L'Oréal, a formidable patent machine at the service of "clean beauty"

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In this race, L'Oréal starts with indisputable advantages. Founded by a chemist, Eugène Schueller, the company has always held its research budget sacred. It amounted in 2020 to 964 million euros, five times that of Estée Lauder. It is also the only one to do fundamental research and to devote 800 of its 4,044 white coats to it. For example, it was the first to design "reconstructed" skins to avoid animal testing. Welcome to Aulnay-sous-Bois (93), to Françoise Bernerd's "light and pigmentation" laboratory. There, hundreds of samples of a few centimeters of skin simmer in 10 incubators at 37 degrees. The tissues were reconstructed from a single biopsy of real skin. "We can thus create diseased, dry, scarred, sunburned skin, explains the researcher greedily. This allows us to make discoveries that we could not have made otherwise."

Another asset, for ten years, the group has decentralized its research. Its 21 laboratories are gathered around six hubs, on all continents, in order to be as close as possible to the various markets. The hair, for example, is studied in Rio, because the Brazilians dedicate an almost obsessive care to it. In the center of Pudong, in Shanghai, largely dedicated to facial care, the skin of Asians is scrutinized with a magnifying glass: volume, pores, wrinkles, spots, everything goes. "There are 27 signs of aging there, compared to 15 on European women, they are mainly concerned about melanin, because they want white skin", explains Sanford Browne, vice-president of research for Asia-Pacific.

This expertise, scientific and marketing, allows the firm to feed its patent factory. No less than 500 are filed each year, mainly for formulas (milks, creams, mists, serums, etc.), but also for a few active ingredients. This is where the "developers" step in. The latter are in direct contact with the marketing teams of each brand, which compete for new miracle molecules, under the arbitration of the head of the branch. To save money and optimize the years of research, the molecule will be "cascaded" anyway (as they say internally) on several brands. Pro-Xylane, which promises to fill in wrinkles, was for example launched in Absolue Premium by Lancôme in 2006, then in a La Roche-Posay skincare product the following year, before ending up at L'Oréal Paris in 2012.

This molecule, derived from beech wood, still has a bright future ahead of it, because it is "naturally correct". Many others do not. Since 2019, all projects, novelties or reformulations that are not stamped "green sciences" have been abandoned. But how do researchers do it? The teams first work on each ingredient and its functionality. In the case of mascara, the hold on the eyelash and the creamy texture are essential. It was therefore necessary to replace waxes from petrochemicals with a molecule obtained by processing rapeseed oil.

Another example, in day creams, hyaluronic acid is an excellent skin tightener. Before, it was extracted from animals. Research worked with Givaudan, its main supplier, to obtain it via biotechnology. L'Oréal struggles on the other hand to do without solvents or certain surfactants responsible for the foam of shampoos. "We have a lot of work for the next ten years", recognizes Laurent Gilbert.

These functionalities, also called "technological bricks", are then associated with each other to create new formulas, then tested on the skin or hair. This is where artificial intelligence comes in. Philippe Barbarat, hair fiber specialist, explains to us, using a microscope, how his computer tests the effect of different polymers on thousands of different hairs. "What would take thirty years on the bench is done in a few months," he rejoices. The ambition is to soon be able to personalize each shampoo to get out of the too broad segmentation of “dry, normal, oily”.

This bubbling brain juice ends up giving birth to a battery of new "clean beauty" or natural beauty products. Some are very successful. Garnier Hair Food, a 98% natural-origin hair care range, brought in tens of millions of euros in its first year. Others, such as Botanéa vegetable coloring or Source Essentielle natural shampoos, did not last more than eighteen months with hairdressers. The first did not cover white hair as well as chemical coloring and the second made the hair rough due to the absence of silicone. “As soon as we change consumer habits, it becomes very complicated,” analyzes a marketing director on condition of anonymity. "In front of the department, customers do not yet make the environment a criterion of choice, even if they proclaim it elsewhere", confirms Maryline Le Theuf, editor-in-chief of Cosmétiquemag.

In the meantime, the R&D teams are giving birth to many hybrid products, in other words a little greener. Matrix colorings, for example, offer a very good level of performance by mixing synthetic and natural dyes. Long-lasting foundations from Lancôme or Yves Saint Laurent, on the other hand, find it difficult to do without a particular silicone which prevents the transfer of the product to clothing... or masks. “The goal is to develop each product, but gradually,” we explain internally. It's hard to say at this time how many of these products have been reworked. Barely a third according to our information.

Already, L'Oréal communicates extensively on this green shift. Last year, the group launched a site called At the heart of our products so as not to let others like the Yuka app do the talking. Researchers teach about preservatives, sunscreens and texture agents, and answer the main controversial questions.

Even more daring, L'Oréal has created its own rating scale using software called Spot (for Sustainable product optimization tool). This tool makes it possible to assess the environmental and social performance of each product and to quantify its improvement over time. All of the 2,180 references created or renovated last year were thus assessed. Soon a pictogram with a scale from A to E, a little like the nutri-score of the food industry, will appear on all packaging. Those of Garnier opened the ball. The brand, known for its supermarket shampoos, now advertises on its site as "the world's leading natural beauty brand". Just that !

The new gadget at 245 euros to create your own lipstick at home

Like Nestlé which, after coffee, created the Nespresso machines, L'Oréal invents the first machine for making bespoke lipsticks at home. Linked to an application, it allows you to create 6,000 different tones. Either by selecting the red of his favorite star, or by photographing his red bag to reproduce the color identically, or by creating the fuchsia of his dreams. One click and the material comes out in a cup to be applied with a brush.

Called Personal and developed for the moment with Yves Saint Laurent, it is sold for 245 euros and works with batches of three cartridges at 100 euros. It will be available this summer in the United States and by the end of the year in France. "More than a machine, it's a tailor-made digital beauty experience", explains Guive Balooch, director of the tech incubator. Its teams of researchers and engineers took nearly two years to develop the device. It joins others such as Lancôme's Teint Particulier, which already allows, in 1,000 department stores around the world, to make a foundation made to measure for customers.

The group is secretly preparing a new sunscreen

After having patented in the 1980s two filters (Mexoryl SX and XL) available in sunscreen products from Vichy, La Roche-Posay or Garnier (Ambre Solaire), L'Oréal is secretly preparing a new filter. Patented in 2011, it aims to improve protection against long UVA rays, which accelerate skin aging by penetrating deep into the dermis. To develop this innovation, L'Oréal relied on its laboratory dedicated to the production of reconstructed skin in vitro. These skin samples, of all types, make it possible to test the filtering molecules by reproducing the different solar rays. The search is thus accelerated. It now remains to find in which galenic forms (gel, mist, cream, etc.) the filter will behave best. A first product could come out in three to five years.