issue with buying beauty products online? Aside from being less experiential and sensory than the physical store, one of the barriers to buying beauty online is the digital differentiation and accuracy of colour shades, whether for lips, nails, skin, or hair. How does augmented reality address this problem? Allows users to ‘try on’ products and create their own looks by uploading a selfie to device screens or to in-store virtual mirrors. Not only can they assist in selecting the right shade, AR apps provide a means of experimentation and exploration. Who is using it? Sephora (France) launched ‘Virtual Artist’ in March 2017. Provides virtual tutorials that detect features such as face shape, instructing how and where to apply product. This functionality is available on smartphone app and on digital screens in physical Sephora stores. Sephora also provides digital guides for skincare and makeovers. Charlotte Tilbury (UK) uses ‘magic mirrors’ in some of its stores, including in Kuwait, to capture facial features and then make shoppers over into certain specified looks such as Golden Goddess, Uptown Girl or Rock Chick. L’Oreal (France) brand NYX have virtual beauty tutorials in collaboration with Samsung. L’Oreal’s ‘style my air’ app detects and colours each hair strand in live video. Ulta (USA) ‘glam lab’ allows shoppers to try on thousands of products, and then order them verbally. Estee Lauder (USA) does something similar with their ‘try it on’ selfie app Clairol (USA) allows consumers to virtually try on hair colour shades after uploading a photo of themselves (customer research I’ve conducted in the past indicates that shade is the first factor in hair colour purchase decision making). Benefit (USA) offers virtual brow styling in partnership with app developer Meitu. Metaverse Makeovers (China), a ‘glam tech’ brand, launched Metaverse Nails 2 years ago. Users collect and ‘wear’ limited edition artist-designed nails and then enhance them with interactive, shareable holograms on their phone screens. L’Oreal purchased Canadian owned Modiface, whose AR supports 80+ beauty brands, in March this year. Modiface created ‘Tap and Try’ two years ago for Sephora, at that time the first in-store virtual makeover mirror. More recently they launched an instore mirror for MAC cosmetics for facial and 3D makeup rendering. Competitor platforms to Modiface include Image Metrics and Holition. There are other mirror providers such as Hi MirrorPlus, and other apps such as Meitu’s Makeup Plus. As an aside, Apple acquired face-tracking startup Faceshift as far back as November 2015. What have the results been? AR augments, rather than shifts, sales. Ulta say that their online shoppers are buying more overall, whether in physical stores or online, because they are more engaged. According to Modiface its virtual makeup mirrors have increased sales in their locations by 31 per cent “because customers are more confident they will love what they are buying.” A side benefit is that data can be captured through use of the apps, such as specific product preferences, and popularity of makeup trends by location. If the ability to touch and try on doubles the likelihood of purchase, then these types of AR applications are relevant not just for beauty and apparel, but for many retail categories. Norrelle Goldring has 20 years’ experience in retail, category, channel and customer strategy, marketing and research, working in and with global retailers, manufacturers and research houses.