By 1993, Mandonnaud decided to merge Boots and Shop 8 and rebranded them as Sephora, offering customers an open-sell retail experience selling premium skincare and fragrance brands.
The world’s leading omnichannel prestige beauty retailer, Sephora, has been dazzling beauty junkies since 1969, when it was first launched in Paris by Frenchman Dominique Mandonnaud.
Then known as Shop 8 in Limoges, France, it was the first-of-its-kind “assisted self-service” environment that allowed shoppers to try and test products (namely perfumes) before buying them — a concept unheard of in the beauty retail industry back then. This new way of shopping became such a hit that a dozen more Shop 8 outlets started to sprout up in the next two decades, along with the acquisition of numerous Boots pharmacies in France.
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