Beauty

Beauty's Luxury Baby Boom

The so-called Sephora tweens may have set the beauty-verse a twitter with their predilection for anti-aging skin-care and the like, but an increasing number of European luxury brands are targeting a cohort even younger: toddlers.

As European beauty editor Jennifer Weil reports this week, brands like Dior, Hermès and Dr. Barbara Sturm are increasingly introducing fragrances and even skin-care for babies and young children. With sophisticated formulations and eye-popping prices—a 50-ml. bottle of Cabriole by Hermès is 100 euros while Baby Dior Cleansing Foam costs 85 euros—this is not your No More Tears baby shampoo of yore. Still, as Weil reports, a growing market has developed, particularly in China, where status-obsessed parents are helping to drive double-digit increases at Bonpoint’s beauty business, to take just one example.

Elsewhere this week, senior editor Kathryn Hopkins looks at the implications of the Saks/Neimans merger for beauty, while Noor Lobad breaks down New York’s Botox scene. Turns out that’s being driven by youth culture, too, with Certainly Health’s telling WWD, “There’s never been as many young people getting botox as there are now.” — Jenny B. Fine, editor in chief, Beauty Inc