I went on an exclusive BTS tour of L’Oréal Paris HQ and got a sneak peek at the newest innovations
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I've been slathered in L'Oreal products since birth - and you probably have too.
With its catalogue of over 37 brands - including Kiehl's Since 1851, and - there's at least one L'Oreal product in all of our homes.
Now 115 years old, the household name manufactures over 7 billion products every year, which are distributed to 150 countries worldwide.
Whilst this might conjure pictures of grey, smoking factories and skips full of plastic waste, L'Oreal has committed to greener, environmentally conscious practices - and I went to see them for myself.
I travelled to the L'Oreal Packaging Lab in Clichy, Paris, to learn about how the brand designs, develops and creates its products - and ensures they're green.
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L'Oreal is now packaging a number of its hair, body and skincare products in cardboard-blend tubes, to help combat plastic waste.
With their rigid, card-like feel, these squeezy tubes are created from a similar material to egg boxes and are designed here at the L'Oreal HQ.
While it's not created from 100% paper - this would quickly result in wet, mushy tubes - this packaging innovation is a blend of plastic and wood, which ensures tubes are durable and waterproof.
The material begins as wood chips blended into a pulp, which are then bleached, diluted, sprayed into a flat wire, and then wound into shape.
The importance of sun cream in your skincare routine
Dermatologist and skincare enthusiast Andrea Suarez - known as Dr Dray - revealed why you should wear suncream.
The one thing you can do that will make the biggest difference - and this matters for all ages - is protecting your skin from the sun, Andrea stressed.
"The vast majority of external aging is due to exposure to ultraviolet radiation," she continued, not because you're "not using some jazzy serum or layering 90 different things on your face everyday".
"If you're not doing in your 20s, get on that now."
But she said the use of sun cream alone doesn't go far enough. Andrea urged that you also wear sun-protective clothing like broad-brimmed hats and long sleeves, on top of not staying out too long in the sun.
Doing this over your lifetime - and all year, not just during the summer or on sunny days - "will reduce the visible signs of photoageing", Andrea said.
Those are wrinkles, muddled pigmentation and sagging skin.
L'Oreal rolled out the paper-blend packaging over three years ago, and is now working towards reducing the plastic and increasing the paper content in each tube (this currently sits around 50%, depending on the product).
Scientists say that one way this could be achieved is by coating paper tubes into a waterproof treatment - but time will tell.
Moulded onto the new bottle is the YSL monogram - a chic addition to the bottle, which also reduces environmental impact.
Rather than applying a sticky label onto the front of the perfume, designers instead embossed the logo directly onto the bottle - meaning it's fully recyclable.
Like many L'Oreal fragrances, such as cult-classic or , the perfume is refillable, meaning shoppers can refill their original perfume bottles with replacement fragrance pods.
You can also now refill L'Oreal perfume bottles in-store at some The Perfume Shop branches.
Mugler Alien Refill, £110
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As I tap out my visitor pass and (begrudgingly) return my lab coat, I realise that my perspective on the beauty giant has totally changed.
It's refreshing to see that sustainability remains at the heart of what L'Oreal does - and I'll wait with bated breath to see if it delivers on its green goals in the future.