A phenomenon the beauty giant can no longer ignore
The world's biggest cosmetics company has put a number on something industry watchers have been whispering about for two years: the explosion of weight-loss drugs is changing how people buy beauty products. L'Oreal told investors this week that the rise of GLP-1 medicines is weighing on beauty and skincare consumption, even as the company's overall sales beat expectations.
Speaking on an investor call, the company's head, Nicolas Hieronimus, described the use of GLP-1s as "a very important phenomenon for us" — corporate language for a trend that can no longer be treated as a curiosity. He said the surge in their use was "having an impact on beauty consumption and skin care consumption in particular", the clearest acknowledgement yet from a beauty heavyweight that these drugs are shifting spending patterns.
GLP-1 medicines were developed to treat diabetes, but drugs such as Ozempic and Wegovy, along with Mounjaro, were found to suppress appetite and drive significant weight loss, turning them into one of the most talked-about groups of medicines in the world. For a company built on understanding what consumers want to put on their faces, the more important question has become what is happening to their bodies first.
L'Oréal branding signage
Credit: Jirka303 / Wikimedia Commons (CC0, public domain)
Strong numbers, shifting habits
L'Oreal's headline figures remain impressive. The company, which owns brands including Maybelline and La Roche-Posay, announced on Thursday that sales in the three months to September rose by 7.7%, coming in above what analysts had expected. Hieronimus said the beauty market was proving resilient in a challenging global context. That resilience matters because the global economy has been anything but kind to consumer brands this year. With households in many markets squeezed by cost-of-living pressures, discretionary spending has been under strain — a dynamic Verity has tracked across retail, from the Boots Weston's 8.9bn sale to the consumer data breach at Asos. Against that backdrop, 7.7% growth is a statement of intent from Paris. But the same results call also carried a warning: beneath the strong numbers, consumption habits are moving. Investors will now be watching whether the GLP-1 effect deepens in the quarters ahead, and how quickly the company can adapt its portfolio to match.
The 'Ozempic face' problem
The medical detail behind L'Oreal's concern is straightforward. While the drugs themselves do not directly cause the effect, rapid and significant weight loss can, for some people, lead to loose or sagging skin — including around the face. Media outlets have popularised the shorthand "Ozempic face" for the hollowed, aged look some users report after shedding weight quickly. For the beauty industry, that presents a strange double-edged sword. On one side, demand may soften for the conventional colour-cosmetics and skincare lines that have driven growth for decades, as users redirect attention — and budgets — toward the consequences of their transformation. On the other, it opens an entirely new category of demand: products and treatments that promise to firm, plump and restore what rapid weight loss has changed. The question for L'Oreal is no longer only what shoppers want to put on their skin. It is what their faces look like now, and what they want them to look like next. Few sectors of consumer spending are as tightly bound to self-image as beauty, which is why Hieronimus's remarks landed with such weight on the earnings call.
Skincare built for the GLP-1 era
L'Oreal is not just observing the shift — it is already designing around it. Hieronimus said the company's SkinCeuticals and Kiehl's brands have products "that have been designed to work alongside and complement GLP-1 and its side effects on skin sagging", alongside other changes associated with rapid weight loss. That is a notable pivot. Where early industry responses to the GLP-1 wave focused on whether the drugs would dent sales, L'Oreal is now explicitly positioning its skincare lines as companions to the treatment journey. The message to consumers is clear: if you are losing weight quickly, here is a routine built for exactly what your skin is going through. The strategy also fits a broader pattern in the consumer economy, where brands increasingly chase the spending of GLP-1 users rather than treating them as lost customers. From Samsung's record profits on the AI chip boom to the betting industry's response to UK tax rises covered by Verity this week, large companies are learning that the winners in a disrupted market are usually the ones that reposition fastest.
The Galderma bet
Perhaps the clearest signal of L'Oreal's direction is its deepening push into clinical aesthetics. The company increased its stake in the dermatology and medical-aesthetics business Galderma to 20% last December, moving further into territory where beauty meets medicine. According to Reuters, both companies have been testing products on GLP-1 users worried about loose skin in separate clinical trials — a striking detail that shows how seriously the industry is taking the side effects of these drugs. Galderma owns well-known aesthetic products including Sculptra, an injectable aimed at stimulating the skin's own collagen production, and Restylane, an injectable dermal filler used to restore volume. Last year, Galderma released a report examining the rise of GLP-1 use and the related concerns about changes in facial appearance, effectively mapping the market L'Oreal is now moving to serve. The combination of L'Oreal's consumer reach and Galderma's clinical credentials could give the French group a formidable position in what is fast becoming one of beauty's most contested frontiers.
What it means for the wider beauty market
L'Oreal's remarks mark a turning point in how the beauty industry talks about weight-loss drugs. Where executives once dismissed them as a pharmaceutical story, the world's largest cosmetics maker has now confirmed they are a beauty story too — one that is "having an impact" on consumption today, not in some distant future. Rival groups will be under pressure to show they have a plan. Companies whose portfolios lean heavily on conventional skincare and cosmetics may face the same consumption headwinds L'Oreal is flagging, while those with aesthetics, dermatology or medical-adjacent offerings could find themselves better positioned. Expect more clinical trials, more "GLP-1 friendly" product labels, and more beauty brands borrowing the language of medicine. For investors, the takeaway from Thursday's numbers is twofold: the beauty market is still growing faster than feared, but the growth is changing shape. The brands that thrive in the next chapter will be the ones that understand that the modern skincare customer may also be a patient — and that her mirror now tells a different story than it did two years ago. For more on how consumer giants are navigating a tougher economy, read our Business section and visit the Verity homepage for the latest coverage.
