L'Oréal President Nathalie Gerschtein on intuition, trends and the mass beauty shopper: ‘There's really only one consumer’

Nathalie Gerschtein’s career at L’Oréal started before she even graduated college. 

“One of the reasons I joined L'Oréal, [which I met] on campus [in college], was because it would give me the opportunity to work internationally, and I knew I really wanted to discover different cultures, different go-to-market strategies,” she told Glossy. “Then when I started to work in beauty, I realized how joyful it is because beauty is about self-esteem, it's about self-confidence, it's about self-expression. And it makes people happy to interact with this category. So here I am, 22 years after starting in L'Oréal, [and] I'm still working in beauty today.”

More than two decades into her tenure at L’Oréal, Gerschtein has accomplished those early goals and more. She started in a brand marketing role for L’Oréal Paris skin care in France, was able to work across European and Asian markets, and, most recently, became the first woman to hold the title of president of the consumer products division at L'Oréal, North America, now based in New York City. 

Today, she leads her team through a mix of experience and intuition. “Sometimes you have to look at all the analytics, understand your consumer, understand the data, and understand the market panels and everything — and sometimes you also have to trust your intuition and take a leap of faith,” she said. 

This strategy has served her well, allowing her to put steam behind the right trends and products while continuing to better understand the evolving shopping habits of the mass consumer. 

Gerschtein joined the Glossy Beauty Podcast to discuss her career growth and lessons learned, predictions for the future of the mass shopper, and recent challenges.