Italian Makeup Brand Pupa Milano Turns 50, Looks Toward International Push

MILAN — For Italian girls growing up in the ’80s and ‘90s, Christmas was likely to come with the annual request to Santa for a much-desired Pupa makeup case.

The brand’s inventive and colorful kits — cute toy- or animal-shaped boxes with many different sections to open and products to discover — easily tickled women’s imaginations, associating a sense of playfulness to makeup routines in times when color cosmetics offerings had a more classic and grown-up feel.

That disruptive spirit is one of the secrets to Pupa Milano’s longevity, as the brand developed under Micys Company marked its 50th anniversary in 2025. The Casatenovo, Italy-based firm that was launched by Angelo Gatti with the desire to express Italian creativity in beauty with an inclusive approach and a sweet-spot price positioning, grew to reach 98.5 million euros in sales in 2024, with makeup accounting for 85 percent of its total business.

The goal now is to pivot Pupa Milano from an Italian beauty darling to a global beauty brand, raising its international profile by further sharpening its product innovation and catchy communication, as well as investing in boosting its distribution footprint.

Iconic products telegraphing the pioneering nature of the label through the years encompassed the first “Bouquet” beauty kit dating back to 1975; the 1979 “Intensyl” mascara coming with an integrated mirror to facilitate the on-the-go application; the 1983 suitcase-shaped “Genesis” box additionally featuring lighting to mimic professional makeup stations; the 1985 “Pupafree” line of cosmetics already advancing the concept of refill in beauty; the ‘90s sets shaped as music boxes and animals, along with debuts into fragrances, kids’ and men’s skin care lines.

“This company has been able to represent something different from the very beginning,” said Valerio Gatti, chief executive officer of Micys Company, who represents the second generation running the family business. “My father founded it with no means at all, so he could only rely on creativity and imagination, turning these into the DNA of the brand. They are the reasons why it immediately stood apart.”

“When he conceived the cases, he wanted something new, original and a little bit irreverent, since these were unusual shapes for the time, and imbued with a playful spirit, signaling a desire not to take oneself too seriously,” Gatti said. “In the ‘70s makeup came in serious, black- or navy-colored squared packaging — and suddenly something red popped onto the scene. [Our kits] had all different types of products — for lips, eyes, nails, all in different shades — in one place. They were an ode to self-expression and empowerment….That’s why many generations of women still feel emotionally connected to the brand, which is an asset we want to safeguard and keep nurturing.” 

The brand attracts a wide target of women aged 18 to 54, also drawn by more recent introductions, such as the bestselling Vamp! mascara. First launched in 2012, it grew into a hit franchise that expanded also to lip products, such as the Shock Plump gloss or the Marker Duo, which went viral on TikTok last year. 

“Obviously the market has changed and is changing at an incredible speed, under every perspective, and it’s not comparable to our beginnings nor the ‘90s,” Gatti said. “But our recipe is the same. The future of Pupa resides in keep expressing its DNA, but in modern terms….If we were to engage in a price battle rather than a creative one today, considering the crowding of brands and low-cost options that exist in the world, we would be fighting a war that isn’t ours — one we would likely lose.”

Hence, the focus on enhancing the international appeal of its catalog. Most recently, the brand debuted the My Crush family of lipsticks, as well as a two-part collaboration with contemporary fashion brand Pennyblack, under the Max Mara Group umbrella. The latter move is seen as a strategic way to boost the brand’s awareness, as the CEO teased to a future tie-up with another brand as well as the possibility to experiment with different product categories.

Pupa Milano is currently available at 12,000 doors in 70 countries, with the wholesale distribution accounting for 78 percent of total sales last year. The brand counts 36 stand-alone stores in countries such as Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, in addition to Italy, where it also has a dozen factory outlets.

The company’s top market is still the domestic one, followed by the likes of France and the Netherlands, as well as East Europe. Outside Europe, Canada and Argentina are key for the brand, but Gatti underscored that new geographies are on the rise and are telegraphing “the potential Pupa Milano has” on a global scale. These include the likes of Tunisia and Brazil, where the label first expanded this year. While in China Pupa Milano is growing gradually, mainly via Tmall, the firm is still plotting a strategy to step into the U.S. properly and is in negotiations with distributors to launch in India.

In the meantime, the digital channel offers “a great opportunity to test a potentially successful market in an economically sustainable way, without committing to big investments,” Gatti said. Last year online sales accounted for only 2 percent out of total revenues, but the executive underscored that the channel will remain central in the firm’s future distribution strategy.

“The international context is so complicated and crowded that adopting a single approach would be reductive and probably even dangerous. There’s such a wide range of situations worldwide that the key to distribution development resides in speed and flexibility,” said Gatti, underscoring that being a private company further facilitates agility and swift adjustment to different market conditions.

At the moment, the CEO’s main concern comes from a familiar territory, though. “The domestic market is undergoing a difficult moment, not just for us but in general, which is quite unusual for a resilient sector like ours,” said Gatti, pointing to two main reasons. On one hand, he highlighted the decline in purchasing power, especially among the middle-class consumers, and the resulting polarization of consumption toward either the entry-level or high-end segments. On the other, Gatti pointed to an excessive fragmentation of the offering and the growing number of new indie brands, which, even with limited distribution, are eroding market shares to more established players.

Gatti said this might slightly impact the company’s total revenues in 2025, as he projected to report a single-digit decrease this year.