L’Oréal announces virtual make-up collaboration with Facebook
The world’s biggest cosmetic company has announced a collaboration with Facebook that will see its recently acquired ModiFace technology included in the social media platform.
ModiFace is an Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence entity that will be combined into the Facebook platform to create new augmented reality experiences delivered through Facebook camera products.
The L’Oréal development team says that the technology will be combined via a direct and seamless connection between both platforms, which will deliver reality-powered makeup try-on experiences from its stable of colour cosmetics brands.
Those brands include names such as Maybelline, L’Oréal Paris, NYX Professional Makeup, Lancôme, Giorgio Armani, Yves Saint Laurent, Urban Decay, and Shu Uemura.
“This deep collaboration is very relevant for ModiFace since it will allow our AR experiences to live on Facebook and be used by millions of consumers across the world,” said Parham Aarabi, CEO and founder of ModiFace.
“This is a great new way to discover L’Oréal products and brands through very realistic, engaging and meaningful beauty experiences,”
Biopharma company launches cannabis skincare line
In the US the Greater Cannabis Company has announced the launch of a new skincare business, the Bob Ross Beauty and Cosmetics Products range.
The biopharmaceutical company is launching the new range under license, using the Bob Ross name, which builds on the success of the 80s and 90s tv series The Joy of Painting with Bob Ross.
The Greater Cannabis Company, through its Koltuv Ventures partnership, is developing and commercialising a range of different beauty and cosmetics products, with the first being a collection of lip tints that reflect the range of colours that were used in the Bob Ross PBS tv series.
The new beauty range will build on the iconic name developed by Bob Ross, which capitalised on his calm and supportive demeanour to help and encourage a generation of Americans to tap into their creative abilities through painting.
The products will be in stores for the 2020 holiday season and will initially be sold through Party City stores throughout the US, together with some individual brick and mortar stores.
IMCD acquires Turkish personal care business
Ingredients and speciality chemicals distributor IMCD has signed an agreement to acquire the personal care business of Turkey-based Edjer Kimya.
The Edjer Kimya business has been built on the distribution of chemicals and raw materials for personal care, pharmaceutical and food additives throughout Turkey.
IMCD is using the acquisition of the company’s personal care business to extend its footprint into the expanding and important market, which as a stand-alone business generated an income of € 4.7 million in 2019.
“This acquisition is a solid step to strengthen IMCD Turkey’s footprint in the personal care market in line with IMCD’s global growth strategy,” Aylin Zakuto, Managing Director IMCD Turkey, said.
“Adding Ejder Kimya’s personal care market expertise and extensive portfolio to IMCD will expand our offered solutions to customers and accelerate the growth of our suppliers in the personal care market”.
The two companies have agreed that the transaction, which is subject to closing and regulatory conditions, will be expected to complete by early January 2021.
Talc supplier to J&J sells business
The demise of the Johnson & Johnson talc business in the US has once again impacted one of the company’s leading suppliers, as Imerys Talc America files for bankruptcy.
The filing comes after a US district judge ruled that thousands of lawsuits against J&J could proceed, which has put a huge question mark over the future of the business in the country.
Imerys Talc America is the US subsidiary of the France-based Imerys industrial mineral company, and as part of the bankruptcy, the group has decided to sell the business.
In April of this year, the US district court ruling gave the go-ahead for some 16,000 talc-related cases linked to ovarian cancer in women against J&J.
In April 2019 the three Imerys subsidiaries operating in different regions of the Americas – Imerys Talc Vermont, Imerys Talc Americas and Imerys Talc Canada – all filed for bankruptcy
In late November Imerys forged a deal to sell the assets of its North America talc business to Canada-based Magris Resources.
“We believe the outcome of this sale process maximizes the value of the assets to the benefit of all parties,” said Giorgio La Motta, president of the three Americas businesses.
“We look forward to working with Magris as we move towards closing, and remain committed to providing our customers with safe, high-quality mineral products moving forward. Our leadership team would also like to extend our gratitude to Imerys Talc America’s employees for their hard work and focus throughout this process.”
PETA joins campaign to uphold EU animal testing ban
The campaign to pressure the EU not to withdraw from the existing cosmetics animal testing ban has gained further momentum after PETA joined the ranks of other leading businesses and organisations putting pressure on authorities to uphold the ban.
The campaign arose after EU authorities called for certain cosmetic ingredients to be tested on animals for safety.
The new requirement has led to a host of animal rights groups and large cosmetics companies to send a joint statement to Members of the European Parliament, asking them to uphold the existing cosmetics testing and marketing bans.
The joint statement has been filed with the European Commission. The full text with the organisations that are backing it can be viewed by clicking here.
The joint statement calls on European authorities to ensure that the EU’s historic and groundbreaking animal testing and marketing bans are not rendered meaningless.
Companies such as L’Oréal, Unilever and P&G have already put their names to the campaign, alongside cruelty-free International, in an effort to stop EU decision-makers rendering the European animal testing rules meaningless.
Fears that the EU ruling banning all animal testing on cosmetics products and ingredients was under threat were triggered when German ingredients provider Symrise was asked by the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to conduct animal testing for specific ingredients.
Symrise has appealed against the requirement before the Court of Justice of the European Union, for which the campaign is giving its backing for the legal proceedings.
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