L’Oréal confirms departure of Lancome president

There has also been no statement from Nabi herself, and whilst French business magazine Challenges ​speculates that it may have been down to ‘strategic differences’ with newly promoted head of Luxury, Nicolas Hieronimus; however, L’Oréal have only confirmed the departure, stating it was Nabi’s call.

Nabi joined the company in 2009 and helped to introduce a lot of new products to an already established brand, as well as select new and relevant faces to support the brand such as Julia Roberts, Kate Winslet and Emma Watson.

Success stories​

Nabi often reiterated the aim of the brand is to share the best of science with consumers through products featuring a high concentration of active molecules that provide immediately visible results, and this saw the launch of the Génifique serum in 2009 and Visionnaire with LR 2412 in 2011.

Speaking last year, she stated that whilst it is important for a prestige brand to promote a dream or ideal of beauty it must also adopt a ‘responsible communication’ strategy to gain consumer trust.

“The public no longer put up with outrageous claims, and brands must ensure their words are consistent with their actions,”​ she explained.

“It results in offering products, colours and textures that are ever more adapted to suit different skin types.  It implies developing formulae that are increasingly environmentally-friendly, contain more active ingredients and need little water to produce…​ [whilst] being uncompromising about the benefits when using our products.”​

Notable​

Under Nabi’s leadership, Lancome continued to be one of the Group’s largest luxury brands in terms of sales, accounting for 11 per cent of L’Oréal’s total turnover.

2012 was notable for the launch of Génifique Yeux LightPearl for eye contours; a product that combines gene science with a surgical steel applicator.

Lancôme also launched the Absolue L’Extrait cream during Nabi’s reign last year, and it boosted the sales of the brand in 2012 and performed extremely well in Asia.

Away from skin care, Nabi also orchestrated Lancôme’s launch of a major women’s fragrance, “La vie est belle”, which according to NPD, was the top fragrance launch worldwide in 2012.