L’Oreal to introduce vegan hair dyes

L’Oreal SA, founded more than a century ago by a French chemist who formulated safer, more natural-looking hair dyes, is releasing its first fully plantbased coloring as consumers’ definition of naturalness and product safety evolve.

The Paris-based company, which invented platinum blonde and dominates the global market for hair-care products, introduced the new vegan product, called Botanea, last week. It’s aimed at boosting the world’s biggest cosmetics-maker’s weakestperforming division.

L’Oreal’s professional-products unit, which sells hair-care items via salons, has been the company’s slowest-growing for seven consecutive quarters as sales of makeup and skin care race ahead. Gray hair has become a trend on the silver screen and in the streets as consumers become increasingly wary of chemical ingredients.

“We’ve managed to marry naturalness with a professional result without compromising on either point,” Marion Brunet, head of the L’Oreal Professional brand, said at a launch event in Paris, calling the new product a breakthrough because previous plant-based dyes had a limited palette and color intensity. Botanea will be introduced at European salons in May, the company said.

L’Oreal also introduced a new line of vegan hair-care products called Source, after expanding its portfolio of natural shampoo and styling aids by acquiring Pureology in 2007. Until now, the company’s researchers have struggled to come up with alternatives to hair dyes that could eliminate ammonia and other chemicals while still delivering professional results.

L’Oreal USA has manufacturing and distribution operations in North Little Rock.

L’Oreal accounts for about a third of the $11 billion global hair-color market, according to data from Euromonitor International. L’Oreal’s shampoos and styling products are also the world leaders, with a market share of nearly 10 percent.

But sales in the professionalproducts unit are down slightly this year, falling 0.3 percent to $2.9 billion in the nine months through September.