Three students from the University of the Philippines – Diliman won this year’s L’Oréal Brandstorm, a global innovation competition that boosts youth employability and brings together the future change-makers of tomorrow from around the world.
The Roque, Paper, Sisters team—composed of Roque Mercado, Kara Santiago and Julianne Ong— won the best pitch in the Green Track, granting them the coveted all-expense-paid three-month entrepreneurial internship at L’Oréal Group global headquarters in Paris.
The team pitched the idea of Pocket Block it! Dissolving Sunscreen Wipes under the Green (Sustainability) Track, which challenges participants to invent the next dimension of sustainable beauty.
The product idea of Dissolving Sunscreen Wipes are sunscreen sheets that dissolve through contact with the heat and natural oils of the skin and are packaged in refillable post-consumer recycled plastic pods.
This stemmed from the team’s realization that while there is a universal need for sunscreen, there are also gaps in the current market where consumers are forced to compromise between effectiveness, convenience, and sustainability.
Together with research on the target market, product and financial feasibility, and the like, the strategic ideation behind this product was also based on:
- Sustainable Production
- The production cycle for this product is a closed-loop system which entails that any post-consumer waste is reused to start the process all over again. After consumers are done with the Pocket Block It! Dissolving Sunscreen Wipes, they will be able to simply refill their product.
- Sustainability Impact
- Through including natural products such as UV filters in the formula and utilizing post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic packaging that can be reused, the team was able to come up with a sunscreen that reduces, reuses, and recycles.
- Technology
- Shifting the focus on the format instead of the formula, the team was able to position this sunscreen as ground-breaking skincare technology that challenges the packaging format of current sunscreens which are harmful to the environment and inconvenient for consumers.
With the theme “Disrupt Beauty 2030,” Brandstorm 2022 garnered record-breaking participation, with more than 83,000 youth from 65 countries registered, as well earning official certification by EFMD Global as an online learning course.
Nine teams representing Argentina, France, Germany-Austria, India, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the United States, and the Philippines advanced to the finals after 20 weeks of intense competition at both the local and international levels.
At the end of the competition, three teams representing the Inclusion, Green and Tech Tracks were selected as Brandstorm 2022 winners.
As part of their intrapreneurship, the winners will continue to develop projects with support from L’Oréal, while gaining invaluable business experience at the seat of one of the world’s most beloved brands.
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