Signifying a more connected world of beauty for all, L’Oréal Australia hosted a first-time collaborative showcase of their beauty brands and the technology and lifestyle trends that have played a key role in the future vision of the world-leading beauty company.
“I’m excited to tell you about our transformation and where we’ve been going in terms of beauty and technology in the last 8 years,” said Guive Balooch, Global Vice President of the L’Oréal technology incubator.
After eight years in the role and 13 years at L’Oréal, with a journey beginning in Silicone Valley, Guive has become addicted to beauty and the elements in which drive consumers to advance their level of contact with beauty, elements which key media became privy to on the December 4 Melbourne showcase as the brand’s first ‘Beauty for All’.
Presenting the ultimate beauty experience like no other in the Australian market, key media and VIPs revelled in the world of our favourite global beauty brands at the top of their game, all in one room. Think Hair Expo, purely for L’Oréal.
With 35 global brands (30 of which are available in Australia) L’Oréal continues to be the world’s leader in beauty, with a mission of beauty for all falling under a pillar of better access to technology and services for all.
Guive has spent his time thinking of products and services and how to make technology and consumer trends integrate, taking a lot of inspiration from the health industry and through attending the world’s largest technology trade show many years ago, CES in Las Vegas. He saw the huge potential that among the world’s leading technology brands there was no real technology leader in beauty.
“We needed to design the future of the beauty tech language of our company across the values of technology and sustainability. We have such opportunity for innovation,” Guive said.
L’Oréal Australia is a beauty powerhouse of 30 distinct brands, spanning across makeup, haircare, skincare, suncare and fragrance. L’Oréal’s core mission is Beauty for All, which speaks to the company’s initiatives around technology, diversity and sustainability as they move forward in modernisation. L’Oréal looks to find a way for everybody — no matter where you are in the world — to have the right product, and L’Oréal believes this is possible through technology.
Since the launch of their Tech Incubator seven years ago, the L’Oréal group has brought to market multiple products led by tech, including the L’Oréal Paris Makeup Genius, Lancôme’s personalised foundation and La Roche-Posay’s UV Patch and Sense.
The latest innovation from L’Oréal to hit Australia at their exclusive Beauty For All event was La Roche-Posay’s My Skin Track UV, the world’s first battery-free wearable that measures personalised UV exposure; and SkinCeutical’s Custom D.O.S.E, a professional service that combines high-potency ingredients with professional expertise to create personalised corrective serum – developed, measured, and dispended in only 10 minutes.
Guive and his Tech Incubator bridge cutting-edge technology with the beauty and digital health industry, leading a global team in San Francisco, New York, Paris, and Singapore, with the core objective to uncover disruptive innovations.
It’s really about thinking about the future at L’Oréal, what will be some of the new services and how will they meet consumer’s needs? Not to forget the professional space, the salon environment is a core part of the L’Oréal experience they are continuing to work on ways to use technology through app consultation and saving energy to empower the professional to reach new heights.
“Called Gyoza, L’Oréal has designed a shower head to save 80 per cent of water at the backbar of the salon, but the power and salon experience is the same. It’s all part of using beauty to make things much better for the world,’ Guive said.
“A showerhead is just one of the many exciting products we have developed for salons to use less water and less ingredients and plastics,” he said.
The ultimate inspiration behind various innovations and the exciting advancements we will see even in the next 5 years is inspired by the way we live and the desire for a healthier and more beautiful environment.
“I took a lot of inspiration from the health industry, from people have more precise information about themselves for more personalization – they are all incredible at using information and data. These are all great moments for me because I got to create a team that is very forward-facing about who we are as a beauty tech company,” Guive said.
To impart such a vision, Guive was implored to share their leadership values and how they will surround their consumers with experience both physical and digital and their ongoing mantra of partnering with world-leading universities and designers to better understand how as a company they can take beauty and personality to a new level within the core values of technology and sustainability working in harmony.
“You have to start with solving needs that have been difficult to solve in the beauty industry through technology,” he said.
Things like women not being able to find the perfect shade of foundation, is all something technology can help overcome – “skin is not like a wall, it’s not one dimensional,” Guive said.
“We are all here today for this beauty for all mission. To have beauty for all, we have to have tech, because tech will access consumers all over the world,” Guive said.
L’Oréal also recognises how technology will help minimize their effects and make them a more sustainable company. The first beauty product to ever launch at Apple – the La Roche skin app, but the ongoing advantages span much further than just innovation.
“It’s an important time in beauty – there is so much opportunity for innovation, everyone is unique and wants their perfect product and service – so much more opportunity for innovation. What if one day we have devices so accurate we could do things we could never do with our hands,” Guive said.
“We don’t tell people anymore what they should be using, we work with them to develop products now over time and make them smarter. This is not future this is now and part of our strategy over the next five years,” he said.
From using tech to solve the large challenges we face in a fast-paced world to sustainability how we bring to professionals the same level of experience but reducing the waste is a constant, looking to reduce in the salon, but not affecting the professional experience.
“We also want to augment the professional to empower them to show them things and allow them to see things that may previously have been invisible. The professional is at a really cool area when it comes to technology – to give them not just the knowledge but still allow them to be a leader in their field.”
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