Sephora’s Digital Beauty Makeover App Gets Smarter

Makeup aficionados don’t have to be YouTube beauty gurus to try on seemingly infinite variations of eye, cheek and lip color. With the latest beauty news from Sephora, it seems, they just have to have the Virtual Artist app by Sephora.

The augmented reality (AR) mobile device app lets users give themselves a virtual makeover using thousands of shades of eye shadow (introduced earlier this spring), assorted lip colors and false eyelash styles.

Now, with the app’s latest upgrade, the digital makeover includes cheek color, from blush and bronzer to contour and highlighter shades that are sold individually and in palettes. This news makes it easier than ever for shoppers to find what they want – and now without even setting foot in a brick-and-mortar store to test swatches on the side of their hand.

“With these additions, Sephora Virtual Artist continues to put the power and expertise of Sephora quite literally in the palm of our clients’ hands,” said Bridget Dolan, VP of innovation at Sephora. “Since launching Sephora Virtual Artist in 2016, our clients have virtually tried on hundreds of millions of shade combinations.”

Sephora Virtual Artist gives shoppers access to Expert Looks for beauty inspiration. On the augmented reality platform, they can mix and match their favorite shades from each category, save and share their favorite looks and buy the looks they like straight from the app. They can also watch “Virtual Tutorials” to learn how to highlight and contour their cheeks or keep those eyebrows on fleek.

It gets smarter. No longer do shoppers have to know a thing or two about beauty to navigate the possibilities at Sephora – the Virtual Artist can do it for them. Just learning about makeup? Don’t even know where to begin? There is, as they say, an app for that.

Sephora Virtual Artist uses artificial intelligence to detect and estimate the coloration in any photo and match it with a complementary shade for lips, eyes or cheeks through its “Color Match for Virtual Try On” feature.

Color Match started as a Facebook Messenger chatbot service. Now it’s easier than ever to get beauty advice: just snap a selfie and let the AI do the rest.