L'Oréal Dermatological Beauty and Aster Pharmacy have signed a sustainability partnership to make refills of La Roche-Posay, Vichy and CeraVe easier to find in the UAE, starting with Aster's top 10 stores, among them Dubai Mall and Marina The Pointe.
Aster Pharmacy, the retail arm of Aster DM Healthcare, will roll the programme out progressively through 2027, beginning with its highest-footfall, highest-visibility locations. The changes focus on the shopping experience itself: more refills on shelf, better in-store displays, and beauty advisors who can answer customers' questions. L'Oréal's advisors will work alongside Aster's own to explain how refills work and guide shoppers to the options that suit their routines.
"Sustainable beauty should not feel complicated or out of reach," said Laurent Duffier, CEO of L'Oréal Middle East. "Our responsibility is to make it easier for people to find and choose." In Gulf News, he put the goal more simply: "We hope refilling becomes a simple question people ask when a product runs out: 'Can I refill this?'"
Sanaa Bougazzoul, General Manager of L'Oréal Dermatological Beauty Middle East, said the payoff will be felt in store, "when a customer discovers a refill for a product they already use, or a beauty advisor helps them understand how it fits into their routine."
Behind the scenes, the partners will improve forecasting and stock planning to cut product waste, and the agreement sets a target of 75% eco-designed point-of-sale materials by 2027. The companies say refill formats can reduce packaging compared with conventional packs, and that they will only publish plastic-saving figures per refill once verified product-level data is available.
For Aster, the deal builds on its "Go Green Carry Clean" campaign, which encourages customers to choose paper and reusable bags over single-use plastics. "Our pharmacies are part of people's everyday lives," said N.S. Balasubramanian, Chief Executive Officer of Aster Retail, GCC. He said the partnership will make refillable beauty more accessible, improve the in-store experience and equip Aster's teams to guide customers towards more sustainable choices. Aster DM Healthcare's GCC network includes 360 pharmacies, 16 hospitals and 128 clinics.
The partners will also explore cancer awareness and support through La Roche-Posay's Fight with Care programme, extending the work into the communities Aster serves. In the UAE, L'Oréal already works with Al Jalila Foundation on skincare and make-up workshops, product donations and guidance for people facing the skin effects of cancer treatment.
The partnership feeds into L'Oréal for the Future, the group's global sustainability programme. By 2030, L'Oréal aims to halve virgin plastic in its packaging in absolute terms and cut the packaging intensity of its products by 20%, both against 2019. Lighter packs and refillable formats are part of how it plans to reach the second goal. In the UAE, the group has already worked with Mohebi Logistics on electric deliveries and Aramex on biodiesel transport, and donated 30 Lancôme HAPTA devices to Al Noor Training Centre to help people with limited hand and arm mobility apply make-up.
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