At Lancôme, making the world more beautiful transcends physical appearance.

In sync with its core aim of caring for people and the planet for a happier, more sustainable future, the brand has instigated numerous initiatives — ranging from refillable products to improving literacy to empowering women with disabilities.

This has long been a core tenet. In 2021, Lancôme unveiled its first global sustainability program, then called “Caring Together for a Happier Tomorrow,” which emphasizes biodiversity and inclusion. That dovetails with L’Oréal’s long-term sustainability commitment that includes reducing its environmental footprint and offering consumers more eco-friendly options.

Lancôme’s initiative was built on protecting biodiversity, helping people to consume sustainably and empowering women. “Care and happiness are in the DNA of the brand,” said former global brand president Françoise Lehmann.

Lancôme’s sustainability program sets out to protect biodiversity, including agricultural practices, eco-conscious formulas and packaging, partnerships with institutions, and using green science and biotechnology.

Lancôme works to reduce its environmental footprint through its entire value chain, including product formulas and packaging. It’s powered by green science and aims for safer, high-performance products using fewer resources, ingredient circularity, innovative reformulation and responsible sourcing. 

Today, 59 percent of Lancôme ingredients are biosourced or come from circular processes. Seventy-eight percent of its skin care ingredients are biodegradable, as are 93 percent of its fragrance ingredients.

Packaging-wise, Lancôme focuses on refillable formats; lightweighting and minimizing volume, and replacing virgin materials with recycled ones. 

Six years ago, the brand pinpointed its 20 products with packaging causing the worst environmental impact. By 2023, they’d all been redesigned. And since last year, all products are eco-designed.

This year, Lancôme took part in L’Oréal’s multichannel activation, called #JoinTheRefillMovement, which launched June 16 for World Refill Day. It was meant to raise awareness of refills’ benefits. For instance, each time someone purchases a 100-ml. refill, rather than two 50-ml. bottles of La vie est belle Elixir, there’s a savings of 73 percent on glass, 66 percent on plastic and 61 percent on cardboard.

Lancôme has a range of refillable fragrances.

Such changes pack a punch. In the U.S., La vie est belle Eau de Parfum is now the top-ranking women’s refillable perfume, reports Circana. Lancôme also places first among refillable skin care in the country. 

Lancôme’s women’s empowerment initiative, which fights inequality through education, is called Write Your Future. It provides women with access to literacy, mentoring and entrepreneurship. The program is developed on a country-by-country basis, albeit with the same fundamental mission: women’s leadership and independence.

In the U.S., it was introduced in 2019 in partnership with ProLiteracy. In 2022, Lancôme teamed with ACT-SO Youth Program, a division of the NAACP. Forty college-bound Black women were awarded $10,000 scholarships annually.

Since launch, Write Your Future has rolled out to 23 countries, with more than 6 million euros donated to NGOs and over 265,000 women directly supported. 

Lancôme’s other responsible actions include raising $5.3 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., with funding supporting more than 3,600 chemotherapy rounds and contributing to the World Health Organization’s pediatric cancer initiative.

During the coronavirus pandemic, Lancôme introduced a worldwide solidarity program for nurses. Through the Lancôme Cares initiative, the brand donated more than 200,000 care packs of products in 23 countries. 

Lancôme beauty is inclusive, and that cascades into its tech devices, too. At CES in Las Vegas in 2023, it unveiled a prototype of Hapta to expand access to beauty expression. According to L’Oréal, approximately 50 million people globally live with limited fine-motor skills, and 15 percent have a disability making makeup application more challenging. 

Hapta, an ultra-precise computerized handheld, was created specifically for people with limited hand and arm mobility. It is an industry first, and meant to give confidence and autonomy in beauty rituals.

The tech at the heart of the prototype was developed by Verily to hold and stabilize eating utensils using magnets and articulation. The device has real-time motion stabilization, as well as ergonomic, inclusive design.

It was piloted by Lancôme as a lipstick applicator first, and is scheduled to be expanded into other makeup applications. A standout at CES and one of Time Magazine’s best inventions of 2023, it will be available globally in January. 

In the U.S., Lancôme beta-tested the device in collaboration with the Paralyzed Veterans of America, or PVA. That partnership was celebrated countrywide in-store on International Women’s Day 2025, and in October, Lancôme is to sponsor PVA’s Women Veterans Empowerment Retreat.