The rise of the beauty app

Beauty brands are flocking to launch beauty apps that deliver personalised digital offerings. We look at the latest from Rimmel and St Tropez.

 

Rimmel app

 

It seems 2016 is the year of the beauty app with L’Oréal, Shiseido, M.A.C and Sephora (which offers product reviews, special offers and a digital Beauty Board) all going digital. Now Rimmel and St Tropez have launched apps of their own.

Rimmel’s 3D virtual makeup tool app, called (appropriately) Get The Look, allows consumers to experiment with different makeup looks without needing to be anywhere near a store – or, for that matter, anywhere near a mirror.

Created by Coty-owned social content agency Beamly, this beauty app targets 15 to 25 year old millennials and gives users access to the company’s beauty database and allows them to match the perfect makeup shade – with an additional option to buy..

“This is a 3D augmented-reality mirror technology that identifies and tracks perfectly the colour, shape of the lips and the texture,”says says Rimmel London global marketing vice president Montse Passolas. “You snap, then you can try it yourself, and then you can buy it.”

“[Millenials] really take inspiration from peers, from friends, vloggers, magazines. We know that 66 per cent of women prefer, or buy, a product because they have been influenced by a friend or a vlogger, more than from the brand,” says Passolas. “We… wanted to be at the core of that. It’s an insight that this technology has been born from. ”

And don’t think this is it. The company says that this is only the first in a long line of tech developments expected for other brands under the Coty brand, including COVERGIRL, Max Factor, Bourjois and Sally Hansen.

 

Checking out the St Tropez Tan Finder at the St Tropez's press launch for the brand's re-formulated range of professional and consumer products.
Checking out the St Tropez Tan Finder at the St Tropez’s press launch for the brand’s re-formulated range of professional and consumer products.

 

St Tropez has also just launched a beauty app to the tanning market. Named the St Tropez Tan Finder, this clever app helps consumers find their “ultimate tan”.

All consumers need to do is click on what they want a tan for (a holiday, a special occasion, festival, a night out, just because…), how they like to apply self tan, and the colour they want to go (sun-kissed glow, beautiful golden skin, or a deep dark tan). And at the click of an icon, the ideal formulation is presented. Professional Beauty had a go and we were directed to the genius St Tropez Gradual Tan In Shower. This one is a great (and fun) way to up-sell product to clients who either want to prolong their professional tan, or try at-home tanning for the first time.

Welcome to the brave new virtual world of beauty.

 

 

 

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