Sephoria, Sephora’s large-scale consumer event that launched in 2018, opened in Los Angeles on Friday for two days of ticketed, immersive activations from more than 65 brands. “In times like these, in-real-life experiences are just so popular,” Zena Srivatsa Arnold, chief marketing officer of Sephora, told Glossy. “People want to connect with other people, they want to share their fandom, and the point is, we really want to welcome everyone to the world of beauty, and this is a really fun way to do it.”
Sephora expects around 8,000 consumers to attend this weekend, split into four, three-hour sessions at downtown Los Angeles event space Magic Box. Tickets ranged from $180-$465, with the latter VIP ticket offering early access, shorter lines, a bigger gift bag and access to a VIP lounge with extra activations like founder meet-and-greets.
“It’s been a raging success,” Arnold told Glossy. “We sold out in less than an hour this year, which is the fastest ever, and I think it just points back to people excited about coming to real-life experiences and enjoying them with other people.”
Arnold’s team is leaning into the moment with an OOH ad campaign in Los Angeles and social content posted throughout the weekend.
“[Our] goal is to have a moment to bring our brand to life within this Sephora ecosystem,” Julia Straus, co-founder and CEO of Sincerely Yours, told Glossy. “We’re so young that we’re still just getting the brand out there and introducing it to customers, so to be able to be in front of 8,000 of Sephora’s most excited customers? That’s a very unique experience; we’re really surprised we even got invited this early in our Sephora journey.”
Booths are unique and staffed by a mix of brand reps, founders and executives, many of whom gift samples and prizes for partaking in carnival-like games. Like many other founders and CEOs, Straus was working the booth on Friday, greeting fans and handing out stickers, masks and hoodies with her team. This swag is on top of the gift bags distributed upon exiting, which are valued at more than $1,600. Every booth Glossy visited on Friday distributed some sort of gift or product to attendees.
Arnold told Glossy that selecting brands to participate is a bespoke process. “We work with all of our brands to see, ‘Hey, are you interested in coming here? Do you have a great experiential experience for our target clients?’” she said. “We kind of work with them through an iterative process to see if they can be here and how they’d want to do their build out.”
Brands take on the cost of their booths, plus gifting and staffing, and also split costs associated with the event, Arnold told Glossy.
“It’s like a co-op model,” Arnold said. “So there are some investments that the brand makes with us, and then, obviously, in their spaces, as well. … It’s just a fantastic way for them to engage with their customers at scale.”
“We’re here for one-on-one face time with our customers and with clients at Sephora,” Olamide Olowe, founder and CEO of Topicals skin care, told Glossy from her booth on Friday. “I like to ask people, ‘What’s your hot take about Topicals? What do you love? What do you hate?’ And I love the feedback I get, because it allows us to continue to stay close to our community.”
To participate, brands must fit into the conference’s theme, which is ‘beauty multiverse’ this year, with sub-themes like ‘crave’ and ‘dream’ — the former is focused on gourmand scents and textures, while the latter is more whimsical and cloud-like.
“Sephora does a great job of really helping brands cut through [the noise], and events like this really help you stay top-of-mind for customers,” Olowe said. “The investment to be here pays off because you get so much brand awareness.”
Other participating brands include heavy-hitters like Olaplex, Summer Fridays, Saie, Rare Beauty, Kiehl’s and Youth to the People, as well as newer arrivals to Sephora like Fugazzi perfume, Touchland and Alex Cooper’s Unwell.
Many brands selected this weekend to launch new products. For example, Glossier launched a new iteration of its You perfume, called Soie, while Sephora launched new Sephora Collection lip glosses at its booth.
Guests can also attend master classes and, new this year, fireside chats with founders. For example, this year features masterclasses by makeup artists like Danessa Myricks and Mary Phillips, among others. Meanwhile, fireside chats include Sincerely Yours’ Salish Matter and Makeup by Mario’s Mario Dedivanovic, plus more.
Sephora also added Starbucks as a partner this year, which included several coffee stands offering free drinks and snacks throughout the venue.
Barb Stegemann, founder and president of The 7 Virtues perfume, plans to measure the success of her brand’s participation through a Sephora sales halo, earned media value and awareness. She and her vp of marketing, Hope Bonneville, attended. “This is where you learn, ‘What are people looking for? What makes their eyes pop?’” Stegemann said. “With 8,000 people [attending], that’s a lot of eye popping.”
“It’s also important for us as brands to be together,” Stegemann said. “Sephora really cultivates an environment, like an incubator, so we see each other as family, not competition, and the more we can spend time together, it strengthens everybody — and it’s a different model, right? But I love it.”
Sephora plans to roll out five to six Sephoria events this year in global markets, including London and Shanghai late this year.
“One of my favorite things [about Sephoria] is just seeing how different founders, or even just different brand teams, are engaging and excited to see each other,” Arnold said. “And it just goes back to that community feeling that we want to encourage — not just with our customers, but the brands, too.”