Brand Story: Shiseido, Kao, L’Oréal and more feature in our latest big brand update

1 – Shiseido to launch new clean beauty brand Ulé as part of skin beauty push​

Shiseido is introducing a new skin care brand​ to its clean beauty portfolio as part of plans to grow its skin beauty portfolio to account for 75% of total sales in 2022.

“We spent two and a half years and established a sustainability team in Europe to explore development projects. And we will launch a brand called Ulé from Spring this year which uses plant ingredients,”​ said CEO Masahiko Uotani.

The launch of Ulé is part of Shiseido’s plans to strengthen its ‘skin beauty’ portfolio. It will join brands Drunk Elephant and Baum in its clean and sustainable beauty line-up.

2 – Pola Orbis aims to achieve at least $2.4bn in beauty sales for 100th anniversary​

Japanese personal care conglomerate Pola Orbis Holdings has set a target for its cosmetics business​ to achieve at least JPY280bn (U$2.4bn) in sales by 2029, the year it celebrates its centennial.

To reach this goal, Pola Orbis is aiming to accelerate its growth in China, a key overseas market for the company with four of its brands: POLA, Orbis, THREE and Jurlique.

It has mapped out an expansion in all retail channels, including department stores, standalone stores, travel retail, and e-commerce.

3 – Redefinition of beauty driving women to focus on sustainability and health – Watsons CEO​

The changing perception of beauty is leading women to focus on sustainable beauty products and beauty supplements​, says the CEO of health and beauty retailer Watsons.

Watsons conducted two surveys. The results revealed that 75% of women agreed that inner beauty was more important than physical beauty.

“Inner beauty is the real beauty of a woman that goes far beyond how you look,”​ said Malina Ngai, CEO of A.S. Watson, Asia and Europe.

As such, the firm believes there will be increasing focus on eco-conscious beauty products as well as beauty supplements.

4 – Kao and istyle to collaborate on skin RNA database by 2023​

Japanese personal care major Kao is partnering with beauty media and retail firm istyle to build a skin RNA database by 2023​ with the sebum RNA testing technology it developed.

This would give Kao the opportunity to delve further into the study of skin RNA, such as identifying characteristics that would allow it better to understand and classify RNA skin types.

Both companies plan to utilise the database for the development of services and products, which will enable consumers to discover new products more efficiently.

5 – Beauty tech can solve the ‘big data challenge’ – L’Oréal ​

Beauty has plenty of opportunities to employ cutting-edge technologies to improve consumer services and supply chains​, but these innovations can also simplify very large data sets and manage complexities across businesses, says the marketing head of L’Oréal UK & Ireland.

Lex Bradshaw-Zanger, chief marketing officer at L’Oréal UK and Ireland, said the real tech opportunity today was in mining data, particularly with the view to driving better business and smarter offerings.

This was relevant in today’s beauty market, he said, because of how “increasingly complex” ​daily lives had with more and more digital touchpoints and choices everywhere.