One of the most coveted beauty products among American teenagers right now is a creamy lotion called ‘Brazilian Bum Bum Cream’, sold for $48 by the beauty brand Sol de Janeiro.
According to the company’s website, which is not Brazilian, the lotion has a pistachio scent and “helps to visibly smooth and firm the appearance of the skin.”
But its consumer audience is not exactly the one that needs to invest in skin firmness.
The product has found quite young customers on TikTok, where influencers showcase it in videos with millions of views, and in stores like Sephora, whose website lists it among the recommended gifts for teenagers. According to Sol de Janeiro, a jar of Brazilian Bum Bum Cream is sold every six seconds.
Although the company does not have an age breakdown of the buyers of Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, the brand clearly resonates among teenagers. More than 500 product reviews on the Sol de Janeiro website have been posted by customers who identified themselves as under 18 years old.
The cream has sparked debate and some perplexity among parents and dermatologists who wonder why a product with a label claiming to “visibly firm” has taken off among teenagers with sagging skin or wrinkles.
Who is Sol de Janeiro
The company was founded in 2015 in the United States with the goal of developing beauty products based on what Heela Yang, CEO of Sol de Janeiro and one of its founders, described in interviews as the natural sense of body confidence among Brazilians.
“When it came to identifying products, we asked ourselves which part of the body Brazilians were concerned about,” Yang said in a 2017 interview with the British beauty publication Get the Gloss. “It didn’t take long. The answer was unanimous: the bum bum.
The company was acquired by the French body care brand L’Occitane in 2021 and its sales are expected to reach $1 billion this fiscal year, according to The Business of Fashion. Several products from Sol de Janeiro, including the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, are listed as bestsellers on the Sephora website.
Source: The New York Times