For Indigenous-owned Cheekbone Magnificence Cosmetics Inc., the influence of the
Purchase Canadian motion
has been unmistakable.
Jenn Harper, founding father of the St. Catharines, Ont.-based cosmetics model, stated the corporate noticed a 52 per cent improve in enterprise within the interval between January and April, in contrast with the identical interval final yr — with a 190 per cent surge in March particularly.
Harper stated her firm has seen vital progress throughout politically pushed occasions earlier than, comparable to in 2020 with the Black Lives Matter motion. However they’ve at all times been non permanent boosts to the enterprise. She is extra optimistic in regards to the present progress Cheekbone Magnificence is experiencing as a result of variety of prospects who’ve change into repeat patrons. Cheekbone Magnificence’s gross sales revenues are within the seven-figure vary, with
e-commerce gross sales
for 2025 anticipated to develop 40 per cent from 2023, the corporate stated.
This new curiosity has led her to rethink the corporate’s objectives of specializing in the U.S. to develop: She is now pivoting to constructing her buyer base in Canada first, she stated.
“(We would like) to essentially change into a Canadian make-up model that every one Canadians find out about,” Harper stated. “We’re right here to construct a model that’s going to final generations, identical to our Indigenous roots.”
Cheekbone isn’t the one Canadian cosmetics firm that has seen heightened curiosity and loyalty from Canadian magnificence patrons in response to the
commerce warfare
launched by the Trump administration in January: Trade gamers each small and huge advised the Monetary Put up they’re seeing gross sales surge, and are optimistic the change will final.
“We have now seen a groundswell of exercise and in the end perhaps a everlasting shift in client behaviour to assist Canadian enterprise,” stated Charles Wachsberg, the co-founder of Apollo Healthcare Corp., a significant Canadian well being and wonder non-public label producer headquartered in Toronto. Wachsberg stated the corporate has produced greater than 64,000 merchandise, together with lotions, shampoos, child merchandise and pet merchandise. The corporate was taken non-public for $327 million in 2021 and has nine-figure gross sales, the corporate stated.
“I’d say that our Canadian enterprise has surged in all probability within the neighborhood of 20 per cent for the reason that commerce warfare started,” Wachsberg stated, including that Canadian consumers are paying shut consideration to product labels as they store, trying to find the maple leaf and checking the place the product originates from. “They’re searching for out Canadian innovation and Canadian content material of their behaviours, and so they’re ready to pay extra for it.”
This progress within the Canadian magnificence business builds on an current trajectory. In line with market analysis firm Circana Inc., magnificence was Canada’s quickest rising business within the first half of 2022. The non-profit Commerce Facilitation Workplace (TFO) Canada estimated the Canadian magnificence and private care market amounted to $11 billion in income in 2023, forecasting the market to develop 1.76 per cent between 2023 and 2028. Australia-based market analysis agency Ibisworld Pty Ltd. pegged the Canadian beauty and wonder product manufacturing market in Canada at $4.2 billion in 2024, which elevated 0.1 per cent in 2024.
The query is whether or not the commerce warfare will allow progress within the sector in Canada or hinder it.
Commerce affiliation Cosmetics Alliance Canada recognized about 60 Canadian manufacturers inside the sector, with most being small- to mid-sized firms.
“Their market share in the present day just isn’t anyplace close to that of the massive manufacturers, however there are actually alternatives for them to develop,” stated Darren Praznik, the group’s president and chief govt. “And definitely retailers are expressing a better curiosity in them.”
Vancouver-headquartered skincare firm Elleboxco Inc., working as Blume, has seen a dramatic surge in Canadian gross sales, together with by means of its varied retail companions, comparable to Sephora Canada and Amazon.com Inc., in keeping with its founders Bunny and Taran Ghatrora. The venture-backed firm, which launched in 2018 and has raised greater than $3 million in keeping with Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, is on tempo for eight-figure revenues this fiscal yr, Bunny Ghatrora stated.
Blume’s Canadian gross sales have grown 35 per cent year-over-year to this point in 2025, with 25 per cent progress general, the corporate stated.
Nonetheless, regardless of swelling demand from native patrons, Canadian magnificence firms aren’t resistant to the unfavorable penalties of a commerce warfare. Smaller manufacturers are notably weak, particularly in the event that they depend upon U.S. gross sales.
“A Canadian enterprise can not survive with out the U.S. market,” Cheekbone’s Harper stated. “We want the U.S. client.”
Canadian magnificence companies can face larger prices related to manufacturing their merchandise as properly, since many elements and packaging parts can’t be sourced regionally.
Blume, for instance, makes use of German chamomile flower as considered one of its product’s elements and sources bottles and droppers from China.
“The beauty business might be probably the most internationally built-in,” stated Beauty Alliance’s Praznik. “They manufacture and distribute and promote their merchandise in provide and distribution chains which are like an online all over the world.”
In actual fact, many small Canadian-owned manufacturers trying to develop and develop internationally usually find yourself getting purchased out by giant American firms that may function on a much bigger scale. Examples embrace Toronto-founded MAC Cosmetics Inc. and skincare firm DECIEM Inc., proprietor of manufacturers comparable to The Bizarre, each acquired by The Estée Lauder Corporations Inc.
“Our business has been very supportive of free commerce all over the world and that’s as a result of it has meant nice efficiencies in manufacturing,” Praznik stated, citing advantages from higher high quality and cheaper merchandise to extra choices for the patron. “So, everybody has benefited.”
As Canadian cosmetics firms grapple with the
fallout from tariffs
, they’re weighing a wide range of methods.
Whereas Blume has primarily centered on North American gross sales, the Ghatrora sisters stated the commerce warfare has prompted them to extra critically think about increasing to nations comparable to the UK and Australia to diversify the corporate’s buyer base.
Praznik stated some Canadian producers are evaluating whether or not they can import Chinese language-made parts on to Vancouver and never by way of the U.S.
Others are trying into utilizing customized producers in different nations to make sure merchandise and keep away from tariffs. For example, one possibility could be to make a product for the U.S. market within the U.S., whereas manufacturing merchandise for Canadians and different nations in Canada, Praznik stated.
Montreal-based Groupe Marcelle Inc., then again, has at all times prioritized the Canadian market, with some exports to the U.S. and on-line gross sales to different nations, stated the corporate’s president David Cape.
Groupe Marcelle is Canada’s largest home-grown cosmetics firm, with revenues of about $147 million in 2024 in keeping with Ibisworld. Its manufacturers, together with Marcelle, Watier and Annabelle, are offered by means of retailers comparable to Customers Drug Mart throughout the nation.
Most of the firm’s merchandise are manufactured in Montreal, which suggests it has not wanted to cross on larger prices to Canadian shoppers, Cape stated.
On the onset of the Purchase Canadian motion, Cape stated many magnificence patrons in pursuit of Canadian-owned manufacturers started making an attempt out Groupe Marcelle merchandise for the primary time and main retailers approached the corporate instantly to find out how they may meet the extra demand.
However jittery shoppers could but counteract the nationalist sentiment driving the Canadian magnificence business’s present progress. Commerce tensions have brought on many shoppers to tug again on their discretionary spending, in keeping with a
in March.
Marcelle is seeing barely extra progress in its mass magnificence traces, that are at extra reasonably priced worth factors in contrast with its status Watier line, as shoppers are being extra cautious with their {dollars}, Cape stated.
Whereas there is a bonus with shoppers to being a Canadian firm, Cape stated the commerce warfare continues to be not good for the financial system general.
Battle traces drawn as metal producers push ‘Purchase Canadian’ to battle tariffs and dumping
Will 5 groups within the NHL playoffs (and a surge of patriotism) imply ka-ching for Canada?
“We need to see it come to an finish and the earlier the higher,” stated Cape. “And even when it does, we nonetheless hope that … folks will keep in mind shopping for Canadian is an efficient factor for our nation in any scenario.”
• E-mail: slouis@postmedia.com
Bookmark our web site and assist our journalism: Don’t miss the enterprise information that you must know — add financialpost.com to your bookmarks and join our newsletters right here.
