L'Oréal S.A. (EPA:OR)
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Oct 23, 2026, 10:30 AM CEST
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Earnings Call: Q3 2026

Oct 22, 2026

Summary

Adjusted like-for-like growth accelerated to 7.7%, outperforming a beauty market up 5%; Europe and SAPMENA led. FY growth is expected to accelerate, with Q4 outperformance continuing at a more moderate pace.

Operator

Welcome to the conference call regarding L'Oréal sales at 30th September 2026. The conference is about to begin. I now hand over to Ms. Eva Quiroga. Ms. Quiroga, please go ahead.

Eva Quiroga
Head of Investor Relations, L'Oréal

Yes, thank you very much, Judith, and good evening to you all. Thank you for joining us on this call for our third quarter 2026 sales. As always, I am here with Nicolas Hieronimus, our CEO.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Good afternoon.

Eva Quiroga
Head of Investor Relations, L'Oréal

Christophe Babule, our CFO.

Christophe Babule
CFO, L'Oréal

Hello, good afternoon.

Eva Quiroga
Head of Investor Relations, L'Oréal

Laurent Schmitt, our Global Head of Corporate Finance and Financial Communication.

Laurent Schmitt
Global Head of Corporate Finance and Financial Communication, L'Oréal

Good afternoon.

Eva Quiroga
Head of Investor Relations, L'Oréal

Nicolas will make some brief opening remarks, and we will then go straight to Q&A. Over to you, Nicolas.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Good afternoon again or good evening to you all. As you saw in our press release, we delivered an exceptional third quarter. Our adjusted like-for-like growth accelerated to +7.7%. As anticipated, the global beauty market growth in the third quarter stood around +5%, confirming the beauty sector's incredible resilience in challenging times. We significantly outperformed the market across the vast majority of our categories, divisions, and regions. Thanks to the success of our innovation plan, we continue to win in haircare and fragrances, and we are outperforming in skincare, a category I was not happy with last year, as you know. With the exception of Latin America, sales in all regions grew with a special shout-out to Europe and SAPMENA, our number one and two growth contributors in the quarter. I am happy to confirm the dynamism of our premium brands in China.

Regarding the rest of the year, we expect the beauty market to grow around +5%, and we will continue to outperform, albeit at a slightly more moderate rate. We will deliver on a full-year basis the promised acceleration of our top-line growth versus last year, significantly. With that, we are ready to answer your questions.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, if you wish to ask a question, please press star and one on your telephone keypad. Please use your handset before asking your question and set your microphone on mute once you have asked your questions. The first question is from Guillaume Delmas, UBS.

Guillaume Delmas
Analyst, UBS

Thank you very much, and good evening, Nicolas, Christophe, Eva, and Laurent.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Hello, Guillaume.

Guillaume Delmas
Analyst, UBS

Hello. Two questions for me, please. The first one on the beauty market. Nicolas, I was just wondering if you could give us a little bit of a snapshot of the beauty industry by region at end of September, early October. I appreciate it's a little bit of a crystal ball exercise at this stage, but what do you anticipate for that very important end of year season? I'm thinking Double 11 in China. I'm also thinking in Europe and France, given we're seeing some social unrest, consumer facing rising energy costs. What would be your early assessment of this?

My second question is specific on North Asia, where growth accelerated very nicely in the quarter. Could you maybe shed some light on the drivers behind this sequential step-up? It doesn't seem it's down to the market, seems more down to your own performance. Wondering what's driving this. You were talking about maybe less outperformance in Q4. In North Asia, you'll be facing a relatively favorable base of comparison in Asia travel retail. Any reason as to why at least North Asia would not accelerate further in the fourth quarter? Thank you very much.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Okay. On the beauty market overall, the first thing to say is that it's been globally consistent in Q3 versus the first half of the year. Slightly, we said we were shy of 5% at the end of first half. We're at 5% now, so it's more or less in the same ballpark. There's been ups and downs depending on the regions. Overall, if I take a macro point of view, I'm thinking, of course, I cannot predict. You are talking about the events in France. There are many things that I cannot predict as it relates to the future. Overall, our perception is that the market should grow approximately 5% also in Q4. There will be differences from one region to another, but I don't see any reason for it to slow down, nor to accelerate.

The comps on the second part of last year are overall a bit higher. You mentioned North Asia. First of all, I'll stay true on North Asia. As you know, in North Asia, the main constituents of our business there are first and foremost China, which is more than 2/3 of our business in North Asia, then travel retail. In China, even though the market slowed down a tiny bit in Q3, it remains dynamic at nine months at somewhere between two and three. We maintain our growth rate, particularly, of course, favored by the fact that in this Chinese market, the most dynamic parts are the premium parts. At nine months, the luxury market is mid-single digits. The dermatological market is a bit higher than that, and professional is mid-single digits. The only part that remains flattish is mass. That's favoring us.

Within these markets, the most premium brands like Helena Rubinstein, SkinCeuticals, or Kérastase are really driving the growth. So we have been really outperforming the market in sellout. Then, of course, and that's why I was there's travel retail. Here, the main difference is that we, in travel retail, we had a very positive Hainan. Mainland China remained a bit negative, and that's probably one of the things that you won't see in Q4. The operators of Mainland China, you remember, they were in difficulty. Now they're starting to operate again. So we had to re-pipe them with a little bit of inventory. That's something that we won't have in Q4. The Korean market was stable, and there I was to say, we remain carefully prudent because the acceleration is not totally clean for me, so we didn't push our brands there.

Overall, the only part where we have been building overall, when I talk about the Q4 in general, we've been preparing for the holiday season for Q4. So Q4 is sellout time, and therefore we piped our new launches in fragrances, and we prepared for this moment of the year on which we are very ambitious in sellout. We have the launches and all the new fragrances are off to a good start. We have the fuel to support them. You are asking about Double 11, which every year starts a bit sooner, so we anticipated it a little bit. But it's off to a good start. We are on track with our objectives. The other thing you won't find in Q4 is that we had a very good sun season, which obviously is not going to repeat itself in Q4.

So we intend, in the end, to continue to outperform the market. We are ambitious, and we have the plans to do it. There's a few one-offs in Q4, which doesn't change the outperformance in sorry, a few one-offs in Q3, which doesn't change the outperformance versus the market. That's why we remain confident for the end of the year. Does that answer your question?

Guillaume Delmas
Analyst, UBS

It does. Just a very quick follow-up. Would you be able to quantify this one-off in Q3?

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Not really, because it is a mixed bag of many things. I think what you have to just take into account that Q3 is a lot the anticipation of Q4. But there is nothing really major to quantify. Just that the comps overall are a bit higher for us in sell-out, and therefore we are careful with our comments on Q4.

Guillaume Delmas
Analyst, UBS

Thank you very much.

Operator

The next question is from Olivier Nicolai, Goldman Sachs.

Olivier Nicolai
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Olivier Nicolai, Christophe, Laurent, Eva. I have got two questions, please. First, you mentioned Mixa being rolled out to other countries. What is your ambition for these brands, and could you give us more details on this rollout, and how does the distribution compare in Europe versus L'Oréal Paris or Kérastase? My second question is more specific about fragrances. It is clearly not about luck, but you are significantly outperforming the category. What are your expectations for the key Christmas period, whether it is in the U.S., in China, where looks like fragrances are really picking up, but also in Europe, which has been accelerating despite a fairly weak consumer environment?

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Well, on Mixa. Mixa, frankly, it is really a great success story. It is still a relatively small brand, but over the last couple of years, it has been growing at a compounded growth of around +20%. It is mostly exclusively European. France is roughly half of the business, and we have extended to DACH, to Poland, to the U.K., and we are progressively rolling out. We are studying a few other countries, of course. So far, everywhere it is being launched it is successful. The good news is that it does not cannibalize any of our other brands. It takes more on competition. It is really one of the tools for our Consumer Products Division to really accelerate in skincare. We have Mixa in Europe. We have Dr.G, which as you know, is the number one skincare brand in Korea that we are progressively rolling out.

We just relaunched it in China, launched it in Southeast Asia. As we speak, we are launching it in the U.S. with the first an online launch and then progressive brick-and-mortar expansion. Dr.G is also going to be a good story. We have Garnier and Thayers in skincare. Garnier is really doing good in South Asia, and Thayers, which is our small American brand, but growing +20%. Our skincare is a bit more regional, except Garnier and L'Oréal Paris, of course, but these three brands, Mixa, Dr.G, and Thayers are a good combination to try to win and to win in skincare, we have globally accelerated. I must say a lot thanks to the great performance of LDB, which is really firing on all its engines. Fragrances. Fragrances, the market is globally growing mid-single digits.

Indeed we are really on a run with our fragrances. We are only in luxury fragrances, of course, but we are growing overall year- to- date, just close to double digit. I have to say, we are adding blockbusters to blockbusters. We have the La Vie Est Belle or Libre, number one fragrance in the world today. Prada with Paradigme and Paradox are doing great. The new ones we have launched, and I am thinking about particularly Armani I Will male fragrance is doing phenomenal. The two Valentino, Vendetta are doing good also. Overall, we are, of course, very ambitious for the holiday season. We have sets, money to advertise. I must say that I am very happy with the performance of Creed, which is also growing double digits. As I said last time, it fills the gap in our premium-end fragrances.

We just launched a new fragrance called Iris Iris Debonair , which is doing great, and that is also contributing to our overall fragrance performance, both in male and female. I will not, of course, give you numbers, but the market is dynamic everywhere. By definition, it slowed down a little bit during summer because of the heat, so we sold a lot of sun care and a bit less fragrance. But we are now ready for a great holiday season.

Olivier Nicolai
Analyst, Goldman Sachs

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Warren Ackerman, Barclays.

Warren Ackerman
Analyst, Barclays

Yeah. Good evening, Nicolas, Christophe, Eva, and Laurent. It is Warren here at Barclays. Hopefully you can hear me.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Yep.

Warren Ackerman
Analyst, Barclays

I have got a couple. Firstly, I guess the only wrinkle this quarter, if we can find any wrinkles, is Latin America, where you talk about a commercial issue in Mexico. I think it is in consumer. Can you explain what that was and how we should think about Q4? Because I guess if LatAm was normal, like mid-singles, the organic growth would have been even higher, maybe like a mid-eights. Just wanted to try and get clarity on that.

Secondly, on SAPMENA, it is a really good number this quarter. Last quarter you told us Vietnam was up 50%, India was up. It looks like the acceleration is becoming more broad-based. Can you maybe just talk about that on the go forward? Finally, just on the competitive dynamics you are seeing, are you seeing any stronger competition on the premium space, especially from your big U.S. listed peer? I am thinking about as premium skincare kind of recovers. Thank you.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Okay. First, Latin America. Latin America, I am obviously very unhappy with the performance which is, frankly, first of all, it is really a tale of two cities because we are flying in Brazil. We are growing in double digit, 2.5x faster than the market, recruiting from door to door. Which is frankly the role we were on in Mexico the previous years. It continues in Brazil, great performance in haircare in particular, in all divisions. Mexico was frankly a perfect storm. Not only has the market softened, but it is still softened to mid-single digits. In the greater scheme of schemes, it is not a negative market, but we have had a perfect storm.

First of all, we have had, and as I mentioned in the previous call, major inventory issues in makeup because, as I said, Mexico was supplied by a North American warehouse, which was in the middle of the preparation of our famous IT transformation, Neo. Basically, Mexico didn't get makeup products for some time. At the same time, we had indeed commercial issues with one of our big customers there that changed its policy back and forth between everyday low price and promotion. I have to say, my teams there didn't handle it properly. So we have been performing under our peers on that quarter in the market. I don't foresee a major improvement in Mexico in Q4 because these things take a little bit of time to fix. But it will be, I think, a good momentum for 2027.

It will be both a good comparative and a team that hopefully has learned from both their bad luck and for the few mistakes they made. Hopefully they will be inspired by what Brazil is doing. Also our Colombia, Ecuador, and Andean region is doing good too. So it is just really this Mexican wound. I love Mexico because I have been the CEO there, and I am going there in the beginning of the year to make sure that 2027 is going to be a great year for Mexico despite a slower market. SAPMENA, I am indeed very happy because the third quarter was at +20 overall, which is a great performance. Indeed, I think first of all, the market has remained very dynamic, contrary to Latin America. It is a market that is up double digits. We have really gained share there.

We are like 1.6x or 1.7x the market. Outperforming across all divisions, gaining share in all countries. It is true that we had Vietnam doing good, but Thailand has accelerated. Indonesia has been, for me, an important turnaround because this was one of the countries where we were struggling a little bit on the digital space, where a lot of indies were really out-competing us on TikTok. As we do all the time, when we are being challenged, we observe, we learn, we put the means, and we have structured our content production to be really competitive on the social platforms of Indonesia, and that has allowed us to accelerate very significantly the growth in Indonesia. As I told you, indeed, India, where I was just a couple of weeks ago, is doing great turnaround there, both in terms of teams' quality.

We create for India much more than we did before. We are accelerating in commerce, with a focus on quick commerce, which is an important part of the e-commerce market there. The market has been a bit better than what we hoped in the Middle East despite the crisis. So we're very ambitious to continue on the last quarter on SAPMENA and a bit patient, but not for too long, as it relates to Mexico for next year. As far as the competition, I am not going to comment particularly on competition. I would say that if you think about premium skincare, really the growth or the acceleration of premium skincare is mainly coming from North Asia. It is really a China phenomenon, and part of it is domestic market, where we are doing great. Helena Rubinstein is growing in high double digits. SkinCeuticals is growing very strongly.

There is also travel retail, where, as always, we are very careful on what we sell in this channel. The biggest part of the growth of the skincare market overall is more driven by the dermatological beauty at all price points, whether CeraVe, La Roche-Posay or SkinCeuticals. They are all growing strongly. So I am not concerned particularly with any specific competitor. They are all valuable competitors, and we like competition.

Warren Ackerman
Analyst, Barclays

That is great, Nicolas. Thank you.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

You are welcome.

Operator

The next question is from Callum Elliott at Bernstein.

Callum Elliott
Analyst, Bernstein

Hi there. Thank you for taking the questions.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Hello.

Callum Elliott
Analyst, Bernstein

Can I ask you about aesthetics, please?

Can you talk a bit about what you've learned so far from your acquisitions of the clinic stakes? How is the category interacting with the topical skincare industry? How are your brands? Are they seeing enhanced benefits from your dominance of that channel? My second question is a direct follow-up. It seems like from what we can see, you've started offering SkinCeuticals treatments through some Space NK stores. Maybe I would describe it as light aesthetics, if I can call it that. How are you thinking about that? Is that just a small-scale experiment, or do you think your brands can travel into aesthetics organically? Thank you.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Well, to start with the aesthetics world, I guess you have seen the publication of Galderma's results, which were very positive, and aesthetics were part of the performance with a double-digit growth. We are happy about it as a shareholder. We also continue to see both through this partnership as well as through the investment we have made in chains of clinics in China and the U.S. We are seeing, and that is very interesting, we are learning from what are the consumers wanting, what type of procedures they are doing, and what type of treatments they require, and at-home product they require to take with. A brand like SkinCeuticals, which is really doing really great and is one of the brands that is, for me, one of the billionaire brands.

It is growing double digits, and it is clearly benefiting from both the very tight and close relationship with derms, but also from these, I would say, investments, because we are developing specific products that fit. We call that integrative medicine. So we develop products that are designed to work alongside procedures or after procedures or before procedures. It is indeed very beneficial. So it is a great combination. We know that people that go through aesthetics spend more on skincare, both because they are usually a bit wealthier, but also because they invest more in their skin. We also see, by the way, which is a very important phenomenon for us, the rise of the use of GLP-1 is having an impact on beauty consumption and skincare consumption in particular.

So we have products in SkinCeuticals, but also in Kiehl’s, that have been designed to work alongside and complement GLP-1 and its side effects on skin sagging or other things like that. So it is very integrated. As far as the Space NK spas, it is not very new. In every country where we can do it, we have cabins. If you go to China, we have cabins of SkinCeuticals in our stores. We have cabins of Helena Rubinstein in our department stores.

Wherever there are spas where people want to have treatments that are not indeed injections, they can have treatments with our products that are usually a combination of our formulas with devices, electric tools, et cetera. So it is not specifically new. It has always been part of the model of these premium brands because our most loyal consumers are those who have the experience of the application in the hands of your beautician, not necessarily a dermatologist. That is the case for SkinCeuticals, but also, as I said, for brands like Helena Rubinstein.

Callum Elliott
Analyst, Bernstein

Thank you.

Operator

The next question is from Celine Pannuti at JP Morgan.

Celine Pannuti
Analyst, JPMorgan

Good evening, everyone. Thank you for taking my question. My first question is on North Asia. Could you talk a bit about so you said the Chinese market was 2%-3%? Does it mean that it has accelerated in the third quarter? When you say you grew three times as fast as the market, are you mentioning something like high single digits in China in Q3, and is that sell-in or sell-out that you are mentioning? Just to finalize on North Asia, I am getting to around 15% travel retail performance. Does that make sense? Are we still expecting nevertheless, I understand that you have had a sell-in into mainland China travel retail, but what are you expecting for the fully owned travel retail Asia? That is my first question. My second question is on—

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

North Asia .

Celine Pannuti
Analyst, JPMorgan

Yes. It is North Asia. The second one is going to be another big one, is the acceleration on the dermo and professional, where they both accelerated. Is that sell-in or is this sellout? Which regions drove this acceleration for each of them? Thank you.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Okay. North Asia. Yes, I told you that the market YTD was between 2% and 3%, and it was at 3% at the end of S1. Actually the market, because of just the comp, because it had rebounded very strongly last year in Q3, so the comp of Q3 was a bit harder. Actually the market was a tiny bit slower in Q3. We did not change our growth rhythm, which in sellout is indeed mid to high single digits. We are doing good, and as I said, it is mostly driven by the premium end of our catalog. La Mer, Kérastase, SkinCeuticals, these brands are doing particularly well. So of course we are entering Double Eleven. As I said earlier, right now we are on track with our plan and that is as much as we can say.

The trends are consistent with what has happened so far in the year. We have heard a lot of debates about China. It is true that our products are more affordable than some of the harder or higher priced luxury, and consumers are indulging in them. Of course they are looking for the big events of the year to buy some of these products with a nice promotion. As far as travel retail is concerned, overall, the good news overall is that because of both comparatives and the history, the market has turned positive in Q3 globally. Here I am talking global. Still negative in Asia and in North Asia, but less negative, mid-single digit, but positive overall because it has strongly accelerated in Europe. Middle East was okay, not fabulous, but okay. Americas was positive too. So we believe the market will be positive.

There again, as I said, this is the part where we had the sell-in ahead of sellout because there was a transition of retailer in Asia, in Americas, and we pipe a little bit of product. So we are at +10% in sell-in in travel retail, which is for a sellout that was more low to mid-single digits. So there is a bit of extreme inventory there. That is about the only place there is. So I guess the Q4 in sellout for travel retail should be positive. So our objective, as we said, is to finish, I think the Q4 for travel retail should be probably around slightly positive or flattish, and we intend to continue to slightly outperform it. That is for North Asia. I hope I covered all the points of your question. I have tried.

Celine Pannuti
Analyst, JPMorgan

Excellent. Yes, thank you.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

As far as LDB and PPD performance, frankly they are doing great everywhere with the exception for LDB of Latin America, because it's also impacted a little bit by the slowdown in Mexico. But the division, the market of Dermo remains very dynamic and it's close to +10%, so it is really the part of the market that's growing. By the way, I think that in all these procedures and people, they are using more dermatological skincare. Our division is really 1.5x That market in sell-out with, I would say, the three biggest brands, La Roche-Posay, CeraVe, and SkinCeuticals, the three of them growing double digits. So we are very happy, of course, of the comeback of CeraVe. The one that's the fastest is La Roche-Posay, which is flying everywhere.

As you know, in the U.S., it had expanded at the end of the second quarter to Walmart, and it's doing great there with no cannibalization of other channels. So frankly, no specific regions. What I have to say is that LDB, and that's probably the one thing that you didn't have before, has had a fabulous summer because it was a very hot summer and a sunny one. On top, this is the moments when we launched CeraVe sun care in Europe mostly. There was one SKU in North America. Clearly, we had a really excellent summer. I think LDB was probably at +20% in sun care, so.

Laurent Schmitt
Global Head of Corporate Finance and Financial Communication, L'Oréal

Yeah, that's why it's coming back to where the growth has been really the most visible or the acceleration is really Europe because of what Nicolas was saying, the sun care season was extremely good. Also SAPMENA because there is a conquest mode that is—

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Yeah.

Laurent Schmitt
Global Head of Corporate Finance and Financial Communication, L'Oréal

—still going very strongly. We were in India just a few weeks ago, and I can tell you that the teams are doing a great job there to accelerate the growth.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Yeah, that's one of the country where CeraVe, India is one of the countries where CeraVe is still a baby brand, but growing fast and expanding to new cities. We've launched La Roche-Posay also in India, a bit more expensive, but the two working together is good. As far as professional, first of all, the market has accelerated from 2025, but it continues to accelerate. Everybody has realized, maybe we've talked too much about it on our calls, but our hair care was getting really interesting. Our professional division has been growing twice the speed of that market. There, of course, Kérastase is phenomenal, but brands like Redken is doing great. So is Matrix.

Hair care is driving the growth, but the good news, and probably that's also one of the small differences compared to the beginning of the year, is that the salon market is a bit more positive, and our SalonCentric business, which we continue to develop to serve particularly independent stylists, is growing. I think it's at +8 or something like that, if somebody can check that number for me. But has become the number one distributor in America. We've acquired a couple of small distributors in Canada, and we see that there's an appetite for hair care and hair color, which has turned positive, slight, moderately, but has turned positive for professional. So overall, good situation in hair care.

One news I'm happy to share because we had a compilation at half year is that thanks to the combined strength of PPD, CPD, and dermatology with Dercos, we have become the number one hair care group in the world from a number two position, like three years ago. So the combined efforts of these three division is really paying off. Christophe, I see you looking at numbers. Anything you want to add on professional?

Christophe Babule
CFO, L'Oréal

Oh, yes. First of all, when I look at PPD division by key regions, one of the key drivers of the growth, as you know, is Kérastase. In that sense, Europe has been doing extremely well. I see a very strong growth in Europe compared to previous quarters. The same, of course, in North Asia because of the strength there of our premium brands. This has been

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Redken and Matrix in America.

Christophe Babule
CFO, L'Oréal

Redken and Matrix.

Celine Pannuti
Analyst, JPMorgan

Excellent.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Voilà, Celine.

Operator

The next question is from Sarah Simon, Morgan Stanley.

Sarah Simon
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Yes, you will be pleased to hear I have only one question. It is quite short.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Depends on the length of the question.

Sarah Simon
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

How many subclauses it has. It was really a question about how you are driving the growth. You obviously stepped up the Beauty Stimulus Plan in the second half of last year. We saw it accelerate in the first half. I am just wondering how we should be thinking about marketing costs in the second half. Should we expect this to accelerate as well? Thanks.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Well, you should expect it to remain consistent. The good thing in our P&L is that considering our gross margin, and I would say the rigor we've put into control of SG&A, when there is a strong top-line growth, it generates fuel capacities. So we will be investing. I haven't looked exactly in terms of percentage points, whether it's going to be slightly higher or slightly below, but we have what it takes to support all our brands in the end of the year. As far as maybe a broader comment on that, this is really one of the areas where AI is changing the game more and more for us. We'll talk about this in our CMD, but AI is helping us two ways.

One, in the allocation of our media to the right channels, in the right formats, and that's the Beta IQ tool that we are using. So we are getting more bangs for our bucks, and that's a lot thanks to our data and AI. At the same time, it is helping us in terms of content creation to meet the, I have to say, hypertrophic needs of the different social networks and platforms. I was telling you about our acceleration in Indonesia, in a world which is very digital, and where one of the recipes to win is to have more content, more pieces of content on your brand.

Of course, AI helps us generate multiple variations of content, plus, of course, the use of influencers in this country. So we can do more for the same amount of money, more bangs. Or if we wanted, we could reduce the amount of money. But right now, I think we are on a, I would say on a winning streak, and we want to continue fueling it in the last quarter of the year. In money time, as I said, Q4 is sellout time. For sellouts, we will have what it takes to support our brands.

Sarah Simon
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Obviously, I lied about only having one question, but can I add a subclause to that? Which is, given the incremental gross margin on all of these incremental sales and the fact you're delivering growth that is much higher than expected, if you're not going to step up marketing intensity, is it reasonable to think that the 20-30 basis points rule of thumb no longer applies?

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

No, it's not a good assumption.

Sarah Simon
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Okay.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Not a good assumption because our priority has always been, and always will be to fuel our growth. As you heard, we have our brands, our historic brands who are growing, and I'm very happy to see that in our top four or five contributors, you've got brands like L'Oréal Paris, which is our top number one contributor, Kérastase, La Roche-Posay, and all these brands self-generating their growth. But we also have new brands. Prada is in our top 10. It needs to be fueled. We have Medik8, which I haven't talked about in skincare, which is growing in the 50 or 60. All these brands need fuel. So I'd rather, if you accept it, I'd rather stick to my margin habits and fuel the top line, and therefore, in the end, deliver greater value.

Sarah Simon
Analyst, Morgan Stanley

Perfect. Thanks a lot.

Operator

The last question is from Jeff Stent, BNP Paribas.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Hello, Jeff.

Jeff Stent
Analyst, BNP Paribas

Hey, good evening. Thank you for taking my questions. First one is just really housekeeping. If you could give a feel for the split of growth between volume, price, and mix in the quarter. The second one is, wherever I go now, I am sort of bumping into a South Korean skincare shop. They almost seem to be exponentially growing. I just wondered if you could comment on that and how you think about that phenomenon from a L'Oréal perspective. Thank you.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Yeah. Okay. I let Christophe answer to you on the—

Christophe Babule
CFO, L'Oréal

Yes, on the volume growth, your question is for the third quarter or for the YTD?

Jeff Stent
Analyst, BNP Paribas

For this quarter.

Christophe Babule
CFO, L'Oréal

This quarter, we had a very well-balanced growth between volume and value. We see the growth in volume accelerating, which is pretty good news because it was the objective. I can tell you more precisely that volume is a little bit more than half the total growth.

Jeff Stent
Analyst, BNP Paribas

That is great. Thank you.

Christophe Babule
CFO, L'Oréal

The growth is visible in all divisions.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Yeah. The great thing for us is that all four divisions are growing in volume. CPD and LDB with CeraVe are expected to do it, but it is also true for professional, with a lot of consumers buying professional haircare as well as for luxury with fragrances in particular. K-beauty. First of all, the boom is real. First of all, in all the numbers you see here and there, that is not the stores you are bumping into, but K-beauty is also the Korean vendors that supply not only the Korean brands but also some of our brands. We are the worldwide kings of cushions, and actually the YSL Cushion is a smashing hit in the U.S., which is interesting because the West was not so far interested in cushions. That is a product which is a Korean beauty product with a partnership with a local vendor.

I signed recently an MoU with Cosmax, which is the number one Korean vendors. As far as brands are concerned, it is indeed really growing in skincare. They are innovative, they are affordable, they are fast-growing. Indeed, I think it is probably a 30% growth on average. They are still a small part of the market. In skincare globally, it is probably, all brands put together, 3%-4% of the skincare market. But it is a phenomenon, and that is why we acquired two Korean brands. We have 3CE, Style Nanda, which is the number one Korean makeup brand in the world, and which we are rolling out quite successfully in Southeast Asia. That is part of the SAPMENA makeup win. As I said earlier, that is also the reason why we have acquired Dr.G.

The only thing that this Korean wave has spurred into me is the fact that I would say the rollout plan we had on Dr.G was, I would say, smooth and starting progressively from the east to the west. I have asked everybody to really gear up and go faster because it is a speed game. That is why if you are in the U.S. today, you would see Dr.G on TikTok Shop, and we are launching it also à la Korean. It is going to be an interesting ride. But the brand is already doing very well in Southeast Asia. The big play is to see whether we can also surf on that Korean wave in the West, and that is one of the objectives of Dr.G.

Jeff Stent
Analyst, BNP Paribas

Okay. Thank you very much, and have a good evening.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Thank you. Thank you, Jeff Stent.

Eva Quiroga
Head of Investor Relations, L'Oréal

That was the last question. Thank you very much, all of you for joining us. Hear you next time in February.

Nicolas Hieronimus
CEO, L'Oréal

Bye.

Jeff Stent
Analyst, BNP Paribas

Thank you. Bye. Good evening.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes the conference call. Thank you all for your participation. You may now disconnect.