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s consumers start to give more consideration to the sustainability of their favourite products, Green Sciences and biotech have begun to play a more prominent role in the beauty industry.
That’s why, for the latest Marie Claire Power Summit, organised in partnership with L’Oréal Groupe, we focussed on how new research is driving a more conscious approach to all things beauty, and spoke with three women spearheading positive change within the industry.
Power Summit: how Green Sciences are shaping the beauty industry
‘Consumers are starting to get a better grasp of some of the big issues.’
- SAMANTHA DOVER
- Ana Kljuic
‘I'm a problem solver and a natural optimist.’
Laura
From formulation to application, the world of beauty is striving to become more sustainable. Here, we meet three industry insiders championing conscious innovation
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We know that sustainability is becoming an increasing priority for people buying skincare products. “For a very long time, most consumers have outsourced responsibility to big companies and governments,” Dover says. “Some really interesting research [in Mintel’s UK Sustainability in Beauty and Personal Care Market Report 2023] shows that 50% of UK adults actually think it’s becoming socially unacceptable to buy products that are bad for the environment.”
However, Dr Sommerlad points out that this trend isn’t universal across generations. “I find the younger generations, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, are really clued up on the environment and sustainability. They want to know if something is sustainable or recyclable,” she tells the panel. “When it comes to older millennials and Gen X, the interest [tends to be] more around efficacy.”
So, with different age groups potentially wanting different things from their beauty products, is it possible for companies to deliver on both fronts? L’Oréal’s Kljuic believes it is. As a scientist, and the Vice President for Research and Innovation with L’Oréal Groupe, she’s excited for the promising developments being made in Green Sciences to impact the industry. “We can now use living organisms as biofactories to create new ingredients,” she explains. “We started with bacteria and yeast, making hyaluronic acid, vitamin C and isododecane (a mainstay ingredient in many make-up products). But, beyond yeast and bacteria, we can now start tapping into a wider world.”
One example, Kljuic says, is humble duckweed. “Duckweed is one of the fastest growing plants in the world – and we can use it to produce new ingredients. We are learning to harness the power of different plants and we don't even need the whole plant: with just the roots, grown in vertical farms, we can produce new cosmetic ingredients.”
What’s more, as part of its ongoing sustainability programme, ‘L’Oréal for the Future’, L’Oréal has committed to continuing to develop research and innovation in sustainable beauty.
L’Oréal has also developed an ecosystem of partners to help further champion sustainability within the industry. As well as working on its own formulations and packaging, L’Oréal’s partnership with CEEBIOS (Le Centre d’Etudes et d’Expertise en Biomimétisme), for example, allows the company to share its knowledge and collaborate on planet-conscious projects.
“What really motivates me is being part of the solution,” Kljuic says. “This commitment from ‘L’Oréal for the Future’ benefits consumers right now.”
Dr Sommerlad agrees, adding: “One of the reasons I work with L’Oréal, as a dermatologist, is its commitment to moving in the right direction. It’s reassuring to know that huge brands are turning so much of their attention to the formulations and the packaging. I can pass that knowledge on to consumers and my patients, but also to the general public.”
Of course, such innovation is always a positive step forward for the industry – but it’s not without its challenges.
- DR MARY SOMMERLAD
‘Less can be more when it comes
to looking after your skin.’
Laura
While many of us try to make the right choices for our skin and sustainability, Mintel research suggests that cutting through the jargon can often be a barrier.
Dover states: “What we consistently see from our data is that consumers are overwhelmed. They feel really powerless, and they don’t know who to trust. It can be hugely challenging because innovation is possibly slower-moving from the average consumer’s point of view than we’d like it to be.”
As the wheels of progress turn, the EcoBeautyScore Consortium – an industry-wide environmental impact scoring system for cosmetics – is creating a universal metric across beauty brands, enabling consumers to make more informed choices. By bringing together more than 70 cosmetics industry stakeholders (including L’Oréal), the consortium aims to develop a standardised method for measuring and labelling the environmental impact of each brand’s products. This, according to research by Mintel, is just what the industry needs: “Around 30% [of consumers] say that having a unified scoring system on packs would have a genuine influence on their purchase decision.”
However, it’s more than just clear messaging and innovative formulae: consumers could also be doing more to support sustainability when it comes to their own skincare routines.
“One thing I encourage people to do is use the right volume of product. Often, people put too much on, and that means that, although they're not necessarily getting any more benefit from the product, they are going through it faster,” Dr Sommerlad says. “Just making small recommendations on how to use the product correctly – and whether it can be refilled or recycled – is a starting point.”
‘It was really interesting to mix the creativity of the beauty industry with the constant change of the tech world.’
- ANA KLJUIC
‘We have shown that when we have awareness, when we have responsibility, when we have collective action, we can achieve miracles.’
What unites these women, from a scientific, dermatological and consumer perspective, is a real sense of hope for the industry’s future.
“As a dermatologist, I am really excited to be able to discuss future-focused options becoming more available to consumers and patients; I'm excited about the advances brands are making,” Dr Sommerlad shares.
“We're seeing more and more products come to market now that carry sustainability information. And, on top of that, we're seeing some genuine changes in consumer behaviour,” Dover adds. “[For example,] consumers are trying to recycle more, they are doing their research, they are avoiding things like single-use products.”
Kljuic shares their enthusiasm: “I'm genuinely excited about advances in science and technology, which are allowing us to create a myriad of new solutions inspired by nature. The best way to move forward is to act.”
With a proactive approach to creating cutting-edge scientific advancements, it’s clear that the beauty industry is serious about integrating sustainability into its offerings – and taking consumers’ concerns about the planet into consideration when it comes to product innovation, too.
espite women accounting for almost 50% of the global workforce, just one-third of roles in the tech
Alongside Laetitia Raoust, Chief Digital & Marketing Officer for L’Oréal UK & Ireland, Marie Claire’s Editor-in-Chief Andrea Thompson spoke to Michelle Kennedy, of parenting app Peanut, and Josephine Philips, of the tailoring platform SOJO, for a Power Summit of fearless female founders. Here’s what they had to say about their careers, the challenges they’ve faced to achieve success, and the advice they would give to women hoping to break into this male-dominated industry.
A dogged sense of determination is ultimately what unites these women. Michelle Kennedy worked as a corporate lawyer before running dating platforms Badoo and Bumble. She later went on to set up the motherhood app, Peanut. “Work[ing] hard, then work[ing] harder” is, she says, vital to achieving success as a tech entrepreneur. This discipline, coupled with her “natural nosiness”, meant that after an encounter with the founders of Badoo in 2010, she didn’t shy away from the challenges in front of her. Instead, she embraced them.
Josephine Philips, on the other hand, founded her company SOJO fresh out of university. Powered by a great idea and the “bravery and naivety of being so young”, Philips believes her lack of formal experience is now her “superpower”.
“Ultimately I came across a problem in the sector of clothing repairs and tailoring, and noticed it was totally non-digitised. If I had been at another stage of my life, I might not have taken the jump. But I was in my final year of university, I had nothing lined up and no responsibilities. This was my time to go for it.”
Her drive is thanks to the “entrepreneurial gene” – it’s something that you either have or you don’t have, she muses. “Having said that, I’ve witnessed some incredible founders who have maybe taken 20 years to get there. They’ve got experience in a career and then they’ve seen a problem and thought, ‘I’ll solve that’.”
It’s not just about repairing the gender disparity – it’s about making intelligent business decisions, asserts Kennedy.
“Women are getting 2% of venture capital and that’s just not acceptable. We are contributing to the economy in a way that we have never contributed before. We’re responsible for 85% of decisions on household spend” – and that’s worth trillions of dollars.
“Statistically, women make better businesses,” she half-jokes. But Kennedy’s right: data by management consulting group BCG reveals female entrepreneurs consistently outperform their male counterparts. It’s a point not lost on L’Oréal Group, which launched its Bold Female Founders initiative to address the tech industry’s gender-based investment bias, and promptly funnelled €25 million into female-founded companies.
In addition, L’Oréal has committed to providing specific training for its internal female leaders, too, enabling them to progress to senior positions within the company. It may be 115 years old, but L’Oréal is a beauty brand that’s firmly focused on the future.
Josephine Philips, on the other hand, founded her company SOJO fresh out of university. Powered by a great idea and the “bravery and naivety of being so young”, Philips believes her lack of formal experience is now her “superpower”.
“Ultimately I came across a problem in the sector of clothing repairs and tailoring, and noticed it was totally non-digitised. If I had been at another stage of my life, I might not have taken the jump. But I was in my final year of university, I had nothing lined up and no responsibilities. This was my time to go for it.”
Her drive is thanks to the “entrepreneurial gene” – it’s something that you either have or you don’t have, she muses. “Having said that, I’ve witnessed some incredible founders who have maybe taken 20 years to get there. They’ve got experience in a career and then they’ve seen a problem and thought, ‘I’ll solve that’.”
Here, Marie Claire UK’s Editor-in-Chief Andrea Thompson chats with consultant dermatologist Dr Mary Sommerlad; L’Oréal’s Vice President for Research and Innovation, Ana Kljuic; and the Beauty and Personal Care Director at Mintel, Samantha Dover, about the impact Green Sciences are having on product creation and consumption.
Sciences and biotech have begun to play a more prominent role in the beauty industry.
That’s why, for the latest Marie Claire Power Summit, organised in partnership withL’Oréal Groupe, we focussed on how new research is driving a more conscious approach
to all things beauty, and spoke with three women spearheading positive change within
the industry.
- Ana Kljuic