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On Tuesday, skincare brand Dieux’s cult eye masks, moisturisers and serum launched online at Sephora, and will be followed by a brick-and-mortar launch into 714 locations on March 6.
Sephora is now four-year-old Dieux’s largest retail partner and marks its foray into physical retail following earlier partnerships with e-tailers Cult Beauty and Soko Glam. The launch comes after Dieux saw 8 figures in sales in 2023 with 45 percent year-over-year sales growth.
“We’ve really been focused on direct-to-consumer because that’s just the world that I come from – the internet. We wanted to build a brand, a really strong product offering, and then see where the best place to launch would be,” said co-founder Charlotte Palermino, who launched the brand with Marta Freedman and Joyce de Lemos. “I’m a big believer in omnichannel.”
While it has chic branding aimed at a millennial and Gen-Z audience, Dieux positions itself as “very accessibly priced compared to a lot of clinical brands,” said Palermino, who emphasised the line’s third-party clinical testing. Dieux’s products range from $25-$69. “It’s really filling a space that I don’t think that Sephora has at this moment.”
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To support the Sephora launch, the brand hired a head of retail, Lesley Yee Leung, and is scaling up production of products that frequently sell out; its Instant Angel Moisturizer will be restocked in March.
With over 411,000 TikTok followers, Palermino has built up an audience with her outspoken hot takes on skincare topics ranging from sunscreen regulations—the brand is developing a sunscreen tentatively slated for 2025—to the nebulous definition of “clean beauty.”
With most of its products in aluminium bottles, Dieux qualifies for Sephora’s “Planet-Positive” badge. Its ingredient profile also makes it eligible for the retailer’s “clean” designation, a term Palermino is known for vehemently challenging in her social content.
“I know that our formulas technically fall under ‘clean.’ Whether we’re going to actually keep the badge or not is up for question,” she said.
