Marc Toulemonde, formerly the general manager of New York-based SkinCeuticals Global at L’Oréal USA, has been named president of the company’s Active Cosmetics division, of which SkinCeuticals is a part.
He is succeeding Mike Larrain, who left L’Oréal to take a top position in another company. He was not available for comment.
Toulemonde has been at the helm of SkinCeuticals since 2010. During the past four years, he directed an international expansion of the business through 10 countries, including China, Korea and Brazil. He is being succeeded by Leslie Harris, the former vice president of global product development and marketing for the brand.
Now, Toulemonde is ready to tackle opportunities with the division’s other wellness-oriented brands, including Vichy, Dermablend and La Roche-Posay. “The skin-care market is a huge opportunity and is driving the beauty category,” he said during an interview. “Everything related to health is really gaining speed right now.”
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Toulemonde said the market for dermo-cosmetics — products that are formulated or marketed to be used in concert with prescription drugs by dermatologists — “is growing extremely fast” in Europe. He added that, in the U.S., it is an underdeveloped category. “There is a big gap between what we see in Europe and in the U.S.” Toulemonde pointed to the retail customers of the Vichy and La Roche-Posay brands — giant drugstore chains like Walgreens, CVS and Target. “They are using the health trend as a differentiation factor, and they are in need of brands that carry these values.”
He said L’Oréal tried to implement the dermo-cosmetics category 10 years ago in U.S. pharmacies, “and it was maybe too early. Now, this is the right time. This trend for healthy skin care is expressing itself in two channels. First is what we call the dispensing channel — products sold by physicians, dermatologists and plastic surgeons — and this is a booming market,” he said, noting that this is SkinCeutical’s focus.
Referring to all four brands in the divisions, he said, “They speak to the same kind of consumer, who is worried about health.” Physicians are “a natural go-to person to talk about healthy skin care,” he observed, adding that traditional mass retailers, the second channel, “also [want] to play in this category,” which means opportunity for La Roche-Posay and Vichy.
Upon joining L’Oréal in Paris in 1995, Toulemonde worked in the Luxury Division before transferring, in 1997, to the Consumer Product Division as product manager for Garnier and Maybelline. He moved to L’Oréal Paris in 2000 as group product manager, then was promoted to vice president of marketing in 2002. He became general manager of Travel Retail in the Consumer Marketing Division, with responsibility for L’Oréal Paris, Maybelline and Garnier. He served as general manager of Garnier Spain before transferring to the U.S. and SkinCeuticals in 2010.