transparent foundation that claims to reduce pores, redness and imperfections, mattify the complexion and minimise wrinkles in one minute, and Glamour Shot Eyes, which erases dark circles, brightens dark areas around the eyes and blurs under-eye wrinkles. The latter has become Sampar’s new hero product, selling 50,000 pieces in two months in Sephora France.
Age Antidote – A line of anti-aging solutions including the Nocturnal Line-up Mask, which claims to “˜reclaim youth’ overnight by boosting collagen, elastin and hyaluronic acid.
Winsome Body – Body-firming and toning treatments infused with essential oils.
City of Light – Clarifying and illuminating skin care solutions that fight against environmental aggressions for clear, clean and uniform skin.
According to Archain, Sampar is priced in the mid-range, with most products retailing at around €40. The most expensive product costs €98. The range includes gift sets with products in travel-friendly sizes.
This September sees the launch of the new So Much To Dew Midnight Mask, a mask in the Essentials line that dermoregulates skin hydration and restores moisture levels overnight. The packaging features a brush applicator on one end. A clinical test carried out on 17 participants has reported a +31% increase in moisturisation levels within an hour, while 97.3% of 27 users reported suppler skin after one week of use. This new mask, which De Broucker believes will be “very interesting for Asia”, will be exhibited by Sampar at the TFWA World Exhibition in Cannes this October.
Sampar product packaging uses an “˜airless system’ that dispenses the right amount of product without exposing the rest of the product to air. This also minimises contact between your hands and the unused product, resulting in less contamination.
For more information, contact Olivier De Broucker, International Director, Sampar; tel: +33 (0) 1 53 93 93 77; fax: +33 (0) 1 45 49 30 24; or e-mail: olivier.debroucker@sampar.com. Visit www.sampar.com.
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