The Company's business Philosophy which is adhered to
The origin of Belle Coeur Laboratory
In 1997 there was a problem in Japan relating to cosmetic damage called "women's face melasma". At that time Dr. Masayuki Shibata, current president of our company, who was researching various supplements, considered the problem and reached three conclusions:
Firstly, agents for human skin must be absolutely safe. Secondly, we must provide society with genuine cosmetics for true beauty. We must not conduct business in pursuit of our own interests only.
Those conclusions brought him to name our company "Belle Coeur" or Beautiful Heart in English.
What is women's face melasma?
It is a kind of inflammatory pigmentation which became a famous symptom in Japan, due to the lawsuit known as "the cosmetic pollution trial".
Eighteen women took action against seven major cosmetic companies to claim compensation in 1977.
Contact dermatitis from cosmetics caused blackish-brown pigmentation on a woman's face. One of the characteristic symptoms was that they gradually turned black, not all at once.
Initially, the women experienced a slight itchiness and heat in a reddish skin area or sometimes a bunchy face feeling, followed by the appearance of dark brown or purplish brown spots which then spread like a net across their faces.
Finally, the discolored portion turned black, like a tattoo. Melasma was characterized by the increased adhesion of melanin to the cutis. At that stage, it was difficult to remove the melanin pigment, perhaps taking years to remove depending on the pigment.
It is said that causative agents are Red No. 219 of tar dye, Sudan stain, Jasmine oil and paraben.
Our factory
We utilize works using the hands in the majority of the manufacturing processes in order to deliver our customers products' reliably and safely with consistently high quality.
The cosmetics are used over a long period of time for skin care so we are making daily efforts to avoid our products from causing any kind of skin problems with thorough quality controls and quality enhancements.
Before entering the factory
In the entrance hall, each factory worker must wear a white coat ,wash their hands, wear a mask and a cap and change their shoes to indoor shoes.
The final step is to enter the air duster device area to blow any dust or hair off their white coats.
Manufacture
Due to receiving a small amount of production as "Original Equipment Manufacturer", we use different equipment according to the quantity of orders. Sometimes we must use large-scale machines for large quantity of orders but we try to employ factory hands as much as possible so that the work is done by hand. We even confirm the texture of our products to maintain the same quality that we deliver, by using viscometers to measure the viscosity of our products. Of course, samples of the original products from manufacturing are all handmade.
Filling
We fill our cosmetic products in various sized containers, sterilized with heat and alcohol by hand, in order to correspond with the quantity of orders.
The semi-automatic machines are used for filling work when there is a large
quantity of orders but we always apply our products are always finished by hand.
Even the labeling is done by hand.
Packaging
We conduct an inspection of the finished products. We then place plenty of packing materials to the products in boxes by hand before shipping.
These procedures by hand prevent any mistakes after the inspection.
The other instruments
We have various instruments: microscopes for scalp conditions, electron microscopes for both skin and hair analysis, and an SPF analyzer to measure SPF count. These are not production instruments. The data from these instruments is utilized to develop new products as well as improve our manufacturing skills.
