In Charleston, Granado recreates the furniture of its first Rio apothecary

Business

Article • Oct 15, 2026 • 2 min read

At home it is the brand of affordable soap and talc. In Madrid and South Carolina, the 1870 Rio pharmacy is selling something else: a bottled version of its own history.

The historic Granado apothecary in downtown Rio de Janeiro, with its original shelves and counters

In downtown Rio de Janeiro, Granado's first botica, the old-school pharmacy-perfumery where the brand began in 1870, still sets the template. Its furniture is now being copied for a new shop on King Street in Charleston, South Carolina, according to local news site WhatNow Charleston. The Granado Charleston store will be the brand's third in the United States and its first outside New York. For most Brazilians, Granado means affordable soap and talc from the neighbourhood pharmacy. Abroad, it is turning into something else.

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Madrid got Granado's largest store outside Brazil

The Charleston news landed three days after a bigger opening in Europe. Granado unveiled a 151.5 m² shop in Madrid's Salamanca district, its largest outside Brazil, as reported by business portal Bloomberg Línea Brasil. The brand first tested Spanish shoppers in temporary spaces, then committed to a permanent address. With Madrid, it reaches nine boutiques of its own outside the country.

The international push itself is not new. Granado has run shops in Paris, Lisbon, London and New York since Puig came in as a minority partner. What changed is the pace: two announcements in under a week, in two cities chosen with the same logic, opening only where demand has already shown up.

Interior of the Granado boutique in Madrid's Salamanca district, with fragrance bottles on display

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Perfume makes up about 70% of Granado sales abroad

The numbers explain the bet. Outside Brazil, fragrance accounts for close to 70% of the brand's sales, against around 40% at home, according to online magazine Glossy. The same report puts growth in US sales at 95% in a single year.

That split says a lot about how the brand travels. In Brazil, Granado is a habit, the bar of soap in the family bathroom. In Madrid or Charleston, it sells as accessible luxury with a 19th-century Rio story attached, and that story is easiest to carry in a bottle. How the two newest shops will perform is still an open question.

Rebuilding a Rio botica in South Carolina is the tell: the smell of Brazil sells best abroad as fragrance, and the old furniture is there to frame it.