Swedish skincare brand Common Clouds was one of ten finalists for the Sephora Prize 2026, a new award for young European beauty brands. The winners were announced at Sephora’s Sephoria event in London, where Makeup by Mario founder Mario Dedivanovic handed out the prizes. ELLE Sweden’s beauty editor was in the room for the ceremony.
First place went to Substance of Light, which combines high-performance sunscreen with skincare. French Cowboy, a niche perfume brand, came second, and the hair care label Omad’s was third. The winner receives three years of support from Sephora, including mentoring, help with product development and more visibility across the European market. The prize is open to skincare, make-up, fragrance, hair care and beauty tech, and looks for brands with a clear vision, a strong founder story and products that bring something new.
Common Clouds was launched in 2022 by Maria Ahlgren, Cajsa Horn and Helena Radelius and focuses on acne-prone skin, using gentle formulas built around strengthening ingredients. Its first product was a set of cloud-shaped acne patches, followed by Cloud Wash, Cloud Mist and the new Cloud Drops. The brand is sold in Denmark, Norway, Finland and Poland, and is run by a team of six from a small office on Tegnérgatan in Stockholm. That small scale made the trip to the final all the more striking for the founders, who were competing against brands from across Europe.
Ahlgren said the team spotted the new incubator prize in early summer and applied. After about six weeks of silence, they were invited by email to pitch to the jury in Paris, with ten minutes to present. While rehearsing over dinner the night before, they noticed the make-up artist Gucci Westman sitting a few tables away, which they took as a good sign. “It was almost surreal to present Common Clouds,” Ahlgren said of facing some of the most influential people in the industry.
The brand did not take first place, but Ahlgren said reaching the final was a win in itself for such a small company. Her message to other founders was simple. “You have to dare to follow your dreams,” she said. For Common Clouds, the shortlisting means a Stockholm start-up that began with acne patches got to pitch its products to the jury of one of the world’s largest beauty retailers.
