Two of the biggest cosmetic giants in today’s time are Sephora and LipSense. Each of them has garnered a reputation for themselves since their establishment. Essentially, they cater to the same market. However, customers reach out to them for different kinds of products. That is where the most notable difference between them lies.
Sephora vs LipSense
The difference between Sephora and LipSense is that Sephora is a multinational retailer of beauty and wellness products for numerous brands that sell products including skincare, fragrances, beauty tools, hair products, and much more. On the other hand, LipSense is only a product line of SeneGence International Inc. that focuses on lip care such as lip gloss, lip colour and lip colour removers.
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Sephora was founded in the year 1970. It is a French multinational retail with stores in more than 34 countries across the world. The stores feature approximately 3000 brands. Moreover, the company even has a private label called Sephora Collection. Along with lip care, there are a plethora of beauty and wellness products that these retail stores feature.
Meanwhile, LipSense is only a product line that includes lip products such as lip gloss, lip colour, and lip removers. Unlike Sephora, these products do not have their own stores for sale. Instead, the products are available to the customers through distributors. Its parent company, SeneGence was founded in 1999.
Comparison Table
| Parameters of Comparison | Sephora | LipSense |
|---|---|---|
| Launch | It was launched in 1970. | It was launched in 1999. |
| Nature | It is a retailer of various brands, including its own private label. | It is a product line of its parent company, SeneGence. |
| Products | It sells a variety of beauty and wellness products including skincare, fragrances, beauty tools, hair products, and much more. | It only features lip gloss, lip colour, and lip colour remover. |
| Sales | It has its own retail stores for sales. | Its products are sold through other distributors. |
| Controversies | It has been liable for claims including employee bullying, wage theft, and even racial discrimination. | It has a complicated pay structure which makes people suspicious of it being a pyramid scheme. |
| Subscription Service | It has a subscription service for its customers. | It does not have a subscription service for its customers. |
What is Sephora?
Sephora is a French multinational cosmetic retailer that was founded by Dominique Mandonnaud in 1970.
Since then, it has managed to open stores in more than 34 countries across the world. These stores, in total, feature approximately 3000 brands.
Each store features brands that are more likely to sell in their respective locations.
The brands featured in Sephora stores sell a variety of products. These range from skincare, fragrances, beauty tools, hair products, and much more.
The stores even have various products for lip care. Moreover, the company even has a private label called Sephora Collection which features many beauty and wellness products.
There is even a subscription service launched for people who regularly shop for products at Sephora. This service is called ‘Play! By Sephora’.
It is a monthly subscription service that even offers sample size products of various brands to its customers. However, these are available only after paying an extra fee.
Sephora has been liable for a number of controversies over the years. It has been accused of having a bullying culture in its stores.
This accusation was filed by an ex-employee. Many complaints including wage theft have also been recorded. Some customers even filed a lawsuit against the company for racial discrimination.
This was when the company deactivated the accounts of many Asian customers based on the pretence that they were buying products in bulk and then reselling them.
What is LipSense?
Unlike Sephora, LipSense is only a product line of the company SeneGence. This company was founded in 1999 by Joni Rogers-Kante.
He still stands to be the CEO of the company. The company does not have its own stores to sell products.
LipSense products are sold through other distributors who sell beauty and skincare products.
The product line LipSense features only lip products including lip gloss, lip colour, and lip colour removal. These products are sold through a multi-level marketing system.
The distributers need to purchase products from the manufacturing units, after which they resell them and earn based on commissions.
To qualify for a commission, distributors need to spend at least 200 Dollars on a monthly basis.
However, due to this complicated sales structure, many people have accused the company of being a pyramid scheme. Many distributors have even made aggressive and unsupportable sales claims for LipSense products.
At times, there were widespread reports that distributers were claiming that LipSense products were the ‘official products used by Broadway.’
However, this was false. The company asked these distributors to stop making such claims, but many would ignore the request.
Regardless, LipSense has a few celebrity endorsers for its products, who are far less in number as compared to Sephora.
Main Differences Between Sephora and LipSense
- Sephora was launched in 1970 whereas LipSense was launched in 1999.
- Sephora is a retailer of various brands, including its own private label whereas LipSense is a product line of its parent company, SeneGence.
- Sephora sells a variety of beauty and wellness products including skincare, fragrances, beauty tools, hair products, and much more whereas LipSense only features lip gloss, lip colour, and lip colour remover.
- Sephora has its own retail stores for sales whereas LipSense products are sold through other distributors.
- Sephora has a subscription service for its customers whereas LipSense does not have a subscription service for its customers.
- Sephora has been liable for claims including employee bullying, wage theft, and even racial discrimination whereas LipSense has a complicated pay structure which makes people suspicious of it being a pyramid scheme.
- https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1998292
- https://zims-en.kiwix.campusafrica.gos.orange.com/wikipedia_en_all_nopic/A/Avon_Products
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Chara Yadav holds MBA in Finance. Her goal is to simplify finance-related topics. She has worked in finance for about 25 years. She has held multiple finance and banking classes for business schools and communities. Read more at her bio page.
