A study of cosmetics on the French market through organic products and facemasks.

This master thesis is oriented towards cosmetics, their past, present but first and foremost their future. The cosmetic field is not only retaining actual consumers, it is catching new ones. This paper aims to help people understand how the sector of cosmetics, which has been existing for decades, continues to raise people’s attention and more than that, increases its percentage of growth within years. To achieve those objectives, this document goes in depth in the subject to find the driving forces of the market. This being a very large topic, a frame based on environmental and social vision of the topic has been applied. In that way, it is also essential to mention systemic design, an important term to properly understand the way we worked. Systemic design is a complex science, coming from cybernetics, and aiming to use the output of a system as the input of another one, in order to limit environmental and social issues. The foundations of systemic design can be represented in the search for zero waste, the use and design of viable and interdependent systems, as well as the way of seeing and designing flows in a circular and no longer linear way. To begin properly this master thesis, in order to help the reader have a clear vision of the topic, important terms are defined and the general context is explained. An analysis on the life cycle of a cosmetic product is detailed, from design phase to end of life, to understand its environmental and social effects all along its life. This paper will use these observations as foundations to orient the case studies. A part will be focused on organic cosmetics related to environmental and social aspects. A case study on Greentech, a French company developing organic active principles will help make comparisons between traditional and organic cosmetics and understand what they can bring to the current market. The study from the raw materials’ production to the consumers purchasing the product has been detailed and represented as a supply chain. This has helped develop a scheme of the system of organic cosmetics’ industry on the French market with the goal to tend to a more circular approach. Another part on innovative cosmetic products will be presented, oriented toward sheet masks. The product' origins will be at the centre of the study, which will help make a comparison between innovative products and traditions. A case study will be done on the textile industry, one of the most polluting ones, with the goal of detailing a methodology to develop a sheet mask locally, with better environmental and social attributes. To do that, the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region will be the heart of the study. Finally, different graphics including a giga map will be established in order to conclude this paper.