Tag: Cosmetics

Makeup Genius – L’Oréal Paris

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Pure genius. Blown-away. Amazed. Spellbound. L’oreal makeup genius just penetrated into the arteries of my heart and of course my soul! Launched in 2014, this is an app that took 10 years to create and uses the same technology that transformed Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, which won Oscars for both makeup and visual effects.

I’ve always associated makeup to vanity and narcissism, which is why despite being a twenty-two year old woman with a perennially spotted face, I have never walked into a makeup store. Never. May be I’ve just always been shy, which is why this app just transformed the way I perceive my bland face in the mirror every morning. This app made me feel like I could look beautiful too! Not pretty. Beautiful!

I downloaded the app half-heartedly, worried about the 3.8 KB storage it would take and within a couple of seconds I had entered the magical world of makeup. The App first asked me to take a picture of myself, I was intrigued, so I went ahead and clicked the relaxed selfie it asked for. The app used my picture to superimpose the makeup I selected from the array of options available to choose from.

The app essentially has three categories:

Tap to try a product on: This is the category with which one can try different products and do several permutation and combinations on the scanned faces. I played around with several products and was surprised by my voluminous eyelashes, luscious lips and perfectly contoured skin. The app then provided an option to buy the make-up products through Amazon.The virtual makeup looks can even be saved and shared on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Tap to try the makeup look:  This category enables the users to try red carpet , Oscar looks by world-famous celebrities.

Scan: This category enables the app users to scan several L’Oreal products at the stores and applies it on the virtual face instantly.

These are some of the make-up selfies that the app created , only to add fervor and joy to my dull Friday afternoon.

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I found the app very playful , useful and interactive. It made me go beyond my comfort zone and that too, so effortlessly. I could choose between looks, products, tutorials, reviews of products, scan them for more information and even order them by simply clicking a button. The app just made the whole experience so much fun and exuberant. I fiddled with app with my roommates, saved and shared pictures and by the end of it all of us were baffled by our extravagant overspends on makeup. This is also one of the reasons that I found the app innovative. The use of its cutting edge technology combined with the essence of beauty, e-commerce and emotional marketing made me enjoy the mirror that my phone screen was created into. Underscoring the aspect of aesthetics, the colors, and the font in the app are youthful, zesty and lively – very appealing to its target audience. What I particularly liked about the app is that it combines the concept of brick and mortar to the digital experience, due to the scanning the barcode option. The app has truly revolutionized the whole make-up shopping experience and the results were astounding too. It held the no. 1 spot in App Store’s lifestyle category for four weeks after its launch and has been shared more than 495K times.

My only concern with the app is that it is not easily navigable. I kept getting lost as the app doesn’t have a home button or a discrete drop down menu. This to me was a profound hindrance that the app must look into.

The app however, is a life changer. It helped me overcome my preconceived notions of makeup and saved me from the embarrassment of trying makeup at a drugstore. I highly recommend everyone to download the app, not to buy makeup but to admire the sheer genius of digital marketing and how the brand caught the pulse of its target audience and created a platform that helped women overcome their fears, eventually driving traffic and increasing sales exponentially … because generating profit is always the sole objective of any business.

To download: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/makeup-genius/id871897775?mt=8

 

 

Bobbi Brown

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If there is one word that describes Bobbi Brown’s website, it has to be simplistic. The high-end cosmetic company has integrated the use of two bold colors, black and white, both lying on the extremes of the color spectrum.The combination is even more crucial because it underscores the broad range of diverse colors in makeup. The use of sharp and potent typography adds depth, saturates and enhances the user experience and makes the website seem lucid and customer friendly.

The website is systematic and methodical. The home page is mostly black white, with a dash of pastel colors in the frames, only to add zest and youthfulness. ‘BOBBI BROWN’ is written in bold and aligned to the center of the page and navigates the user back to the home page, making it easy to browse through the website. The website is designed for touch, mostly for the sake of mobile and tablet users. The company has also released an App on Behance for its customers wanting to purchase makeup using their smartphones.

I wasn’t surprised to see the 99/100 score in terms of Bobbi Brown’s User Experience test which I did by using a Google product called Page Insights. The experience truly is extremely methodical and seamlessly easy.

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There are certain noteworthy features about the website that stood out for me as a customer. There are online tutorials and makeup content available for us to peruse. This is an innovative strategy of combining content with commerce, as at the end of the video, there are certain products that the brand lures us to purchase. There is a live chat option with sales assistants, who also have makeup expertise and in addition to the live chat, customers can email makeup artists for clarifications and make-up application help. There is also a click to call button, which makes the company even more approachable and accessible for its consumers. What I also liked about the website was that as a customer, one can checkout without signing up for newsletters and not be inundated by a plethora of daily, unwanted emails. There is also a site search option available, which helps expedite the whole shopping experience and helps convert quicker. The home page also provides an interactive permutation and combination of the product choices one could choose from.

There were however, some important flaws that I would want to mention. The website lacks personalization. The design is not as visually appealing or innovative as it uses a mundane format, with no detailed visuals. I am also concerned about whether the brand is able to communicate its story to the customers. If I was to remove the label of the website, I couldn’t tell it is Bobbi Brown’s website, which to me is a profound objective of any company – to be able to recognize the brand without the label on it. In terms of functionality, I was disappointed to see the speed of the website on Page Insights for both Mobile and desktop users.

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Hence I believe, in terms of functionality, the brand has done a terrific job to make the website across all media an enjoyable experience but the brand lacks in storytelling, as it is not able to create the exhilarating thrill and sheer happiness that I experience when I enter its store on Fifth Avenue. The brand needs a little more exuberance, cheer and liveliness to be able to communicate its brand appeal better.