Soon, you'll be able to find your ideal shade of foundation in just a few clicks

Cosmecode has developed a tool for brands and retailers to find the right shade of foundation for each skin tone. Photo: AFP

Finding the perfect foundation shade can be a real headache for many consumers, especially online shoppers.

While virtual testing technologies are developing at a rapid pace in the beauty industry to assist internet users, a beauty-tech startup is going one step further by offering a personalised advice tool that can find someone's perfect foundation shade in just a few clicks.

Research shows that personalisation is at the core of consumers' concerns.

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They expect brands to provide advice, but also new tools that allow them to find the products that best suit their needs, body shape, skin tone or hair texture, whether in-store or online.

This is being made possible today thanks to various technologies, as reflected in the numerous personalised advice solutions unveiled at the last VivaTech event in June.

The L'Oreal Group presented solutions to help consumers find the perfect perfume with "Scent-Sation" from its Yves Saint Laurent Beaute brand, or to carry out personalised skin analysis, in-store or at home, with Skin Screen and E-youth Finder from Lanceme, just like Sephora with its Skin Diagnostic.

The retailer also evoked a new shade-matching tool based on an "impartial algorithm", drawing on a data set of more than 10,000 skin tones.

Indeed, brands seem keen to seize on this kind of solution at a time when online shopping is booming, avoiding losing sales due to customers not being able to test products – or at least, to assure consumers that they're making the right choice.

This is what the beauty-tech startup Cosmecode is proposing with a custom tool that can find someone's ideal shade of foundation in just a few clicks.

Intended for brands and distributors, it draws on deep learning and a specific algorithm, while taking into account the effect of lighting, to offer a fully customised solution.

This is achieved by the fact that the tool is based on thousands of foundation shades and is able to find the ideal match among a wide range of products, from all manner of brands.

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"Cosmecode is the startup that digitises the most powerful conversion tool in the beauty industry: personalised advice," reads the company's official description.

"Our first feature allows you to determine your ideal foundation shade in any brand and in two clicks, thanks to computer vision, deep learning and an algorithmic [modeling] of your skintone."

There is no doubt that this tool – as useful in stores as it is online – could quickly become a must for many brands and retailers.

It could even expand to include other types of beauty products, such as concealers, and even, to a lesser extent, eyeshadows and lipsticks. – AFP Relaxnews