PARIS — Tech is a fast-moving game, and L’Oréal is keen to remain at the highest.

Starting Wednesday, the wonder giant will showcase its most up-to-date innovations on the four-day VivaTech show here, with a deal with how technology will allow the corporate to enable “beauty for all and wonder for every” — a recent tag line homing in on ultra-personalization and nodding toward a more diverse, inclusive beauty sector.

“Tech is actually empowering us with recent features and recent capabilities that were unimaginable before,” L’Oréal deputy chief executive officer accountable for research, innovation and technology Barbara Lavernos told WWD in an exclusive interview.

The brand new tag line expands on L’Oréal’s previous tag line, “Beauty for all.”

“Beauty for all is actually the primary a part of the vision,” Lavernos said. “Beauty for every can meet the unique demands of every individual.”

L’Oréal’s global managing director of augmented beauty and open innovation Guive Balooch explained, “You may’t have beauty for everybody if you happen to don’t have beauty for everyone. You should understand each individual, and only through technology will you give you the option to do this.”

L’Oréal began investing heavily in digital around 15 years ago, and e-commerce now represents around a 3rd of its sales. More recently, the group has shifted its broader focus toward tech. It now employs 5,900 people in digital-related positions and has been buying in through acquisitions like ModiFace, in 2018, and this January, through its BOLD fund, with an investment in metaverse developer Digital Village. It has also been ramping up partnerships with technology developers and open innovation.

“We decided 4 or five years ago to champion beauty tech,” Lavernos said. “In today’s world, being the leader in beauty means by definition being the leader in beauty tech.”

To remain ahead, the corporate needs “deep expertise in various fields,” Lavernos said. This is crucial to fight through what she described as “toys and noise” and deliver real advantages.

Now, L’Oréal is working on turning its initiatives into tangible market solutions.

“Every part is expounded to consumer needs and consumer tensions, consumer expectations,” Lavernos said. “These techs are levers, triggers to fulfill what were obstacles before.”

Balooch added, “It’s not about tech, it’s about taking beauty to the following level with tech.”

From ideation to product, L’Oréal’s tech dissemination works just about in the identical way as its approach to developing recent actives for its formulas, the executives explained. “It’s like for formulation of ingredients, you have got advanced research that should be agnostic, and must aggregate the various technologies,” Lavernos said.

“When we have now a mock-up that works and we have now an idea of the dimensions of the capabilities, the maturity of the scale-up, and the price, it allows us to discover which cluster of brands, after which we enter arbitration; sometimes there’s numerous competition from the brands,” she said.

Key innovations on show at the corporate’s stand at VivaTech will probably be Hapta from Lancôme, a tool to assist individuals with disabilities apply makeup, and 3D shu:brow from Shu Uemura, a connected device printing tailored eyebrow makeup onto the face. Each were developed in response to consumer friction points.

The previous uses Verily’s technology, originally developed as an eating aid. “People say it’s area of interest, but we don’t imagine that,” Balooch said. “One in 10 people have motor disabilities, that’s near 1 billion people on the planet unable to access the wonder industry.”

Driving demand for the latter was the concept that “nine out of 10 women cannot shape their brow properly today,” Balooch said. The device connects to a smartphone and uses ModiFace technology and algorithms to find out the proper brow shape, which the cosmetic-grade inkjet device then prints onto the face.

Prototypes for each were unveiled at CES in Las Vegas in January, and so they at the moment are ready for market deployment. “At CES, it’s really about tech, it’s one or two years away. At VivaTech, we include a story, with the impact, with the brands,” Balooch explained. Hapta will launch next 12 months within the U.S. and choose European countries, priced between $149 and $199, while 3D shu:brow, launching late 2024, will probably be in the identical price range.

Also showing at VivaTech is a collaboration between Maybelline and Microsoft Teams to supply virtual makeup, at no cost. “It’s not a filter, it’s digital makeup, developed in our labs with our proprietary ModiFace technology,” Lavernos explained. That innovation launches this July.

There may be also K-Scan from Kérastase. Developed in-house and with 12 patents, the corporate claims it’s the primary data-powered tool analyzing each scalp and hair at high resolution and for all hair types — a significant challenge when it got here to training the algorithms involved, Lavernos said.

“Tech is redefining our worth proposition toward consumers and hairstylists,” stated L’Oréal Skilled Products Division president Omar Hajeri. “Through tech, we’re creating probably the most powerful [business-to-business] ecosystem within the skilled beauty industry. We wish to push the boundaries of our current market, with hairstylists at heart, and tech as our accelerator.”

Tech can also be helping the corporate double down on sustainability, notably as related to its digital operations. At VivaTech, L’Oréal will showcase its recent partnership with French firm Impact+ to assist measure the carbon footprint of its digital ecosystem. “Today, digital activity is often called being the equivalent of 4 percent of all air traffic,” Lavernos said. “It’s quite recent and difficult to search out the technology today that’s accurate in reviewing CO2 emissions [for digital operations],” she said.

Within the background, L’Oréal’s teams proceed to watch an array of emerging technologies. Some will disappear, others will potentially evolve into the market’s next big opportunities, Lavernos said.

“I’m each Darwinian and I’m a tech optimist,” she explained. “That’s really the motto of L’Oréal, we have a look at every recent science and technology. We evaluate and assess the risks, to be certain we’re really entering a protected zone each for our company and for consumers,” Lavernos said. “We’re exploring all the things, cautiously, but with numerous commitment. I’m an engineer, and for the reason that birth of humanity, each revolution has augmented people, freed people, so tech will be a part of that game.”

Take generative AI, for instance. “Everybody knows that Gen AI today, there are numerous risks, risks about IP, copyright, bias, confidentiality. I think Gen AI is a really interesting capability. Gen AI won’t, as is claimed all over the place, destroy jobs. It’ll undoubtedly move people from the way in which they’re performing some tasks in making time for what matters more,” she said. “Will or not it’s big, will or not it’s enormous, will or not it’s in the sphere of creativity, in the sphere of science? Today I don’t have any clue.”

And L’Oréal, like humankind, must adapt. “The species that adapt are those that survive,” Lavernos said.