Forget Rose-Colored Glasses: Makeup Companies Are Testing Their Cosmetics Through an iPhone Lens
It was only a matter of time before cosmetics companies picked up on the fact that these days, we’re often more concerned about how our makeup translates on-camera than how we actually look IRL. The selfie is the new standard, and whereas brands used to test the performance of their offerings in various light settings, a select (smart) few are engineering products to be selfie-approved straight out of the bottle.
“We’ve got one type of consumer who is constantly taking pictures, and what really matters to her and her social group is how she looks in a selfie,” Sarah Vickery, CoverGirl‘s principal scientist, told The New York Times. CoverGirl has turned its attention to foundation, which can make wearers look chalky, sallow, or even “dead” (in the case of matte) in photos. The brand’s Outlast Stay Luminous Foundation, which debuted in July, was its first product tested using iPhones 5 and 6.
There’s more: Smashbox is testing its foundations and bronzers in its proprietary Flashbox, a 20-by-20 blacked-out space, to determine how the makeup responds to different light settings, including selfies. And Avon is designing lipstick formulas to deliver truer color on-camera, with intense pigmentation and a “dispersing aid” moisturizing technology that prevents dryness and, with it, chapped-looking lips.
The right mascara formula is also a huge coup for companies hoping to snag the social media generation, because lashes are a must. The focus is on intense volume—the “one-pass wow,” as CoverGirl calls it. After all, a selfie with coats and coats of mascara is a selfie in which your eyes are at major risk of disappearing into the rest of your face, thanks to the peculiar color and contrast values of many phone cameras.
“We don’t see this as just a passing fad,” said Lisa Lamberty, vice president for global and regional color cosmetics at Avon, of selfies and all that goes into them. We’re left wondering: What happened to the good old days of the “MySpace angles”?
