PARIS — La Bonne Brosse, the French indie brand that’s reinventing the hairbrush market, is pushing further into the U.S., with the opening of 100 doors in Nordstrom on Monday.
This follows its entrance into some 30 Bloomingdale’s locations in December 2025.
Four-and-a-half years ago, two beauty industry veterans, Flore des Robert and Pauline Laurent, decided to shake up the rules of the market. This would entail operating in a slow, sustainable manner to develop products lasting a lifetime, while running a profitable company. They believe a good hairbrush is the alpha and omega of healthy hair.
La Bonne Brosse brushes are made in France of cellulose acetate, generally used in luxury eyewear, giving an organic feel and biodegradability.
A La Bonne Brosse brush.
Courtesy of La Bonne Brosse
A part of the secret of their brand’s success, according to the cofounders, is that consumers love the products, so repurchase and gift it.
“We didn’t imagine ever that the gifting would be so big,” des Robert said, adding the brand’s sales grew more than 40 percent during the Christmas period. “It’s huge. It is also part of the word of mouth.”
Mother’s Day is another big moment for the brand.
“It’s quite a new way to gift from woman to woman,” des Robert said, adding another reason for brand replenishment is the educational approach La Bonne Brosse takes. “We explain to women that they don’t need only one brush.”
What one needs on a breezy day might differ from during the summer or for a sleek hairdo. So each brush is for a hair type, but also for a particular moment.
“It’s functioning like a brush wardrobe,” Laurent said, of La Bonne Brosse. “Our very good consumers — they probably have seven brushes.”
There are collaborations with brands the founders feel chime with La Bonne Brosse’s values. Special editions include new prints for summer.
“Those things that we do as drops — and this is really our strategy — is we always produce small quantities,” des Roberts said. “It creates that momentum.” It also creates consumer craving.
In developing La Bonne Brosse, the cofounders had in mind the iPhone and Hermès lipstick. “Both brands are of course iconic,” Laurent said.
The exercise was: How do you create desire for a category that is seen as a commodity, then transform that into functional luxury?
Des Roberts and Laurent believe it’s all about product quality.
“We’re here for a long-term play,” des Robert said. She noted the brand’s consumer is getting younger, and that such a demographic is obsessed with their hair.
“It is also a shift in generation in the way you care for your hair,” Laurent said. A hairbrush is part of rising generations’ own routines for their own individual looks. Older generations often go to hair salons to achieve that.
“We have the right brand to accompany this shift,” she continued.
Today, La Bonne Brosse has nine brush types, five of which are for care, two are round for styling and one is for babies and children. The classic brushes come in two different sizes and 15 to 20 colors each, with every one working well.
Retailers can choose the models they think will resonate most with their clients. A big brush retails for 142 euros and the small one for 98 euros.
Cair is La Bonne Brosse’s prestige cosmetics line for hair, coming in sustainable packaging.
L’Eau de Soin from Cair
Courtesy of La Bonne Brosse
“It’s very sophisticated in terms of technicalities of the formula, but very clean and natural,” Laurent said, noting also a change in the younger generation’s usage of products moving from shampoo and conditioner-only rituals to more multistep. “What they want is products that help them achieve the styles they want every day and take care of their hair [daily].”
La Crème Hydratante Embellisseuse Cair, like a day cream in the skin care category, is flying off shelves. It’s La Bonne Brosse’s bestselling hair care product in the eight-product line. In mid-June, the brand will launch L’Eau de Soin, like a dry shampoo in mist form to refresh scalps. The collection’s products range from about 40 euros to 88 euros, and make up 10 to 20 percent of overall brand sales.
La Bonne Brosse accessories include hair clips, combs and brush holders. A mini brush that can attach to bags will be out in June. Altogether, accessories generate 10 percent of the brand’s business.
La Bonne Brosse has been profitable from Day One. Its cofounders look at the business brush by brush, market by market, according to des Robert. Large quantities of brushes cannot be produced at once, since they are made in ateliers. This informs distribution choices.
“We will keep our distribution limited,” des Robert said, adding they enter “the best department stores in key markets.”
In Paris, La Bonne Brosse will open its third freestanding boutique, in the Marais, in September. Its first international freestanding location is to be in Monaco.
To date, the brick-and-mortar locations account for 5 percent of La Bonne Brosse’s sales.
Other iconic cities are in the founders’ sites for their own stores, including London and New York. Altogether, the brand is in 250 doors in 20 countries.
Seventy percent of La Bonne Brosse’s sales are made online. Since launch, the brand has sold 350,000 brushes, or one brush every three minutes. This year, its sales are expected to surpass $30 million, up 80 percent versus 2025.
The cofounders remain focused on profitable growth in their points of sale and on not disappointing consumers.
“This is the type of journey that we’re most interested in,” des Robert said.
The U.S. is La Bonne Brosse’s largest market thanks, in part, to hairstylists’ love of the products. They create buzz through their own social media. Emma Stone’s hairstylist Mara Roszak kicked that off.
“When you look at absolute value, there’s so much opportunity in the U.S.,” des Robert said. “This is the number-one beauty market in the world.”
Pauline Laurent and Flore des Robert
Courtesy of La Bonne Brosse
So it was clear a further push into the country was in order. The choice of Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s was obvious.
“They really have a clear winning strategy with the luxury consumers,” des Robert said.
France — where La Bonne Brosse’s sales are growing by strong double-digits — is the brand’s second market, followed by the U.K. and the rest of Europe.
“More and more women are joining the brand,” des Robert said.
