CosmeticsDesign-Europe.com met with Francis Quinn at the L’Oreal offices in Paris to discuss how the world’s largest cosmetics company aims to respect the environment and communities when sourcing ingredients.
The company sources 40 per cent of its ingredients from natural resources and according to Quinn, the aim is to work on a long term basis with suppliers, using a number of checklists to assess the impacts of each ingredient.
If an ingredient does not tick all the boxes, and cannot be sourced under appropriate ethical and environmental conditions, the company walks away, Quinn said.
However, every ingredient has to be looked at on a case-by-case basis, he explained, citing an orchid that after being placed on the Endangered Species List the company did not abandon but rather cultivated it in its greenhouses in France.