Lauren Albanese is a leading force in specialty beauty product innovation, with two decades of experience spanning start-ups and global brands. As Global Director of Product Development at Procter & Gamble (P&G) (NYSE: PG), she combines technical mastery, brand strategy, and market intuition to develop award-winning skincare, body care, fragrance, and color cosmetic products. Her deep knowledge of active ingredients, consumer trends, and the end-to-end product lifecycle has made her a standout in a competitive and fast-evolving industry.
Her career spans five companies, including First Aid Beauty, Bath & Body Works, and L’Oréal, where she built a reputation as a hero product creator and a trusted cross-functional partner. From clinical formulation to packaging and positioning, Albanese is known for translating creative brand vision into high-performance products that win with consumers and retailers alike. Her track record includes seven Allure Best of Beauty Awards, a Reader’s Choice Award, three CEW Beauty Innovator Awards, and the development of a one-ranked body exfoliator in the specialty beauty category. This product has held the top spot since 2020.
At P&G, she leads a global product development team focused on breakthrough innovation across multiple categories. Her responsibilities span the full product lifecycle, driving concept creation, guiding formulation, leading clinical testing and claims development, and managing the journey from lab bench to market shelf. She is key in aligning technical development with brand objectives, ensuring each product delivers on performance, storytelling, and commercial success.
Previously, at First Aid Beauty, she spent nearly 11 years shaping the brand’s identity and portfolio. Her leadership helped define the brand’s tone and aesthetic while executing high-impact launches that strengthened its foothold in Sephora and ULTA. Her role spanned everything from product copy and education materials to go-to-market strategies and consumer research. She was also a QVC on-air guest, demonstrating her ability to communicate product benefits with clarity and confidence to a broad audience.
She held key development roles at Bath & Body Works and L’Oréal Paris. There, she led launch execution for major product lines, including Revitalift, Collagen, and Sublime under the L’Oréal umbrella, and oversaw fragrance-forward collections at Bath & Body Works. These experiences cemented her expertise in managing complex development timelines, evaluating product aesthetics, and identifying white space opportunities, all while collaborating closely with R&D, regulatory, packaging, and manufacturing teams.
Her career began at Zorbit Resources, a contract manufacturing firm where she led end-to-end project management. This early exposure to operations, sourcing, and production gave her a foundation in speed, scaleup, and supply chain integration that continues to inform her work today.
Across every role, Albanese is recognized for blending imaginative thinking with structured execution. She is fluent in the demands of clean beauty, sustainability, and global compliance, with a decade of experience navigating Sephora and ULTA standards. Her approach combines the Jobs to Be Done methodology, category benchmarking, and pipeline planning, all while keeping the consumer at the center of every decision.
She is often called upon to mentor junior talent and advise on brand architecture, launch sequencing, and trend forecasting. Her leadership style is collaborative and strategic, focusing on clear communication, fast-paced execution, and measurable impact.
Albanese continues to be an influential innovator in the beauty space, one who does not just follow trends but sets them. Her work is driven by insight, structured by process, and fuelled by a passion for products that resonate. Whether building from scratch or evolving a legacy brand, she brings precision, expertise, and vision to every stage of development.
![Lauren Albanese, Global Director of Product Development, Procter & Gamble (P&G) [NYSE: PG] | Chemical Industry Review](https://www.chemicalindustryrevieweurope.com/newstransfer/upload/16-450x308_4x5i.jpg "Lauren Albanese, Global Director of Product Development, Procter & Gamble (P&G) [NYSE: PG] | Chemical Industry Review")
