What It Takes to Get Into Sephora

At a recent pre-launch press event in New York City, makeup artist Mary Phillips recalled pitching Sephora executives on her new colour cosmetics brand, M.ph.

“Our first meeting with them, they interrupted us,” Phillips said. “They’re like, ‘Yes, we want it!”

M.ph launches in over 650 US Sephora doors on August 22, joining the rarefied ranks of recent high-profile pre-revenue Sephora brand debuts. Alli Webb’s Messy hair range launched there in June. Celebrity hairdresser Chris McMillan’s eponymous hair care line debuted at the retailer on August 12. Ciele Cosmetics, makeup artist Nikki DeRoest’s brand, launched there exclusively in 2023 and is expanding its in-store offerings in 25 high-traffic stores. A Sephora-first fragrance brand, Lore, founded by Melanie Bender (Rhode, Merit, Versed), Joe Cloyes and Greg Gonzalez (Youth to the People) and Mazdack Rassi (Milk Makeup) bows in September.

“There’s an excitement at being the first to launch,” said Priya Venkatesh, Sephora’s global chief merchandising officer. “What’s appealing to us is that we get to bring you the story and tell it, together with the brand.”

Venkatesh says a “change in customer sentiment” has led consumers, especially younger generations, back to physical stores, incentivising founders to look for retail partners earlier.

Launching directly into Sephora without the proving ground of direct-to-consumer first can feel like winning a golden ticket for a new brand. But there’s a high bar, requiring a truly unique concept, the right relationships and an expert or proven founder with a track record of driving sales and consumer attention — or sometimes all of the above. Plus, brands must have the capital to fund it all.

While there are no guarantees of success, both Sephora and brands can reap the rewards of early partnership, including from Sephora’s “in the kitchen” approach to co-development.

“That is a way to solidify a very strong partnership and collaboration, and also drive differentiation,” said Cassie Cowman, co-founder and partner at View From 32, a beauty advisory firm whose founders met while working at Sephora, and which works with brands and their investors. “You’re locking in the exclusivity early on, and you’re almost creating a positive dependency in that relationship dynamic to build the business together.”

Have a Track Record

While it may be frustrating for a new founder mixing formulas in their basement to hear, launching a previous successful brand is a good way to get Sephora’s attention.

“It helps that we know their standards for product development. But we also [ensure] that the new venture is ringing true and will have resonance with our community,” said Venkatesh.

Webb’s Drybar product line debuted in Sephora as a pre-revenue brand in 2013. DeRoest’s first makeup concept, Roen, was also in Sephora before she left the brand. Both founders acknowledge their previous relationships helped them get the right meetings early on.

DeRoest said the Sephora conversation at the time she exited Roen “was like, ‘Hey, we stand by you. We believe in you. Whatever you do next, give us a call.’”

McMillan, too, had a relationship with Sephora, thanks to his work with Living Proof and later as a co-developer of Drunk Elephant’s haircare range. But his renown as the creator of both “The Rachel” and Leslie Bibb’s recently viral “cunty little bob,” plus his credibility behind the chair, appealed to Sephora.

“We know the product is good. We’ve tested it with him, but his story and his ability to teach and demonstrate is so strong that we feel pretty confident that it’s going to work,” said Venkatesh.

Be an Expert with a New Idea

DeRoest, Ciele Cosmetics’ co-founder, said her original pitch to the retailer was for a “non-pore-clogging” brand, and she was so confident about her idea that she produced 15,000 units. But Sephora told her she wasn’t quite there. Then she landed on the idea for high performance SPF-containing makeup and found a lab that could do it.

“I pitched it again, and that call was magical,” DeRoest said.

Webb’s Drybar products supported the heat styling at her salons of the same name. Her new hair care brand, Messy, does the opposite. Webb said she wanted to create products that “help women embrace the hair they have,” capitalizing on a moment in beauty where everyone is willing to be a bit more “undone.”

“‘We have nothing like this,’” Webb claimed Sephora execs said to her when she presented her ideas for products for what became the “rough dry” styling method, which Venkatesh calls “refreshing and authentic” to Webb’s own hair evolution.

Phillips, a seasoned makeup artist who counts Jennifer Lopez, Hailey Bieber and the Kardashian-Jenners as her clients, fits the desired founder profile. She went viral on TikTok for her signature underpainting technique, and has shown a track record of being able to commercialize her expertise working with other brands, like L’Oréal Paris and Lancôme.

“I think you need an artist like Mary Phillips to be able to say, ‘I know this technique, I’ve mastered this technique, and I know the product that will be able to deliver this,’” said Venkatesh. “It’s not something you can tell another brand, ‘Just put it out there.’ Otherwise we would do it with our existing portfolio.”

Have Capital

“One of the benefits of Sephora getting on board so early is that it helped make sure we had a clear understanding of what funding we needed,” said Roshini Greenwald, president of M.ph.

It’s a bit of a chicken or egg scenario, but both Webb and DeRoest acknowledged that having a commitment from Sephora helped them land investors. Webb has friends and family capital plus about $3 million from Unilever Ventures. DeRoest scored investments from the director Todd Phillips (a friend) and Sonoma Capital.

“Sephora is a beast,” said Kenneth McGranahan, McMillan’s co-founder and life partner. “It is a massive, massive machine, and there’s so much that goes into it. If your priority is to be a good partner, you need to hire the firepower to actually get it done.”

He recalls a Sephora exec telling him how much it would likely cost to launch there. He told her they would do it for half. “We’re over that initial amount,” he said, laughing.

Expenses vary depending on how expansive the initial Sephora launch is. According to founders who spoke on the condition of anonymity, you can hold as little as $100,000 in inventory if you’re a smaller brand and not in all doors. Another one said that conservatively you may need $500,000 in inventory alone, up to $1 million if launching in all doors, and upwards of $3 million for gondolas, sampling and other expenditures. Cowman notes that the minimum for “marketing and selling costs for a dot com launch” is $100,000, and that her firm sees some brands spend $1 million on “paid, influencers, seeding, ratings and reviews, co-op campaigns, events and PR.”

Out of the gate, these newer brands need support in operations, supply chain, logistics, and marketing, plus resources to create engaging content and educational materials for Sephora floor teams, which Webb called “essential.” But Cowman cautions against hiring too many people too quickly before the revenue is there and recommends “showing your vulnerabilities” to Sephora and letting them know when your brand is stretched thin. Phillips tapped the Case Agency, a marketing firm, and McMillan and McGranahan hired View From 32 to help shore up their brands for a Sephora launch.

End caps and gondolas are also notoriously expensive. Ciele Cosmetics, currently on one shelf in the “clean” section in all doors, will be expanding in 25 high-traffic doors with one-bays to showcase its full shade offering. In 2021, Sephora implemented a more cost-effective and environmentally-friendly modular shelving system called Pluto that has rolled out more widely. It allows brands to add and remove compartments and dividers rather than having to completely change out units. Ciele Cosmetics, like Saie and Haus Labs before it, will use it.

Grow a Thick Skin

The brand founders here all said they welcomed the constant dialogue with Sephora. Webb was especially grateful for a suggestion to overhaul Messy’s original packaging, which Sephora told her may not be memorable. But some founders could chafe at the level of involvement.

“You’re going to be told a strong opinion about everything that you’re doing, and you may take that personally,” said Cowman. “[There will be] nitpicking on your creative, on your social, all in the spirit of collaboration and making the brand better.”

Obviously, Sephora still looks at brands in all stages of their life cycles. Its Sephora Accelerate incubation programme is actively launching new brands, too, like the Mindy Kaling-backed skincare line Lion Pose and acne brand Banu Skin.

Venkatesh said Sephora will give brands at least a year, with lots of meetings, data review and suggestions for how to improve if the brand isn’t resonating with consumers. But it doesn’t always work, even for brands with all the trappings of success.

“For every hit, there are some misses,” said Venkatesh.

Additional reporting by Priya Rao.

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Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Aug. 19, 2025 to clarify that Nikki DeRoest is the co-founder of Ciele Cosmetics, rather than the founder.