Beauty Takes Center Stage at CES 2024

L’Oréal made a big splash at CES this year. CEO Nicolas Hieronimus was the first beauty chief executive to take the stage as keynote speaker in Las Vegas last month.

Hieronimus joined the list of high-profile executives to speak during this massive, annual show that spans multiple days, multiple venues and myriad product categories.

While L’Oréal’s presence on a main stage at CES may have been somewhat of surprise to casual observers and die-hard techies, this pure-play beauty giant has infused technology throughout its operations to garner its leading position in the global market.

In fact, L’Oréal has been active at CES for years.

Consumer Technology Association President and CEO Gary Shapiro introduced and lauded Hieronimus, noting that since becoming CEO in 2021, he’s “built L’Oréal into a beauty technology powerhouse.”

During an hour-long presentation, Hieronimus made his case—laying out examples of how L’Oréal, over its storied history, has turned to science to build better products,  starting with Founder Eugene Schueller’s 1909 development of safe hair dye.

“Science and technology have always been the driving force at the heart of L’Oréal’s success,” Hieronimus said.

He shared with the audience how a L’Oréal biologist in the early 1980s was able to reconstruct the first human epidermis, which marked a huge step that would enable L’Oréal to eventually stop testing on animals—14 years before it was required by legislation. The statement drew applause from the crowd.

Hieronimus also discussed how L’Oréal’s devotion to science has created cutting-edge ingredients such as Pro-Xylane (a sugar-molecule derived from the beech wood tree utilizing green chemistry) and Melasyl (the multi-patented La Roche-Posay ingredient designed to improve the appearance of dark spots and discoloration).

“Don’t worry; I don’t want to bore you with too much chemistry,” he quipped.

During the presentation—which also included an appearance by Deputy CEO in charge of Research Innovation and Technology Barbara Lavernos and quick visit from actress, spokesperson and L’Oréal at-home hair color aficionado Eva Longoria—L’Oréal officials reviewed the beauty company’s CES successes, including:

• My UV Patch (2016)
• Kérastase Hair Coach (2017)
• UV Sense (2018)
• My Skin Track pH (2019)
• Perso (2020)
• L’Oréal Water Saver (2021)
• Colorsonic (2022)
• Hapta (2023)

These and other tech-driven advancements have garnered the beauty giant 20 CES innovation awards and seven this year alone—a “triumph” for the company, according to Hieronimus.

New for 2024

This year, Hieronimus used the stage in the Palazzo Ballroom at the Venetian Hotel to unveil L’Oréal’s latest innovation: AirLight Pro, a hair dryer that officials say disrupts the “most overlooked and most essential hair appliance.”

Developed in partnership with Zuvi, a hardware startup established by drone experts, AirLight Pro, which cares for the hair while using less energy than typical devices.

The team behind the creation of AirLight Pro encompassed 100 engineers, designers, hairdressers and scientists from L’Oréal’s Research & Innovation division and Zuvi. Their work resulted in more than 150 patent filings, according to L’Oréal.

Applying its patented LightCare technology to a blow-dryer, Zuvi developed a first-generation product that uses infrared light and high-speed wind to efficiently dry water on the hair surface.

According to L’Oréal, AirLight Pro delivers up to 33% more hydrated hair and up to 59% visually smoother hair; along with faster drying times, and an enhanced user experience (UX).

Unlike conventional heating hair dryers with only heating coils, AirLight Pro is equipped with a 17-blade, high-speed motor and infrared technology powered by tungsten–halogen bulbs. By efficiently drying water on the hair surface, hair is left with internal moisture in the strand, resulting in smooth, shiny locks, according to L’Oréal, which tested the tool with more than 500 people across multiple hair types.

The hardware, firmware and app work seamlessly to make it possible for every user, including consumers, to customize the settings for their individual needs, L’Oréal asserts. 

According to Lavernos, AirLight Pro truly answers “age-old consumer needs with unparalleled results.”

And, there’s implications for the planet, too.

“Scale is important,” said Hieronimus while on stage.  “What if we can empower every consumer and hair stylist to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle? Hair dryers use more energy than two microwaves combined. Now, multiply that by the number of hair dryers in the world.”

Tech & Sustainability

L’Oréal also announced during CES that it had acquired Gjosa, the Swiss company that helped it develop the Water Saver professional shower head in 2021.

The company’s patented water fragmentation technology in the device allows hair salons to reduce water consumption at the backbar by up to 69% and still give clients the pleasurable and thorough hair washing experience they expect, according to L’Oréal.

During the past year, the L’Oréal Professionnel Water Saver sustainable showerhead has been rolled out to more than 10,000 professional hair salons across Europe and the Middle East, helping save more than 182 million liters of water. The plan is to continue that strategy; L’Oréal will roll out the tool to more than 200,000 salons worldwide in the coming years.

The effort is especially important, based on pressing water scarcity.

In 2030, nearly 60% of world’s population is expected to be water stressed, noted Lavernos. Water Saver, she said, provides the same experience without “wasting such a precious resource.”

More Developments

• Beyond the announcements heralded on the stage this year, L’Oréal garnered CES accolades for:
• YSL’s Scent-Sation: an immersive, in-store fragrance finding experience that connects neuro responses to fragrance preferences through a multi-sensor EEG-based headset.
• L’Oréal Face Fact:  an environmental skin health coaching app designed to diagnose current skin conditions, learn unique environmental risks, improve lifestyle habits alongside skin care regimens, and proactively intervene to prevent new concerns while recommending products.
• Meta Profiler: a handheld device that can image skin with 10 times the magnification of the human eye, replicate precise clinical lab measurements associated with a real-time hydration sensor and an algorithm built on more than 15,000 people.
• Lancôme’s Skin Screen: an analysis service that uses a combination of tri-polar light technology and advanced, patented algorithms to measure and assess key skin parameters, like sun damage, redness, visible pores, skin hydration, clogged pores, wrinkles/fine lines, brown spots and more. It also recommends a skin regimen to the user.
• Maybelline Virtual Looks: a feature on Microsoft Teams that allows users to adjust their look directly within a Teams meeting.

Tech’s Role in Beauty’s Future

“We have seen a huge transformation in tech that you know well,” Hieronimus told the audience at CES, listing Web3, IoT, AI and generative AI as “changing the world around us and disrupting business models across many different industries.”

According to Hieronimus, tech will be what allows L’Oréal to shift from beauty for all to “beauty for each.”

Wellness Tech: Wearable Device Tracks Menopausal and Peri-Menopausal Symptoms IdentifyHer is a women’s health platform designed to provide women and doctors a better understanding of perimenopause and menopause by tracking menopausal symptoms, sleep and activity to personalize menopausal symptom management. The device and connected app, expected to be available in the US this year, will offer detailed and accurate tracking and monitoring of menopausal symptoms and actionable insights into recommended treatment plans, according to Co-Founder and CEO Heidi Davis (above). Happi checked in with Davis as she readied for CES 2024, where IdentifyHer would be exhibiting in Eureka Park. HAPPI: What is the role of tech in the wellness space, and more specifically, how is tech helping empower women right now?  Davis: Technology, specifically tailored to address women’s needs and challenges across their lifespan, from menstrual tracking apps to wearables providing enhanced fertility insights, empowers women by enabling a better understanding and control of their health. IdentifyHer aims to support women globally in navigating peri-menopause without unnecessary suffering, aiding them in preserving their quality of life, relationships, productivity, and opportunities in the workplace and society. This is achieved by delivering meaningful health data specifically crafted for and by peri-menopausal women to guide them through this phase. Despite being a universal experience for all women at some point, there is currently no clear clinical test to establish peri-menopause or any method to monitor the process and management strategies, with most women likely to encounter symptoms.  HAPPI: Tell me more about IdentifyHer and its ideation. What was lacking in this space that led to the development?  Davis: We recognized a significant innovation gap in women’s health, historically overshadowed by a focus on men in science and medicine. Our aim was to instigate disruptive innovation in women’s health, addressing the unmet needs of over half the world’s population. Initially, our focus was on building disease predictors to forecast disease trajectories specifically for women, empowering them to make lifestyle changes and reduce risks, while monitoring progress over time. Menopause emerged as a crucial inflection point, but during the planning phase, we discovered a lack of objective information on peri-menopause and menopause, despite their profound implications for the disease trajectory in women. Realizing this gap, we took a step back to develop a solution capable of capturing peri-menopausal data, enhancing our ability to serve and understand women through peri-menopause and beyond. Navigating peri-menopause proves challenging for many women, with up to 75% experiencing symptoms that significantly impact their lives. Yet, there was a lack of resources providing women with meaningful information to help them through this phase. Identifyher provides early detection of peri-menopausal symptoms and actionable insights from seamlessly tracking menopausal symptoms, sleep and activity to empower women with the information they need to personalize their symptom management. HAPPI: What might be hinderances to more widespread adoption of IdentifyHer or other wellness-focused tech—and how do you believe this can be overcome so more women can take control of their wellness journey? Davis: The hindrances include a lack of education and misinformation. Women have historically been misled about menopause, and there is still a dearth of quality information about peri-menopause. Moreover, a significant issue is that 80% of clinicians have little to no training on menopause, making them often unreliable sources of information. In order for women to take control of their peri-menopause, they need to understand what peri-menopause is and recognize when it is beginning. Once they comprehend that the changes happening might be peri-menopause, identifyHer can empower women with first-of-its-kind peri-menopausal health information to take control of their wellness journey. IdentifyHer expects to launch in Q4 in the US; women can sign up for the waiting list on its website, www.identifyher.ai For more insights from Davis, read the full interview online at Happi.com.

Amorepacific’s Lipcure Beam Amorepacific was named an innovation honoree at CES 2024 for its Lipcure Beam, which the Korean beauty giant describes as a world’s first beauty tech that simultaneously offers personalized lip makeup and care, providing an immediate diagnosis and treatment within one product. The device uses integrated sensor and a proprietary blend of light-responsive materials to fortify the collagen fibers within the lips and establish moisture barriers on the surface.  Amorepacific’s Lipcure Beam was honored at CES.