The range consists of a trio of products designed for professional use. - Photo: Courtesy of L’Oréal

The beauty giant’s professional division has announced the launch of Botanea, its first-ever vegetal hair colour line. The collection eschews the chemicals that are traditionally present in hair dye ingredients for a formula that is 100% plant-based. The line uses botanical dyes sourced from Indian plants such as Henna, Indigo and Pure Cassia, with a natural coco oil coating.

The range consists of a trio of products designed for professional use, and is set to be rolled out to salons in Europe in May 2018. In a first, the range should be made available in about 30% of hair salons working with L’Oréal Professionnel.

Furthermore, according to some media reports, the cosmetics group would also prepare the launch of similar natural hair dyes in the mass-market channel.

Lucrative trend

Natural and sustainable beauty has proven itself as a lucrative trend over the past year, with several brands making huge strides towards adopting a more environmentally and ethically conscientious approach towards the industry.

L’Oréal has announced vegan hair colour. - Photo: © Éric Piermont / AFP

The once-niche world of natural beauty brands has grown to include household names such as Lush, Neal’s Yard and Tarte Cosmetics, while there has also been a rise in popularity of vegan and cruelty-free labels that avoid ingredients that come from or are tested on animals, with headline brands such as Kat Von D, Too Faced and Fenty Beauty by Rihanna leading the way.

The natural movement looks set to continue to break boundaries in 2018, with research released in November by market intelligence agency Mintel predicting that encompassing local approaches and developments in biotechnology with a more organic approach to ingredients will become a major beauty industry trend over the coming year.