La Bouche Rouge: the plastic-free luxury lipstick brand that outspent its revenue

La Bouche Rouge was founded in 2017 by Nicolas Gerlier, a former L'Oréal executive, on a simple premise: a luxury lipstick in a refillable case, with no plastic in formula or packaging. It started with lipsticks, expanded into complexion and eye products, and opened around 20 corners in French department stores (Le Bon Marché, La Samaritaine) plus 80 points of sale worldwide.

The positioning attracted serious money: €2.5M at the end of 2020 from Bpifrance and business angels, then €10M in February 2022 from Bpifrance, the Mirabaud Lifestyle Impact & Innovation fund and the Chalhoub Group. The pitch was sustainability as luxury, and spending matched it — roughly €2M of marketing in 2022 alone.

The numbers never caught up. In 2022 revenue was about €3.7M against roughly €6M of losses. The China expansion that was meant to be the growth engine proved slow and costly, COVID-19 emptied the department stores the brand depended on, and the store rollout kept fixed costs high while sales stayed low.

On 25 July 2023 the tribunal de commerce de Paris placed the company in redressement judiciaire with a six-month observation period. On 3 October 2023 the court approved a sale to Beauty Brands Global, the holding of Dubai-based Dilesh Mehta, which kept the Orléans lab and about 15 employees. Gerlier stayed on as artistic director; new leadership under ex-Coty president Jean Mortier cut prices, especially on refills, to make eco-luxury affordable.