One year in, Michelle LeBlanc, vice president of merchandising for beauty and personal care at CVS, is making her mark on the U.S.’s largest drugstore chain.

That includes piloting significant changes to the beauty aisles, eliminating sunscreen products with SPF below 30 across its owned-brands portfolio, and tapping its first derm adviser.

For the store format, as part of a pilot program, skin care will be moved to the front of the stores, where color cosmetics have historically been displayed. It is currently being tested in a handful of stores and rolled out to more. (CVS has over 9,000 locations, but is closing 271 stores this year due to ongoing restructuring, according to its annual report.)

The reformatting is more than skin-deep. LeBlanc said it was indicative of shifting consumer behaviors and priorities.

“If I go back to the insights that led us here, it’s absolutely that more and more consumers are prioritizing their skin health, and they’re doing it in a way that’s driving more shopping opportunities,” said LeBlanc. “In years past, it used to be about getting that lipstick, that mascara. That’s obviously still important, but the way people are so into their skin and know the ingredients, watching everything on TikTok, it’s just another level now.”

As part of this, she’s working on making its skin care curation easier to digest for the shopper.

“The number of ingredients and the number of skus can be quite overwhelming and I go back to that curation of assortment that we have at CVS. We’re building on that, specifically in this new format, with really simple messaging,” she said, saying she’d focus less on ingredient callouts and more on consumer needs. “But it could be something as simple as not wanting to burn something. We’re trying to use very consumer-centric language that just simplifies the shopping experience. That still drives that education, but not in a way that’s intimidating or overwhelming.”

Hand-in-hand with education, it has tapped Dr. Camille Howard-Verović, a New York City-based dermatologist, as CVS’ derm adviser.

“Dr. Camille Howard is lending her credibility and expertise to help us reinforce our role in health and beauty, and for me and my team, she’s helping us think about new products and trends and efficacy and safety, which in turn, helps us inform our customers,” said LeBlanc.

Another change is that CVS Pharmacy has removed sunscreen products with SPF below 30 across its owned-brands portfolio aligned with new Skin Cancer Foundation guidelines, just updated in May.

This follows its move in 2017 to remove sunscreens with SPF 15 or lower from its stores.

“It just builds on that decision, and it continues to just elevate our trust and our authority with our shoppers, and that’s super important to us,” she said. 

Asked if there is a possibility this could be rolled out to all brands, she responded: “It’s a place we are very interested in.”

“CVS is and always has been at the intersection of health, wellness and beauty. Why that matters to me is we’re not seeing a wellness trend and chasing that to be part of our strategy. That is our strategy. That is our DNA,” said LeBlanc. “Because of that, there’s a level of authority and trust that we have with our shopper, and I think we, collectively as a merchandising organization, take a ton of pride and responsibility with that. You can see how that’s fueled a lot of our historical bold decisions, from exiting tobacco to not carrying below SPF 15 to paying the period tax on products on behalf of our customers.”