Introduction: French beauty house Nuxe continues the saga of its hugely successful Huile Prodigieuse range with the launch of its sister scent Huile Prodigieus Florale.
In the last 25 years, Nuxe has become synonymous with French beauty savoir-faire. Thanks to the leadership and innovation of its founder, Aliza Jabès, and a strong commitment to creating natural and responsible beauty products, Nuxe has become a leader in natural origin cosmetology, with several products becoming top performers in their respective categories.
Huile Prodigieuse has led the charge in catapulting Nuxe to international global acclaim. Ranked as the number-one product in the dry oil category in Europe, it is a particular favourite within inflight retail, where it sold some 366,000 bottles last year. It is one of the top-three SKUs onboard 68 different airlines and number one onboard Virgin Atlantic Airways, Ryanair, Veiling, Air France, and easyJet – an especially impressive performance considering its price point.
With over 25 million bottles sold since its creation in 1991, Nuxe reveals the next chapter of the Huile ProdigIeuse narrative, by reinventing the house’s dry oil through the launch of a sister scent, Huile Prodigieuse Florale.
Ahead of this month’s travel retail launch, The Moodie Davitt Report Fashion, Beauty & Social Media Editor Hannah Tan-Gillies went to Paris to attend the media preview of Nuxe’s exciting new release, and to discover the blossoming world of Huile Prodigieuse Florale. The event began with a relaxing treatment at Nuxe’s award-winning spa in Montorgueil, followed by press lunch with Nuxe Travel Retail Director Marion Bruimaud. Proceedings continued with a media launch at the stunning Hôtel Brach, where the Saint-George suite was transformed into a blossoming spring garden – a suitable backdrop for our first encounter with Huile Prodigieuse Florale.
Here is Hannah’s on location report, together with a recent interview by Martin Moodie with Marion Bruimaud that explores the brand’s rapid evolution in travel retail.
Nuxe is confident that the strategic decision to introduce a sister scent to Huile Prodigieuse Range will produce the desired results. “Since its creation in 1991, Huile Prodigieuse, a multi-use and multi-purpose dry oil, has become a skincare icon in beauty stores and pharmacies across the world so creating this sister scent is a bold step for us,” comments Nuxe Travel Retail Director Marion Bruimaud, “But it is one that has delivered women two choices that they can alternate depending on their mood.”
The new Huile Prodigeuse Florale presents a “fresh and luminous olfactory experience” that shows a different, more feminine side to the original dry oil. Replacing the classic version’s warm and sunny fragrance, with a more delicate spring aroma, Huile Prodigieus Florale takes inspiration from a field of blossoming flowers, and is Nuxe Paris’ own ode to youth and femininity.
“I created this sister scent to Huile Prodigeuse to offer women two olfactory signatures that they can alternate depending on their mood. The iconic scent has been stripped of its warm, sunny fragrance notes to reveal a sweet, velvety sensual base in a floral iteration that is equally addictive.” – Aliza Jabès, CEO and Founder of Nuxe Group
Following in the footsteps of Nuxe’s sustainable ethos and the brand’s continuing environmental commitments, Nuxe worked with Technicoflor to produce Huile Prodigieuse Florale in the most ethical and sustainable way possible.Together, they sourced responsible raw materials, which included essential lemon oils, Calabrian Bergamot, and fair trade orange essence from responsible producers. In addition to this, Huile Prodigieuse Floral will not have any outer packaging aside from the bottle itself, another testament of Nuxe’s commitment to responsible production.
With the aim of capturing the imagination of a younger millennial consumer, Nuxe’s Huile Prodigieuse Florale features a bottle design in a youthful rose-tinted palette. It includes a feminine petal pink for the bottle and a metallic pink hue for the cap.
Although the new launch targets a new category of consumers, longtime Nuxe fans can rest assured that the new Huile Prodigieuse Florale still features the original formula of its big sister. Precisely 96.9% of the ingredients come from natural origins and combine the nourishing, healing, and moisturising qualities of seven key botanicals; namely Tsubaki, Camellia, Argan, Macadamia, Borage, Hazelnut, and Sweet Almond.
“Whilst featuring the same natural composition and the same benefits as the classic version, Floral offers an olfactory signature which has stripped of its warm, sunny fragrance notes to reveal a sweet, velvety and sensual base… in a floral iteration that we believe is equally addictive,” says Marion Bruimaud. “So it is a genuinely new experience but with the same proven ability to nourish, repair and beautify skin and hair.”
While acknowledging the heritage of the brand, the launch of Huile ProdigieuseFlorale invites the next generation of customers into the world of Nuxe. This launch, while certainly one of Nuxe’s most highly anticipated launches of recent times, also signals the beginning of an exciting new era for Huile Prodigieuse and Nuxe in travel retail worldwide.
Noteworthy: The new scent was created in collaboration with Technicoflor and was designed by esteemed French perfumer Irène Farmachidi.The Huile Prodigieuse Florale fragrance is described as an explosion of sparkling floral notes, beginning with some zesty citrus top notes. It comprises a playful combination of grapefruit with hints of lemon, orange, and Calabrian Bergamot, grounded with earthy base notes of white musks, tied together with a floral heart note of blossoming Magnolia.
Those familiar with the original Huile Prodigieuse will notice that the new scent also features the classic version’s signature Orange blossom, albeit slightly modified with the essence of petit-grain.
Question and answer
The Moodie Davitt Report Founder & Chairman Martin Moodie caught up with Nuxe Travel Retail Director Marion Bruimaud recently to chat about the brand’s evolution from virtually a one-country success to a growing global force.
The Moodie Davitt Report: Tell us about your career Marion and what led you into travel retail.
Marion Bruimaud: I have had quite a long career with Nuxe. I love this brand. I started more than ten years ago as Area Manager for Northern Europe and North America. After three and a half years, I went to Germany to become a General Manager for the subsidiary in Germany, which was a very nice experience. After four years, my then-General Manager wanted to start a Nuxe travel retail business unit. I think he was really a visionary, because he was convinced that Nuxe really had a future in the channel, which was brand new for us, because we had been historically focused on pharmacies.
So how did you set about the travel retail challenge?
We started from scratch more than five years ago. I had, I would say, a white sheet of paper in front of me, and I had to really write the story, starting from nothing. I liked the challenge, so that’s why I accepted at that time.
How would you describe progress? You focused naturally on Europe first with Lagardère Travel Retail, Heinemann and then Dufry. That was your springboard. How has the region developed and what about the rest of the world?
In Europe, we are very pleased with the rollout of the brand. As you said, we started at the same time with Lagardère and Heinemann. I think they really started the natural brands environment with Nuxe and with brands like Rituals. We were pleased to start with them at that time, and they were convinced that customers were requesting new brands and new categories. We are really pleased to have started with them at that time, six years ago.
“Chinese customers globally know the brand, because in the past we were very strong in Hong Kong with Sasa stores.”
Now we have almost all airports in Europe covered. Just Russia is missing but we are going to open Russia with Dufry and Heinemann this year, and a few other airports also with Dufry. I have a strong team helping me in Paris and focusing more on the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, of course.
Nuxe is more well-known and stronger in Europe. That’s why we must do more to convince the travel retail operators in the Middle East and Asia to move forward.
Do you have a domestic presence in China, which is obviously a key lever with many travel retailers?
Yes, though it’s quite new. We started one year ago with Sephora, in exclusivity. So we are in 220 doors today and the exclusivity ends at the end of this year. So in 2020 we will be able to develop in department stores and Tmall and other online business. Chinese passengers are so key everywhere… so it’s important that our brand is known locally by these passengers.
“Travel retail is strategic for our founder and CEO Aliza Jabès and she believes in the network.”
Even though we are quite new in the Chinese local market, I think that Chinese customers globally know the brand, because in the past we were very strong in Hong Kong with Sasa stores. So that helped a lot with the popularity of the brand. So I’m convinced that even if we are new in the Chinese local market, the development will go very quickly.
We now have a new General Manager for the Asia Pacific region. She just started a few weeks ago. She is based in Hong Kong and overlooks [Mainland] China too. She will develop the Chinese team in Shanghai and there will be a second team in Hong Kong. She comes from Hong Kong and knows the area very well. I have the expertise of the brand and she has the expertise of the region, so together we can really move on.
[Click to view a Nuxe beauty tutorial on Huile Prodigieuse Shimmering Dry Oil – Face]
How important are travel retail exclusives to Nuxe?
I understood very quickly their importance. The travel retail operators are requesting them, and customers are really focused on these offers. We started with one set five years ago. Now we try to develop a collection of different programmes and sets. We are going to launch three new sets this year, more focused on skincare. I really believe in that development. My first range globally will be Huile Prodigieuse, our iconic product, a multi-purpose dry oil. My second range will be sets.
You’ve come a long way in a relatively short time in travel retail. Can you say, ballpark, what the channel represents now in terms of total business?
Within the group, it’s still quite small because you have the big French market and the export development, which started a long time ago. For travel retail, we started just five years ago. It’s strategic for our founder and CEO Aliza Jabès and she believes in the network. I have her total support, which is very nice, because though it’s still small, travel retail is growing fast and she will support us for the investment and the development, which is key for me.
What do exports now represent of your total business? I remember in about 2010 when we first wrote about you, it was about 27 percent.
Oh, a lot more. Today it’s more or less 50/50 between France and exports.
That’s quite a change from being predominantly a one-market brand.
Yes and I have to say that it was a good strategy. We started a lot of new subsidiaries in key countries in Europe. The second market for us would be Italy – that’s not a surprise as a French brand. Italy is very strong. Afterwards we have Belgium, Spain, the UK and Germany.
All these subsidiaries belong 100 percent to Nuxe. So, thanks to these strong subsidiaries, we have increased our presence and our turnover at export level a lot. The 50/50 must be changed of course, and maybe become 40/60 or even more, because there is a big potential in Asia.
We have just started in China. Compared to other skincare brands we are quite late, but it’s okay. Now we have started, it’s going well, and I think if together with my partner in Hong Kong we can develop the local market and travel retail, it will be a win/win situation.
