Lakmé

Lakmé is a Spanish professional haircare company based in Sant Just Desvern, on the outskirts of Barcelona, where it trades as LAKMÉ COSMETICS S.L.U. [6]. It develops hair colour, haircare, scalp care, styling and in-salon treatments sold through the professional channel rather than retail, and it presents itself with the line "the brand created by stylists for stylists." The company remains independent and family-owned, and it is actively trading, with new product launches and a sustainability report dated to 2024.

The business takes its name from Léo Delibes' opera Lakmé, a name it shares coincidentally with an unrelated Indian cosmetics brand. According to business records and a 2015 trade profile, the company was founded in 1996 by the Carreras family, who had a long background in hairdressing [10][9]; the timeline on its own website also begins that year [2]. The same trade profile notes the family had been in the beauty industry for around six decades before the Lakmé brand itself appeared, so the brand's history and the family's history are not the same length.

Lakmé describes its starting point as the world of the salon. The company frames its purpose around supporting hairdressers, and its founding generation came from that trade. A 2015 feature in the American publication Modern Salon profiled the company as a Barcelona house owned by the Carreras family and noted, as a point of family interest, that the tenor José Carreras belongs to that family — a familial connection rather than a commercial endorsement [9].

By the company's account, the early years were built around international distribution. Its website dates the first European distribution agreements to 1997, won at the Cosmoprof Worldwide trade fair in Bologna, and the opening of the first Lakmé Studio in Barcelona to 1998. Agreements covering Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia followed at Cosmoprof Asia in 2000, and the company moved into new premises in Sant Just Desvern in 2002.

The company's published timeline records steady expansion through the 2000s. By 2004 Lakmé reported a presence in more than 65 countries and described itself as having become an international hub for hairdressing [2]. That 65-country figure is a dated milestone; later third-party sources put its reach higher — a LinkedIn profile cites more than 80 countries, and the 2015 Modern Salon feature reported over 100 [9]. These figures are best read as different points in time rather than a contradiction.

Much of the later timeline tracks colour technology. The company launched CHROMA, an ammonia-free permanent colour, in 2013, and in 2018 reformulated it with what it calls the OF5 molecule, which it describes as delaying the oxidation of dyes [2]. It introduced the i.plex hair treatment in 2016 and the AURA in-salon treatment in 2018. In 2024 it added Glaze, a demi-permanent colour using acid technology, alongside a Metal Remover pre-treatment.

Lakmé is privately held by the Carreras family and operates as LAKMÉ COSMETICS S.L.U., the legal entity named in its own data-protection notices [6]. No acquisition history or parent group is documented; the company is described across sources as independent. A separate United States arm has operated under the Lakmé USA name, and the 2015 Modern Salon profile linked the brand's American entry to the DePasquale Companies [9].

The company positions itself squarely as a professional, salon-channel brand. It sums up its identity in four words — Professional, Passion & Inspiration, Sustainability, and Training — and describes its role as an "ally to stylists" whose products give professionals the tools to do their work. Its public-facing tagline is "Inspired haircare," carried with the hashtag #getinspiredbylakme. Where many cosmetics brands address shoppers directly, Lakmé's stated audience is the hairdresser: the company says it collaborates with stylists to let their creativity "run wild" and to help them reach their potential as professionals.

Training is treated as a pillar in its own right rather than a marketing afterthought. The company runs the Lakmé Academy, which offers courses for professionals, and operated its first Lakmé Studio in Barcelona from 1998. Distribution is aimed at salons and stylists rather than direct consumers; the company's contact materials openly seek hairdressing professionals and exclusive distributors rather than retail customers, and the brand maintains a separate professionals' ordering channel.

Lakmé's catalogue is organised around five professional areas: colour, haircare, scalp care, styling and in-salon treatments. In colour, the company points to Collage as its flagship permanent line, paired with Gloss, alongside CHROMA as its ammonia-free permanent colour, Glaze as an acid-technology demi-permanent option, and k.blonde as an ammonia-free lightening range for blondes. On the care side, TEKNIA is its high-tech line aimed at hydrating and treating different hair types, and the haircare range extends into more specialised lines such as a bio-argan oil treatment and an organic-balance range. The in-salon segment carries professional treatments including AURA and the K-series of straightening and recovery services applied by stylists.

Several of the brand's claims centre on proprietary technology. It attributes CHROMA's performance to the OF5 molecule; describes i.plex as an anti-ageing treatment that works against the ageing of hair; and presents AURA as a biotechnological treatment formulated with organic ingredients that smooths the hair and reduces frizz [2]. Glaze, the company says, works on a principle tied to the hair's pH to balance colour and shine. These are the company's own descriptions of its formulations.

Sustainability is one of the four words the company uses to describe itself, and it is the area where its public claims are most detailed. Lakmé states that its products are vegan, containing no ingredients of animal origin, and that the company is cruelty-free; it also says it complies with ECOCERT Greenlife natural and organic cosmetics standards [3]. On packaging, the company reports using recycled PET and green polyethylene derived from sugar cane, describing its packaging as fully recyclable, and says a refill format has cut its plastic use by 81% [4].

The company has also published an emissions target: it states a plan to reach net-zero scope 1 and 2 greenhouse-gas emissions — the direct emissions and those from its electricity use — by 2030 [4]. It says its products are made and packaged locally at its factory in Sant Just Desvern. A 2024 sustainability report and the company's "conscious beauty" materials set out these commitments.

Independent coverage of Lakmé sits mainly in the professional-hairdressing trade press. Modern Salon ran a 2015 feature, "Modern Exclusive: Lakmé in the Spotlight," profiling the company and its entry into the United States [9]. In Spain, the trade publication Beauty Market has covered the brand's launches and lists it in its company directory. No industry awards are documented.

Lakmé is active. Its most recent documented activity is its 2024 product launches — the Glaze acid colour and Metal Remover — together with a sustainability report dated 2024. The company maintains a multilingual website in English, Spanish and French, and its distribution is reported globally across multiple independent sources, supporting a description of it as an actively trading professional haircare house.