A Chat with Natasha Karim on the Future of Refillable Beauty

Can refillable products become the norm in our beauty routines? We sat down with Natasha Karim, Sustainability Lead at L’Oréal Malaysia, to discuss L’Oréal’s Refill Movement and the shift towards more sustainable consumption.

For as long as the beauty industry has existed, there has always been something alluring about the new—the excitement of a new launch, a fresh bottle of perfume sitting on a vanity, or an unopened jar of skincare waiting to become part of a daily routine. But as consumers become increasingly conscious of the environmental impact behind their purchases, brands are beginning to reconsider a fundamental part of the beauty experience: what happens after a product runs out?

The answer, it seems, lies in not throwing your finished goods away. As conversations around conscious consumption continue to grow, beauty brands are looking beyond innovative formulas to reconsider the role of packaging itself. Rather than treating bottles and containers as disposable, they’re exploring ways to reduce waste while preserving the rituals consumers have come to love. Among the solutions gaining traction is refillable beauty—a simple yet impactful way for products to be replenished instead of replaced.

For L’Oréal, this shift has taken shape through its Refill Movement, which encourages consumers to embrace refillable options across their favourite beauty products. We recently caught up with Natasha Karim, Sustainability Lead at L’Oréal Malaysia, to understand the notion behind this movement, how it encourages greener habits, and what it could mean for the future of beauty.

L’ORÉAL HAS SET SOME AMBITIOUS SUSTAINABILITY GOALS, BUT TURNING THEM INTO MEANINGFUL ACTIONS CAN BE TRICKY. WHAT WOULD YOU SAY ARE SOME OF THE BIGGEST CHALLENGES IN IMPLEMENTING SUSTAINABLE CHANGE?

“I wouldn’t really say it’s a challenge, but more of an area of opportunity. Globally, 84% of our consumers actually want to make sustainable choices. That’s good—there’s an appetite there. However, about 42% of them have actually said they don’t know where to find refills, while 43% of them mentioned they’re not even aware that there are refills available. So, I think this is where L’Oréal comes into the picture to minimise that gap. 

“Sustainability is always about a journey. If I look back in the past, refills were not a norm—they were a niche. We see this as an opportunity to invest higher in manufacturing refill products in dedicated plants. We’re investing in terms of increasing the portfolio of our refillable products.”

BEYOND ACHIEVING THE CDP AAA RATING*, WHAT OTHER METRICS OR MILESTONES DOES L’ORÉAL LOOK AT TO MEASURE ITS SUSTAINABILITY PROGRESS?

“We started off in the 1970s, and at the time, it was merely a target we wanted to fulfil as an organisation to be part of sustainability efforts. But along the way, we wanted to move away from just being an aspirational sustainable company. We wanted to make it measurable, credible, and seen outside in terms of transparency. 

“When we enhanced our ‘Back to the Future’ program in 2020, we decided to relook at our KPIs. And how we do that is by working through SBTi targets, which are science-based targets to ensure all our KPIs are being measured not only internally, but externally as well. That’s how transparent we are when it comes to our date and figures.”

*The CDP AAA rating recognises companies demonstrating leading environmental transparency and performance across climate change, water security, and forest protection.

HAS THERE BEEN A PARTICULAR MOMENT THAT MADE YOU FEEL LIKE THE REFILL MOVEMENT WAS MOVING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?

“Every year I see a difference, and every year I see progress. We’re already at a point where we’ve grown our portfolio by about 3.7 times since 2019. So, why do we produce or manufacture more refillable products? Because there’s a demand. There are consumers out there who want to make sustainable choices, and there’s a pretty high number of them who want to be different as well. 

“What we’re doing here with the Join the Refill Movement will make a difference to our consumers. At least that will not just make them be responsible in their behaviour, but also change their habits in using beauty products.”

REFILLABLE PRODUCTS AREN’T A NEW CONCEPT. WHY DO YOU THINK THEY’VE GAINED SO MUCH RELEVANCE IN TODAY’S BEAUTY LANDSCAPE?

“Before, consumers will ask if a product is eco-friendly. If we says yes, it’s eco-friendly, then they’ll buy it. No one really questioned what was happening behind the scenes, especially when it came to the packaging itself. But in today’s world, if we look at the growing number of consumers wanting to make sustainable choices, it’s no longer just about choosing sustainability—they want to understand what goes behind the packaging.

“There’s also data showing that 41% of our consumers feel that refillable products are complex and messy. So, we want to reduce that complexity. This is where our engineers and manufacturers come in. They spend years designing packaging that not only looks good, but is functional as well.”

HOW IS L’ORÉAL ENSURING THAT ITS APPROACH TO SUSTAINABILITY REMAINS A LONG-TERM COMMITMENT?

“Alongside this campaign, we have a global programme called L’Accelerator, where the L’Oréal Group has invested hundreds of millions of euros to realise this programme. Essentially, what it is all about is providing startups with the support to develop the next generation of packaging innovation. We’ve only just started, so it’ll be interesting to see what happens. Who knows, by 2050, when we want to achieve net zero, maybe all of these projects will come into the whole picture.”

IF YOU COULD CHANGE ONE THING OUTSIDE L’ORÉAL’S CONTROL TO ACCELERATE SUSTAINABILITY IN MALAYSIA, WHAT WOULD IT BE AND WHY?

“I would say waste segregation. I see it myself at my apartment, where they provide recycling bins for different types of materials, but I see papers in plastic bins and plastic in paper bins. And what happens when we do that? The packaging becomes contaminated. When it gets contaminated, it really hurts me because when it goes to landfills, it will end up destroyed.

“We need to segregate the materials. We need to educate consumers and educate the public to understand the different types of materials and what happens if we do otherwise.”

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