Philippe Bonningue, Global Director of Sustainable Packaging & Development at L’Oréal

Premium Beauty News - How do you see packaging and its role in the cosmetics industry today?

Philippe Bonningue - Packaging is the main identity link between a brand and its consumers, so our role is both to design packs in line with brands’ identities and satisfy user expectations. We must show we know how to associate sensoriality, rationality, and emotions in our designs, while integrating sustainable and societal criteria, a ubiquitous requirement related to our environmental policy.

Premium Beauty News - How did this role change over the past few years?

Philippe Bonningue - Beyond its protective, container, and informative functions, packaging now plays a strategic and multidimensional role in the development of new products, but always in keeping with the quality expected by consumers and the safety of use it must guarantee. It is a key innovation driver. As a reminder, L’Oréal registers over 80 packaging patents a year. For example, the aerosol fitted with a diffusion circle launched for Mixa and Garnier deodorants was developed with the Deoz technology. It required five years of research and led to ten innovation patents. It was marketed to meet the demand from certain women consumers, who sought more gentleness, compared to traditional sprays. So, this unique aerosol comprises two overlapping rings to diffuse the formula in the form of a mist and give a more pleasant sensation.

The value perceived by packaging users has taken a crucial dimension over the past few years. It is conveyed by ergonomics, ease of use, the performance it gives the formula, but also the fact that it is getting increasingly more connected and smart. What has also obviously changed is that consumers are growing more and more aware of the environmental impact. It has become essential to design responsible packs, as it is an element they take into account when they make a purchase.

Premium Beauty News - How have you dealt with this requirement?

Philippe Bonningue - Packaging represents 50% of the environmental impact throughout the life cycle of a product (except for rinsed-off products). At L’Oréal, we address this issue by strongly committing to reducing our impact through our 2007 Packaging & Environment policy, which we regularly review to make stricter. It integrates our ecodesign processes as well as the 3R approach (Respect consumers and the environment, Reduce packaging in volume and weight, Replace materials by others with a lower environmental impact). For example, everyone knows a good way to reduce the environmental impact is to make products reusable and refillable. As a result, we have set up a number of projects following the refill concept. Of course, we still aim to offer the best consumer experience possible and guarantee gestures that will satisfy consumers, but we also intend to take into account environmental issues. Several projects have already been developed, like with perfumes, with the Viktor & Rolf brand, or makeup. In this segment, there are few formulas, but a lot of packaging, and trends quickly evolve. So, for example, we made lipstick and makeup palette refills for Shu Uemura. We will keep moving in this direction.

Premium Beauty News - How does this impact your relationship with suppliers?

Philippe Bonningue - We choose our suppliers in accordance with our responsible purchase policy (L’Oréal Buy & Care), which is based on five equally important criteria, namely their capacity to innovate and meet our quality, service, environmental responsibility, and economic competitiveness requirements. This selection policy helps us get familiar with and control the traceability of the raw materials and conditioning items used for our products, and make sure our supply chain is reliable, our workers respected, and labour law complied with. Among these criteria, social and environmental responsibility is essential to us, as there is a very high demand in this field. As an example, according to our suppliers, we are one of the most demanding companies as regards the use of recycled materials, PCR (Post Consumer Recycle), whether for glass or PET plastic.

In terms of processes, we tackle all issues upstream, during the design phase, as soon as the marketing briefing. That is when we imagine what the product will be when it is no longer a product (product used and empty). Innovating is a challenge, and innovating sustainably is even more so, although it is also an outstanding opportunity.

Premium Beauty News - Are consumers and brands ready for connected packaging?

Philippe Bonningue - We live in a hyperconnected world, so consumers are ready indeed, but they are probably a bit lost, given the offering. That is the reason why it is essential to make the connection useful. It should actually be an added value for consumers, play an educational role, and prove useful in people’s daily lives. Connected beauty is both a trend and a consumer expectation we meet by integrating digital technologies into the design and development of our products, but we will not make it a gadget. A first major application was launched last July, with the La Roche-Posay UV Patch, to discover your own sun resistance, either directly (just read what the patch displays when you place it on your skin), or via an application connected to the patch. Other projects are under study for products that have not been launched yet.

Premium Beauty News - NFC, digital printing… which technologies do you prefer?

Philippe Bonningue - All technologies whose NFC chip and digital printing/recognition are under study. They are complementary, so we cannot just exclude any one of them. Besides, our policy aims to integrate all new technologies to the development of all our products, so that we can meet consumers’ specific needs.

We can also mention the 3D printing technologies we already use, in particular in the production phase of a new Kérastase shampoo capsule.

Premium Beauty News - What other major trends define tomorrow’s packaging?

Philippe Bonningue - Beyond sustainable development and connected beauty, there is personalization, a major expectation among consumers who wish to live a unique experience, whatever the distribution channel, but mostly e-commerce. We should bear in mind it represents 5% of the group’s turnover, with a growth of over 38% last year. In China, it accounts for 20% of the turnover.

It is a significant trend that can make companies overlook certain aspects, like the formula performance or the environmental impact, by using overpackaging, and we do not want that. That is why we integrate all the distribution constraints specific to this purchase channel upstream, as soon as the design phase (the same pack is subject to many more channel disruptions with e-commerce than with any other traditional channel), so that we can optimize our packaging and always satisfy all our consumers with innovative, reliable products in line with our commitment for the environment.