NEW YORK — L’Oréal’s second-quarter revenues broadly beat market expectations, registering 6.3 percent adjusted like-for-like growth.

That compares to consensus of 5.6 percent.

Group sales in the three months ended June 30 reached 11.62 billion euros. For the first half, company sales were 23.78 billion euros, up 6.5 percent on an adjusted like-for-like basis.

Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal chief executive officer, shared highlights from the six-month period, headlined by the beauty market’s dynamism.

“We’ve seen it accelerate a bit between Q2 and Q1,” he said. “So we consider the market at the end of the first half is around 4.5 [percent], where it was at 4 before. It’s true in every region, maybe with the exception of Latin America, versus last year.

“In all regions it’s holding — midsingle-digit in America, in Europe,” Hieronimus continued. “It’s positive in North Asia. It’s very dynamic double-digit in SAPMENA. And we are clearly outperforming based on two things.”

One is the acceleration of innovation. “My other definition of AI is ‘accelerated innovation,’” Hieronimus said. “We’ve had like 250 basis points of innovations in this first half, which is two-and-a-half times more than last year. So this beauty stimulus plan that I had called upon is really happening, and the products we launched last year are doing great. The ones we’ve added in the first half — and that’s where we made a difference, whether [it’s] CeraVe sun care, Armani Power of You fragrance, the new hair care of Elseve — they’re all doing great.”

He explained innovation makes a major difference to both animate the market, but also to outperform the very buoyant beauty category. “So you have to be at the forefront of innovation,” Hieronimus said.

Number two is e-commerce domination. “We are growing at plus 18 percent in e-commerce, when the market is like somewhere around 9 or 10,” he said. “So almost twice the market and gaining share. This is due to our digital expertise, the way we work on influencers and how we manage to leverage the different platforms.”

Hieronimus said L’Oréal made lots of progress on TikTok and continues to thrive on Amazon.

In terms of P&L, the group has managed, despite the impact of tariffs, to slightly increase its gross margin by 10 basis points. “And a good control of our SG&A has allowed us to invest more in media behind these innovations,” Hieronimus said, adding that has accelerated the company’s growth.

L’Oréal is gaining in all divisions and all regions. “That’s something I’m excited about,” Hieronimus said. 

He believes that such dynamism will continue in the second half for the beauty market and company, and remains “ambitious and confident that we can have a good momentum.”

When asked about the impact of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East for L’Oréal in the second quarter versus the first quarter, Hieronimus said that ended up being less bad than expected.

“It cost us around a bit more than 30 million euros in top line, which was mostly travel retail and a bit of luxury local market in Dubai,” Hieronimus said. “But I would say that, both in Israel or Saudi, things went relatively back to normal. And e-commerce, by the way, helped also in that arena. So that it was manageable and in the end, at the scale of L’Oréal, something that did not really impact our growth materially on the first half.”

He said travel retail was the only disappointment for the group in the second quarter. “Clearly, travel retail in Middle East remained in negative territory; that was expected,” Hieronimus said. “But travel retail in Asia was negative, and there was a drop in traffic in Hainan.”

He envisages in the second half of 2026 turbulences in Chinese domestic airports, due to the change of operator that led to stock issues, will be resolved. Such difficulties probably benefited the local market in China, however.

“The good news for the market, but for us in particular considering our strength in luxury in China, is that the Chinese domestic beauty market confirmed its return to positive, like a low-single-digit positive,” Hieronimus said. “But it’s really on the premium side that it accelerated.”

The luxury beauty market in China was up above 6 percent, and L’Oréal Luxe invoiced at plus 10 percent in the first half. The executive said that it was very positive for L’Oréal regarding mix.

Kérastase, Yves Saint Laurent, Helena Rubinstein, Lancôme and SkinCeuticals — L’Oréal’s fastest-growing dermocosmetics label — are among the L’Oréal luxury beauty brands registering strong growth in China.

Meanwhile, the beauty mass market is dominated by domestic brands in the country.

Hieronimus said the U.S. market remains dynamic, with midsingle-digit growth. “We are gaining market share across all four divisions with different categories,” he said. “That’s what’s interesting, because mass is really gaining a lot through L’Oréal Paris and hair care, Luxe through fragrance, LDB [or L’Oréal Dermatological Beauty] is really bouncing back a lot — CeraVe, La Roche-Posay is doing phenomenal. By the way, CeraVe sun care is starting very well everywhere.”

He said the Professional Products division is doing well in the U.S., thanks to the success of hair care brands, but also SalonCentric, which has entered positive territory again. That’s important for L’Oréal, as it’s an indicator of the health of the salon business, which is probably stabilizing a lot.

Hieronimus underlined the good performance of SAPMENA. “I’m happy to see that India, which is still a small country for us, has entered the top 10 of our growth contributors,” Hieronimus said. “We are growing in sell-out.”

In India, L’Oréal’s sales are rising by 20 percent, while the beauty market there registers a 10 percent uptick. The group is in the process of acquiring the Indian brand and platform called Innovist.

“It will be both a great contributor in terms of top line, but also in terms of tech, because it’s a very effective platform,” Hieronimus said. 

On the brand front, as previously reported, in early July it was announced that L’Oréal entered into a 50-year exclusive license agreement for Gucci fragrance and beauty. Hieronimus said he was happy Kering could sign with Coty Inc. for the transfer of the license on July 1, 2027, a year earlier than its expiration date.

“It is important,” he said. “The longer it stays out there without proper care, then it’s not great for the brand. But more importantly, it allows us to start working. The big change is that from first of September we’ll have a team with a leader, with marketeers.”

Launches from the former Kering Beauté brands under L’Oréal will probably take place in 2028.

Hieronimus noted the news Tuesday that Gucci is improving on the fashion side of its business.

“It’s going to be great for us to collaborate with them now, with the Kering teams, in a very strong period of cooperation to accelerate this brand,” he said.

So far, L’Oréal has been focused on integrating the other Kering Beauté brands, including their teams, especially Creed. That brand has been growing by double-digits.

Meanwhile, Kering CEO Luca de Meo has been focused on turning Kering fashion around and negotiating with Coty on the Gucci license, so the L’Oréal-Kering joint exploration of opportunities linked to wellness and longevity have been put on pause for the short term.

“We’ll probably start talking on the back end of the year and start preparing things,” Hieronimus said. “The trend is there, the vision is there, but frankly we’ve had a few other priorities on both sides before engaging into longevity.”

But, as he reminded, inherent to longevity is ample time.

Regarding some reports that L’Oréal is only growing due to acquisitions, Hieronimus recalled over the company’s 117-year history, it has been acquiring brands and only picked up the M&A pace a bit recently.

“But what’s great is that if I look at my top-four contributors of growth in the first half, there’s one from each division, which shows that we are really firing on all cylinders, and they’re all brands that have been with us for a long time,” he said. 

Number one is L’Oréal Paris, growing by high-single-digits. Second is Kérastase, followed by La Roche-Posay and YSL.

“The most recent acquisition out of the four is Saint Laurent, which dates to 2008,” Hieronimus said. “It shows that our way of doing things, which is to acquire brands, nurture them, globalize them and keep bringing our innovation to them, is working very well,” Hieronimus said, adding it also shows the health of L’Oréal and with the four divisions running that it’s more than a luxury group, a derm group or a tech company. “We’re a bit of all of the above. We are really focusing on beauty – but beauty on steroids.” 

According to him, there is nothing new to share now regarding a potential acquisition of a stake in the Giorgio Armani Group. September is a month that could see that group begin the sale process according to the late designer’s will. It might last through the first quarter of 2027.

“As I said, we were both very honored to be mentioned in the will, alongside another historical partner EssilorLuxottica and others,” Hieronimus said. “When the family decides that it’s time to talk to us, we’ll be listening with a very open mind and a lot of consideration.”