Transform your favourite colour into lipstick with Chanel Lipscanner
The new colour-matching app transforms any item into a Chanel lip product
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Chanel’s new Lipscanner app transforms the world into a cosmetic colour palette. Developed in-house by Chanel, the app allows users to snap a picture of any red, pink, plum, or orange colour they might find throughout their day and instantly provides a range of Chanel products in the same shade. A painting, floral arrangement, ketchup bottle, any item – from the most glamorous to the most mundane – can be transfigured into a Chanel lip product with Lipscanner.
The accuracy of the app's colour-matching technology is startlingly, as is the vast range of Chanel products to choose from (the brand has over 400 lip products alone). When it comes to identifying the image of another shade, Lipscanner can even provide options in the same texture – matte, glossy, etc. – as well as the same colour. The selected product can then be digitally tried on thanks to a highly precise face-scanner technology that applies the shade to your face in real-time.
Ultimately, the result is that Lipscanner is like the beauty equivalent of the popular music-identification app Shazam. Carry it around in your pocket and it will instantly provide an answer to what you couldn’t figure out with only the click of a button.
Beauty brands have been experimenting with the possibilities of AI technologies for years, but the Coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the creation of innovative new devices and apps. With people unable to try products in-store or receive treatments in salons and spas, brands have created innovative, technology-based solutions that provide people with similar, if not better, shopping or self-care experiences from home.
Everything from personalised skincare gadgets to algorithm-generated fragrances have been created in the past year with the hopes of becoming the next big beauty-tech trend. Chanel’s contribution to this field is notable, especially since it’s no doubt the first of many personalised, user-driven digital launches from the heritage brand. As one of the most established names in beauty, it will be interesting to see how Chanel continues to respond to the needs of a post-2020 world with new technologies and digital solutions.
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Mary Cleary is a writer based in London and New York. Previously beauty & grooming editor at Wallpaper*, she is now a contributing editor, alongside writing for various publications on all aspects of culture.