Metaverse: The Contemporary Inclusive Beauty Destination
Image Courtesy: Boston
As absurd as it sounds, a solely sensory-focused industry like beauty, ie. rooted in physical touch and bodily treatments, is quickly re-inventing and establishing itself in the digital realm. With the advent of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality (VR, AR, and MR), beauty expectations are rising to the next level, a level that traverses space and time quite literally.
Cosmetic brands like Charlotte Tilbury, Lottie London, Estée Lauder, Gucci, and Nars are pioneering in the gaming world, diversifying the focus from mere touch to creativity and freedom of expression. As technology and insights evolve, beauty brands are creating more immersive experiences that add above and beyond the element of touch rather than replacing it.
Today beauty brands are taking a more hybrid approach, crossing over to gaming and esports. For instance, L’Oréal-owned YSL Beauté partnered with streamer Talia Mar for a sponsored stream promoting the Black Opium Fragrance. Additionally, Estée Lauder launched a microsite, Anrcade, where users play arcade-style minigames to learn about the brand’s new Advanced Night Repair serum. Such practices allow beauty brands to narrate their stories in ways that currently don't exist within the e-commerce space. This simultaneously provides shoppers with a platform to build deeper community bonds amongst themselves.
The latest app to be taken under the wing of cosmetics brands is Twitch, an interactive live-streaming service best known for broadcasting esports competitions, video game streams, and music broadcasts. Twitch has millions of active users. According to a study from GWI, a consumer insight company, 39% of beauty fans also enjoy playing video games, with 22% enjoying esports. Yet the beauty space is pretty much nonexistent on Twitch. In reality, Twitch offers a plethora of avenues for beauty brands to explore and market their products on this less saturated platform.
Brands like MAC Cosmetics and Maybelline have previously experimented with the platform much before the pandemic as a part of the TwitchCon in September 2019. Since then, Twitch has seen a significant increase in attention from cosmetics companies. NYX Professional Makeup and Benefit Cosmetics sponsored booths at the recent San Diego TwitchCon, held in October 2022, for Twitch streamers and gamers. NYX Professional Makeup integrated beauty and gaming through their digital artists, who worked with the TwitchCon attendees to create an avatar makeup look and take selfies with colorful backgrounds. Attendees could also participate in a “scavenger hunt,” to scan pixelated, heart-shaped NYX Cosmetics logos that were hidden throughout the booth to claim prizes. The event also included a makeup masterclass hosted by drag queens, using solely NYX Professional Makeup Products for a more interactive experience.
With makeup brands such as NYX Professional Makeup providing cosmetic offerings at events like the TwitchCon, the toxic gender stereotypes within the beauty and gaming industry have been breaking down, widening the concept of inclusion within these landscapes. Hence, the metaverse provides us with limitless opportunities to express ourselves through things like avatars, unlocking our more surreal beauty. It has broadened our horizons of inclusivity and abstract self-expression, equipping us with a platform to be who we want to be and look how we want to look, without any real-world hindrances and restrictions.
Strike Out,
Writer: Nishtha Jadav
Editor: Paige Yoskin
Graphic Design: Mishel Chen
Boston
