“Our strength lies in identifying white spaces and creating new, meaningful and culturally relevant brands,” says Jain.
December 23, 2024
Piyush Jain is the CEO of Maesa, one of the world’s largest beauty incubator in mass. Maesa has launched brands in hair care, fragrances, bath & body and other categories. Prior to joining Maesa, Jain was the CEO at Hand in Hand. Before that he worked at Unilever for more than 20 years —across beauty, hair and personal care categories. In his most recent role at Unilever, he served as global brand vice president for beauty and personal Care. Piyush previously ran the North America hair brand portfolio. In a first for Unilever, he founded and incubated the award-winning, purpose-driven brand, Love Beauty & Planet. During his career with the personal care giant, he built a track record of success, leading diverse and iconic brands including Dove, Lux, Suave, TreSemmé and Nexxus.
HAPPI: What are your predictions of the trends shaping the future of beauty and retail?
Piyush Jain: Barriers to entry are coming down, while barriers to scale are going up.
Beauty has always been driven by innovation – new brand launches, new products and new ways of meeting consumer needs. The beauty consumer is always looking for something new, better and different. Over the last decade this has resulted in the entry of many new and independent beauty brands. Today it is easier than ever to enter the beauty market, due to factors like the rise of e-commerce, social media marketing and easily accessible manufacturing options. This has significantly reduced the capital and expertise required to launch a beauty brand. However, for all the launches in beauty only about 10% of brands were able to significantly scale in the first five years post launch. While the barriers to entry are coming down, the barriers to scale are continuously going up and will increase even more. While it is easy to launch, it is hard to survive and almost rare to thrive. At Maesa, we focus on understanding unmet consumer needs and creating brands that serve a unique, differentiated purpose. Before we launch a new brand, we ensure that the brand has the right to exist and has potential for scale. In 2025, we project two of our brands launched in the past three years to reach $100 million in retail sales and two others to cross $50 million in sales.
Redefining value – premiumization of beauty. Beauty consumers today are more discerning than ever, they demand high quality brands and products and are willing to pay the “right price” for them. Consumers want brands that deliver the functional promise of the product category, the sensorial joy of using a beauty product and the emotional fit to their lifestyle and image of themselves. This has resulted in high growth in the masstige segment and continued premiumization in the beauty category. At Maesa, we’re committed to democratizing beauty by providing prestige beauty and wellness products at attainable price points.
Omnichannel integration. In a competitive beauty market, it’s essential to not only offer the product that meets unmet consumer needs but also reach consumers where they are. Therefore, by understanding consumers’ shopping behavior beauty brands can elevate consumer engagement and foster long-lasting brand loyalty. The integrated approach of offline and online channels will contribute to the brand’s sustained success in a competitive market. At Maesa, we continue building strong relationships with our retail partners— through brick-and-mortar and online distribution, while expanding into digitally native marketplaces, such as Amazon and TikTok Shop.
Continued rapid growth of wellness and fragrance categories. We will continue to see consumers place more importance on self-care. In a dynamic world where external stress continues to rise, consumers are looking for accessible wellness solutions and this will only grow in the future.
Fragrance as a category has seen explosive growth in the post pandemic years and I don’t see it slowing down any time soon. We at Maesa are proud of our fragrance heritage and our portfolio of brands – Fine’ry, Mix Bar, Being Frenshe and Koze Place – all of which are coming up with new and exciting fragrances in 2025.
HAPPI: Tell me about Maesa’s beauty brands and why you consider them front runners in innovation and disruption in the beauty industry?
Piyush Jain: At Maesa, our strength lies in identifying white spaces and creating new, meaningful and culturally relevant brands. It comes from deep understanding of the constant changing needs of the consumer, and it allows us to create beauty brands that are newer, better, different, and more desirable.
Consumer intimacy is at the heart of our innovation agenda— knowing what the consumer needs and wants and providing products and beauty solutions that they must have. This is what drives Maesa’s team of beauty innovators. Our portfolio of brands reflects this vision. For example, when Kristin Ess Hair launched in 2016, it was the first and only haircare brand in the mass channel created with a female hairstylist, in a sea of brands created by male stylists. Eight years later, Kristin Ess remains the only masstige haircare brand created by a female stylist.
As a digitally native brand, Hairitage by Mindy McKnight has been disrupting the beauty space within social media. For example, earlier this year, the brand tapped into its TikTok following for “You got a deal!” challenge that helped it drive unprecedented community engagement and a 10% increase in followers in just a week.
In 2022, we entered the wellness category with Being Frenshe, a brand that we developed with Ashley Tisdale, and it’s been one of the leading brands at Target since launch. The idea for the brand came from Ashley’s own mental health and wellness journey, and that authenticity has been resonating with the Target shoppers. We built the brand on the power of small daily rituals, simplifying wellness for consumers, and incorporating a proprietary MoodScience Scent Technology that provides unique sensorial experiences. Today, the Being Frenshe Hair, Body and Linen Mist – an innovative product that transcends traditional category boundaries – sells 1 unit every 15 seconds and is our best-selling product.
Fine’ry is another great example of disruption. It’s a line of artisanal fragrances rooted in the craft of fine perfumery that is on a mission to democratize luxury fragrance. When we launched in early 2023, the brand quickly gained popularity as an attainable, fine fragrance brand that offered unique olfactive experiences for a fraction of the cost. With Fine’ry, we’ve been trailblazing in the Generative AI space, revolutionizing content creation and bringing immersive fragrance experiences online and offline. In April, we launched Fine’ry-verse, attracting New York City consumers with one-of-a-kind blend of creative and tech, and a couple of months ago we launched an interactive gaming experience on Roblox. Fine’ry is among the fastest growing fragrance brands in the industry.
HAPPI: Looking back at 2024, what were some of Maesa’s most prided accomplishments?
Piyush Jain: This past year has been truly transformative for Maesa and our brands. We have developed a strong portfolio of brands across hair, skin, wellness and fragrance categories and delivered high double-digit growth across the portfolio. It was also the year that Maesa truly upped our marketing capabilities and seeded all our brands in popular culture – I am particularly proud of the work done on the Kristin Ess Hair brand making it a regular feature on red-carpet events and Fine’ry leading the agenda with Gen AI and gaming.
I believe that brands and companies that contribute to making our planet and our communities better are the only ones that will thrive in the future. In 2023, to celebrate our 25th anniversary, we launched the Maesa Magic incubator. I am excited that year two was even bigger and better and we continue to amplify the voices of promising early-stage beauty and wellness entrepreneurs from underrepresented communities.
HAPPI: Sustainability is big going into 2025. What is Maesa doing to stay true to better-for-you, better-for-planet in 2025 and beyond?
Piyush Jain: We are mindful of our relationship with the planet and consistently striving to improve our environmental impact. Maesa conducts an annual carbon assessment covering all Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, and is working on building a carbon reduction plan. We have taken several actions to improve the environmental footprint of our products and packaging in recent years.
Our packaging philosophy is simple – we are consistently trying to “reduce, reuse and recycle” our packaging materials. Some of the key initiatives in this space are:
Reduce: Packaging innovation and re-engineering to reduce the amount of packaging we use. Over the past three years we have re-engineered our top-selling products to create lighter weight and simplified packaging. For one high-volume bottle on the Kristin Ess Hair brand we moved to a different cap design that weighs 40% less and reduced the total amount of plastic resin to form each bottle by 28%. In 2024, we also re-engineered and lightweighted the bottles of some of our highest volume SKUs to reduce plastic by 15%. This is part of our ongoing agenda, and we continue to look to lightweight all our product packaging.
Reuse: Increased use of recyclable and PCR packaging. Maesa promotes the use of sustainable packaging wherever possible. For example, with Being Frenshe, launched in 2022, we used up to 60% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic. In 2024, both Kristin Ess Hair and Hairitage brands started to use up to 70% PCR plastic in their core size bottles.
Recycle: We encourage consumers to recycle both our plastic bottles and caps and our glass bottle. Where possible we are incorporating new technology and messaging on pack or our marketing materials to promote recycling.
Improving our transportation footprint: reducing supply chain emissions. In 2023 we changed many of our suppliers for plastic bottles from Asia to the US, leading to a significant reduction in the transportation miles associated with our plastic bottles. In addition, we implemented a Transportation Management System, giving us the ability to optimize our shipments, prioritizing full over partial truck loads. Our journey on transforming the supply chain to reduce our carbon emissions is huge and we continue to make big strides here.
HAPPI: With respect to advancements in AI, where do you see the beauty industry in 5 and 10 years? In 2025?
Piyush Jain: AI has taken the beauty industry by storm, and I believe that brands will further invest in AI to deliver unprecedented customization in product recommendations, formulations and even packaging, catering to diverse and niche demographics. Technology will continue to evolve and diversify its capabilities, allowing brands to build stronger relationships with their consumers, fostering loyalty and engagement.
At Maesa, our AI-driven strategies have played a key role in enhancing consumer engagement, and we’ve seen remarkable results, particularly with the Fine’ry launch across digital and virtual platforms. Our phygital experience, Fine’ry-verse, attracted over 2,000 fragrance enthusiasts in just two days, with our social media following growing by 10% over the launch weekend. Our most recent Roblox partnership has also driven considerable interest and interaction, with consumers responding enthusiastically to the immersive experiences we offer. Our ability to use AI to understand these interactions helps us stay connected to our audience, constantly refining our approach to meet their evolving preferences.
HAPPI: What makes Maesa among the largest — if not the largest — beauty incubator in mass?
Piyush Jain: What sets Maesa apart is that we have a portfolio of brands that are already at scale and growing, while we continue to incubate new brands successfully. In an industry where less than 1 out of 10 beauty launches succeed, Maesa’s success rate is better than 2 out of 3. Internally, we call it Maesa Magic and it comes from deep understanding of our consumers, a passion to deliver best in class beauty brands and a constant spirit of experimenting and innovating.
We attribute this high success rate to a few factors:
Our Teams. We at Maesa are truly blessed to have an outstanding team that is passionate about beauty, committed to creating impact and constantly challenging status quo.
Meeting unmet consumer needs. Maesa is at the forefront of disrupting the beauty industry by identifying white spaces, creating new, meaningful and culturally relevant brands, and generating unprecedented brand heat through our best-in-class marketing efforts, turning new and existing launches into social media sensations.
Building brands with purpose. It’s not only about the quality of products or price point, but rather it’s about building brands with purpose and identifying a role a brand may play in consumers’ lives. It’s crucial to ask the question: “Does the brand have the license to exist?”
Nurturing a collaborative relationship with retail partners. Maesa has created some of the best-in-class retail partnerships and our retail partners play an integral role in the success of our brands.
HAPPI: What are some of Maesa brands’ goals in 2025 in terms of new product launches and partnerships?
Piyush Jain: I am very excited for what the new year holds for Maesa. We will continue to deliver on our promise of creating meaningful brands that meet unmet consumer needs. It is going to be our biggest year yet with a big innovation agenda. I am looking forward to new products launches and expansion into new categories for our existing brands. We are also incubating a few new brands, and I can’t wait to see them hit the market and become new favorites for the beauty consumers.