21 Yasmina Zerroug

Arabian Beauty, from Algeria to Paris

Swita Charanasomboon

It is a sunny spring morning in Paris’ residential 12th arrondissement. Yasmina Zerroug is putting on a CD of soft Arabic music, getting her beauty salon ready for its daily opening at noon. Yasmina, the entrepreneurial owner of Charme d’Orient, is an Algerian-born French resident. Expressive, dynamic, warm, and maternal, she stares directly into people’s eyes and is unapologetically proud in describing the history of her business. At 60, she looks 45, with smooth skin and dancing eyes, befitting the owner of a beauty salon.

Yasmina grew her Charme d’Orient empire from a one-salon location to a €2 million tri-fold operation: the flagship salon in Paris, a branded and patented comprehensive range of beauty products sold retail and online, and a training institute for oriental beauty treatments. Despite not having had a formal business education (her degree in Algeria was in Spanish literature), she learned by doing and later enlisted her son’s help after he received his business degree from ESSEC, one of France’s prestigious grande école programs. She is driven by a true passion for bringing Algerian beauty rituals to France and by economic necessity stemming from her divorce.

says Yasmina in her typical warm and inspirational manner. She embraces the opportunity to discuss topics dear to her heart: getting up after falling, how beauty links women globally across educational and racial boundaries, looking out for her clients’ best interests, putting her son’s education first, and passing on her experience to other underprivileged/minority women in France. One uniting theme emanates from everything Yasmina touches: empathy and beauty.

From Algeria to France

Yasmina enjoyed an upper-middle-class, liberal upbringing in her native Algeria, but left for France in 1979 with her husband and two young children. In Algeria her husband owned a successful cardboard/carton-manufacturing business. However, Yasmina’s beliefs did not fit in with those of her home country at that time: “[The Algerian government] stopped French school; there was no good schooling. It was dictatorial, there were no women’s rights, I didn’t speak Arabic very well and I couldn’t teach my children their lessons.” So they moved to France. In elaborating on her Algerian roots, Yasmina notes that she is Muslim “and proud of it.” But she adds that she does not agree with fundamentalists “who restrict everything.” Her schooling was in Catholic schools. Her father prayed every day and showed her “the Muslim side that was not fundamentalist.” Yasmina earned her B.A. in Spanish literature and wrote her thesis on Cervantes. Among her strongest values are learning through reading and her children’s education.

Yasmina’s “rock-bottom” situation was her divorce in her 40s. She describes its devastating effects: “I am of a higher class standing, but once one divorces, one has nothing! But instead of crying, I took action.” This was by necessity as her legal bills were very high. Yasmina had her jewels back in Algeria sold—a huge loss for an Algerian woman, whose jewelry is passed down from generation to generation. She also obtained a loan from a cousin.

Her son Sofiane, then a teenager, gave her the idea of opening a tanning salon. She did not feel any passion for this endeavor, but pursued it anyway, “in the same way I would have pursued owning a fruit stand—out of necessity, rather than interest. I needed to pay the bills.” She describes her nervousness about embarking on this entrepreneurial venture: “I didn’t know where I was going; I was in a black hole.” Since her degree in Spanish literature did not translate into anything practical in the job market and because she could not type quickly, she agreed to the tanning-salon plan.

The Start of Her Entrepreneurial Adventure

Yasmina spent an entire year walking all over Paris looking for the perfect location for her tanning salon: “every day, from morning to nightfall, I would walk, to find a location.” At that time she was staying with a friend, with whom she left her two sons while she scoured Paris. “It was a difficult situation . . . very complicated.” Her origin did not help. As soon as prospective landlords saw her Arab name on the application, they rejected her. This continued for an entire year. Fortunately, the owner of the space she now rents in the 12th is a doctor, “and thus a humanitarian.” The doctor empathized with her situation of being a newly divorced and determined single mother and allowed her to rent the little corner in the 12th. Yasmina did not like the location at first (even now, it is difficult for some of her clients to find, she admits)—the boulevard, with its little grocery store and a bank, does not attract much foot traffic. But the situation was pressing. She could not afford to wait and needed the income right away—so she quickly signed the lease.

Her tanning salon, Top Soleil (Top Sun), was immediately a huge success due to Yasmina’s ability to stand apart from her competitors. The salon had an oriental ambience—everything was colorful and in wood, and oriental music played in the background—a vast difference from the other UV places, which were white and sterile. Also important was the spirit of her service. “It’s all in the manner in which I greet and treat my clients.” She describes it as warmth and “it comes naturally to Algerians.” She is alluding to the minimal level of customer service France is known for. Most of all, her clients came to trust her advice. “I think being ethical really differentiated me.” Yasmina recalls the teenage girls who wanted to tan three times a day. She told them about the dangers of too much UV exposure and would not let them stay for more than an hour. Being extremely hands-on, she timed all her clients on the tanning beds for their safety. “I wasn’t business-business even though I did want to make money; but being ethical was important.” Her clients immediately appreciated her genuine concern and brought their entire families.

Yasmina found that owning a UV salon was not intellectually stimulating—she was just running the business to pay for her sons’ studies. The salon’s success enabled her and her sons to move into a wonderful apartment, with lots of space for quiet study. Yasmina put all her earnings toward the rent. “I didn’t go to restaurants, the movies, or take vacations. I knew I had to have priorities, and that was the apartment and my sons’ education.” Yasmina emphasizes again that she had always placed her children’s education first. Before the divorce, as a housewife in Paris, she dedicated her time to helping them learn. It paid off handsomely. Her surviving son, Sofiane, graduated from the prestigious grande école ESSEC.

Yasmina takes a break from explaining her business model to discuss the importance of having an education and a well-informed view of the world. She recalls that, when she lived in Algeria, she spoke French better than Arabic and could not bear to see her children not speak fluent French, even if they had stayed in Algeria. Her father himself opened her up to the larger intellectual world by sending her to Catholic school even though they are a Muslim family. In discussing the Arab–French riots in Paris, Yasmina sits squarely in the middle: She does not buy into fundamentalism and opposes Arab women in France wearing veils. Genuine concern for women is also one of her core values. She feels strongly that the current French political group founded to support the rights of Muslim women, Ni Putes Ni Soumises (“neither prostitutes nor submissive”), is going too far to be political rather than to really help women. This will be a recurring theme across the entire interview: Yasmina wants things to serve their original purpose and not become too grandiose, too proud, or too politicized—all of which ruin their original meanings. This sense of integrity drives all of her business—and life—decisions.

The Birth of France’s First Oriental Beauty Salon

The turning point in Yasmina’s entrepreneurship began when her regular clients suggested she add aesthetic services to her tanning services so they could choose from a full range of options. Yasmina is not an aesthetician, so she hired one; but that employee came and went as she pleased “because it’s France,” laughs Yasmina, leading her to close this new component of her business. She was sad about this. The aesthetician provided hair removal that reminded her of her youth in Algeria when she went to the hamams (Turkish baths) with her mother; and that made her feel nostalgic. She knew, however, that the hair removal process done by aestheticians in France was “superficial” compared to what women in Algeria did in the hamams. One night while she was at home conducting this beauty ritual the Algerian way—in the kitchen preparing the removal paste with sugar in the pan—it dawned on her that her clients would like that process. Her son Sofiane explains that “hair removal is something that is communicated to every adolescent girl in Algeria, so it is something that Yasmina grew up with.” Yasmina immediately called her cousins in Algeria to say, “Don’t shave, I am flying to Algeria to practice on you for my clients.”

This was the birth of the first oriental beauty institute in Paris, in 1994. Lines extended outside the door of Yasmina’s salon. Her first formula for hair removal included sugar. Yasmina asked her clients for feedback. They said the sugar formula hurt a bit and created pimples in sensitive areas. Yasmina then recalled that the Algerian middle class use sugar but the upper class use honey, which is more calming for sensitive French skin. She patented her new formula 4 years later in 1998. Given its all-natural ingredients—honey and fruit mixtures—this formula has no adverse effects. Yasmina’s popularity exploded, and she found herself working every day, including Sundays and holidays. But she did not mind. “I loved it. I didn’t go out at all. I really invested myself,” she explains, eyes shining at the memory. Her days were hectic. When she came home, she prepared her paste—in her kitchen and bathroom, the traditional way women prepared their pastes in Algeria, without a lab. Her son finished high school, and came up with the idea of offering training services for oriental hair removal to other beauty institutions. This training is now recognized by the Ministry of Labor (Le Ministre du Travail) in France. Yasmina soon expanded beyond hair removal pastes to black soap, using traditional Algerian ingredients, and now has 150 SKUs. Her clients are “Françaises de souche”—non-minority and non-immigrant French women—who have a love for the exotic looks of the Middle East and North Africa. (Yasmina’s counterparts—immigrants from Arabic lands—are not clients since they already know how to do the beauty rituals on themselves.) It is worth noting that, historically and presently, the French refer to the Middle East and North Africa as “the Orient”—which includes the three Maghreb countries of Morocco, Tunisia, and Algeria. Thus, in France the name Charme d’Orient would produce associations with the exotic Arab region, a cultural conception that runs through French history, literature, and imagination. Yasmina, indeed, chose a name in line with her passion and motivation to share her beauty rituals with French women.

When Yasmina’s son Sofiane finished his studies at ESSEC business school around 1998, Yasmina was earning €30,000 a year from selling a few products. Sofiane explains that there was no real organization, as Yasmina was not a business person. He saw that products were sent out but payments were not coming in. He had planned to move to the U.S. for work. Wanting to wait out the downturn after the dot.com bubble burst, he stayed in France to help his mother.

Yasmina’s products include scented oils, body milk, body butters, facial care products, and ambiance setters including candles and incense. All her packaging bears the Charme d’Orient cursive logo reminiscent of Arabic script; and her patented honey hair-removal paste label prominently displays “methode Yasmina.” The paste is sold exclusively to professionals. All of Yasmina’s products come in different sizes and many fragrances (jasmine, rose, fruit, orange flower, ylang-ylang, fig, and date, to name a few). Charme d’Orient imports raw materials, outsources the manufacturing, and brands its own products.

Under Sofiane’s guidance, Charme d’Orient revolutionized its packaging and created a distribution center. Previously, Charme d’Orient products came in very rough packaging with no brand name, as it was sold B2B to other beauty institutions. Sofiane also created a distribution center as demand rose. At the same time, he actively decided not to expand aggressively. “We could have gone much faster, gotten loans from bankers, but we wanted to take it step by step.” In its more-than-10-year history, the Charme d’Orient salon had grown from €30,000 to €2 million in revenue.

Charme d’Orient also offers hands-on training for beauty professionals, conducted at the client’s site or at the Charme d’Orient salon. Groups are limited to four people, each of whom receives a certificate of completion. Sessions, conducted by Yasmina, cover hair removal using honey paste, hamam rituals (body and facial care), and henna tattoos.

Location, Location, Location

Charme d’Orient is sited in the 12th arrondissement (see Figure 21.1), a two-minute walk from popular métro station Daumesnil, on a peaceful tree-lined boulevard alongside a few cafes, a BNP bank, a real estate agency, and high-rise residences.

The salon includes several service rooms and a hamam with a shower. Bright and airy, it is decorated in warm tones with Arabic fabrics. Calming and soothing tracks of Arabic music and Jane Birkin play softly in the background.

The warehouse/offices are in Lognes, some 30 minutes outside Paris by RER commuter train. A partially industrial town, Lognes is also the home of Honda’s training center. The warehouse/offices were originally in a small office in Paris but were moved to this suburban location 2 years ago due to space constraints. The office is a different world from the Charme d’Orient salon in the 12th. Here is the land of desks, phones, and a distribution center set in a utilitarian flat cement office park. Yasmina’s son Sofiane and nephew Raouf occupy two unpretentious offices next to each other, with a simple Ikea table with four chairs outside Sofiane’s office and a simple chaise longue covered with magazines. Behind a bright blue door, in the distribution center, two employees are selecting and packing shipments. Behind the door at the other end, there are more offices, housing the accountant (Sofiane’s dad and Yasmina’s ex-husband) and two clerical assistants. The entire place exudes a small, familial feel. Even here, where no clients come, there is evidence of oriental charm: The screen around a desk is made of carved oriental wood, for example.

The channels for Charme d’Orient’s branded products cover beauty institutes, spas, and top French retailers, including BHV and Monoprix Beauté. Export sites account for 20 percent of the company’s revenues and

Figure 21.1 Charme d’Orient Salon, Paris, France

Source: Swita Charanasomboon, May 2009.

include Italy, Russia, Canada, Eastern Europe, Germany, and the Gulf states (primarily to hotels that want to provide their international clientele with Arab products).

The €2 million annual operation is run by managers Sofiane and Raouf (Yasmina’s son and nephew), a trainer, a quality control expert, two clerks/secretaries who take the telephone orders, an accountant (Yasmina’s ex-husband), two warehouse workers, and, of course, Yasmina, whom Sofiane refers to as “the soul of the brand.”

Giving Back to Women Immigrants

Yasmina presently has four aestheticians—three maghrebines (women like herself, of Arab heritage) and one French. She prefers to hire the former, she says, as a way of giving back. It is more difficult for these young maghrebine women to find jobs in France. Yasmina transmits her know ledge to them through training, but will also lend them books and talk to them about literature and philosophy, “so that they have a future.” Some of her success stories include one maghrebine, a cleaning lady before Yasmina hired her, who is now an aesthetician at a prestigious spa in the posh 16th arrondissement frequented by Madame Chirac, wife of former president of the republic Jacques Chirac. Everyone calls Yasmina to poach her aestheticians, knowing how rigorously she trains them. Surprisingly, Yasmina is not worried about competition from her former trainees. “Everyone’s touch is different,” she says. She truly believes that every aesthetician and salon is original and that competition helps grow the oriental beauty industry in general. Given this frame of mind, one easily understands why Yasmina is so happy to train aestheticians and spread her knowledge of Arab beauty.

Learning from Yasmina and Sofiane

Mother and son have learned the importance of listening to their clients for product innovation. Yasmina is head of R&D but gets her inspiration from clients. “One must know how to listen to them,” she says. Such is her organic approach to product development. She has no set goals for how many new products should be launched per year, nor does she believe that innovation is essential in the beauty sector. However, Charme d’Orient will always innovate with her roots in mind—keeping close to the oriental ingredients and not diversifying much beyond that.

Yasmina and Sofiane have also consciously chosen a similarly organic approach toward marketing and sales. “We are 10 years old, but we have no sales people,” says Sofiane proudly. Sales are made by training—the people who are trained by Charme d’Orient feel a deep affinity for the products: “They become loyal and know our tradition and will push the products to their customers,” Yasmina explains. Once again, she lets her products and tradition speak for themselves.

Sofiane explains that he has learned a lot about the importance of trustworthy suppliers from Algeria. “These are not big companies we are working with; these are small companies that mostly do not have experience with exporting.” Sofiane often makes trips to Algeria to do his due diligence on the suppliers. He further explains that he has learned to be aware of cultural differences. Even though he is Arab, the notions of time and deadlines in Algeria and Arabic countries, in general, are different, so he has learned to manage his expectations. To diversify risk, he has several dozen suppliers with whom he has learned and grown together as a team.

Competition and Future Risks

Charme d’Orient’s major competitor is Sultane de Saba, which has the exact same business model: oriental/Arabia-themed beauty salons, branded product distribution, and training. However, Sultane de Saba is larger, with three salons in France, one in Belgium, and one in Switzerland. The company also does a lot more marketing and less word-of-mouth training. It sells at higher prices at more distribution points (such as Sephora, the LVMH-owned cosmetics retailer) and is now diversifying beyond Arabia to Japanese- and Indonesian-inspired beauty solutions. Yasmina and Sofiane both agree that Charme d’Orient will never move beyond its core of Arabia-inspired products. They will not move beyond their roots and what they truly understand. After all, Charme d’Orient works more with professionals to train them, so credibility is extremely important. Yasmina and Sofiane would not feel comfortable training on Japanese products, for example. Indeed, the theme of true passion and authenticity plays into their business model once more.

Sofiane brings up one concern that he quickly dismisses: Charme d’Orient does “have all its eggs in one basket”—the Arabia basket. Will Arabia ever pass out of favor with the French and the world? No way, Sofiane affirms. France and the world have a long-standing fascination with the region. The love is inepuissable (inexhaustible), he adds.

Future View

Yasmina explains that she has no plans for expansion. After working every day, including holidays, for so many years, she would now like to travel and see the world. She is also planning to write a book about her life and career path and perhaps include some recipes. If she were younger, she muses, perhaps she would have considered expanding into New York City. There would certainly be demand: her guest book at the salon entrance shows an entry from a recent visitor who wrote, “I am moving to the U.S. Where will I find a Charme d’Orient there? If you ever want to expand globally, I will be your very first client!” But then again, Yasmina admits, she never started with the idea of getting rich. She had always wanted to stay simple and make enough for her children’s education. This sums up the success of Yasmina and Charme d’Orient. Yasmina knows what her drivers are, and she stays close to her core competencies and passion. “Every woman loves beauty. Beauty unites women all over the world, across cultures,” she says in evidence of her passion. She ends the interview with these words of advice to future women entrepreneurs: