Kopari is bringing a beachy twist to summer’s hottest category: scented body mists.
The brand, amid explosive growth, is taking its Southern Californian ethos to a new category — fragrance — on the heels of successful forays into other segments.
“We are the fastest-growing SPF brand, the top body SPF brand, and we have the top body SPF sku and the number-three body oil,” said Susan Kim, Kopari’s chief executive officer, in a nod to the 2022 launch of its SPF body oil. “We’ve seen 13 consecutive quarters of growth, and we’re just getting started.”
Related Articles
Kim didn’t comment on sales, but the brand’s gross retail sales are expected to surpass $70 million this year, per industry sources. At the time of Kopari’s 2021 rebrand, it was only expected to reach a $30 million turnover. Its investors include L Catterton, Unilever Ventures and University Growth Fund.
Next on the docket: fragrance. The brand is launching four hair and body fragrance mists, priced at $29 each, which will be launching June 18 on the brand’s website and with Ulta Beauty.
“We’ve been thinking about this for a while because it’s what consumers have been asking for,” Kim said, noting the range has been in the works for over two years. “We think about how to respond to what consumers have told us they love, and for example, they’ve wanted us to bottle up the scent of our body butter and body oil.
“We also saw this trend of consumers coming into the category in a massive way, combined with our positioning as a brand about experiential paradise found, and permanent vacay,” Kim continued.
As reported, body mist sales tripled last year, with brands like Sol de Janeiro translating their products’ virality into sustained momentum at retail. It’s that buzz that Kim is betting on.
The names — and their olfactive profiles — play to the brand’s sunny sensibilities. Two of them currently scent Kopari products: Kaanapali Coast is the same fragrance in the brand’s body butter, and Seychelles Sands comes from the body oil.
Kaanapali Coast has notes of vanilla and sweet coconut; Malibu Peach features mango, peach and pineapple; Marbella Bloom highlights neroli, bergamot and white flowers, and Seychelles Sands homes in on cream and vanilla.
“They’re all evocative of different destinations that we want consumers to think about while they’re spraying down their hair, their bodies, lockers, backpacks, bedsheets — wherever,” Kim said. “We’re string our consumer loves body mists, and they’re spraying them everywhere.”
