June 16 is World Refill Day. You would be forgiven for not knowing about it — the annual initiative, spearheaded by French beauty giant L’Oréal, is still in its infancy. Created in 2024, it’s part of an uphill battle to curb waste and make refillable beauty a reality.
“Ultimately, we are trying to create a market where there isn’t one,” says Ezgi Barcenas, chief corporate responsibility officer at L’Oréal Group. “We will do that by putting refillable products on shelves; educating customers about the benefits and the fact that it doesn’t compromise on desirability or performance; and identifying the right price point and the right formats. Hopefully it inspires other categories, brands, and industries to do the same — and becomes the new norm.”
Early signs say it’s working. According to L’Oréal, sales of refillable products grew 34% between 2024 and 2025, following the first campaign. In the meantime, the company has steadily expanded refills across its portfolio. This year’s campaign includes 28 products across 18 brands, from Aesop to Prada Beauty and Lancôme. The ultimate goal is to make refills the new normal, so every product in every category has a refill available.
For its third annual World Refill Day campaign, L’Oréal expanded its refill program to 28 products across 18 brands.Photo: L’Oréal
The broadstroke approach was designed to maximize customer engagement with refills. “There are refillable products at every price point, in all categories,” says chief corporate affairs and engagement officer Blanca Juti, who has been tasked with boosting customer engagement through the World Refill Day campaign, building customer awareness online and in-store, and generating internal support to scale refills across more product ranges. “We know customers want to shop more sustainably, and refillable products have the double benefit of also making things better for their wallets. But [according to a L’Oréal customer survey] only 42% know refills are an option for beauty products.”
Refillable beauty packaging is coming back into focus as a sustainability goal for beauty brands after a few years of false starts. Modern iterations of refillable products were introduced by L’Oréal in the 1990s. The growing sustainability movement of the 2010s and early 2020s saw enthusiasm for refills renewed, but the category has struggled to gain mainstream adoption, despite mainstream brands beginning to incorporate refills into their product lines.
Chanel and Hermès, skincare specialists Emma Lewisham and 111Skin, makeup brands Charlotte Tilbury and Isamaya Ffrench, fragrance brands Diptyque and Le Labo, and wholesale retailers Selfridges and Harrods all offer refills for certain products. In January, L’Oréal-owned skincare brand Aesop will launch a mono-material refill pouch optimized for recycling, says global head of sustainability Rebecca Lawson, enabling its 500ml amber bottles to be refilled. “This innovation reflects the brand’s commitment, as a B Corp, to reducing material use while encouraging more circular consumption behaviors,” she notes.
