Smartphone apps have opened the digital world up to allow brands to engage with consumers more so than ever before. Offering interactive product recommendations and advice, they allow consumers a try-before-you-buy experience and make certain brands more accessible.
Apps are also a great way to educate consumers further about your brand, and even help them in their purchase decisions. Jacki James, strategic planner for digital agency Zuni, says 75 per cent of smartphone users do price and product comparison while shopping. Furthermore, mobile internet access is predicted to eclipse desktop-based internet access as early as next year.”
With this in mind, we decided to take a look at some of the top beauty-brand consumer apps on the market today.
Dermalogica’s free Speed Mapping app identifies users’ top skin concerns and then provides them with a personalised product prescription. Consumers can also browse Dermalogica’s product range, then save their favourites as a shopping list and find their nearest Dermalogica stockist. The app also keeps users up-to-date with the brand’s latest news, as well as the FITE initiative, which Dermalogica is heavily involved with.
The Circle iPhone app is Garnier’s on-the-go beauty and hair app. Customers are encouraged to first go on the Garnier website and create a profile so they can get the most benefit from the app. Once customers become a member they can build their profile, browse Garnier products to find those best suited to their profile, and save and rate their favourites.
The free KMS California And Who Are You? app asks users to answer a few questions about themselves, and then provides them with a personal style quote”. Users then take a photo of themself, which is combined with their personalised quote, and then share the results with friends via other social media channels. The user can replay as many times as they like, as there are thousands of result possibilities.
Lancôme
The free Lancôme Virtual Palette app for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch delivers a selection of news and blog posts from the official Lancôme blog, as well as make-up tips from the brand’s experts. Its interactive features include a virtual face chart that allows the user to create their own looks using Lancôme products, plus step-by-step instructions on how to recreate looks made by Lancôme make-up artists. In addition, the Diagnoscils feature prescribes the user their perfect mascara using their responses to a few questions.
While only US consumers can enjoy Procter & Gamble’s My Beauty Advisor app for now, the company has launched a local app in the form of the Olay UV Monitor. The app is the only one that lets you check live Australian and New Zealand UV levels and weather conditions, and then helps you find the right SPF moisturiser for your skin. It also provides practical skincare tips, a personal skincare consultation tool and interviews with Olay brand ambassadors. The Olay UV Monitor is free to download for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and has already rated number seven in Apple’s weather apps.
A virtual catalogue of OPI nail lacquer, this app allows users to browse more than 285 shades of nail colour and get a preview of what they’ll look like on a hand of their skin tone. Made for iPhone and iPod Touch users, the OPI app is free to download.
Created in conjunction with Condé Nast, Revlon’s All Access app takes on a magazine-style approach. The app features a number of Revlon experts, including a make-up artist, fashion stylist, beauty editor and fashion journalist, sharing their tips and insights on fashion and beauty.
Catering to subscribers of the try before you buy” philosophy, Colour Advisor takes a photo of the user, then asks them what hair colour they’d like, and what they want out of it. The app then provides users with a tool to highlight their hair as desired to see the results in action. For further opinions, the user can then share the finished results with friends via Facebook or email.
Yves Saint Laurent
YSL has turned one of its hero products, the popular Touche Éclat into a smartphone app. Delivering advice-filled text messages throughout the day, providing a YSL dark mirror for incognito touch-ups, and offering a shade finder”, the Touche Éclat aims to be just as handy as the beauty product itself.
