Behind the Brand: essence Cosmetics

essence cosmetics, the high quality and affordable cosnova group make up brand, is celebrating 20 years on the market. The jubilee year celebrations remind us of how much the brand has become engrained into the UK beauty market since its launch in Wilko in 2013 and online in 2019 via justmylook and feel unique. 

cosnova was founded in 2001 by Christina Oster-Daum and her husband, Javier González, and they created a brand unique for its times, challenging the idea that beauty products were a luxury commodity. Hence, the innovative products, offered at fair prices to women have ensured that the brand has sold over 32 million products in the UK alone since its launch. With essence Cosmetics products going viral on social media on a regular basis, the success of the brand is undeniable, so sat down with Managing Director Hilko Prahl to catch up more.

Hilko, you joined Cosnova Beauty back in 2007 when it was a startup as an International Key Account Manager and worked your way up the ranks to your current role. How would you say that the brand strategy and outlook has changed since then?

The fundamental idea of democratising make-up, i.e. making high-quality decorative cosmetics available to everyone at the best possible price, has not changed since our foundation 20 years ago. With our two brands essence and CATRICE we are still fulfilling our founding mission  "Make everyone feel more beautiful". Nevertheless, it is important to us always responding to the ever-changing needs of our consumers. While still offline distributions and sales are the majority, online sales are becoming more and more important, and we need to adapt our strategy and brands accordingly. While some markets are slowly shifting from offline to online, others are already more advanced and again other markets we are approaching in an online only or online first approach such as China, Vietnam or Indonesia. Moreover, the cosmetics industry is becoming more and more digital, with content and social media presence playing an immense role. Our consumers' expectations regarding sustainability and transparency of ingredients have also changed. However, with various innovative approaches, we are always able to respond to the needs and constantly improve. 

How have the last few years, including Britain exiting the European Union, and the ongoing global pandemic affected the brand strategy for the UK - if at all? (Alternatively, what lessons learned from the events unfolding over the last few years - including Britain exiting the European Union and the ongoing global pandemic?).

Due to the pandemic, we also noticed a decline in sales in 2020 - although not as strong as the global market and we gained market shares. We had a sales decline, but not as strong as the general category and we gained market share. Particularly in online retail, we were able to report a strong growth rate. We have not adjusted our UK strategy, not during Brexit, the pandemic, the current conflict, or inflation. We see that our brands are highly relevant and that in such uncertain times, high quality and strong innovation at a phenomenally low price is particularly relevant with consumers. The months of the pandemic also saw a very strong acceleration of the topic of digitalization in all forms - here the teams of our essence and CATRICE brands were active from the beginning to bring great initiatives on the road for our consumers. We were not only asked to initiate digital activities faster, but also to dovetail and emotionalize them more. Examples of this are our digital tester solutions that we launched globally - as well as the use of virtual try-ons and filters with partners like Snapchat and Youcam. Similarly, we are strong and successful on TikTok, the central platform for Gen Z, which has grown immensely in importance and is essential for beauty brands. Especially for us, because essence is all about having fun and making beauty entertaining, so we are the perfect brand for that.

Are there any offers and opportunities through which trade makeup artists can become more involved with the brand?

We already work together with make-up artists in different areas. In terms of PR we work with various make-up artists - also internationally - who stand and speak for our brands in the most diverse formats as ambassadors. In the field of product development, we also see great opportunities to use the expertise of make-up artists in the form of co-creations. Co-creations with influencers in the form of trend products have turned out to be absolute consumer favourites in the past and we can also imagine this with professional make-up artists in the future.

What product do you think every makeup artist should have in their kit? Is this your favourite product developed by Essence Cosmetics?

I am not a beauty expert myself. Of course, all our products have a strong performance, but the essence Lash Princess Mascara is a real customer favourite and has been the bestseller among our products since its launch in 2014. It sells every 4 seconds worldwide, making it the favourite product of many consumers.

cosnova is a leader at championing sustainability in the beauty industry with essence cosmetics being 100% vegan since Fall 2021, what's next for the brand in terms of sustainability activities?

In 2016, we already implemented the cosnova sustainability strategy which serves as the basis for our economic, ecological and social actions. As part of this strategy, we already managed to change our entire essence assortment to 100% vegan ingredients in 2021 and CATRICE with already 99% vegan ingredients will follow soon. In addition, we have been avoiding microplastic particles in the development of new products since 2020, and all essence and CATRICE products will be free from microplastic particles in spring 2023. Now we decided to even go one step further: As a new member of the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) we committed to develop a science-based climate strategy in cooperation with ClimatePartner by the end of 2022. Our main target is to reduce our CO2 emissions in order to contribute to the achievement of the 1.5-degree target. The main focus areas on this course will be on the increased use of recycled materials and a generally more climate-friendly design of packaging, the reduction of particularly climate-damaging transports, even greater focus on European suppliers, and innovative mobility concepts for all employees. Until we have not reached our targets yet, we decided to become climate neutral already by compensating all climate-damaging emissions caused by our company and the production of our essence and CATRICE products. 

Beauty trends change at an incredible speed thanks to digitalisation and social media outlets like Tik Tok and Instagram. Where once trends were forecast well in advance, viral looks now happen overnight or as a result of the latest hot tv show. How does Cosnova respond to this challenge and stop on top of innovation?

We have always been working on expanding our digital marketing and exploring new, innovative approaches. In this way, we are setting the strategic course for future growth. In 2021, we focused on growing our e-commerce business, connecting retailers, brands and consumers in a new way with the implementation of the Connected Beauty collaborative platform. In addition, the expansion of our social media presence on channels such as Instagram and TikTok has been very successful and we will continue to focus on new digital marketing opportunities such as social commerce, live shopping events and augmented reality tools. We also see that the trends are much more fast-moving than in the past and we are implementing this development towards "social entertainment" for our brands. For this reason, our focus this year will be on influencer marketing and content production and distribution. We are convinced that video will prevail as a format. So we will continue to focus on TikTok, but of course also on YouTube Shorts and IG Reels. Through innovative approaches, we want to continue to take on this challenge and respond to this development in the future. For us, content is the currency of the future. That is why we have strongly enlarged  our content production this year. With our own inhouse content studio, the "studio_c", we want to take the transformation from a "product first" to a "content and product first" company into our own hands and focus even more on our consumers and what inspires them. With this major project, we want to set the strategic course in 2022 to be able to react to future developments.

Finally, it has been a booming 20 years of growth for Essence Cosmetics and its sister brands L.O.V and Catrice Cosmetics, where do you see Cosnova Group in another 20 years?

We want to continue to play a key role in shaping the market over the next 20 years by offering high-quality and innovative make-up products at the best possible price. We build on our successes of recent years and continue to grow at double-digit rates by entering new markets and expanding existing markets, we see a lot of potential in Asia and Africa for example. To further drive our growing e-commerce business through the possibilities of digitalization. We have been the volume market leader in Europe since 2013, and our goal is to expand this position globally. Since our founding, we have been living our mission to "make everyone feel more beautiful". This mission will never go out of fashion and will continue for the next 20 years, complemented by new areas and experiences. So we will not only offer the best products, but also the best experience for our customers.