“You cannot stand still in beauty,” said L’Oréal Groupe chief executive officer Nicolas Hieronimus at the 2025 WWD Beauty Inc Awards, where he received the 2025 WWD Beauty Inc Pete Born Impact Award.
The CEO — L’Oréal’s sixth in its 116-year history — would know.
Since taking the helm in 2021, Hieronimus has furthered the French conglomerate’s position as the biggest beauty company in the world: He’s made acquisitions — including a recent 4-billion-euro transaction to acquire Kering’s beauty properties; launched the L’Oréal Circular Innovation Fund and the L’Oréal Climate Emergency Fund; furthered the company’s investments in emerging technologies and the dermaesthetics space, and more.
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And still, as the 2025 Pete Born Impact Award honoree told Beauty Inc editor in chief Jenny B. Fine during a fireside chat, he remains laser-focused on what’s ahead.
“I’m often asked, ‘what is your legacy? What trace do you want to leave?,’ and I don’t believe in traces,” said Hieronimus. “Traces, like footprints in the sand, can vanish once a wave passes. But I like the concept of movement — of beauty that moves the world.”
In order to move the world, he said, L’Oréal must understand and reflect it. This objective has led the company to deepen its presence in emerging geographies and move in lockstep with culture.
“That’s why we make acquisitions, because sometimes you have to know what you don’t know; making acquisitions through BOLD [Bold Opportunities for L’Oréal Development, the company’s venture fund] is a way for us to learn and to grow,” said Hieronimus, whose recent investments have included Omani fragrance brand Amouage and Chinese clean skin care brand, Lan.
“We’re talking about beauty technology, about dermatology, about new types of consumers. I don’t know if Elon Musk is right to say we’re going to be on Mars someday, but I’m sure if the martians want to look great, we’ll be there for them,” laughed Hieronimus. “That’s the impact we want to make at L’Oréal.”
It was roughly two years ago that L’Oréal — whose Luxe division includes Valentino Beauty, YSL Beauty and Jacquemus’ soon-to-launch beauty line, among others — became the largest luxury beauty player in the world. Now Hieronimus, who previously helmed the Luxe division, looks to steepen the company’s dominance in the category.
“We were very proud to conquer the title of worldwide number-one in luxury two years ago, and with this acquisition of Kering’s beauty assets, we’re going to broaden that lead,” said Hieronimus, adding, “I love to race in front.”
L’Oréal’s growth under Hieronimus has come even as geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty steepen around the world.
“Beauty is more important than ever,” said the honoree. “It is there to provide people with self-esteem, transformation — it’s one of the few categories that systematically grows, at the global level, higher than the GDP.”
And beauty’s playing field is growing.
“We talk about longevity, about investing in your own health and wellness; beauty is getting broader,” Hieronimus said. “What started [via BOLD] as an intention to invest in brands has ended up being more about investing in technologies. Because the world needs innovation. Beauty needs innovation — whether it’s around sustainability or new ingredients or biotech or transformative formulas.”
Hieronimus pointed to Gjosa, the Switz tech start-up L’Oréal acquired in 2024, which plans to introduce a water-saving shower head that can reduce water consumption by 60 percent.
“You have to come up with products, solutions and services that make a difference,” he said.
Maintaining the kind of scrappy and agile thinking more often associated with smaller players, Hieronimus said, has also been crucial to success.
“I’ve been at this company for 38 years; I know it’s big, I know the numbers, I have my quarterlies — but I don’t feel it’s big. We have this culture of entrepreneurship. People see us as the behemoth, and there is indeed a benefit to scale, but it has to come with agility,” said the CEO. “We are managing a best-of-both-worlds approach.”
As for how the beauty company is navigating China, the world’s second-largest beauty market, which has seen tempered growth in recent years, Hieronimus said: “[China] has been a major growth engine for more than a decade; it has stabilized, and I think it will start growing again. You feel the energy, the appetite for innovation.”
The CEO added that the country’s Double 11 shopping period this year was one of growth for L’Oréal. “L’Oréal Paris retained the number-one spot on Double 11, and we have a few other brands in the top 10. It confirms that in China, like everywhere, if you come up with exciting brands and great products, people will go for it.”
He also advised on how emerging brands can best think about emerging markets.
“You have to understand that, because beauty is cultural, every region has a different understanding of beauty,” said Hieronimus, adding that Saudi Arabia has a significant appetite for fragrance; meanwhile in South Africa, hair care is soaring. “That’s why we have different labs in different parts of the world — you have to understand the specificities of the climate and the consumers.”
It’s a task that is incumbent on every person across the org chart, he said.
“Beauty is about what’s happening now. It’s made by the younger generations, and you have to feel it. As I’m being presented ideas by my teams, if I don’t know what they’re talking about — and sometimes that happens — I L’OréalGPT it. You have to feel the vibe of the youth,” Hieronimus said.
