As we adopt a cautious mindset around touch, AR technology that allows us to virtually try on makeup and at-home devices that provide personalised cosmetics are being fast tracked right now. But how will these cutting-edge tools change beauty in the long term?
The future of beauty technology will be driven by an increasing demand for personalisation and tailor-made formulas. It’s something Clare Varga, head of beauty at trend forecasting agency WGSN, calls ‘custom cosmetechs’. These luxury tools might be beyond the pockets of most customers, but we can see how tech will bring professional-grade treatments to the comfort of our own bathrooms—which feels particularly poignant during lockdown. Nurse Jamie, the Los Angeles brand loved for its nifty gadgets, testifies to this: “You shouldn’t have to worry if you can’t make it to the spa or that you are under quarantine. That’s the power of beauty technology—it’s at your convenience.”
MY THOUGHTS ABOUT THIS NEW INNOVATION FOR A MAKEUP GURU LIKE ME
I have been a huge fan of makeups since 2017 and we often go to malls just to try out a specific product since I would love to know if it would suit me or not. But with the innovation that has been invented will make my makeup experience way better since the emergence of COVID19 era made going to the store nor at the malls became a hassle and you value your safety that much you don’t want to risk yourself contracting COVID 19. The newest innovation made it easier since we can try on the products VIRTUALLY! yes, Virtually and I can just try on makeup products at the convenience in my own home clicking with my fingertips. and most of all SAFE from COVID19. When your at the mall you try products in actual yet the safety of the products is questionable since a lot of women try that product continuously. I tried the virtual makeup on Sephora and my shopping experience has leveled up way better than it was! I highly recommend women to try this new innovation. It is clearly easy and accessible! all you have to do is make and account, chill at home and shop and try on makeup virtually. Lipstick, eyeshadow, foundation and all others are accessible for you to try virtually! applies in all brands too!
A race to innovate
As future COVID-19 outbreaks might be a possibility, brands are locked into a race to innovate. “Advancements in AR technologies will play a key role in driving this,” Ukonwa Ojo, senior vice president of MAC Cosmetics, believes. After all, stay-at-home orders mean that we’ve been encouraged to prioritise touch-free shopping and virtually try on products
Just a few years ago, a virtual try-on feature would have you looking like you’d been made over by a mortician, nowadays the effects can be hyperrealistic. MAC’s YouCam technology claims it can “create photo-realistic simulations that can be tested on any skin tone and adapted to different textures, mattes, sheens, glosses and more than 200 shades of lip or eye colours.”
It’s no wonder, then, that MAC’s try-on has seen “a threefold increase in consumer engagement over the past eight weeks,” or that use of Estée Lauder’s virtual lipstick try-on has increased by a whopping 133% That’s thousands of try-ons with no residue left between testers, meaning realistic AR has the potential to be a game changer for colour cosmetics.
As we adopt an increasingly cautious mindset around touch, this is a trend that could stick far beyond the pandemic. But it’s also something we owe, at least in part, to social media. Because what is the difference, really, between a virtual try-on and a filter?
In the words of Alpha: “The future of beauty is never ending.” Under lockdown, the concept of the future feels almost unbearably charged. A new dawn in beauty technology will bring us closer to ourselves than ever before, but there is the potential to go beyond who we are, too. As the pandemic propels us to spend more time perfecting algorithms and curating our digital selves, we may well get there sooner than anticipated. Just not quite in the way we had imagined.
