L’Oréal has inaugurated its 7th R&I global Research and Innovation Center. The French beauty giant invested BRL160 million in the new Rio de Janeiro facility, which is designed to accelerate the development of products specifically aimed at Brazilian consumers.

The state-of-the-art center is charged with both making L’Oréal’s best global innovations relevant to Brazilian and Latin American consumers through local developments and customization of worldwide technologies, and also setting the pace for breakthrough innovations in key categories, such as sun care, hair care and hygiene.

“Innovation is at the core of the development of our business. The new Research & Innovation Center reflects L’Oréal’s confidence in the great potential of the Brazilian beauty market, the fourth largest in the world, and aims to bring breakthrough innovation to the very demanding Brazilian consumers,” said An Verhulst-Santis, President of L’Oréal Brasil.

The French beauty giant also announced that its Episkin reconstructed skin model, which was developed in collaboration with IDOR, will be available to the Brazilian scientific community in early 2018.