Pinterest Expands Augmented Reality Try-On Tool to Eyeshadow

Need to Know

• Pinterest’s new augmented reality tool, AR Try on, allows users to see what shades of eyeshadow would look like on their own face.
• Users will be able to try on eyeshadows from Lancome, YSL, Urban Decay, and NYX Cosmetics.
• After try-on, products can be purchased directly through Pinterest, or save as a pin for later.
• Pinterest launched AR Try on for lipstick in January 2020.

Analysis

A year after Pinterest debuted its AR Try-on tool for lipstick, the website has expanded the service to include eyeshadow.

The expansion, which comes as consumers continue to gravitate towards e-commerce during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, will let users see how various shades of eyeshadow look on their faces, using Pinterest’s AR tool, Lens. Shoppers can select a shade from Lancome, YSL, Urban Decay, and NYX Cosmetics, point their smartphone camera towards themselves, and “demo” the shade live. If a customer likes what they see, they can shop for the product directly within Pinterest, or save the shade as a pin to revisit later.

The AR Try on tool is currently available for more than 4,000 shoppable eyeshadow shades, and users can easily toggle between trying on eye shadow and lipstick. According to a Pinterest blog post announcing the tool’s expansion, Pinterest users are five times more likely to show buying intent on Try on-enabled pins.

Pinterest’s expansion of AR Try-on comes months after the company announced updates to make product tagging more seamless, enabling retailers to more easily tag shoppable products within images posted to their Pinterest boards. Pinterest is expanding its product tagging to advertisers, and will soon launch product tagging that will allow creators to tag products within Story Pins.

Pinterest has been working to diversify its offerings to vendors (and, in turn, shoppers) throughout the pandemic, as innovative e-commerce solutions In addition to the lipstick Try on tool, which Pinterest debuted in January of last year, the company also rolled out dynamic, searchable ads earlier this month.

AR try-on technology has proven popular throughout the pandemic, particularly among beauty and cosmetics companies: Estee Lauder and L’Oreal are among the big players leveraging the technology, with L’Oreal partnering with Amazon and Walmart for its AR try-on tools, which span products from colour cosmetics to hair dye. Major fashion brands, too, have begun experimenting with AR try-ons, including Gucci, which launched an AR tool for four styles of footwear last summer, and ASOS, which rolled out AR fitting rooms in May 2020.