L’Oréal Group’s second-quarter sales rose 6% like-for-like to €11.62 billion, beating analyst expectations of a 4.8% increase and following a first-quarter revenue climb of 7.6%. Operating margins reached 21.3% in the first half, also beating expectations.
“After a tricky 2024/25, this is L’Oréal back to its very best,” wrote Bernstein analyst Callum Elliott in a note. In a statement, CEO Nicolas Hieronimus said: “L’Oréal maintained its strong momentum and expanded its outperformance of the global beauty market.”
Due to the group’s IT transformation, L’Oréal has also been sharing adjusted like-for-like growth with analysts. Adjusted like-for-like sales growth was 6.3% in Q2, compared with a 6.7% sales increase in Q1. By division, dermatological beauty (including Cerave and La Roche-Posay) led company growth, with adjusted like-for-like growth of 11.1% in the second quarter. Sales at Professional products (Kerastase and Redken) were up 10.1%. Sales at L’Oréal Luxe (Kiehl’s and Yves Saint Laurent) were up 4.7%, and consumer products (including L’Oréal Paris and Maybelline) were up 4.6%.
From a geographic standpoint, sales in North America were up 5.9%, North Asia up 4.5%, South Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, North Africa, and Sub-Saharan Africa up 12.2%, Europe up 6.7%, and Latin America up 5.3%.
LVMH’s perfumes and cosmetics division reported a 1% organic sales decrease to €1.9 billion in Q2 while Hermès’s perfume and beauty sales slipped 9.5% to €107 million. Puig is to report its second quarter on July 30. Estée Lauder Companies will report its fourth fiscal quarter on August 19.
“As we head into the second half, we are confident that demand for beauty remains strong. And we believe that we are uniquely well equipped to continue outperforming the market and, despite the current context, achieving another year of growth in sales and profit. Our historical brands are growing strongly, and our portfolio keeps getting stronger thanks to recent additions, including Kering Beauté,” Hieronimus added.
L’Oréal and Kering inked a deal in October 2025 on the sale of Kering Beauté to L’Oréal for €4 billion. The agreement, which included the House of Creed, as well as the signing of 50-year exclusive licenses for the creation, development and distribution of fragrance and beauty products under the Bottega Veneta and Balenciaga brands, was completed on March 31. Under that agreement, L’Oréal would gain the rights to the Gucci brand license once the existing Coty license expired. But on July 7, L’Oréal and Kering announced that the agreement to license the Gucci beauty line is happening sooner than planned. The license will come into effect on July 1 2027, subject to regulatory approvals.
