A team of students from Reichman University secured the national title at the L’Oréal Brandstorm 2026 innovation competition following the local finals on April 30. Nicole Sher, Dan Heyman, and Tamara Muscat from the Arison School of Business outpaced a competitive field of participants from leading academic institutions, including Tel Aviv University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The team now advances to the international stage of the competition, which takes place during the Viva Technology conference in Paris on June 18-19, 2026.
L’Oréal’s Luxe Division led the 2026 challenge, which tasked young innovators with reinventing the future of luxury fragrance through a combination of marketing, technology, and sustainability. Under the mentorship of Dr. Talia Rimon and Elisa Cohen Solal, the Reichman team developed “Reblooming,” a project proposing a circular economy solution for the beauty industry. The concept repurposes flower fiber waste, the byproduct remaining after fragrance extraction, and transforms it into a premium raw material for ecological packaging, effectively closing the life cycle of the ingredients.
During the national finals, the students presented their vision to a panel of senior executives, including L’Oréal Israel CEO Eli Sagiv. Sagiv praised the team’s ability to combine creative thinking with technical depth, noting that the competition serves as a significant talent incubator for the global company. The program maintains a long-standing reputation as a career launchpad; for example, L’Oréal Israel’s current CMO, Gali Lev, joined the company after participating in the competition as a student a decade ago.
In Paris, the Israeli delegation will compete against finalists from 64 countries, representing a small fraction of the 380,000 global participants who entered this year’s challenge. L’Oréal will award the global winners a prestigious professional internship at the company’s world headquarters in France. The students noted that their primary goal was to demonstrate that “tech for good” can succeed without compromising the high standards and aesthetic of the luxury market.
Written in collaboration with Reichman University
Source:
www.jpost.com
