Ceremonia is making history by becoming one of Sephora’s first Latina-owned haircare brands, a distinction that comes with mixed feelings for founder Babba Rivera. She says, “I feel proud, but I also really hope that, through Ceremonia, I can help pave the way for the change that I really wish was already here.”
The partnership will begin with an online-only launch of an assortment of Ceremonia’s haircare line and expand to 83 Sephora locations on Sept. 9. The in-store rollout will feature a branded tower displayed in the haircare section. Rivera says, “It’s been nice for us to be able to do a tiered launch because it gives us the opportunity to really get onboarded into the Sephora machine, which is a very different way of working than when you only have your own direct-to-consumer business.”
She continues that Sephora “has really been accommodating with marketing support and understanding that we are not a big brand with a huge team that has perfect documents and timelines in place. We’re still a startup and they have really proven to care enough that they are willing to work around our limitations, which I think really goes to show how committed they are towards increasing diversity.”
Ceremonia is the second Latina-founded haircare brand at Sephora. Better Not Younger, a brand founded by Latina and beauty industry veteran Sonsoles Gonzales, broke into Sephora in 2019 and Ulta Beauty two years later. More generally, emerging indie brands preceding Ceremonia with a Sephora launch are shampoo and conditioner bar brand Viori, skincare brand Community Sixty-Six, waterless body care brand Kate McLeod, fragrance brands Chris Collins and Abbott, sun care brand Habit and haircare brand Crown Affair.
Prestige haircare has been a growing category lately, and within it, scalp care has been a hot commodity. Market research firm The NPD Group estimates prestige haircare sales gained 32% to reach almost $750 million in the initial quarter of this year. Prestige beauty as a whole was up 19% to $5.3 billion for the quarter.
Rivera has made history before. Back in 2020, the Ceremonia founder became one of only 58 Latina founders to raise over $1 million in venture capital funding. She’s raised another $2 million since then for Ceremonia from investment firms Silas Capital and Beliade. Being omnichannel was always Rivera’s north star. In advance of Sephora, Ceremonia entered Credo, Net-a-Porter and The RealReal.
After working in marketing for headline-making companies like Uber and Away, Rivera wanted to establish Ceremonia in direct-to-consumer distribution prior to branching into retail. She also wanted the brand to have a fully fleshed-out product offering. The brand debuted in October 2020 with its bestselling $25 Aceite de Moska oil. Its assortment today has 12 haircare products priced $16 to $27 individually spanning cleansing, conditioning and treatment categories, including Guava Hydrating Leave-In Conditioner, Pequi Curl Activator Styling Serum, Guava Rescue Hair Heat Protective Spray, Papaya Scalp Scrub Shampoo, Guava Beach Waves Hair Texturing Spray, Mascarilla de Babassu Hydrating Hair Mask and Scalp Massager.
“We really want to make clean and effective haircare as accessible as possible and part of that is price, but the other part is distribution,” says Rivera. “I really think that, through Sephora, we are able to reach a wider audience than we could never have imagined doing on our own.” Ceremonia is in a handful of haircare brands that qualify for Sephora’s Clean + Planet Positive initiative introduced last year and the first Latina-owned one. JVN, Briogeo and Sephora Collection are haircare brands stamped with its green seal as well.
Jennifer Lucchese, VP of haircare merchandising at Sephora, says about the partnership, “We are thrilled to partner with Ceremonia and continue bringing our clients innovative, effective products that support all hair types and textures. With strong roots in Latinx culture, Ceremonia offers clean, sustainable, and nutrient-rich products that celebrate individual hair patterns and deliver results. We look forward to introducing this brand to our clients and know that it will be a wonderful addition to our Clean + Planet Positive assortment.”
Ceremonia prioritizes “hair wellness” or the health of the hair. When developing products at its in-house lab, the brand tries to unpack the main hair woes plaguing its customers in order to get to the root cause. “A lot of brands will have shampoo for shine or shampoo for strength but, to me, those are givens. Obviously, people want strong, healthy, shiny hair, and you shouldn’t be picking one or the other,” says Rivera. “So, for us, it’s more about creating products that actually help you achieve that from within, and our philosophy is to provide formulas that are one part treatment and one part styling, meaning that the benefit of the product is not just the styling for the day, but also ensuring that the ingredients that go into that formula will make your hair better over time.”
Ceremonia’s sales jumped 230% from June 2021 to June 2022, and it’s registered a 44.5% sales increase every quarter. The brand’s customer repeat rate is over 35%. It connects with a group of 300 insiders through apps like Geneva to garner feedback and guide the product lineup. They’ll be tapped to spread the word about Ceremonia arriving at Sephora. Most of the brand’s customers find it via influencers, and it’s marketing budgeted is largely allocated to them, primarily of the micro variety. Rivera says, “That’s really where the growth is coming from, that amplified word of mouth through creators.”
Half of Ceremonia’s customer base identifies as Latinx. When surveyed, they share they’re drawn to the brand for three main reasons: It’s female-founded, contains clean ingredients and has Latinx representation. While Ceremonia’s products are intended for all hair types, Rivera says its core customer is someone like herself with “uncontrollable, thick, wavy hair that lives its own life” and falls between straight and curly/coily textures.
She reflects, “The only solution for that type of hair, historically, has been to damage it: Go and get a keratin treatment, go and straighten your hair and put all these silicone-filled products on your hair so that you can tame it and make it something it doesn’t want to be.” By turning to products from Ceremonia and moving away from silicone-filled, straightening products, Rivera says she and her brand’s customers are “rebirthing our childhood hair. We’re reclaiming our own beauty.”
This article was modified on July 12 to acknowledge that Latina-founded haircare brand Better Not Younger entered Sephora prior to Ceremonia.
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