Personalization is set to become a mainstay trend in the beauty market, judging by product launches and reveals at the Consumer Electronics Show held in Las Vegas last week. Some key launches include L’Oréal’s Perso, a handheld device that offers personalized skin care and is looking to expand to provide custom lipstick and foundation formulas, and Réduit’s Réduit One, a handheld device delivering hair treatments more effectively by increasing absorption levels.
Beauty services is another area in which marketers unveiled personalized offerings, as CareOS launches the Poseidon Smart Mirror, offering face and product recognition, virtual try-on, skin analysis, and voice command features.
Previously, many bespoke beauty services were used to engrave makeup and fragrances products. Brands including Lancôme and Yves Saint Laurent continue to offer engraved makeup products, while fragrance marketers such as Le Labo and Jo Malone offer bottle engraving or label customization during select events throughout the year. Sephora also uses its Custom Engraving Machine in select stores to encourage fragrance purchases. In recent years, artificial technology has been used to promote makeup products. Estée Lauder is one of the latest brands to offer try-on services, having launched the iMatch Virtual Shade Expert service in stores in late 2019, allowing consumers to match shades themselves in the Estée Lauder Double Wear Stay-in-Place Foundation.
While services continue to be more commonly found in makeup and fragrances, advancements in beauty technology have allowed players in other categories to compete in personalized services. In skin care, some brands seek to develop their own DNA testing procedures or utilize third-party services to identify how genetics play a role in skin type. Allél, a relatively new brand in the market, requires consumers to submit a cheek swab before receiving product recommendations.
Kline’s recently published Personalized Beauty: U.S. Market Analysis and Opportunities tracks the evolution of bespoke beauty services and predicts that this fast-growing segment is poised to become even more commonplace in 2020.
