The L'Oréal Corporate Foundation:
10 years in action

“Beauty for a Better Life”

The “Beauty for a Better Life” programme empowers socially and financially marginalised people by providing them with training in beauty professions. The course offered by the Foundation brings the Group’s expertise in makeup and hair styling to participants, allowing them to reintegrate the workforce with these newly acquired skills.

“Beauty for a Better Life” is an international programme. In each country, the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation develops partnerships with NGOs , recognised organisations and local authorities. In 2017, six countries across four continents joined the programme, making it possible for hundreds of new beneficiaries – facing social or financial hardship, armed conflict or violence, separated from their families or deprived of schooling – to learn a professional skill and build a new life for themselves.

In all, 28 countries supported the programme in 2017, allowing 3,700 beneficiaries (mostly women), to reintegrate into society. Since its founding in 2009, the “Beauty for a Better Life” programme has helped nearly 14,000 people experiencing hardship find work.

The beauty of entrepreneurship

In France, the beauty industry is seeing an increasing growth of new companies. The number of companies (from small in-home hair stylists to full-scale salons) has risen 25% in five years. Yet taking the leap is not always easy for individuals in the field. Recognising this, the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation and Les Apprentis d’Auteuil are combining their expertise and shared values to offer free small business training for beauty professionals. The initiative will specifically target people who have difficulty integrating the workforce.

L’Atelier des talents

Too many hair stylists complete their basic training without being truly prepared for the challenges of the profession, leading many young professionals to simply give up on their career. But hair styling is a high-growth sector – the second-largest artisan and trade sector in France – with promising job opportunities. The L’Oréal Corporate Foundation and Groupe SOS in France are joining hands to create L’Atelier des talents, a centre which will offer fast-track professional training to people with some background in hair styling but who no longer work in the field. The aim is to enable participants to return to their profession following 12 weeks of training and put them on the path to success. The initiative was recognised by the City of Paris Social and Solidarity Economy Awards.

“For Women in Science”

In partnership with UNESCO, the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation has been committed to encouraging women in science – a field in which they remain underrepresented – for quite some time now. For the last three years, the Foundation has also been encouraging girls towards scientific careers in middle school through the “For Girls in Science” programme.

19 years of commitment

The L’Oréal Corporate Foundation created the “L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science” programme in 1998 to counter underrepresentation of women in the scientific world. This international programme was born of a conviction: the world needs science, and science needs women. Each year, it celebrates and rewards five eminent women scientists from five continents for discoveries that have changed the world. Ninety-seven laureates have been recognised for excellence in the scientific fields, including Nobel Prize-winners Professors Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Ada Yonath and Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard.

Every year, the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation also helps more than 275 young women scientists at a crucial moment in their careers, by supporting them during their doctoral or post-doctoral studies. The “L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science” scholarships are presented at national and regional awards ceremonies in more than 48 countries. Since 1998, 2,800 women from 115 countries have been selected to receive the scholarship.

Nurturing scientific vocations

Taking this commitment to science a step further, the L’Oréal Corporate Foundation launched a new programme in France in 2014: “For Girls in Science”. Founded in partnership with the Ministry of Education, the programme aims to make scientific careers more appealing and help promote an interest in science amongst young girls, thanks to the participation of over 140 female scientific ambassadors who volunteer to visit middle schools.