Global beauty giant L’Oréal staged its first-ever Singapore Showcase, unveiling cutting-edge beauty technologies and initiating significant collaborations with local universities aimed at nurturing young innovators.
Presenting its vision for a sustainable, personalised, and tech-enhanced beauty industry, the French company introduced the AirLight Pro, a state-of-the-art hair-drying tool that promises a drastic 31 per cent reduction in energy consumption while enhancing hair care. Developed in collaboration with Zuvi – a company founded by drone engineers and scientists – the AirLight Pro utilises infrared light and a specialised 17-blade motor to dry hair quickly without excessive heat, maintaining internal moisture and leaving hair smooth and shiny.
This tool, initially showcased at CES 2024, will be available in the U.S. and Europe next year, sets the beauty company on a trajectory to compete with British tech company Dyson, which has launched several beauty-related hair care devices, including the Dyson Airstrait Straightener. L’Oréal did not indicate any launch plans for Singapore.
Additionally, L’Oréal also launched Rouge sur Mesure, a S$500 AI-powered device that also uses real-time data for at-home lipstick customisation. The device uses luxury beauty brand YSL Beauty’s Perso technology, which delivers personalised on-the-spot skincare and cosmetic formulas, to offer thousands of personalised shades, ensuring users can create bespoke colours that suit their style on the go.
It also presented the L’Oréal Water Saver, a novel showerhead that reduces water usage in professional salons by up to 69 per cent. This technology produces 10 times smaller droplets to enhance the efficiency of water mixed with hair care products, significantly reducing water waste globally. So far, use of this tool has saved 258,190,712 litres of water worldwide.
Beyond technological innovations, the showcase also served as a platform for L’Oréal to reiterate its dedication to transforming beauty through science and technology, tailored to meet the dynamic needs of Singaporean consumers through youth innovation and new educational partnerships with Singapore Management University (SMU) and the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS).
Over the next three years, L’Oréal plans to deepen its engagement with Singapore’s educational sector, providing students at SMU and SUSS with unique opportunities to engage directly with real-world business challenges through the L’Oréal Brandstorm competition. This competition is designed to enhance students’ skills in innovation, teamwork, and leadership, under the mentorship of L’Oréal’s business leaders.
Furthermore, L’Oréal’s partnerships are not just limited to student development. A strategic collaboration with the National University of Singapore (NUS) Environmental Research Institute aims to pioneer research in soil and plant microbes to boost soil health and crop yields for more sustainable agriculture. This aligns with both food security and sustainability goals, critical components of L’Oréal’s global sustainability initiative L’Oréal for the Future.
Tomas Hruska, L’Oréal Singapore’s Managing Director, highlighted the company’s commitment to supporting local talent and advancing green sciences. “By working with local universities, we want to build programmes for and with Singapore’s next generation that push boundaries and advance our mission to create the future of beauty in Singapore.”
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