With 18 years of experience in the cosmetics industry, including Yves Saint Laurent, Make Up For Ever and Aircos, Aurélie Banco created the Co-lab-ora laboratory in 2021 to respond to a rapidly changing market in search of formulas that are both natural and high-performance.
Today, the laboratory focuses exclusively on the design of natural make-up products, be they compact powders or liquid, waxy or creamy formulas. It works with young brands that want to produce small batches, as well as large luxury labels that have their own laboratories but are looking for innovation and new perspectives. Its clients also include ingredient suppliers.
“Our customers usually come to us with technical challenges, such as The Island Cosmetics for their Cosmos-labelled SPF 50 foundation with dark shades and no whitening make-up effect. They know that we are a reliable, local and reactive partner,” says Aurélie Banco.
There are no standard formulas here: each product is made to measure or semi-measured on a secure base. Production is then outsourced to French partners who can handle small runs.
Since its inception, the laboratory has had a special feature: it offers its clients participatory workshops to help them prototype their formulations.
“The idea behind these one-day workshops was to make the brand or ingredient supplier aware of the technical challenges that can arise. It’s also a way of sharing technical knowledge to help teams, particularly marketing teams, understand what the product is all about. You understand a formula better by doing it,” says the founder.
These workshops were also offered on a larger scale at trade shows, where visitors could prototype their formula. It’s an educational approach that has appealed to many young brands.
Formulation and evaluation expertise
In addition to co-creation, the laboratory is also able to test and evaluate the performance of formulas and ingredients in terms of staying power and softness using innovative in vitro instrumental measurements. The method allows comparisons to be made under identical conditions between various similar products on the market and formulas developed in the laboratory.
“This enables the ingredient supplier to ensure the reliability of its raw material and to have a pitch compared with another ingredient. For a brand, this will help it to make the claims it wants to put forward,” explains Aurélie Banco.
A strategy in line with the market trend towards ever-cleaner formulas, without compromising on sensoriality or hold.
“Our work is very much dependent on the raw materials available to us. We keep a close eye on all the new developments in this field, and even if there are still some missing, the market is moving in the right direction,” confirms the founder.
