[Q&A]

Catherine Chiou

Chiou: There is a very high level of interest among mainstream companies in expanding the use of natural ingredients. We hear more and more about how consumers want something natural—they don’t want preservatives or chemicals or synthetic additives; they are going back to “organic” products.

This has always been an internal discussion [at L’Oréal] for, I would say, two to five years. The most heated discussions have taken place in the last one to two years, and it’s definitely global. We’re also looking to every sector. If you’re dividing the product type, you range from skin care to color cosmetics to hair care. If you’re looking to a distribution channel, it can be mass market, or through a professional—such as a hair salon—or pharmacy distribution.

We get a lot of feedback from marketing research. Our raw material suppliers come to us with a lot of data they’ve collected, so we’ve sourced this information from everywhere. You have to listen to what the consumers are saying. We’re such a marketing-based industry.

Chiou: Safety is a huge issue. These are natural products, but, contrary to what people may think, not everything natural is safe. Botanicals can have naturally-occurring allergens, naturally-occurring heavy metals. We don’t [inherently] know, and that’s a huge challenge.

In addition, if you’re formulating with natural or botanical compounds, product stability is challenging. That is kind of a quality control issue. You have a natural product produced from season to season, and there might be fluctuations in the quality from batch to batch. We’ll have a situation with a skin cream that’s always nice and white, and then the next batch is grayish or greenish, and you can’t have that. Or, you’ll come in with a color, and the color may have changed, so you may or may not have compatibility with your formulation.

Finally, you must address the preservation system. Natural preservatives aren’t always going to be as effective as some of the common ones used.

Chiou: There are a number of steps we take. First, we have a very stringent coding process—a raw material approval process. We ask a lot of questions. We go very deep into each ingredient, each component, the process of making it and using it. We need to have the most updated analytical and toxicological data.

We also ensure it’s an environmentally-friendly material, so using that material or ingredient doesn’t sacrifice the environment. We make sure it follows our biodiversity policy, which helps conserve certain plant species and ecosystems. Along those lines, we have fair trade and fair business practices. There should be a fair return to the population.

Finally, 94 percent of our finished products are made in our plant, giving us control over the production process. We know what’s coming in from our approval process, and what is going out to the consumers.