L’Oréal World’s Largest Cosmetics Company

Founding

In the early 20th century, Eugène Paul Louis Schueller (1881–1957), a young French chemist, developed a hair dye formula called Oréale. Schueller formulated and manufactured his own products, which he then decided to sell to Parisian hairdressers. On 31 July 1919, Schueller registered his company,^[5] the Société Française de Teintures Inoffensives pour Cheveux (Safe Hair Dye Company of France). The guiding principles of the company, which eventually became L’Oréal, were research and innovation in the field of beauty. In 1920, the company employed three chemists; the team continued to grow with 100 by the year 1950, and 1,000 by the year 1984; as recently as 2021, there was an estimated total of 85,252 worldwide.^[6]

Schueller provided financial support and held meetings for La Cagoule at L’Oréal headquarters. La Cagoule was a violent French fascist-leaning and the anti-communist group whose leader formed a political party Mouvement Social Révolutionnaire (MSR, Social Revolutionary Movement) which in Occupied France supported the Vichy collaboration with the Germans.^[7] L’Oréal hired several members of the group as executives after World War II, such as Jacques Corrèze, who served as CEO of the United States operation. Israeli historian Michael Bar-Zohar describes this in his book, Bitter Scent.^{[citation needed]}

L’Oréal got its start in the hair-color business, but the company soon branched out into other cleansing and beauty products. L’Oréal currently markets over 500 brands and thousands of individual products in all sectors of the beauty business: hair color, permanents, hair styling, body and skin care, cleansers, makeup, and fragrance. The company’s products are found in a wide variety of distribution channels, from hair salons and perfumeries to supermarkets, health/beauty outlets, pharmacies and direct mail.^{[citation needed]}

Research and development facilities[edit]

L’Oréal has 21 worldwide research and development centers: three global centers in France: Aulnay, Chevilly and Saint-Ouen. Six regional poles include one in the United States: Clark, New Jersey; one in Japan: Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture; in 2005 one was established in Shanghai, China, one in India: Mumbai, one in Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, and lastly in South Africa: Johannesburg.^[8] For continued info and some tasty “Strawberries” follow this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L’Or%C3%A9al