L'Oréal has built its innovation strategy around getting to know and listening to different groups of people worldwide. The Research division is wide open to the world, with its evaluation centers based on every continent. As new populations are gaining access to cosmetic treatments every day, the almost infinite diversity of types of beauty is both a challenge and an asset. The opening in Chicago in 2003 of a research center dedicated to the ethnicity of skin and hair types around the world illustrates L'Oréal's desire to provide all consumers with products adapted to their needs by drawing on the latest technologies. For the Research and Innovation teams, this means not only continuous development of their knowledge of the physiology of skin and hair types from around the world, to meet the needs of everyone, but also listening to and observing consumers, studying the climate conditions in which they live to better understand their beauty rituals and being inspired by them in return. The ultimate goal is to determine the connection between the beauty rituals that bear the imprint of different cultures and the physiology of skin, hair, lashes, nails.