Italian Hip Makeup Label EspressOh Gets Creamier With Skin Care Debut

MILAN — Italian hip makeup brand EspressOh is expanding into skin care.

The label is launching its first two products in the category on Tuesday, when a deep moisturizing cream and eye cream will be available for the digitally native brand’s loyal community and more.

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“This is a big step for us,” said Chiara Cascella, who founded the company in 2018. “It’s an expansion that arrives after many years for a few reasons, including that skin care formulations take time to develop and these have been two years in the making. We ran many tests on different skins and these products proved to be transversal. So we’re bringing into this category the values that have always marked our makeup: simplicity, effectiveness and inclusivity.”

To wit, the skin care is in sync with the unfussy spirit that has helped EspressOh achieve cult status, widely resonating with the on-the-go lifestyle of the Millennial generation Cascella is part of. As embodied by the label’s name — a pun on coffee, which nods to the key ingredient in its makeup formulations — EspressOh is best known for its easy-to-use and fast approach to beauty routines, conceived as an alternative to brands banking on vast assortments and professional techniques.

EspressOh products are intuitive and conceived for multiple purposes, as well as marked by sweet-spot price points between 14 euros and 30 euros. Cascella first launched matte lipsticks that caught the market’s attention with their caffeinated textures, aromas and names, as well as the successful ABC liquid concealer and OhMyGlow foundation available in just four shades that could be adapted to different skin colors and types.

The eye cream is now seen as the perfect match to the bestselling ABC product, while the face cream is aimed at further complementing the face makeup category, which accounts for 70 percent of EspressOh’s total sales, which were 3 million euros last year.

“In skin care, just like in makeup, there’s a need to return to essentials,” said Cascella, who had personal experiences of wrong skin diagnosis, with complex treatments worsening her condition. “I’ve learned that when in doubt, in any case, on any skin type, hydration is the key.”

Hence, the two first products she focused on. “Balance is the best word to describe their formulations, hinged on nourishing ingredients but in percentages thought to create the most transversal products as possible,” she said.

The face cream comes with a rich texture containing 4 percent niacinamide and rice oil, while the lightweight eye cream features daisy and hawkweed extracts, in addition to arginine and squalene.

Coming in an aluminum tube with prices between 24 euros and 32 euros, the products will be available at the brand’s e-commerce, its flagship store in Milan and through selected retailers globally. These include 10 Rinascente locations in Italy and Sephora for markets in Asia and the Pacific area, like Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia and Philippines.

The brand has just inked a distribution deal in the U.K. with Beam, which also recently opened its flagship in London. Cascella tested the potential of the market through pop-ups, in a strategy that has proved to be fruitful both in terms of sales and engagement.

The approach also led her Stateside, where she tied up with a gelateria last year and ran the first leg of the “OhBar” itinerant café-like temporary store in New York in 2022. As reported, the format followed a project turning some newsstands into temporary stores.

These activations further boosted EspressOh’s popularity, built organically thanks to word-of-mouth and one pink-hued post at a time on Instagram, where it has more than 165,000 followers.

The feed is fueled by content generated by customers themselves, including unretouched images and videos, which imbue a sense of spontaneous involvement and authenticity to the label. The promotion of the skin care line adds to the approach, as the dedicated campaign consists in videos and selfies from around 80 members of the EspressOh community, who tested and reviewed the products in advance.

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