Yahoo Finance Nest New York Doubles Down on Fine Fragrance With Body Mists, Expands at Ulta
With a booming home fragrance business, Nest New York is exploring new formats — and chasing new customers.
The brand is skewing younger with its latest efforts, which include the rollout of its fine fragrance portfolio to 888 Ulta Beauty doors, and the simultaneous launch of five single-note body mists with baobab oil, each priced at $39.
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Consumer appetite for the brand is at an all-time high, given the success of Nest’s home fragrances as well as of its perfume oils.
“We are the leader in the home fragrance market in prestige, and we have a weighted market share of roughly 40 percent,” said Edgar Huber, Nest’s chief executive officer. “We have 36 percent market share in prestige candles, and 49 percent in diffusers. We’re now the market leader in both categories.”
The perfume oils’ success has given Huber and founder Laura Slatkin the confidence to venture into new formats.
“We launched them in 2021, and they’re a great, modern way to wear fragrance,” said Slatkin of the oils. “We thought that perfume oils would double our fine fragrance business in three years, and they doubled it in nine months. The Madagascar Vanilla perfume oil went viral on TikTok, got over 6 million views and sold out everywhere.”
Enter the body mists, which come in each of the perfume oils’ scents. They launched Monday on the brand’s website, as well as on Sephora’s website, before rolling out with Ulta Beauty.
The body spray category tripled last year, according to Circana data. Industry sources expect Nest’s fine fragrance business at Ulta to surpass $35 million in retail sales for its first year on the market. Last year, the company’s sales were nearing $200 million in the U.S., as reported.
“The opportunity with Ulta is manifold. First of all, we’re attracting new demographics because the Ulta demographics are different from that of our current retail and distribution partners,” Huber said. “There’s a great complementarity from a geographic point of view — the footprint of Ulta is so big, and largely in strip malls.”
The duo also acknowledged Ulta Beauty’s rewards program, which currently has more than 43 million members.
“They have loyalty in their base, and their guests, and that’s super important to developing new businesses. It’s also a great opportunity for us to develop our fragrance business with that particular customer group,” Huber continued.
In particular, that includes younger consumers, such as Gen Z and Gen Alpha, who’ve taken significant interest in fragrance. “We’ve started teasing them on our socials and have had an enormous response to them, and the younger price point is going to attract a younger audience,” Slatkin said. “It’s about misting, mixing fragrances, and it’s a layering opportunity. They can layer the body mists with the perfume oils as well.”
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