Our Formulation Philosophy
THE BEST OF PLANTS FOR YOUR SKIN
L’Occitane en Provence has always been, and will always be, deeply committed to consumer safety while limiting environmental impact at every stage of the product’s life cycle. We are also widely known for offering an exceptional sensorial experience to our consumers through textures, fragrances and gestures while making no compromises on the efficacy of our products.
LEVEL 1: GLOBAL REGULATIONS
Global regulatory Compliance for every cosmetic product on the market
LEVEL 2: L'OCCITANE'S FORMULATION CHARTER
Prioritise natural origin ingredients
Moderately-used ingredients: constantly looking for alternatives
Banned ingredients: for environment, health, or ethical reasons
LEVEL 3: L'OCCITANE'S CLEAN CHARTER
Leave-on: natural origin ingredients >95%
Rinse-off: readily Biodegradable ingredients >95%
Maximum 1 Moderately-Used Ingredient
PREFERRED INGREDIENTS
Our first choice of ingredients has always been, and will always remain, ingredients of natural origin, such as our floral waters, plant extracts and essential oils. Within our preferred ingredients, we prioritize those with a high biodegradability. Thanks to our vast expertize with them, we tighten our link with our Provençal heritage.
MODERATELY USED INGREDIENTS
Stabilizing or improving natural formulas’ efficacy and sensoriality is a big challenge in our industry. So while we are constantly looking for natural and ecological alternatives we can replace these products with, we still need to keep them in moderation in some of our formulas and only after thorough evaluation methods by our toxicological experts and via tolerance tests.
BANNED
INGREDIENTS
Controversial ingredients, such as parabens, phthalates and animal matter, although regulatory permitted, are banned from our formulas because of their potential impact on the environment, health, or for ethical reasons.
SAFETY
We test our products on different hair and skin types, including sensitive ones, using dermatological and ophthalmological controls. 100% of all our products are put through rigorous testing, that’s more than 800 applications per product. We manufacture and control the quality of our products before launching them and apply the strictest international quality and regulatory standards. Consumer safety has always, and will always, be a top priority.
EFFICACY
The effectiveness of our ingredients is proven through in-vitro laboratory tests to predict their clinical efficacy. However, we always complement this with additional consumer tests and in-vivo clinical studies on the finished product. We run around 600 efficacy tests per year. Our clinical studies are carried out by independent doctors (dermatologists, ophthalmologists and pediatricians). They use clinical evaluation methods in real life conditions, or instrumental measurements on a panel of volunteers.
SENSORIALITY
We are also widely known for our exceptional sensorial experiences thanks to our textures, fragrances and gestures, and we’ll continue to research the most innovative sensorial products. Around 200 sensory experts are trained to evaluate the fragrance, texture and visual of our new formulas, helping us reach the sensory characteristics expected by our consumers.
What goes into our Clean Charter
NATURALITY & BIODEGRADABILITY
All of our clean charter formulas contain at least 95% natural origin ingredients for leave-on products and at least 95% readily biodegradable ingredients for rinse-off products.
ADDITIONALLY BANNED INGREDIENTS
In addition to the 14 dubious ingredients we ban for all products at L’Occitane, our Clean Charter highlights our formulas where we already managed to replace specific moderately used ingredients with natural and ecological alternatives:
PRESERVATIVES: Phenoxyethanol and Polyaminopropyl biguanide (also called PHMB)
SENSORY AGENTS: Cyclosilicones
UV FILTER: Ethylhexyl Methoxycinnamate
FOAMING AGENTS: Sodium Lauryl sulfate (also called SLS)
LIMITATION ON MODERATELY USED
In our Clean Charter formulas you won’t find more than one moderately used ingredient*, at just the right amount to guarantee your safety and the planet’s, and thoroughly checked by our toxicological experts and via tolerance tests.
*Except fragrance and allergens that are strongly associated with the sensoriality of our products : all our fragrances are introduced in our formulas at the right dose and allergens are naturally present in them or in our plant extracts
Respecting Nature
Since 1976, L’OCCITANE has been protecting the richness of our lands and we are committed to defending biodiversity for the generations to come. We celebrate nature and our mission is to give back to it.
Sustainable Sourcing
L'OCCITANE sees nature as its model and draws inspiration from the natural properties of plants to drive innovation. We are dedicated to developing long-term partnerships with our producers and prioritise short and local integrated channels when sourcing our key ingredients.