The number of potential consumers in the U.S. is expected to increase by 12 million over the next five years, Nicolas Hieronimus, L’Oréal’s chief executive officer, shared during a recent analyst meeting.
So to mine that opportunity, L’Oréal is spending — a lot. Last week, the company unveiled its newest research and innovation center in Clark, N.J., a $160 million, 250,000-square-foot hub that is the company’s largest R&D facility outside of its home country, France. As well, Maxime de Boni, previously vice president of research and innovation for China and North Asia, has been named president of R&I for L’Oréal in North America, and will oversee the operation.
“We are opening a new era and chapter of innovation,” said Barbara Lavernos, deputy CEO of L’Oréal, in an exclusive interview with WWD. “The U.S. is the first beauty market in the world and our first market. It is the home country of so much creation,” she continued, noting that 18 of L’Oréal’s global stable of 40 brands are U.S.-founded and based.
Inside L’Oréal’s new research lab.
Paul Burk
“The level of science and technology here is at the utmost level,” Lavernos said, adding that the diversity of the population creates an ongoing stream of new possibilities for both business and research.
“There are so many skin tones, so many hair types. It is a country of hybridization. You have the highest diversity and the highest level of expectations,” said Lavernos. “So for us, the U.S. is certainly the most challenging country on earth.”
Hair color is one such example. As very dark hair colors become the norm in the majority of the population, L’Oréal has been focused on improving options in black hair coloration. “There are 50 shades of nuance — you can have different reflections, maybe blue or caramel,” said Lavernos. “It is a hair type that has a lot of porosity and frizziness, so we have labs dedicated to making the best colorants in terms of long-lastingness, but also the color nuances. We’re working on next-generation color products that will not just condition but also have the capacity to reduce frizz.
“So something that might seem a little boring — black hair colorants — is not,” she continued. “You see how many opportunities there are to move the needle in terms of innovation, of science, of color, of care and of new gestures. And that’s just one example.”
Barbara Lavernos
Sophia Spring/WWD
Another key area of focus for L’Oréal’s R&I efforts is the impact of longevity on self care and beauty. Lavernos’ goal is to transform beauty products from being reactive to preventive, and earlier this year, the company introduced the Longevity AI Cloud, a map of 267 biomarkers that enable them to target the root causes of aging in an integrative way.
“We’re at the stage where we will pivot skin care into longevity skin care with a concept called AIR: anticipate, intercept, reset,” Lavernos said. “It is a new era in terms of skin care, and in late 2026, we will introduce similar technology for the scalp to intercept the phenomenon of thinning hair and hair loss.”
The new facility was designed to enable cross-functional collaboration and accelerate innovation. It includes a 26,000 square-foot modular laboratory, a consumer center for product testing (complete with salon, spa and sauna) which can accommodate up to 400 consumers daily, and an on-site mini factory to scale final formulations before full-scale production.
Solar panels on the roof and above the parking lot will provide the bulk of energy for the facility.
The vast space is divided into “neighborhoods,” each named after a New Jersey town that was home to a transformational breakthrough, such as Menlo, where Thomas Edison lived and set up his laboratory. “Normally labs are cold — but we are in beauty,” said Lavernos. “We wanted color, vibrancy, playfulness, a lot of branding with many expressions of beauty.”
What makes the space truly unique, though, is that it is located just on one floor, with the goal of enabling employees from all different areas to interact and cross-pollinate ideas. “You may be a makeup researcher, but your neighbor on the bench might be in skin care,” said Lavernos. “We’ve created flows that oblige people to interact. When you are in formula development you have interactions with ingredient advanced research scientists. If you make something at your bench, you can immediately go to the evaluation room, interact with consumers and packaging designers and get feedback. It is our belief that the best innovations starts when you have not one vector, but when you have the intersection of expertise.”
