PARIS — The Sephoria beauty festival has just globetrotted to Paris, where it’s being held in a Left Bank venue Friday and Saturday.

The multilevel, sweeping extravaganza, sprawling over two floors and featuring more than 45 brands, is housed at the Maison de la Mutualité. 

“Sephoria never ceases to reinvent itself, and therefore create new dimensions for clients who are going to come and visit,” said Catherine Spindler, president of Sephora’s Europe and Middle East operations, speaking at a press conference Thursday. She introduced this session of Sephoria Paris and also shared her strategy since starting the role eight months ago.

The LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton-owned retailer has begun incubating beauty brands born in Europe, similarly to and how it does in the U.S., through its Kendo division, and with the same objective.

“Until now, we were used to launching brands that came from all over the world — a little less to be in the dynamic of incubating European brands,” Spindler explained. The incubator has started running but is much smaller than its San Francisco-based counterpart.

More than 50 percent of Sephora’s brands are exclusive, and a large part of those have been incubated by the retailer at the global level.

At Sephoria, Sephora is showcasing one of its European incubated start-ups, Glowery Skin, from France.

Also new to this session is a preview of some exclusive brands that the retailer will carry starting in early 2026, including Aestura, Authentic Beauty Concept, Goa Organics, Le Monde Gourmand and One/Size. In The Next Big Thing area, visitors can immerse themselves in some brand’s universe. A section was carved out for K-beauty labels such as Erborian, Lineage, Beauty of Jose and Yepoda.

Masterclasses are being held by the likes of Byoma Kérastase, Sephora Collection and Tatcha.

Sephora has a global reach. Since 2017, the retailer has operated in the Middle East, where now has 92 stores.

“We have just very recently signed a partnership with the women’s soccer club in Saudi Arabia,” Spindler said, referring to Al-Nassr. That tie-in is currently signed for a year to promote the team and support its players.

“It is really a strong symbol for us,” she said. “It is a sign of how much Sephora is committed to continuing to support the empowerment of women throughout the world.”

Sephora does business in 22 European countries and is gaining share in all of them, Spindler said. 

“One of the markets of which I will place a very strong emphasis in terms of development is England,” she said. Sephora returned there in 2022 and today counts 10 stores in the country.

“We will open two new ones by the end of the year,” Spindler said. At the close of 2026, the plan is to have at least 20 doors in the U.K.

Altogether, Sephora has 850 stores in Europe, with 20 openings since the start of this year, including in Lisbon and Madrid.

“We will continue to develop many markets where we have potential, starting with Italy, Spain, Turkey and Germany – to name a few of them,” Spindler said. “I can never say enough how convinced we are that retail has its place more than ever.”

The executive said the renovation of Sephora’s Champs-Élysées flagship in Paris has beaten expectations.

Rankings-wise, Sephora is the prestige beauty retail leader in France, Turkey and — by far — the Middle East. It ranks in the top three in Italy, Spain and Germany, she said.

On Sept. 30, Sephora relaunched its loyalty program, called My Sephora, in France, Luxembourg and Monaco.

Sephoria was birthed in the U.S. in 2018 and evolves yearly. In 2025, it’s already held events in Milan and Shanghai. The Paris edition opened to Sephora’s gold customers Friday and will welcome the general public on Saturday. Sephoria is then due to travel to Dubai at the end of November.