South Africa’s R25.3 billion cosmetics industry will get a welcome boost with this month’s launch of Boity Pink Sapphire Eau de Parfum at Clicks in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Mozambique, and Swaziland.
This will be another first for the multi-talented Thulo, whose signature fragrance was the first created and named for a black South African celebrity.
Inge Peacock, CEO of Halo Heritage, which developed the perfume in collaboration with the actress and musician, said that since 2015, products fronted by celebrities had become a multi-billion-dollar business even in South Africa.
Up until now, celebrity fragrances – such as Fenty by Rihanna, and Kylie Cosmetics, and Kylie Skin by Kylie Jenner – have been leading brands, completely outselling those not endorsed by well known-faces. Local consumers have up until now supported luxury fragrances created for and sold by international beauty houses and celebrities but are now gravitating towards homegrown icons.
Peacock said that Halo Heritage, together with Boity Thulo, had developed Boity Pink Sapphire Eau de Parfum during lockdown and launched it online through its own channels as well as on Superbalist and Takealot. The essence was developed in France by a company that counts the world’s top cosmetics brands as clients to ensure superior quality and then returned to South Africa where it is now manufactured and packaged as a proudly South African product.
Peacock said that while lockdown and the rise in online shopping had served the Boity brand well and ensured a positive response and good sales after the product went live at the end of last year, many local consumers still wanted to purchase in-store. She said, “We did extremely well during a particularly challenging time and the response has been very positive. Although the pandemic has seen many people embrace online shopping, we realized that, for a high-end brand such as this, we also needed to have a bricks-and-mortar presence.”
Halo Heritage continues to engage with a number of retailers with Clicks being the first to launch. Boity Pink Sapphire Eau de Parfum will be displayed behind glass alongside other top-end international brands at a similar price point.
According to the Department of Trade and Industry, the South African cosmetics industry contributes an estimated R25.3 billion to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) at a retail level and is expected to continue to grow.
Thulo took to Instagram to celebrate the launch saying that she was " so grateful to my @haloheritage team for working so hard to make this a reality."
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