Philippe Thuvien

Premium Beauty News - How was the packaging activity in recent months?

Philippe Thuvien - The Group’s Packaging activity was very strong in 2014 with more than 25,000 packaging items specifications, and more than 680 moulds developed with on average more than 13 cavities per mould. Our Packaging teams, organized by geographic areas (Europe, Americas, Asia and Africa/Middle East) and by category (hair care, hygiene, perfume and make-up), develop for their areas and for regional hubs. Support functions (Design, Innovation and Expertise) serve the operational Packaging and Development teams.

Premium Beauty News - What were the main developments?

Philippe Thuvien - This year 2014 was marked by major launches with innovative packaging such as:

 The Grandiose mascara, with a transparent cover and a straight standing rose embedded in the transparent material, a “Swan’s neck” wand and its "wiper" adapted to the specific shape and a elastomer brush for ergonomics and precision. This mascara enables to achieve a balanced make-up of both eyes, and an easy access to all lashes, from corner to corner and root to tip.
 Maybelline’s Color Elixir, a liquid lipstick with a design recalling traditional Lipstick codes and whose performance is based on a flexible applicator with an extra-soft flocking for a controlled and precise application.
 The double tube from L’Oréal Professionnel, combining a styling gel and a hair care cream in the same packaging; the challenge being to manage to deliver homogeneously and with the same quantity, 2 types of formulas with different viscosities.
 Bonbon by Viktor and Rolf, with its pump bottle and a slightly pulled in neck into the wing-shaped shoulders of the bottle, a significant glass weight considering the size of the bottle, folds in the "wings" that make it difficult to "load" the glass into the mould and finally the lacquering of the bottle.

Premium Beauty News - What are your goals for the future?

Philippe Thuvien - The cosmetic world is facing increasingly fierce competition from global competitors, but also more and more, from local actors. Packaging makes beauty more easily accessible to women and men on the planet with "product answers" tailored to their needs. Our objective for the years to come is to actively contribute to the conquest of a new billion consumers by developing attractive and functional designs, visible and sustainable innovations, total quality and safety control which are all values perceived and expected by our consumers.

Premium Beauty News - Your group is targeting a billion new consumers! A significant impact on the packaging activity?

Philippe Thuvien - Conquering a billion new consumers means for the L’Oréal Group, developing products that meet their needs and expectations. Packaging must help emerging markets access to beauty, with accessible innovation meeting beauty routines and aspirations, climate and culture. Visible innovation, perceived value, and products performance will be key to conquer these new consumers but also to retain our existing customers.

Premium Beauty News - One of the issues is the container/content interaction?

Philippe Thuvien - Stability and the container/content compatibility are major issues in the development of our new products. The packaging protects the product from external conditions (contamination, light oxidation, gas...) but its interaction with the formula must not present a risk to the stability of the product and therefore its performance. The role of our Compatibility teams is, of course, to perform tests on products, but also:
to participate upstream in the packaging design by making recommendations on the basis of formulas characteristics,
to perform risk analysis in order to move towards standard tests, reinforced or reduced, or extrapolations.

Premium Beauty News - What is the role of Open Development in your strategy?

Philippe Thuvien - It’s a "win-win" partnership; our suppliers present us exclusive innovations in Packaging and "Finished Goods". Our aim is to speed up the time to market of these innovations, we are working with these partners to the delegation of their certification.

Premium Beauty News - The environmental issues of Packaging in the conquest of a new billion consumers?

Philippe Thuvien - Our ambition to conquer a new billion consumers poses a challenge to us: producing more with less environmental impact. This means improving the footprint of our products and, consequently, that of our Packagings which are, with the exception of rinse-off products, the biggest impact contributors at the product level.

L’Oréal is committed to sustainable innovation: in 2020, 100% of our products will show a positive environmental or social impact. For this, we are going to measure the impact of our products so that our innovations and renovations present improved environmental and social profiles.

We will continue to work on reducing the weight of our bottles, which are already for some, such as Fructis by Garnier, among the lightest on the market, and integrating recycled material (PCR) to reduce the depletion of natural resources. L’Oréal also wishes to use generation 2 bioplastics if they come from renewable resources such as wood, to limit the depletion of fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Premium Beauty News - What are the main lines of development for the different Beauty sectors (perfume, hair care, body care, skincare, make-up etc.)?

Philippe Thuvien - The main lines of packaging development will mainly be answers to consumers’ needs, which are for example:

 Boost product performance with make-up applicators or with new delivery systems for hygiene or styling products.
 Ease the use of products with functional designs like for the senior’s market
Sustainably innovate in all categories
 Better protect our formulas to help reduce or eliminate preservatives like for the launch of Tolériane Ultra from La Roche Posay.
 Make Beauty accessible to emerging markets with affordable innovation.
 Add intelligence to our packaging to achieve "custom designed" products.