L’Oréal has reported a 4.2 percent sales growth for the first quarter, thanks to ongoing demand for its luxury products, which offset a weaker performance in other sectors.

Revenue rose 7.5 percent in the first three months of 2017 to reach €7.04bn, helped by currency fluctuations, however, demand for the French beauty giant’s mass market brands in the period was slow.

Sales for mass market products rose 1.4 percent year on year in Q1, as opposed to a 4.2 percent in the fourth quarter, according to Reuters. Meanwhile the company’s Luxe division rose 12.2 percent like-for-like.

Jean Paul Agon, Chief Executive, stated he expected things the trend to be reversed going forward in 2017, citing a ‘strange start to the year’ on a conference call.

He continued, “The cosmetics market has unexpectedly proven extremely atypical in the first weeks of the year, with very strong consumption of luxury products, especially in Asia, and, on the contrary, a very slow start for consumption in the mass-market and the professional market. The market seems to have become steadier and is returning to a more usual profile.”