Sally Hansen debuts AR try-on tech for nail polish

Dive Brief:

• Further expanding its AR try-on tools, Perfect Corp. has teamed up with Sally Hansen to release AgileHand Technology, which lets shoppers try nail color options using augmented reality technology on their mobile device, the companies announced last week. 
• The virtual try-on tool is the first technology emerging from a partnership between Coty, Sally Hansen’s parent company, and Perfect Corp. In the future, the companies will roll out more features together, including virtual product testing, online skin diagnostics and data-driven personalization, for other brands within the Coty portfolio.
• The virtual nail polish testing tool is available for free on Sally Hansen’s website, per a press release.

Dive Insight:

Cosmetic technology companies have experimented with virtual beauty product testing to help customers visualize items before purchasing them for years, but those efforts accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. With fewer cosmetic consumers testing products in physical stores during the health crisis, AR technology has been essential for beauty brands, not only to keep customers safe but to reach homebound customers via their mobile devices.

Perfect Corp.’s partnership with Sally Hansen deepens the company’s entry into nail polish, but the company has created a host of AR tools to let shoppers test other beauty products. In 2019, it teamed up with Alibaba to release an AR cosmetic testing feature that let users experiment with lipstick, eyeliner and blush. In the past two years, the beauty tech company rolled out additional virtual try-on tools to allow lipstick and beard visualization.

Tech company ModiFace unveiled its own AR nail polish testing tool in 2018. The company released an AR nail polish testing tool with Essie last year.

“The technology that Perfect Corp. has created is truly unmatched in the market — offering an augmented reality experience where consumers see how a precisely color-matched polish performs on their exact skin tone and nail shape and in changing lighting,” Jean-Denis Mariani, chief digital officer at Coty, said in a statement. Mariani also highlighted that nail polish as a category is “highly impulsive” and very experimental, which makes virtual try-on a good fit.