There are reasons why the hair and beauty sector has, up until now, been behind the curve in terms of attracting investment. One possible reason is the gender imbalance that tends afflict the VC industry. “It is a badly understood market, not least because most VCs are males.” Read more at Forbes.
Read MoreYou might assume there is little connection between the techies beavering away in California’s Silicon Valley and your daily beauty regime. But you’d be wrong; their endeavours are playing a big part in shaping what we as consumers buy – for the most part without our even knowing it. Read more at The Telegraph.
Read More“Mobile technologies have revolutionized how we search for, try on and shop for beauty products and services. Technological advances mean beauty apps can now be used as personal beauty consultants that allow consumers to virtually try on products, analyze their own skin and schedule on-demand beauty services, all from their mobile devices.” Read more at Forbes.
Read More“Teaching computers about aesthetics involves designing sophisticated algorithms to recognize and measure features like wrinkles, face proportions, blemishes and skin colour. And the beauty industry is rapidly embracing these high-tech tools to respond to consumers’ demand for products that suit their individual tastes and attributes.” Read more at The Globe and Mail.
Read More“Sephora, owned by French luxury conglomerate LVMH, first opened in Canada in 2004 and now has 60 stores across the country. Its corporate culture became much more focused on change and innovation after failing to win over consumers when Sephora opened in the U.S. 17 years ago.” Read more at Financial Post.
Read More“Covergirl’s BeautyU app uses facial scanning and tracking to identify users’ skin tones and apply makeup looks in real-time using the front-facing camera. It also asks a series of detailed questions in its mobile ‘consultation’ to get a better handle on the user’s preferences, like ‘what’s your skin type?’ and ‘what’s the one makeup item you can’t live without?’” Read more at Digiday.
Read More“Beauty consumers—heavy buyers in particular—are typically looking for an experience in their shopping as much as a way to cover a blemish or look more refreshed, and these companies specialize in delivering that experience through technology.” Read more at Drug Store News.
Read More“Dior is the latest brand to use in-store technology to enhance the beauty experience. The French brand recently began using the Dior Foundation Shade Analyzer to help its consumers select the right foundation formula and shade. A Dior beauty consultant simply places the Shade Analyzer in front of a consumer’s cheek. After a short time the Shade Analyzer can detect the exact complexion tone of that consumer, either yellow, pink or neutral.” Read more at Luxury Daily.
“Sticking the My UV Skin patch on your arm is a cinch. It’s as simple as applying a Band-Aid or a nicotine patch. There’s one crucial difference: This personalized sun protection device has five layers of micron-thin electronics, including near field communication capabilities. But the creators of this particular wearable would just as soon you didn’t think about any of that.” Read more at Fast Company.
Read More“The beauty retailer is kicking off a new program this year called Sephora Accelerate, which will put 10 early-stage start-ups through a bootcamp at its San Francisco headquarters, provide them with mentorship and give them a stage to present at a demo day in August.” Read more at Fashionista.com.
Read More“When L’Oréal pitches you on its new wearable, you envision a Wi-Fi-connected makeup compact or some sort of skin-toning helmet. Or maybe a lipstick tube that’s also a USB stick. What you don’t envision is a sticker—a temporary tattoo with teeny, tiny circuits inside. The beauty company has its own tech incubator, run by L’Oréal tech guru Guive Balooch. His team partnered with sensor-maker MC10 and design firm PCH to create a wearable called the My UV Patch.” Read more at Wired.
Read More“Beauty giant L’Oréal has unveiled a smart skin patch that can track the skin’s exposure to harmful UV rays at the technology show CES in Las Vegas. The product will be launched in 16 countries this summer, and will be available for free. It contains a photosensitive blue dye, which changes colour when exposed to ultraviolet light.” Read more at BBC.com.
Read More“The heart of the store are these beauty workshops where Sephora can host communal beauty tutorials at 12 different stations. Each station is equipped with USB ports, an iPad, and WiFi, which allows employees to walk customers through beauty workshops and existing technologies, like Sephora’s Color IQ, Fragrance IQ and Skincare IQ, will play more prominently in the store design.” Read more at Racked.
Read More“Beauty business L’Oréal is working on flexible, wearable electronics circuits that will not only improve product development, but also transform how women make choices when applying makeup. The move is the latest in a string of steps taken by L’Oréal to push forward its work at the sharp edge of beauty computing and electronics.” Read more at Forbes.
Read More“Unsurprisingly for a company started in 1909, L’Oréal realized last year that it had some legacy IT issues, including dated technology used by hundreds of sales representatives across Canada. [...] L’Oréal Canada launched an initiative in Q1 2014 to put updated, agile, mobile IT into the hands of its sales staff. After giving the effort the suitably glamorous name of Project Metropolis, L’Oréal Canada conferred with some of its IT partners, Microsoft, HP and Salesforce.” Read more at IT Business.
Read More“For decades, the beauty industry has been run by a handful of large, publicly-traded behemoths. In recent years, women entrepreneurs have started modern, tech-enabled companies aimed at filling gaps in a market that’s both enormous — worth $60 billion a year in the U.S. — and staid. They’re making inroads: Lauren Remington Platt’s on-demand hair and makeup company Vênsette, Melody McCloskey’s appointment booking firm StyleSeat and Emily Weiss’s thoroughly modern cosmetics startup Glossier have raised well over $50 million between them.” Read more at Forbes.
Read More“As an ever-increasing number of countries make moves to end the testing of consumer products on animals, Unilever has partnered up with the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to develop alternative testing strategies. The partnership states it will work towards ‘groundbreaking’ scientific approaches to uncover testing alternatives, focusing on reducing the large timescales and costs currently attached to available alternative methods.” Read more at Cosmetics Design.
Read More“From the makers of ShadeScout now comes a new app for the world of augmented reality. ShadeScout Nails is the best way to shop for nail polish because it allows you to find the exact shade that you want, whenever you come across it. Want a polish to match your latte and take your Instagram feed to the next level? This app can make it happen.” Read more at Bustle.
Read More