How has technology changed the beauty industry?

Let’s face it. Time is an illusion. As a mom, it’s hard to keep up with the latest beauty trends. Between taking care of the kids, holding a job, and running the household, where do you find the time to worry about your hair or makeup? Luckily, technology has made it easier than ever for us to stay beautiful. Beauty tech trends include virtual try on, augmented reality, facial recognition technology, among others. In this post, we’ll take a look at how technology has changed beauty companies, and we’ll discuss some of the benefits that we can enjoy thanks to these new advancements. Keep reading to learn more!

Technology in beauty is not new. What is new is the speed at which these technologies are being developed and brought to market. Thanks to the rise in smartphone usage, companies now have access to helpful consumer data that can give them a better idea of what their target customers are looking for. From augmented reality technology that lets you virtually try on different colors, to facial recognition apps that with artificial intelligence help match potential customers with products based on their specific needs.

Want to know what beauty tech trends we can expect in 2022? Keep reading!

Let’s start understanding what «AI» means. Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and react like humans. It includes technologies like machine learning, voice recognition, facial recognition, natural language processing, among others.

When it comes to AI technology in beauty, there are many possibilities yet to explore, but imagine if beauty products could be made learning from the specific needs of any person? Then we will be talking about personalization.

Big or small, beauty brands are always innovating. We are going to talk about one of the big ones: Lancome (a L’Oreal subsidiary). They ran a survey among their customers regarding how easy was to find the perfect foundation. According to the survey, 50 percent of respondents complained of their lack of skin tone. Lancome understood that putting more than 10,000 shades in stores was ‘impractical’, and opted for the «Unique Teint-Particulier machine» which, using AI, can determine the perfect fit, and prepare a custom foundation right at the store.

Beauty retail is not being left behind by the AI technology trend. For example, Watsons one of the main health and beauty retailers in Asia has launched their «Foundation Finder AI tool» that enables users of their app, to find the perfect match according to their skin.

Digitalization has become more common, especially in the beauty industry, as consumers are increasingly looking at beauty products to suit changing lifestyles.

As more people shop online, brands are looking to improve user experiences, offering technology that through face recognition features, provides a way to try on products before buying them.

This is what happens when artificial intelligence is combined with augmented reality. Een better explained would be A+ = AR + AI.

Augmented reality is a live, direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment. This layering of reality and virtuality in the beauty industry is made possible thanks to mobile devices with high-resolution cameras that allow the implementation of face recognition technologies.

Technological advancements involving AR, are focused on supporting online sales through virtual try on experiences and for now, are more focused on make-up, allowing consumers to check how colors could match with their unique skin tone.

Take for example Sephora’s virtual artistry app, which allows users to makeup virtually, by applying lipstick and eyeshadow through the smartphone camera or kiosks at stores helping them find the right shade. The beauty retail website will walk users through makeup products and tutorials.

We have seen the use of AI and AR in makeup which have been very focused on virtual try. But what about skin?

Beauty brands in the personal care category are now exploring the power of AI technologies to help them find personalized solutions for customers’ skin health.

In real life, our skin can be dryer during winter than in spring. Exposure to sunshine in a week vacation trip can demand us to use a more powerful product for some time than that we would use regularly.

This is why beauty brands, even indie brands alike, are using AI technologies to scan users’ faces and identify not only their skin type but their current skin health assessment, recognize any problem, and based on that, provide them with a personalized roadmap and tailored-products and actions that they can do at.

Beauty tech for personalized skincare can be provided both digitally and through in-store experiences, empowering beauty consumers’ decisions thanks to AI and AR technology.

Companies like Perfect Corp, have developed a beauty tech solution that can be added to an e-commerce store, and evaluate different metrics of the skin like moisture, oiliness redness, spots, wrinkles, texture, dark circles, and general skin health.

This way, beauty brands can improve the consumer experience in online purchasing which is a major benefit that beauty tech has brought to the personal care space.

How do you know if the products you are using are getting well with your skin? What you don’t measure you can’t improve right?

One thing is to run a skin analysis to buy personalized cosmetics products, either online or in store. But if you want to know how those products or routines are working, you need to ad measurement habits to the equation, and then, an AI powered device could be your ally.

Here, I want to talk about one of my favorite tech beauty tools: «The Himirror». As said by its name, this mirror made by Nippon Kinpo group can act as a digital scanner that detects skin conditions like fine lines, dark circles, roughness, complexion, among others. When used in conjunction with the HiSkin device, you can enhance the analysis to hydration and pigmentation.

Every time you log in to your mirror, a skin analysis is performed, rated, and saved. Then you can be aware of the progress you are having with your skin care routine. In addition, the «skin advisor» smartphone application, lets users visualize what their skin will look like in the future using AR.

Let’s see how it works:

With HiMirror Slide, you can track wrinkles, fine lines, dark circles, dark spots, red spots, roughness, pores, and complexion. When you use it in conjunction with hiskin (which usually is included with the HiMirror Slide purchase), you also could analyze your hydration and pigmentation level.

The interesting thing about this device is that you can have historical tracking and then check if your skincare routine is working or define how to make it work.

Despite COVID 19, having badly impacted the beauty industry, many brands migrated to online business models. The increasing importance of online shopping has made the eCommerce sector increasingly popular and at the same time, the door has been opened for different ways to improve customer experience.

Deciding on what to put in your skin is not always easy. Brands took advantage of virtual platforms like social media or online chats to guide customers on their purchase in real-time.

Retailers have discovered the importance of mixed reality retail, and have introduced in-store digital vending machines, to bring together physicial and digital experiences.

A major aspect of SocialCommerce for a brand is its experience. Live commerce has become increasingly popular in the chinese marketplace and includes the influencers who livestream their product development experiences with their audience and ultimately sell the products to consumers. This technology is capable of shifting the product at a scale. Across the world, individual live streaming channels have generated more than $15M in revenue.

Social e-commerce enables people to purchase their beauty products on social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, iChat, and Twitter without the need of visiting an external website. This trend has allowed beauty brands to keep the audience engaged while increase their online sales.

This trend in beauty tech is not based on real cosmetics but on digital beauty. Inspired in part by Snapchat’s trending AR filtering, «e-make-up» artists have created eccentric 3D or ‘e-make-up’ looks that you can download to enhance your digital self. Read more here.

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When it comes to keeping your skin clean and healthy, there are plenty of options of technology devices that support the at-home skincare routine. We will talk about it in a coming post, but I leave you some options below:

To be honest I could write about this topic forever but I don’t expect you to read me for a whole day (LOL). I know It’s hard to keep up with all the latest beauty trends, especially when they seem to change every day. But that’s where we come in – check out our other blogs on natural skin care and you’ll be armed with all the information you need to make informed decisions about your beauty routine. Thanks for reading!