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partnerships with the world of public research, new methods and technologies were developped, namely bioprinting. The L’Oréal group is one corporation that has looked into these issues. Elisabeth Bouhadana, international scientific director of the L’Oréal Paris brand, says, “In cosmetics, there is no risk-benefit analysis like there is in the medical or pharmaceutical world. Recently, given the global situation, we have heard more about this this notion and the possibility of side effects that some drugs or vaccines can induce.” Bouhadana adds that in her industry, the products launched cannot present any risk, they must be 100% safe. To guarantee this safety, numerous tests are carried out, particularly those performed in vitro on human skin models reconstructed in the laboratory. “You could say the media played a role, particularly during the 1970s at L’Oréal,” says Bouhadana. “At that time, the entire cosmetics industry was experimenting on animals, which was problematic both for ethical and scientific reasons. Scientifically, the results lacked reliability, as human skin is very different from pig skin, for example.” In 1979, one of the group’s researchers succeeded in creating the first epidermal cell culture in the laboratory. By 1989, the reconstructed skin model was used to test the effectiveness of products. Later on, the company would go on to sign a partnership with the American bioprinting start-up Organovo in 2015, sharing the same goal of continuing to advance scientific research in the field of 3-D printing human skin. Luc Aguilar, a biologist and the director of advanced research at L’Oréal, explains the many possibilities for bioprinting, such as the ability to “analyze and fight against the formation of pigmentation spots.” Aguilars says the technology allows us to “enter the infinitely small organ (skin) and study its micro-anatomy.” Another possible advancement that could come about because of bioprinting is the study of atopic eczema, a condition that affects millions of people. “Thanks to bioprinting, we are able to reproduce eczematous lesions in a healthy environment, by printing healthy and damaged cells on the same epidermal area,” says Aguilar, who recently published a scientific article on the subject in the journal Nature. And finally, another advantage of bioprinting is that it allows us to obtain much more reliable predictive models for testing. Virginie Couturaud, Dior’s director of scientific communications, says that previous iterations of reconstructed skins were basically made by hand. “Now, since they are manufactured according to predefined computer parameters, we can benefit from more stable and more calibrated models,” says Couturaud. The luxury brand has been using this technology to develop its skincare products for over four years. “It allows us to better determine the way each ingredient behaves and interacts, which is an essential element in the early stages of product development,” say Couturaud. “We are only at the beginning and it is clear that bioprinting offers great opportunities for cosmetics.”