Top 10 CosmeticsDesign articles on technology from 2021
1. Virtual Beauty Retail: Mary Kay launches digital pop-up shop
The Texas-based beauty company has just expanded its Suite 13 virtual 3D beauty showroom and expects to have the tech in place for nearly all markets that Mary Kay serves by the end of the year.
“Today, technology is at the center of everything, and people – especially the younger generation - want to discover, learn and find out about new products online,” says Sheryl Adkins-Green, Chief Marketing Officer for Mary Kay Inc., in this month’s media release about Suite 13.
2. Beauty Ingredient Tech Boom: biotech inputs reach an ever-expanding cosmetics and personal care market
Not all biotechnology is the same: biological mechanisms and human interventions vary company to company and process to process. Having signed a new LATAM distribution deal this month, Vytrus Biotech is bringing its novel cosmetic actives (developed using plant stem cells cultures) to a whole new market.
Vytrus Biotech began as a spin-off of the University of Barcelona, an institution with over 50 years of plant cell culture technology to its credit. In 2011, the company successfully developed and began producing a first ingredient for the cosmetic market.
3. Smashbox debuts AI-powered makeup try-on technology
Estée Lauder Companies-owned Smashbox has extended its partnership with global beauty tech provider Perfect Corp to become the first-ever beauty brand to be paired up with the YouCam Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered face analyzer technology.
The technology will be combined with Smashbox’s Shape Matters Methodology and eye products for the launch of the Smashbox Eye Genie in the YouCam Makeup App.
4. New Media Trends: e.l.f. Cosmetics launches on Twitch
The vegan makeup and skin care brand has created its own channel on the live streaming platform and began streaming over the weekend.
“With the launch of the e.l.f. Twitch channel, e.l.f. is ready to take its gaming and content strategy to the next level, by celebrating female gamers and connecting with consumers in an engaging and meaningful way,” Travis Johnson, Global CEO of LiveCraft, tells the press. LiveCraft is a marketing agency that specializes in live streaming technologies and one of the companies e.l.f. Cosmetics partnered with to develop its new Twitch channel. “It’s clear,” adds Johnson, “that Twitch and e.l.f. are meant to be.”
5. Beauty Tech Deal: molecular-level skin assessment technology for smartphones
On Monday, trinamiX (a BASF brand) and VIAVI announced partnering on a tech development project that will put near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy into consumer’s hands.
trinamiX GmbH specializes in infrared sensing solutions, while Scottsdale, Arizona – based VIAVI has expertise in network assurance and light management. Together, the tech companies will be developing the tools to put high-speed skin assessment capabilities into smartphones.
6. Brown Cosmetics adds digital consultation Perfect Corp
Today the Estée Lauder Companies’ brand announced the new makeup try-on and product recommendation service as a next-gen version of in-store makeup artist services.
Chetna Khemka, SVP, Global Online, at Bobbi Brown Cosmetics sees the new mobile web technology as a logical next step in the brand’s progression.
7. Can nanotechnology remove PFAS and other persistent organic pollutants from water?
A new grant from PRIMA Québec suggests it can. The advanced materials research and innovation hub has just put over $300,000 behind an ECA development project led by three experts in the field.
“These ECA processes have great potential to decontaminate waters by removing persistent organic pollutants (POPs), such as PFAS. These POPs have been targeted by various Canadian, American and European legislations as endocrine disruptors responsible for numerous consequences on aquatic fauna,” says Patrick Drogui, Professor at the INRS Eau Terre Environnement Research Centre, summarizing the importance and feasibility of the newly funded project.
8. Decorté adds in skin care assessment tech for US market
The KOSÉ Corporation brand has teamed up with Perfect Corp to bring YouCam's AI Skin Diagnostic tools to consumers in the States.
Perfect Corp is best known in the cosmetics and personal care industry for its virtual try-on technology, leveraging AI and AR to let consumers see makeup and hair color looks in real-time, on their own digital reflection.
9. Nearly three-quarters of US consumers still prefer at-home shopping and product try-ons: Survey
Consumer behaviors in shopping and sampling have evolved since 2020, with at-home experiences, new product discovery and hyper-personalization leading the way for beauty and personal care innovation says a new survey from Sampler.
In July 2021, digital product sampling brand Sampler surveyed over 38,000 North American consumers and found that, while lockdowns lift and retail shopping resumes, 74% of consumers still favor shopping and trying on products at home compared to heading in-store.
10. Is friction-free tech the key to zero-waste beauty manufacturing?
LiquiGlide technology has been making headlines here on CosmeticsDesign.com since 2014. Now a partnership with Mibelle Group highlights the industrial-scale potential of the company’s novel frictionless tech.
Thanks to recent funding and new partnerships with both Mibelle Group and Colgate, LiquiGlide is at a tipping point.
