The Lakmé brand of professional hair color and care takes its lyrical name from an opera written in 1883 by Léo Delibes and the main character, a priestess, named Lakmé. It is a fitting name for a brand owned by The Carreras Family in Barcelona, Spain, who count famed tenor José Carreras as one of their own. The family has been in the beauty industry for 60 years and Lakmé has been in existence for 20 in Europe.

Lakmé is available in over 100 countries with their own distribution, Lakmé Spain serving as their manufacturer. Today, Lakmé is imported and distributed in the U.S. by DePasquale Companies and has had success in the DePasquale Salon Systems market (NJ, NY, CT, PA) and is now looking to expand nationally with distributor territories available.

MODERN SALON spoke with Joe Mastalia, president of Lakmé USA and with Arda Itez, director of education for Lakmé USA. Mastalia came to DePasquale 20 years ago, becoming president eight years ago, and Itez, an industry veteran, specializing in color, was the former Director of Education for Artec Systems of New York and New Jersey and she has been working with Lakmé for six years.

“Carmen DePasquale, founder and CEO of DePasquale Companies, is the centerpiece and visionary of the organization,” Mastalia says. “With over 180 employees, servicing hundreds of clients every week, his salon and spa has such an incredible reputation that people come from all over the world to check it out. Carmen was one of the early Sebastian educators and distributors and he opened a beauty school to complete ‘the full circle of beauty’—stylist, salon owner, distributor and school.  The one thing missing on that wheel was manufacturing so he created his own lifestyle beauty brands (Beauty Addicts, Ecru New York, Cures by Avance, New York Streets, Little Green, are some) when he became frustrated by boutique brands that wouldn’t sell to salons and that were more about their product than about educating the consumer.

“When changes to distribution started to happen through acquisition, we were losing some of our color brands and we had no protection for our distribution. We wanted to have a bit more ownership. Importing could do that for us so we started looking to bring a color line to the table about six years ago.”

MS: What about Lakmé first interested you and how did you go to market in the U.S.?

JM: We first saw them at Cosmoprof Bologna and their presence there was so beautiful. A few month later, we saw them again in Las Vegas and we started a dialogue. The U.S. is a market that they didn’t understand and they looked at us as a company that did because of our heritage. It has been a really good fit.

It’s not easy to bring over a brand; there are a lot of distributors out there who have taken on a color lines and can’t sustain them but we can and do. We are ready to explode into the color business because we have a program to help salons and distributors convert.

Our challenge is that not many people are willing to take on something that is brand new. We want to show people that Lakmé could be a real success for a distributor who doesn’t want to limit themselves to one brand. There is this new group of distributors who are reinventing themselves to be more entrepreneurial and we think we can help other distributors have more success with our brand.

MS: How are you reaching the stylist?

AI: Aside from the obvious platforms, like social media channels, we have a fantastic education curriculum that supports stylists and owners. We have the advantage of using the product in our salon and in our school with our students who are having great success. I have a wonderful education team throughout the U.S. that is consistently growing and is out there spreading the word to industry professionals about the benefits of the brand and doing business with us as a company.

Mastalia: If you went into an individual salon and you previewed a color and some of the team members didn’t like it, they wouldn’t switch.  Now, with booth and suite renters, they are single minded in terms of who is running them—there is one decision maker. We can go into a suite of salons, do a presentation to one, and another ten will gather around and be interested in knowing more.   

How do you work to make Lakmé relevant to the U.S. Market?

JM: We took the time to take a European company and translate it to American culture. We made sure the products worked for our clients, using it in our salon and in our school, and we made sure they were great quality at an affordable price.

AI: We have the freedom to expand on collateral using our own talent, which we are doing more and more. We modify things, sometimes, for educational purposes and take a runway-to-real way approach. We can keep the originality of the idea but make it more appealing to our clientele and meet U.S. market needs.

MS: Describe the Lakmé portfolio and some of its latest additions:  

JM: We have two permanent color lines---one with ammonia and one that is ammonia- free—and we have a demi permanent ammonia-free line. We have three wet lines, a styling line and great support care products that can stand on their own. We can open the door with the wet lines.  

AI: Most recently, we’ve added Chroma, which is ammonia, fragrance and PPD-free permanent hair color; Collage+, a new component to our existing Collage Color; KStyle Cool Products; Bio Argan Oil; and Teknia Color Shampoos and Treatments.

MS: What do you have planned for 2015 and where do you see the most opportunity for Lakmé?

AI: The newest offering in education will be the Ice Collection from Barcelona.  We also have ongoing color, technique, cutting, updo and finishing classes.

I see opportunity in the younger generation. There is such great new talent and they are hungry for a brand that supports them as stylists, especially educationally. Today’s beauty professional still wants brand loyalty to their craft. We offer that because of our hairdressing heritage. Lakmé is ideal for anyone who want to grow as an artist, personally, professionally and financially.

MS: What is the most important thing hairdressers and salon professionals should know about Lakmé?

JM: Lakmé is an amazing product that provides exceptional results with an affordable price point that allows salons to be more profitable.  

https://www.lakmeusa.com/