What is the history of Sephora? By Jaya

If you have ever been to Sephora, you would know that it is huge and filled with cosmetics and perfumes. You also know that you can try the products on. What if you were told that wasn’t always true? When did that change? Who founded Sephora? Who owns Sephora? How many Sephora stores are there? What is the history of Sephora?

Buy Before You Try

Imagine being surrounded by walls and walls full of cosmetics free for you to sample. You find the best perfume in the whole world. You try it on and it’s perfect. You were very satisfied with your purchase. If Dominique Madonnuad hadn’t opened Shop 8 and changed the rules about buy before you try, you could have gone home and when you tried the perfume on it smelled nothing like you thought it would,leaving you unhappy. When Dominique opened Shop 8, he put his cosmetics and perfumes out in the open for people to try, touch, smell, and explore. This means that Dominique Madonnuad changed the rules allowing more people to be satisfied with what they bought.

The Founding of Sephora

The founder of Sephora, a store for cosmetics, is Dominique Madonnuad. In 1969, Dominique opened Shop 8, in Limoges France. Shop 8 was his first unique perfumery. A perfumery is the business or action of making or selling perfumes. Then, in 1979 Dominique’s concept of try before you buy became a success with the women, so a dozen more Shop 8 stores were opened. In 1993, Dominique bought Sephora. The first official Sephora was in France.

Sephora’s Stores

Sephora is all around the world. 2,300. That’s how many Sephora stores there are in 33 countries. 360 of the Sephora shops are just in the North America! The first US store was opened in New York, 1998. The first Canada store opened in Toronto, 2004. With so many stores you can only assume that Sephora has a lot of employees. Sephora has about 25,000 employees. Can you imagine that?

Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy

LVMH, the current owner of Sephora, is the only group in the world that has the 5 major groups of luxury. They present wines and spirits, fashion and leather goods, perfumes and cosmetics, watches and jewelry, and selective retailing. On LVMH’s website, it says that, “LVMH currently employs 125,000 people across the world”. Compared to that Sephora’s amount of employees seems like nothing. In 2015, they had reported sales of 35.7 billion euros which is $54,297,204,221.93 in singapore dollars. This shows that LVMH is a very successful business.

Sephora for Both Men and Women

Sephora sells seven types of product. They sell products from these categories, skin care, color, fragrance, body, smile care, hair care, and cosmetics. The Singapore Sephoras sell products from around 175 brands. From Acqua Di Parma to NARS to Smashbox. Sephora doesn’t stop at women’s products they also have men’s products. According to Mr. Soliz, a makeup artist, “At Sephora, the makeup areas are the least frequented by men, whose preferred habitat is the fragrance section, followed by the shaving and skin-care areas,”. This tells us that Sephora supports many brands, some of which are for men.

Sephora lets you roam around, free to explore any product you please. Whereas, at a department store it would be harder to have the same freedom you have at Sephora. Sephora satisfies all your senses for men and women. Also, you can have a little fun while you’re at it.

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Created with images by JeepersMedia - "Sephora" • nromagna - "Rossetti" • dandeluca - "sephora-ad-2"

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