Brazilian-inspired beauty brand Sol de Janeiro has captured lightning in a bottle twice—both times by bottling the sweet scent of summer. After launching in the summer of 2015 with just three products, the brand hit it big the following year when its Brazilian Bum Bum Cream became the number-one-selling skincare product at Sephora within the first three months of landing at the retailer. Consumers couldn’t get enough of the gourmand-forward scent profile, which stood in stark contrast to the citrus and floral fragrances that were popular at the time.In 2023, Sol de Janeiro doubled down on its focus on fragrance with the launch of the Summer Limited Edition Perfume Mists, which sold out instantly, and was so sought after that collecting the vacation-themed scents became something of a sport for fragrance-obsessed consumers on TikTok. It was a year of record growth for the brand, as indicated by the 430,000 average monthly Google searches for Sol de Janeiro in 2022—up 18% from the prior year, according to digital trend forecasting agency Spate.So, how did the brand pivot from creating a cult-favorite skincare product to dominating the mass fragrance market? BeautyMatter caught up with Sol de Janeiro co-founder and CEO Heela Yang to uncover the strategic initiatives that led to the brand becoming a fragrance phenomenon.The Brazilian Bum Bum Cream CrazeSol de Janeiro was born from Yang’s exposure to Brazilian beauty standards, which differed from what she had experienced living and working in the US at major beauty brands like Estée Lauder, L’Oréal, and Clinique. Yang moved to Brazil in 2008 to be with her husband and start their family.