‘Purify and protect’: L’Oréal to launch co-branded hand care travel kit

Marking L’Oréal’s first ‘hands essentials’ kit, the pack will launch exclusively across reopened airport locations in Europe and the Middle East, starting next month. The kit contains a 75ml bottle of La Roche-Posay no-rinse purifying hand gel and a 100ml tube of Biotherm age-delaying hand and nail treatment cream, packaged in a minimalistic box made from FSC and PEFC-certified cardboard, without excess material like cellophane, plastic or sticker labels.

Safety, convenience and sustainability ​

“More than ever, travellers need to be confident that their journeys are an enjoyable, healthy and safe experience, from departure to arrival. More than ever, their hands are very sensitive and vulnerable to a hostile environment. Consequently, they need the utmost care from sanitising to hydrating,”​ L’Oréal said.

Aglaé de Beauregard, deputy general manager for global luxe brands at L’Oréal Travel Retail, said: “In these particularly distressing times for them, we are glad to bring together our brands skin expertise and our operational capabilities to offer all travellers in record times an essential, functional, travel-compliant hands protection kit to help make their journey feel safer.”​

In addition, the kits and packaging had been designed with sustainability in mind, L’Oréal said.

Hands ‘very much in the spotlight’ for consumers ​

Jenni Middleton, director of beauty at trend forecasting firm WGSN, previously noted how consumers were increasingly focused on hand hygiene and everything they touched​ – “carrying around sanitiser like we would have done fragrance and lipstick in our bags” ​since the pandemic.

And speaking to CosmeticsDesign-Europe in light of the L’Oréal Travel Retail launch, Middleton said hands remained “very much in the spotlight right now”.​

“We are being told to constantly wash our hands to keep safe, but as we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, high concentrations of alcohol and constant handwashing can damage the skin and dry the hands. Google Trends data shows that searches for ‘moisturising hand sanitiser’ increased by 250% in the last five months globally, as of July 9, which shows people want the benefits of hydration and protection for their hands,” ​she said.

And these consumers would want to see “status sanitisers”,​ she said – those that could hold a prominent and visible place in their beauty and personal care cosmetics bag.

“You’ll be getting that out and using it publicly more than any other product, so it needs to look stylish, be a joy to use and not damage the skin to ensure it is used, used regularly and used properly,” ​Middleton said.