MOST INNOVATIVE
COMPANIES 2015
50.
L'Oréal
FOR TURNING SCREENS INTO APPLICATOR
BRUSHES.
The $30.5 billion cosmetics giant L’Oréal is smartly investing
in a future where makeup isn’t sold predominantly amid the hawking din of
department store cosmetics counters. Last June, L’Oréal's US-based tech lab
launched its first product, an app called Makeup Genius, which uses a phone’s
front-facing camera to host the digital equivalent of a counter-side makeover.
It recruited the firm behind many jaw dropping visuals in the movie The Curious
Case of Benjamin Button to create startlingly realistic effects when users move
and pucker. "Seeing is believing," says Guive Balooch, Global VP of
L’Oréal’s Connected Beauty Incubator. (Consumers downloaded the app more than
1.4 million times.)
It’s just one of the ways L’Oréal stays au courant. To appeal
directly to YouTubers, L’Oréal gave video star Michelle Phan her own line,
Em-Cosmetics, and acquired cult-favorite brand NYX Cosmetics after it became
favored among a wide swath of video bloggers who routinely mention and wear
it—something L’Oréal CEO Jean-Paul Agon calls an "inspiration."
BY ELISA MALA http://www.fastcompany.com/3039614/most-innovative-companies-2015/
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