R&D Policy


			Since its inception in 1907, L'OREAL's R & D policy has always been the same : developing safe and innovative cosmetic products stemming from advanced knowledge and cutting edge expertise for the benefit and the well being of consumers.

It is not only words. With a staff of 2,743 and a 432 millions euros budget (2001), the L'OREAL's R & D effort to discover and develop new cosmetic product concepts is the largest in the world.

Our teams are internationally recognized for their significant contribution to a better understanding of several key mechanisms of action implicated in skin and hair behavior as well as for the development of innovative non invasive techniques for skin and hair investigation.

Successful products are those that truly perfom on people, i.e. those really based on a scientific concept, proven to work in human controlled clinical trials and not only, as is generally the case, in lab tests. The mature consumer is no longer ready to play the old game of promises without perceivable performance.

This pragmatic attitude has been driving us to dramatically differentiate L'OREAL from most of our competitors and hopefully make an important contribution to our customer's well being.