As the must-have beauty product, lipstick is doing well and has a bright future ahead of it. By 2026, the market is expected to grow by over 15%* worldwide. At Albéa Cosmetics & Fragrance, the manufacturing of lipsticks has been a core expertise of the company since many years.
Established in Plouhinec, in Brittany, France, 47 years ago, the Albéa site has for almost 10 years been the Group’s European center of excellence in the manufacturing of lipstick caps, bases and mechanisms - a complex technical process requiring more than 20 manufacturing steps. This know-how also extends to Asia: with the Shanghai site, its second center of excellence, Albéa offers metallization and decoration capabilities for both local and international brands.
More and more responsible developments
Reducing the carbon footprint of its packaging and participating in a circular beauty economy is at the heart of Albéa Cosmetics & Fragrance’s strategy. In both Plouhinec and Shanghai, the development teams have been working for several years on three main areas:
– materials
– recyclability
– mono-materiality
– refillability
One of today’s biggest challenges is the transition to more environmentally friendly materials that drive packaging recycling. Albéa Cosmetics & Fragrance’s objective for 2025 is to offer a standard range that no longer includes styrenics such as ABS.
To promote the recyclability of packaging, the company is also focusing on specific materials for its new developments. In 2023, the Plouhinec team added a new design to the Breizhstick product range, a family of sticks made from polypropylene (PP) thus recyclable at their end of life.
At the same time, the Shanghai team developed Unigreen, a mono material and refillable mechanism consisting of 3 parts, all made from PET. The short-term objective is to combine this mechanism with a cap and a base, both also made from PET, to create a lipstick that is recycling-ready at the end of life.
As part of its quest for operational excellence, Albéa Cosmetics & Fragrance is developing the lipsticks of tomorrow - caps, bases and mechanisms that meet the expectations of different markets and brands: compatible with a wide range of formulas, customizable but above all desirable and responsible.
