L’Oréal taps into pure beauty trend with new fragrance ingredients transparency model
27 Oct 2021 --- L’Oréal Groupe is amplifying its ingredient transparency efforts with a new initiative that further boosts the company’s pure beauty positioning.
It has unveiled a global model for fragrance ingredients disclosure that will progressively provide extensive information to consumers in an understandable and accessible way across its entire portfolio of brands and products.
“With this new voluntary fragrance disclosure model, we are letting our customers know we hear their desire for not only more information about already available ingredients but also for their deep understanding,” says Barbara Lavernos, deputy CEO for L’Oréal, in charge of research, innovation and technology.
“Transparency is at the heart of the trust consumers establish with our brands and we are proud to continue to respond to their desires and provide them with the information necessary when making purchasing choices.”
The company recently reported “powerful” growth at the end of September 2021 with an 18% rise in sales, supported by a 29.7% growth in e-commerce.
Driven by consumers
The move comes as consumer demand for greater ingredient disclosure is rising, to help them make more informed purchasing decisions.
According to Innova Market Insights data sourcing transparency and natural ingredients demands are rising among consumers. Free-from claims rose at a global CAGR of 16% from 2016 to 2020, with top market categories including skincare and hair care.
According to Innova Market Insights data sourcing transparency and natural ingredients demands are rising among consumers. Moreover, personal care products featuring organic claims are increasing rapidly, according to the market researcher who noted a 34% rise from 2016 to 2020 (CAGR, Global), with Europe being the most popular market at 68% CAGR in the same period.
Marketed as the only pure beauty player in all distribution channels and all product categories, L’Oréal needed to design a disclosure model that not only worked for its consumer mass-market products, but also for its collection of luxury fine fragrances.
The company has built scientific expertise in fragrance, providing safety and quality based upon the latest advances in health and environment, consumer knowledge, and analytical sciences.
A trip down fragrance lane
The journey to create this disclosure model started three years ago with the analysis of more than 20,000 fragranced formulas.
Each fragrance formula is a very complex and unique composition created by an expert based on the associations of the best of natural extracts and enhancing synthetic ingredients. Some fragrance compositions can include many ingredients of synthetic or natural origin.
The challenge, therefore, was to provide the highest level of transparency while preserving the know-how and confidentiality relating to the uniqueness of specific fragrances.
To develop this disclosure model, L’Oréal worked hand in hand with its suppliers being the four international leaders in fragrance creation: Firmenich, Givaudan, IFF & Mane.
“The new voluntary disclosure model is far more than a list of ingredients,” the company supports.
L’Oréal intends to make its voluntary fragrance disclosure model available to be open and replicable by other product manufacturers and retail partners. Built with the consumer experience in mind, the aim of the model is to also promote understanding about the origin of ingredients, their olfactory values, and how they work together to create the fragrances in their products.
Green commitments
This announcement is a further step in the group’s commitment to transparency, following the launch of Inside Our Products website in 2019 to inform consumers about the ingredients in product formulas.
The Product impact Labelling initiative unveiled in 2020 also seeks to provide information about the social and environmental impact of its products, as well as a Transparency Summit focused on L’Oréal’s Green Sciences commitments was held in March 2021.
L’Oréal will roll out the new fragrance disclosure model in phases, beginning first in the United States with Atelier Cologne, Garnier and Yves Saint Laurent, which are already live. The Group will then progressively deploy the model throughout all of its global markets and brands.
As a responsible beauty company, L’Oréal intends to make its voluntary fragrance disclosure model available to be open and replicable by other product manufacturers and retail partners, reflecting its commitment to leading the industry’s movement towards greater transparency.
L’Oréal’s USA arm recently reached carbon neutrality for scopes one and two emissions for all of its 25 US sites, across 12 states, including its manufacturing and distribution facilities, administrative sites and research and innovation sites.
Meanwhile, Henkel, L’Oréal, LVMH, Natura &Co and Unilever urged industry to co-develop an environmental impact assessment and scoring system for cosmetics products. PersonalCareInsights spoke with the companies’ representatives, who explained what the move entails and how it will benefit the personal care sector.
By Kristiana Lalou
