EXCLUSIVE: Cosnova Sales Surpass $1 Billion in 2024
PARIS — Cosnova sped past the $1 billion sales mark last year.
The German beauty company, best known for its affordable makeup brands Essence and Catrice Cosmetics, has aimed to democratize beauty since its founding in 2001.
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“When we started our mission, which is still the same today, it was: Make everyone feel more beautiful,” explained Christina Oster-Daum, a cofounder and president of Cosnova, alongside her husband Javier González. “Sticking to this is something that made it possible for us to expand and to grow very consistently.”
Cosnova today is the second-largest color cosmetics-maker in volume worldwide, after French beauty giant L’Oréal. (In 2007, the Sulzbach, Germany-based company became the biggest volume player in its domestic market. By 2017, it was the first Europe-wide.) A goal is for Cosnova to be the largest in units globally.
It is the sixth-biggest makeup company sales-wise around the world. Cosnova closed 2024 with revenues of 954 million euros.
The group’s push into the U.S. is a key objective.
Cosnova, which sells in about 90 markets, tripled its sales over the past three years. Its rapid-fire post-pandemic growth included on-year percentage gains of 30 percent in both 2022 and 2023. Last year, company sales grew 17 percent.
About 60 percent of its business comes from Essence and 40 percent from Catrice. E-commerce generates 10 percent of Cosnova’s overall sales. The business is well-balanced between its four product categories — eye, face, lip and nail, according to Oster-Daum.
Average price points for Cosnova’s Essence, with core Gen Alpha and Gen Z consumers, and Catrice, with a more prestige positioning, are approximately $4 and $6, respectively. They have about 1,000 new stock keeping units annually, replacing half of the product assortment.
Social media has played a key role in Cosnova’s development, especially in the U.S., the group’s second-largest market after Germany.
Last year, the launch of Essence’s Call Me Queen became a top-four seller at Ulta, due in part to a custom TikTok song, plus collaborations with influencers. Juicy Butter Bombs, which went viral too, came out exclusively on TikTok Shop backed by influencers Katie Fang and Charlie D’Amelio.
Meanwhile, Catrice doubled down on its complexion category in the country. The brand’s Under Eye Brightener remains the top-ranking product in the Amazon Cosmetics category. Cosnova credited a campaign leveraging makeup artist partnerships, trial-driven experiences with media and influencers and performance-based influencer collaborations. Catrice launched products on TikTok Shop, held multicity events and partnering with influencers. Such factors helped the brand’s business double in size in the U.S.
Italy is Cosnova’s third largest market. Its others are the Netherlands and Spain.
“We believe that the U.S. will be — and most probably must be — our biggest country one day,” Oster-Daum said.
Cosnova gained traction there after about a decade, and its products are now sold in retailers also including Target, where it expanded into more than 250 new locations during 2024.
Some geographic white spots for Cosnova comprise India and Central Africa.
“Now our focus for — we call it ‘the third decade’ — is really to grow more into a real international and global company,” Oster-Daum said. She explained that means Cosnova must change its mindset in headquarters to have a focus beyond Germany and Europe.
The company remains wholly family-owned, but might it be open to investors?
“Maybe even the other way around,” Oster-Daum teased. “We always say: ‘We will do an acquisition one day.’”
The idea could be to diversify, especially into skin care. “Because everything is ‘skin-ified’ at the moment. So we believe that is something that would be the next step,” Oster-Daum said.
Meanwhile, Cosnova, which employs some 900 people around the globe, is trying to build up skin care itself. It began with a line from INAO, an acronym for Inner & Outer beauty, from the Essence brand. More recently there is Farm Loves Face, billed to be high-performance skin care.
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