Beauty News: Pat McGrath Labs Launches At Ulta Beauty

Pat McGrath Labs products.

PAT MCGRATH’S BEAUTY OPERATION OF MAKEUP, PAT MCGRATH LABS HAS INKED ANOTHER RETAIL PARTHNERSHIP, THIS TIME WITH ULTA BEAUTY.

UNITED STATES — Pat McGrath Labs, which is currently distributed in Sephora and Bluemercury, is joining the Luxury at Ulta Beauty assortment, which debuted earlier this year. Select doors now have the brand’s bestsellers, and the full assortment will debut online in September.

In 2018, the brand’s sales were said to be around $60 million at retail. Thierry Maman, the brand’s global managing director, says to WWD that things have picked up since then. “We are experiencing high double-digit growth,” he said. The brand is thriving in all key markets, especially in China. “The Divine Skin Legendary Colour Balm Collection is a huge hit and has driven the brand awareness to new heights.”

A wave of new customers discovering Pat McGrath Labs is part of what’s driving the growth. “The interesting thing about the new balms is that this product has brought many new customers to the brand. We are already seeing them purchase core products like our Sublime Skin foundation and our Mothership palettes which are at a much higher price point,” Maman said.

As for partnering with Ulta, there’s no time like the present, Maman said. “We are launching in their luxury concept, 200 doors, which is aligned with our brand positioning,” he said. “Secondly, it enables us to connect with more customers nationally since we currently have a very selective distribution. It also allows us to target a new profile of customers which are largely Gen Z and suburban.”

That was part of Ulta’s rationale for launching luxury brands earlier this year. As reported, qualitative research from Ulta showed that Gen Z has a higher intent to purchase luxury products than other generations.

Known as “mother” to her over five million Instagram followers, McGrath launched the makeup line in October 2015 with Gold 001, a $40 gold, multipurpose pigment. The limited-edition product, sold in a bag full of custom sequins (standard packaging for many products in the line), sold out 1,000 units from her website in six minutes and kicked off the series of product drops that McGrath orchestrated during the lead-up to her broader collection, which made its debut in September 2017.

In 2018, we also reported that Pat McGrath Labs was valued at $1 billion dollars after receiving a $60 million minority investment from Eurazeo Brands (see it here).

Photos Credit: Courtesy of Ulta Beauty

Source: WWD