I spoke last month about how a truly cult product goes beyond popularity- it has the ability to revolutionise a category and change how beauty products are formulated and used thereafter.
In the case of Sol de Janeiro’s Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, the cult status of this product extends beyond that. This is a cream that didn’t just take a trend cross-continental. It took an entire mindset and delivered it to the masses.
When Heela Yang, a Korean New Yorker (a combination that Heela says lead to a “conservative” upbringing), had her first experience on a Brazilian beach, she was heavily pregnant. Heela had moved to the South American nation in the winter and fell pregnant soon after, so her body had changed dramatically by the time her first Brazilian summer rolled around. “I was 30 pounds heavier, I was pale- I started listing all the reasons why I didn’t want to go to the beach,” Heela tells me as we sit down during her recent trip to Australia. Her husband said it didn’t matter- visiting the beach in summer was just what Brazilians did.
Heela pulled out her safe, black, “appropriate” one piece, only to learn that Brazilians have a word for one pieces that loosely translates to “diaper.” Heela’s husband took her swimwear shopping where, naturally, everything on offer was a traditional Brazilian cut bikini. “The front and the back were the same size!” she exclaims. “It was probably the lowest I have felt, in terms of self image, in my life. I’m in the tiniest bikini, I’m the biggest I’ve been in my life, I’m in a new country and I can’t even speak the language.”
On her first trip to a Brazilian beach, Heela finally “got” what her husband had tried to explain. “Everyone was celebrating their body. You have every shape, size, skin tone, everybody. It’s a mixed race country, so you really see every body represented on that beach- and they’re all wearing these tiny bikinis.” Within minutes, Heela herself was experiencing a surge of body confidence. “When everybody around you is so free and joyful, then you feel like that. They accept themselves and they accept you exactly as you are.”
Coming from a skincare marketing background herself and working for beauty powerhouses including Estée Lauder and L’Oréal, Heela was struck with how different the Brazilian beauty ethos was in comparison to the rest of the world. Where the New York marketing philosophy had relied on making women feel flawed then presenting them with a solution, the Brazilian way was “fun, positive and joyful. There was very little judgement. Loving and enjoying your body is part of their life [in Brazil]. They believe you’re as beautiful as your attitude.”
The Sol de Janeiro brand was born when Heela asked herself a question: “How can I get this message out to the rest of the world?”
With that message at its helm, Sol de Janeiro launched with three products, each addressing what Heela describes as “nationwide obsessions” – the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream, a body lotion formulated with the “bum bum” in mind, Samba Foot Fetish, with Heela telling me Brazilians spend as much time caring for their feet as they do their face, and the Golden Body Veil, inspired by Heela’s first beach trip during which she saw women applying body hair lighteners so that their hair would glisten like gold in the sun.
Sephora US picked up the range following a Summer 2015 brand launch, the entire collection sold out within four day, and the Brazilian Bum Bum Cream’s cult status was cemented. Aside from Sol de Janeiro’s inspiring ethos and positive marketing, what makes the cream so universally loved is the formula itself. Rich in caffeine via Guaraná extract, a cocktail of Cupuaçu Butter, Açaí Oil, and Coconut Oil, and scented highly addictive Pistachio and Salted Caramel, the Bum Bum Cream works to firm and hydrate and deliver radiance to whichever part of the body you choose to apply it.
The collection has since expanded to include more lotions, a body mist, lip butter, shower and hand creams, bath bombs, scrubs and illuminators, with more top secret releases on the way (they’re really good, trust me- think coconut fragrances, 72 hour hydration and sun protection. But you didn’t hear it from me).
After years of watching the rest of the world have all the fun, next week sees Sol de Janeiro finally land on Australian shelves. Seven of the brands best-selling and most-loved products are arriving at Mecca Maxima on July 31 (including the Bum Bum Cream), with second and third drops arriving on August 28 and October 2 respectively.
This article is not sponsored and while all products have been provided by Mecca Brands all views are, as always, entirely my own.
