Beauty and Sustainability: Is Lancôme our Model?
This week, Women’s Wear Daily and Vogue have a common brand in the spotlight; it is Lancôme. The brand became more than just skincare in 2012 with the launch of their most popular, still today, fragrance, La Vie Est Belle. The name translates to “life is beautiful” and the fragrance is revered today as a feminine, timeless, and classic scent. Since this success, the brand has really honed in on a “less is more” approach, as noted by WWD.
The brand has released sister fragrances including L’elixir and Vanilla Nude, designed to be loved and layered with the original scent, and carry the brand through each season. This model translates perfectly into the sustainable approach we have seen them really begin to focus in on. A big element of this is refillable packaging, which is sustainable not only environmentally, but also economically as the brand is luxurious, therefore, more expensive. It allows consumers to not only enjoy the products - but to invest in them.
On another more eco-efficient level, the original fragrance was designed with only sixty-three ingredients. While this number may seem high at face value, it is on the low-end of the average fifty to eight-hundred ingredients seen in most fragrances. It was designed to be cleaner, require less, and signify the brands motto at every level. The bottle itself has a recognizable shape, and notably, a small ribbon tied around each variation of the fragrance. This ribbon signifies “wings of freedom” and is an iconic element of the brands image.
Moving from just fragrance, the brand prides itself on being sustainable on every level of production. Makeup, skincare, fragrance, packaging, and shipping are all carefully designed, produced, and carried-out to be as eco-friendly as possible. Lancôme works hard to reduce its environmental footprint utilizing green science, innovative reformulation, responsible sourcing, and a focus on ingredient circularity. In fact, today, fifty-nine percent of their ingredients are bio-sourced or come from circular processes. Seventy-eight percent of their skincare ingredients are biodegradable and ninety-three percent of their fragrance ingredients are as well, as noted by WWD.
When audited by the Ditch Carbon organization, Lancôme scored a one-hundred percent industry benchmark, meaning it scored higher than one-hundred percent of the industry, compared to its peers. We can compare this to Mary Kay, scoring a twenty-six, Avon scoring a seventy-one, and L’Occitane scoring a sixty-five.
Overall the brand has really successfully managed to stay relevant longer than almost all of its competitors, consistently set and meet increased sustainable goals, produce clean and efficient products, and have cultivated a loyal customer base. Many beauty brands have much to learn from Lancôme and no longer have any excuse to say that being sustainable means sacrificing quality or sales.
