Operator: Welcome to the conference call regarding L'Oréal sales on 3 September 2026. The conference is about to begin. I now hand over to Ms. Eva Quiroga-Thiele. Ms. Quiroga, please go ahead.
Eva Quiroga-Thiele: Yes, thank you very much, Judith, and good evening to you all. Thank you for joining us on this call for our Q3 2026 sales. As always, I am here with Nicolas Hieronimus, our CEO.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Good afternoon.
Eva Quiroga-Thiele: Christophe Babule, our CFO.
Christophe Babule: Hello, good afternoon.
Eva Quiroga-Thiele: Laurent Schmitt, our Global Head of Corporate Finance and Financial Communications.
Laurent Schmitt: Good afternoon.
Eva Quiroga-Thiele: Nicolas will make some brief opening remarks, and we will then go straight to Q&A. Over to you, Nicolas.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Good afternoon again or good evening to you all. As you saw in our press release, we delivered an exceptional Q3. Our adjusted like-for-like growth accelerated to +7.7%. As anticipated, the global beauty market growth in Q3 stood around +5%, confirming the beauty sector's incredible resilience in challenging times. We significantly outperformed the market across the vast majority of our categories, divisions, and regions. Thanks to the success of our innovation plan, we continue to win in haircare and fragrances, and we are outperforming in skincare, a category I was not happy with last year, as you know. With the exception of Latin America, sales in all regions grew with a special shout-out to Europe and SAPMENA, our number one and two growth contributors in the quarter. I am happy to confirm the dynamism of our premium brands in China.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Regarding the rest of the year, we expect the beauty market to grow around +5%, and we will continue to outperform, albeit at a slightly more moderate rate. We will deliver on a full-year basis the promised acceleration of our top-line growth versus last year, significantly. With that, we are ready to answer your questions.
Operator: Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Please use your handset before asking your question and set your microphone on mute once you have asked your questions. The first question is from Guillaume Delmas, UBS.
Guillaume Delmas: Thank you very much, and good evening, Nicolas, Christophe, Eva, Laurent.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Hello, Guillaume.
Guillaume Delmas: Hello. Two questions for me, please. The first one on the beauty market. Nicolas, I was just wondering if you could give us a little bit of a snapshot of the beauty industry by region at end of September, early October. I appreciate it's a little bit of a crystal ball exercise at this stage, but what do you anticipate for that very important end of year season? I'm thinking Double 11 in China. I'm also thinking in Europe and France, given we're seeing some social unrest, consumers facing rising energy costs. So what would be your early assessment of this? My second question is, specifically on North Asia, where growth accelerated very nicely in the quarter, could you maybe shed some light on the drivers behind this sequential step up?
Guillaume Delmas: It doesn't seem it's down to the market, seems more down to your own performance, so wondering what's driving this. You were talking about maybe less outperformance in Q4, but in North Asia, you'll be facing a relatively favorable base of comparison in Asia travel retail. So any reason as to why at least North Asia would not accelerate further in the fourth quarter? Thank you very much.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Okay, so on the beauty market overall, the first thing to say is that it's been globally consistent in Q3 versus the H1 of the year. Slightly, we said we were shy of 5% at the end of H1. We're at 5% now, so it's more or less in the same ballpark. There's been ups and downs depending on the regions. But overall, if I take a macro point of view, and I'm thinking, of course, I cannot predict, you were talking about the events in France. There are many things that I cannot predict as it relates to the future. But overall, our perception is that the market should grow approximately 5% also in Q4. So there will be differences from one region to another, but I don't see any reason for it to slow down, nor to accelerate.
Nicolas Hieronimus: The comps on the second part of last year are overall a bit higher. You mentioned North Asia. First of all, I'll stay true on North Asia, as you know, in North Asia, the main constituents of our business there are first and foremost China, which is more than two-thirds of our business in North Asia, then travel retail. In China, even though the market slowed down a tiny bit in Q3, it remains dynamic at 9 months at somewhere between 2% and 3%, we maintain our growth rate, particularly, of course, favored by the fact that in this Chinese market, the most dynamic parts are the premium parts. At 9 months, the luxury market is mid-single digits. The dermatological market is a bit higher than that, and professional is mid-single digits. The only part that remains flattish is mass. That's favoring us.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Within these markets, the most premium brands like Helena Rubinstein, SkinCeuticals, or Kérastase are really driving the growth. We have been really outperforming the market in sellout. Then, of course, and that's why I was there's travel retail, and here the main difference is that we, in travel retail, we had a very positive Hainan. Mainland China remained a bit negative, and that's probably one of the things that you won't see in Q4. The operators of mainland China, you remember, they were in difficulty. Now they're starting to operate again. We had to repipe them with a little bit of inventory. That's something that we won't have in Q4. The Korean market was stable, and there I have to say we remain carefully prudent because the acceleration is not totally clean for me, so we didn't push our brands there.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Overall, the only part where we have been building overall when I talk about the Q4 in general, we've been preparing for the holiday season for Q4. Q4 is sellout time, and therefore we piped our new launches in fragrances, and we prepared for this moment of the year, on which we are very ambitious in sellout. We have the launches and all the new fragrances are off to a good start. We have the fuel to support them. You are asking about Double 11, which every year starts a bit sooner, so we anticipated it a little bit, but it's off to a good start. We are on track with our objectives. The other thing you won't find in Q4 is that we had a very good sun season, which obviously is not going to repeat itself in Q4.
Nicolas Hieronimus: We intend, in the end, to continue to outperform the market. We are ambitious, and we have the plans to do it. There's a few one-offs in Q4, which doesn't change the outperformance in sorry, a few one-offs in Q3, which doesn't change the outperformance versus the market. That's why we remain confident for the end of the year. Does that answer your question?
Guillaume Delmas: It does. Just a very quick follow-up. Would you be able to quantify this one-off in Q3?
Nicolas Hieronimus: Not really, because it's a mixed bag of many things. I think what you have to do is just take into account that Q3 is a lot the anticipation of Q4. There is nothing really major to quantify. Just that the comps overall are a bit higher for us in sellout, and therefore, we are careful with our comments on Q4.
Guillaume Delmas: Thank you very much.
Operator: The next question is from Olivier Nicolai, Goldman Sachs.
Olivier Nicolaï: Bonsoir, Nicolas, Christophe, Laurent, Eva. I got two questions, please. First, you mentioned Mixa being rolled out to other countries. What is your ambition for this brand? Could you give us more details on this rollout, and how does the distribution compare in Europe versus L’Oréal Paris or Kiehl’s? My second question is more specific about fragrances. It is clearly not about luck, but you are significantly outperforming the category. What is your expectation for the key Christmas period, whether it is in the US, in China, where it looks like fragrances are really picking up, but also in Europe, which has been accelerating despite a fairly weak consumer environment?
Nicolas Hieronimus: Well, on Mixa, frankly, it is really a great success story. It is still a relatively small brand, but over the last couple of years, it has been growing at a compounded growth of around +20%. It is mostly exclusively European. France is roughly half of the business, and we have extended to DACH, to Poland, to the UK. We are progressively rolling out. We are studying a few other countries, of course. So far, everywhere it is being launched, it is successful. The good news is that it does not cannibalize any of our other brands. It takes more on competition. It is really one of the tools for our Consumer Products Division to really accelerate in skincare. We have Mixa in Europe. We have Dr.G, which, as you know, is the number 1 skincare brand in Korea that we are progressively rolling out.
Nicolas Hieronimus: We just relaunched it in China, relaunched it in Southeast Asia. As we speak, we are launching it in the US with first an online launch and then progressive brick-and-mortar expression, so expansion. Dr.G is also going to be a good story. We have Garnier and Thayers in skincare. Garnier is really doing good in Southeast Asia, and Thayers, which is a small American brand, but growing +20%. Our skincare is a bit more regional, except Garnier and L’Oréal Paris, of course, but these three brands, Mixa, Dr.G, and Thayers are a good combination to try to win and to win in skincare, where we have globally accelerated, I must say, a lot thanks to the great performance of Derma, which is really firing on all its engines. Fragrances, the market is globally growing mid-single digits.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Indeed we are really on a run with our fragrances. We are only in luxury fragrances, of course, but we are growing overall year to date, close to double digit. I have to say, we are adding blockbusters to blockbusters. We have the La Vie est Belle or Libre number 1 fragrance in the world today. Prada with Paradigme and Paradoxe are doing great. The new ones we have launched, and I am thinking about particularly Armani I Will male fragrance is doing phenomenal. The two Valentino Vendetta are doing good also. Overall, we are of course very ambitious for the holiday season. We have set money to advertise. I must say that I am very happy with the performance of Creed, which is also growing double digits. As I said last time, it fills a gap in our premium-end fragrances.
Nicolas Hieronimus: We just launched a new fragrance called Iris De Bonheur, which is doing great, and that is also contributing to our overall fragrance performance, both in male and female. I will not, of course, give you numbers, but the market is dynamic everywhere. By definition, it slowed down a little bit during summer because of the heat. We sold a lot of sun care and a bit less fragrance, but we are now ready for a great holiday season.
Olivier Nicolaï: Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Warren Ackerman at Barclays.
Warren Ackerman: Yeah. Good evening, Nicolas, Christophe, Eva, and Laurent. It is Warren here at Barclays. Hopefully, you can hear me. Yep.
Warren Ackerman: I have got a couple. Firstly, I guess the only wrinkle this quarter, if we can find any wrinkles, is Latin America, where you talk about a commercial issue in Mexico. I think it is in consumer. Can you explain what that was and how we should think about Q4? Because I guess if that time was normal, like mid-singles, the organic growth would have been even higher, maybe like mid-eights. I just want to try to get clarity on that.
Warren Ackerman: Secondly, on SAPMENA, it is a really good number this quarter. Last quarter, you told us Vietnam was up 50%, India was up. It looks like the acceleration is becoming more broad-based.
Warren Ackerman: Can you maybe just talk about that on the go forward? Finally, just on the competitive dynamics you are seeing, are you seeing any stronger competition on the premium space, especially from your big US listed peer? I am thinking about
Warren Ackerman: as premium skincare kind of recovers. Thank you.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Okay. First, Latin America. Latin America, I am obviously very unhappy with the performance, which is, frankly, first of all, it is really a tale of two cities because we are flying in Brazil. We are growing in double digits, 2.5 times faster than the market, recruiting from door to door, which is frankly the role we were on in Mexico the previous years, and it continues in Brazil. Great performance in hair care in particular, in all divisions. Mexico was frankly a perfect storm. Not only has the market softened, but it is still softened to mid-single digits. In the greater scheme of things, it is not a negative market. But we have had a perfect storm.
Nicolas Hieronimus: First of all, we have had, as I mentioned in the previous call, major inventory issues in makeup because, as I said, Mexico was supplied by a North American warehouse, which was in the middle of the preparation of our famous IT transformation, NEO. Basically, Mexico did not get makeup products for some time. At the same time, we had indeed commercial issues with one of our big customers there that changed its policy back and forth between everyday low price and promotion. I have to say, my teams there did not handle it properly. So we have been performing under our peers on that quarter in the market. I do not foresee a major improvement in Mexico in Q4 because these things take a little bit of time to fix. But it will be, I think, a good momentum for 2027.
Nicolas Hieronimus: It will be both a good comparative and a team that hopefully has learned from both their bad luck and for the few mistakes they made. Hopefully they will be inspired by what Brazil is doing. Also our Colombia, Ecuador, and Andean region is doing good too. So it is just really this Mexican wound. I love Mexico because I have been the CEO there, and I am going there in the beginning of the year to make sure that 2027 is going to be a great year for Mexico, despite a slower market. SAPMENA, I am indeed very happy because the third quarter was at +20% overall, which is a great performance. Indeed, I think first of all, the market has remained very dynamic, contrary to Latin America. It is a market that is up double digits. We have really gained share there.
Nicolas Hieronimus: We are like 1.6 or 1.7 times the market, outperforming across all divisions, gaining share in all countries. It is true that we had Vietnam doing good, but Thailand has accelerated. Indonesia has been, for me, an important turnaround because this was one of the countries where we were struggling a little bit on the digital space, where a lot of indies were really out-competing us on TikTok. As we do all the time, when we are being challenged, we observe, we learn, we put the means, and we have structured our content production to be really competitive on the social platforms of Indonesia. That has allowed us to accelerate very significantly the growth in Indonesia. As I told you, indeed, India, where I was just a couple of weeks ago, is doing great turnaround there, both in terms of teams quality.
Nicolas Hieronimus: We create for India much more than we did before. We are accelerating in commerce with a focus on quick commerce, which is an important part of the e-commerce market there. The market has been a bit better than what we hoped in the Middle East despite the crisis. So very ambitious to continue on the last quarter on SAPMENA and a bit patient, but not for too long as it relates to Mexico for next year. As far as the competition, I am not going to comment particularly on competition. I would say that if you think about premium skincare, really the growth or the acceleration of premium skincare is mainly coming from North Asia. It is really a China phenomenon, and part of it is Domestic market where we are doing great. Helena Rubinstein is growing in high double digits. SkinCeuticals is growing very strongly.
Nicolas Hieronimus: There is also travel retail, where, as always, we are very careful on what we sell in this channel. But the biggest part of the growth of the skincare market overall is more driven by the Dermatological Beauty at all price points, whether CeraVe, La Roche-Posay, or SkinCeuticals, they are all growing strongly. So I am not concerned, particularly with any specific competitor. They are all valuable competitors, and we like competition.
Warren Ackerman: That is great, Nicolas. Thank you.
Nicolas Hieronimus: You are welcome.
Operator: The next question is from Callum Elliott, Bernstein.
Callum Elliott: Hi there. Thank you for taking the questions.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Hello.
Callum Elliott: Can I ask you about aesthetics, please?
Callum Elliott: Can you talk a bit about what you have learned so far from your acquisitions of the clinic stakes? How is the category interacting with the topical skincare industry? How are your brands? Are they seeing enhanced benefits from your dominance of that channel?
Callum Elliott: My second question is a direct follow-up. It seems like from what we can see, you have started offering SkinCeuticals treatments through some Space NK stores.
Callum Elliott: Maybe I would describe it as light aesthetics.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Yes
Callum Elliott: If I can call it that.
Callum Elliott: How are you thinking about that? Is that just a small scale experiment, or do you think your brands can travel into aesthetics organically? Thank you.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Well, to start with the aesthetics world, you've seen the publication of Galderma's results, which were very positive and aesthetics were part of the performance with a double-digit growth. And of course, we're happy about it as a shareholder. But also we continue to see both through this partnership as well as through the investment we've made in chains of clinics in China and the US. We're seeing, and that's very interesting, we're learning from what are the consumers wanting, what type of procedures they are doing, and what type of treatments they require, and at-home product they require to take with. And a brand like SkinCeuticals, which is doing really great and is one of the brands that is, for me, one of the billionaire brands.
Nicolas Hieronimus: It's growing double digit, and it's clearly benefiting from both the very tight and close relationship with derms, but also from these, I would say, investments because we are developing specific products that fit. We call that integrative medicine. So we develop products that are designed to work alongside procedures or after procedures or before procedures. And it is indeed very beneficial. So it's a great combination. We know that people that go through aesthetics spend more on skincare, both because they're usually a bit wealthier, but also because they invest more in their skin. We also see, by the way, which is a very important phenomenon for us, the rise of the use of GLP-1 is having an impact on beauty consumption and skincare consumption in particular.
Nicolas Hieronimus: We have products in SkinCeuticals, but also in Kiehl’s that have been designed to work alongside and complement GLP-1 and its side effects on skin sagging or other things like that. So it is very integrated. As far as the Space NK spas, it's not very new. In every country where we can do it, we have cabins. If you go to China, we have cabins of SkinCeuticals in our stores. We have cabins of Helena Rubinstein in our department stores. And wherever there are spas where people want to have treatments that are not indeed injections, they can have treatments with our products that are usually a combination of our formulas with devices, electric tools, et cetera. So it is not specifically new.
Nicolas Hieronimus: It's always been part of the model of these premium brands because our most loyal consumers are those who have the experience of the application in the hands of your beautician, not necessarily a dermatologist. And that's the case for SkinCeuticals. But also, as I said, for brands like Helena Rubinstein.
Callum Elliott: Thank you.
Operator: The next question is from Celine Pannuti at J.P. Morgan.
Céline Pannuti: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on North Asia. Could you talk a bit about. You said the Chinese market was 2% to 3%. Does it mean that it has accelerated in Q3? When you say you grew three times as fast as the market, are you mentioning something like high single digits in China in Q3? Is that sell-in or sell-out that you are mentioning? Just to finalize on North Asia, I am getting to around 15% travel retail performance. Does that make sense? Are we still expecting, as nevertheless, I understand that you have had a sell-in into Mainland China travel retail, but what are you expecting for the fully owned travel retail Asia? That is my first question. My second question is on.
Nicolas Hieronimus: It is the wrong first question.
Céline Pannuti: Yeah. It's North Asia. The second one is going to be another big one, is the acceleration on Derma and Professional, where they both accelerated. Is that sell-in, or is this sellout, and which regions drove this acceleration for each of them? Thank you.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Okay. North Asia. Yes, I told you that the market YTD was between 2% and 3%, and it was at 3% at the end of H1. So actually the market, because of just the comp, because it had rebounded very strongly last year in Q3, so the comp of Q3 was a bit harder. So actually the market was a tiny bit slower in Q3. We didn't change our growth rhythm, which in sellout is indeed mid to high single digit. So we are doing good, and as I said, it's mostly driven by the premium end of our catalog. So Luxury, Kérastase, SkinCeuticals, these brands are doing particularly well. So, of course, we are entering Double 11.
Nicolas Hieronimus: As I said earlier, right now we're on track with our plan, and that's as much as we can say, but the trends are consistent with what has happened so far in the year. So we've heard a lot of debates about China. It's true that our products are more affordable than some of the harder or higher priced luxury, and consumers are indulging in them. Of course, they're looking for the big events of the year to buy some of these products with a nice promotion. As far as travel retail is concerned, the good news overall is that because of both comparatives and the history, the market has turned positive in Q3 globally. Here I'm talking global. Still negative in Asia and in North Asia, but less negative, mid-single digit, but positive overall because it has strongly accelerated in Europe.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Middle East was okay, not fabulous, but okay. Americas was positive too. So we believe the market will be positive. There again, as I said, this is the part where we had the sell-in ahead of sellout because there was a transition of retailer in Asia, in Americas, and we pipe a little bit of product. So we're at +10% in sell-in in travel retail, which is for a sellout that was more low to mid-single digit. So there's a bit of extra inventory there. That's about the only place there is. So, I guess, the Q4 in sellout for travel retail should be positive. So our objective, as we said, is to finish. I think the Q4 for travel retail should be probably around the slightly positive or flattish, and we intend to continue to slightly outperform it. That's for North Asia.
Nicolas Hieronimus: I hope I covered all the points of your question. I've tried.
Céline Pannuti: Excellent. Yes, thank you.
Nicolas Hieronimus: As far as LDB and PPD performance, frankly, they are doing great everywhere, with the exception for LDB of Latin America, because it's also impacted a little bit by the slowdown in Mexico. But the division, the market of Derma remains very dynamic, and it's close to +10, so it is really the part of the market that's growing. By the way, I think that in all these procedures and people, they are using more dermatological skincare. Our division is really one and a half time that market in sellout with, I would say, the three biggest brands, La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, and SkinCeuticals, the three of them growing double digit. So we are very happy, of course, of the comeback of CeraVe. The one that's the fastest is La Roche-Posay, which is flying everywhere.
Nicolas Hieronimus: As you know, in the US, it had expanded in the end of Q2 to Walmart, and it's doing great there with no cannibalization of other channels. So frankly, no specific regions. What I have to say is that LDB, and that's probably the one thing that you didn't have before, has had a fabulous summer because it was a very hot summer and a sunny one. On top, this is the moment when we launched CeraVe sun care in Europe mostly. There was one SKU in North America. Clearly, we had a really excellent summer. I think L'Oréal was probably at +20 in sun care.
Laurent Schmitt: Yeah, that is why it is coming back to where the growth has been really the most visible or the acceleration is really Europe because of what Nicolas Hieronimus was saying, the sun care season was extremely good. Also SAPMENA because there is a conquest mode that is
Nicolas Hieronimus: Yeah
Laurent Schmitt: still going very strongly. We were in India just a few weeks ago, and I can tell you that the teams are doing a great job there to accelerate the growth.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Yeah, that is one of the countries where CeraVe, India is one of the countries where CeraVe is still a baby brand, but growing fast and expanding to new cities. We have launched La Roche-Posay also in India, a bit more expensive, but the two working together is good. As far as Professional, first of all, the market has accelerated from 2025, but it continues to accelerate. Everybody has realized, maybe we have talked too much about it on our calls, but our hair care was getting really interesting. Our Professional division has been growing twice the speed of that market. There, of course, Kérastase is phenomenal, but brands like Redken are doing great, so is Matrix.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Hair care is driving the growth, but the good news, and probably that is also one of the small differences compared to the beginning of the year, is that the salon market is a bit more positive, and our SalonCentric business, which we continue to develop to serve particularly independent stylists, is growing. I think it is at +8 or something like that. If somebody can check that number for me. But, has become the number one distributor in America. We have acquired a couple of small distributors in Canada, and we see that there is an appetite for hair care and hair color, which has turned positive, slight, moderately, but has turned positive for Professional. So overall, good situation in hair care.
Nicolas Hieronimus: And one news I am happy to share because we had a compilation at H1 is that thanks to the combined strength of PPD, CPD, and Derma with dermocosmetics, we have become the number one hair care group in the world from a number 2 position, like 3 years ago. So, the combined effort of these three divisions is really paying off. Christophe, I see you looking at numbers. Anything you want to add on Professional?
Christophe Babule: Well, yes. So, when I look at PPD division by key regions, one of the key driver of the growth, as you know, is Kérastase. In that sense, Europe has been doing extremely well. I see a very strong growth in Europe compared to previous quarters. The same, of course, in North Asia because of the strength there of our premium brands. This has been-
Nicolas Hieronimus: Redken and Matrix in America.
Christophe Babule: Redken and Matrix.
Céline Pannuti: Excellent.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Voilà, Celine.
Operator: The next question is from Sarah Simon, Morgan Stanley.
Sarah Simon: Yes, you will be pleased to hear I have only one question. It is quite short.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Depends on the length of the question.
Sarah Simon: How many subclauses it has. No, it is really a question about how you are driving the growth. You obviously stepped up the beauty stimulus plan in H2 of last year. We saw it accelerate in H1. I am just wondering how we should be thinking about marketing costs in H2. Should we expect this to accelerate as well? Thanks.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Well, you should expect it to remain consistent. The good thing in our P&L is that considering our gross margin, and I would say the rigor we have put into control of SG&A, when there is a strong top-line growth, it generates few capacities. So we will be investing. I have not looked exactly in terms of percentage points whether it is going to be slightly higher or slightly below, but we have what it takes to support all our brands in the end of the year. As far as maybe a broader comment on that, this is really one of the areas where AI is changing the game more and more for us. We will talk about this in one of our CMDs. AI is helping us two ways. One, in the allocation of our media to the right channels, in the right formats.
Nicolas Hieronimus: That is the BETIQ tool that we are using. So we are getting more bangs for our bucks, and that is a lot thanks to our data and AI. At the same time, it is helping us in terms of content creation to meet the, I have to say, hypertrophic needs of the different social networks and platforms. I was telling you about our acceleration in Indonesia, in a world which is very, very digital and where one of the recipes to win is to have more content, more pieces of content on your brand. AI helps us generate multiple variations of content, plus, of course, the use of influencers in this country. So we can do more for the same amount of money, more bangs, or if we wanted, we could reduce the amount of money.
Nicolas Hieronimus: But right now, I think we are on a, I would say, on a winning streak, and we want to continue fueling it in the last quarter of the year. In money time, as I said, Q4 is sell-out time, so for sell-outs, we will have what it takes to support our brands.
Sarah Simon: Obviously I lied about only having one question, but can I add a subclause to that? Which is, given the incremental gross margin on all of these incremental sales and the fact you are delivering growth that is much higher than expected, if you are not going to step up marketing intensity, is it reasonable to think that the 20 to 30 basis points kind of rule of thumb no longer applies?
Nicolas Hieronimus: No, it is not a good assumption.
Sarah Simon: Okay.
Nicolas Hieronimus: It is not a good assumption because our priority has always been and always will be to fuel our growth. As you heard, our brands are historic brands who are growing, and I am very happy to see that in our top four or five contributors, you have got brands like L’Oréal Paris, which is our top number one contributor, Kérastase, La Roche-Posay, and all these brands are self-generating their growth. But we also have new brands. Prada is in our top 10. It needs to be fueled. We have Medik8, which I have not talked about, in skincare, which is growing in the 50 or 60. All these brands need fuel. So I would rather, if you accept it, I would rather stick to my margin habits and fuel the top line, and therefore, in the end, deliver greater value.
Sarah Simon: Perfect. Thanks a lot.
Operator: The last question is from Jeff Stent, BNP Paribas.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Hello, Jeff.
Jeff Stent: Hey, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. First one is just really housekeeping. If you could give a feel for the split of growth between volume, price, and mix in the quarter. The second one is, wherever I go now, I am bumping into a South Korean skincare shop. They almost seem to be exponentially growing. I just wondered if you could comment on that and how you think about that phenomenon from a L'Oréal perspective. Thank you.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Yeah. Okay. I let Christophe answer to you on the-
Christophe Babule: Yes, on the volume growth, your question is for Q3 or for the YTD?
Jeff Stent: Yes, for the quarter.
Christophe Babule: Okay. This quarter, we had a very well-balanced growth between volume and value. By the way, we see the growth in volume accelerating, which is pretty good news because it's what was the objective. I can tell you more precisely that volume is a little bit more than half the total growth.
Jeff Stent: That's great. Thank you.
Christophe Babule: The growth is visible in all divisions.
Nicolas Hieronimus: The great thing for us is that all four divisions are growing in volume. CPD and LDB with CeraVe are expected to do it, but it is also true for Professional, with a lot of consumers buying professional haircare, as well as for Luxury with fragrances in particular. K-beauty, first of all, the boom is real. First of all, in all the numbers you see here and there, that is not the stores you are bumping into, but K-beauty is also the Korean vendors that supply not only the Korean brands but also some of our brands. We are the worldwide kings of cushions, and the YSL Cushion is a smashing hit in the US, which is interesting because the West was not so far interested in cushions, and that is a product which is a Korean beauty product with a partnership with a local vendor.
Nicolas Hieronimus: I signed recently an MoU with Cosmax, which is the number 1 Korean vendor. As far as brands are concerned, it is indeed really growing in skincare. They are innovative, they are affordable, they are fast-growing. Indeed, I think it is probably like a 30% growth on average. They are still a small part of the market in skincare. Globally, it is probably all brands put together, 3% to 4% of the skincare market. But it is a phenomenon, and that is why we acquired two Korean brands. We have 3CE, Style Nanda, which is the number 1 Korean makeup brand in the world and which we are rolling out quite successfully in Southeast Asia. That is part of the SAPMENA makeup win. As I said earlier, that is also the reason why we have acquired Dr.G.
Nicolas Hieronimus: The only thing that this Korean wave has spurred into me is the fact that when we, I would say the rollout plan we had on Dr.G was, I would say smooth, and starting progressively from the East to the West, I have asked everybody to really gear up and go faster because it is a speed game. That is why if you are in the US today, you would see Dr.G on TikTok Shop, and we are launching it also à la Korean. It is going to be an interesting ride. But the brand is already doing very well in Southeast Asia. The big play is to see whether we can also surf on that Korean wave in the West, and that is one of the objectives of Dr.G.
Jeff Stent: Okay. Thank you very much, and have a good evening.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Thank you. Thank you, Jeff.
Operator: That was the last question. Thank you very much, all of you, for joining us. And see you next time in February.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Bye.
Christophe Babule: Thank you. Bye.
Nicolas Hieronimus: Good evening.
Operator: Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you all for your participation, and you may now disconnect.
