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(Image credit: Substance of Light / French Cowboy / Omad's) Share Copy link Facebook X Pinterest Share this article Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter There is no shortage of beauty brands vying for our attention. Between the seemingly endless stream of celebrity launches, viral TikTok discoveries and increasingly elaborate skincare routines, you'd be forgiven for thinking we've reached peak beauty. Do we really need another serum ? Another fragrance brand? Another product promising to revolutionise something we've been doing perfectly well for decades?
Well, occasionally, the answer is yes. Because every so often, a brand comes along that offers something that's actually innovative. It could be as simple as solving an everyday frustration, bringing a fresh outlook to a familiar category, or, sometimes, a product that makes you wonder why no one thought of it before.
Finding these brands, however, is becoming something of an art form. With so much noise surrounding new launches, separating true innovation from clever marketing tactics isn't always easy. And while a viral moment might generate thousands of sales, it doesn't necessarily make for a brilliant product—or a business with any real staying power.
It's something I was particularly interested in discussing with Catherine Spindler, President of Sephora Europe and the Middle East, ahead of SEPHORiA's London debut. After all, few retailers have quite the same vantage point when it comes to identifying the brands that might become tomorrow's household names.
"The beauty market is undoubtedly more competitive than ever," she tells me. "The challenge for brands is to offer something genuinely meaningful in a crowded landscape. Virality can be an incredibly powerful introduction to a brand, and social media has transformed how quickly new products and founders can reach consumers. But awareness and long-term success are not the same thing."
Instead, she points to repeat purchases, consistent product performance and the ability to innovate beyond an initial hero product as more meaningful indicators of longevity.
"We are seeing innovation across several areas, from advanced technologies that help us better understand individual skin needs to next-generation ingredients, new beauty rituals and a more holistic approach to self-care."
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Which brings me to three particularly interesting names: Substance of Light , French Cowboy and Omad's . All relatively young European businesses, all approaching established beauty categories from rather different angles, and all recently recognised at the inaugural Sephora Prize, selected from 150 applicants.
Here is why they're worth having on your radar.
If there's one skincare mantra we've all heard a million times, it's to wear SPF every day. And to reapply it throughout the day. The trouble is that while the advice is perfectly reasonable, the practicalities are somewhat less appealing, particularly if you're wearing a full face of makeup .
The French brand Substance of Light is trying to solve this problem. Founded in 2021 by Clara Nentille, the brand approaches sun protection as something that needs to fit seamlessly into everyday life, rather than requiring us to pivot our routines around it.
Its formulations combine high UV protection with skincare benefits and an emphasis on texture, but the product that really caught my attention is its spray format, designed to be reapplied over makeup, while offering adequate protection.
It's not attempting to reinvent the entire concept of sun protection. But it identifies the gap between what consumers know they should be doing and what they realistically do. And that, arguably, is where some of the most useful beauty innovation happens.
The brand took first place at the Sephora Prize, securing three years of mentoring and development support. But the underlying idea, not the accolade, makes it one to watch.
Niche perfumery has undergone something of a transformation in recent years. Once the preserve of dedicated fragrance devotees and prohibitively expensive boutiques, independent perfume houses have become increasingly prominent in mainstream beauty culture.
But with so many new fragrance brands entering the market, the definition of niche has become a little more complicated. An edgy bottle and a quirky description of sandalwood aren't necessarily enough to make a fragrance interesting.
French Cowboy, founded in 2025 by Ashley Santiago and Adrien Ollat, takes a slightly different approach, aiming to make haute parfumerie more accessible by creating scents in collaboration with personalities from the contemporary creative world. Take their Vanilla For Breakfast Eau de Parfum, created in collaboration with Mia Fall, a Paris-based French beauty influencer and academic specialising in artificial intelligence, big data and robotics. She's a self-confessed vanilla maximalist, and the fragrance features four different vanillas, each chosen for the face its extraction method reveals to create the fragrance Fall always wished existed.
Founded in Belgium in 2021 by Zoé Jadot and Julien Dupont, Omad's takes its inspiration from a homemade haircare recipe passed down by a grandmother. Its sole focus? Products designed to gradually and naturally brighten blonde hair at home.
The appeal is easy to understand. For anyone who wants to maintain or subtly boost their blonde hair without committing to a dramatic colour transformation, the prospect of gradual brightening is an attractive one.
And in an industry where more products, more steps and more complicated routines are frequently presented as progress, this hyper-focused approach feels remarkably refreshing.
Lottie Winter Beauty Director Lottie Winter is the Beauty Director at Marie Claire UK. With over a decade of beauty journalism under her belt, she brings a desire to cut through the noise and get to what really matters-- products that deliver, conversations that empower, and beauty that makes people feel like their best selves.
Source: Fashion
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