Parham Aarabi, Founder/CEO, ModiFace, is also an Engineering Professor at the University of Toronto and a recipient of MIT’s “World’s Top Young Innovators” award. A PhD graduate of Stanford University, Parham is the recipient of numerous awards, including IEEE’s Van Valkenburg Award and the Inventor of The Year Award. Here, Parham talks about augmented reality, powered by ModiFace’s facial simulation technology, which has emerged as a fundamental pillar of interactive marketing for the beauty industry.

Augmented reality (AR), which is the ability to see a 3D live reflection of your face with makeup, skin care and hair changes simulated on the reflection, is now being embraced by almost every major beauty brand. ModiFace, as the leading provider of AR technology for the beauty industry, provides core facial tracking and facial simulation technology that is behind some of the most popular AR apps on the market. These apps realistically simulate brand products on user’s live videos or photos, and are used on mobile, on web and in-store. You can try a demo of these apps here.

ModiFace, which now has 26 AR-related patents, provides its technology as an engine that can be customized with a particular brand’s user interface, products, and feature sets. When brands integrate ModiFace into their apps or in stores, the results are remarkable. User’s in-app time spent increases by 117 percent. Brand awareness, a key metric on how likely shoppers are to remember and to buy a particular brand, increases by 180 percent. Social sharing and engagement increases by 247 percent – which makes sense since consumers are more likely to share content that includes their own photo/video. And, preliminary data on in-store sales shows that consumers spend 31 percent more in stores when assisted by augmented reality mirrors. If we apply this to the entire beauty market, which is projected to reach $265 billion by 2017, a 31 percent increase is equivalent to the valuation of Uber, Snapchat and Airbnb combined.

Based on these metrics and results, beauty brands are racing ahead to utilize AR as quickly as possible. Current brands utilizing ModiFace’s AR technology include Allergan, Amore Pacific, L’Oréal, Yves Rocher, Jane Iredale, Unilever and Honest Beauty, whose app was featured as the best new app by Apple precisely because of it’s ModiFace-powered AR technology. And, just last week, Sephora announced the launch of their ModiFace-powered Sephora Virtual Artist AR feature which allows consumers to virtually try every single lipstick shade carried by Sephora on their live video in 3D. There are currently 30-plus additional brands gearing up to launch their own ModiFace-powered AR experiences, each with unique customizations and feature sets that were specifically created for each brand.

Behind the rapid emergence of AR in the beauty industry is a confluence of factors that have converged in recent years. First, AR technology is now at a point that 3D live simulation of beauty products looks exceptionally realistic and believable. Second, there is clear data-driven evidence that AR mirrors and apps impact a brand’s bottom line. Finally, younger consumers are now spending more time on mobile than they do on any other medium, thereby motivating marketers to build mobile-focused tools to better connect with their customers.

Looking ahead, these factors will continue to strengthen, eventually motivating every beauty brand to have augmented reality strategy for their own apps and websites just as they have a social and mobile strategy today.

Brands interested in using ModiFace’s AR technology, along with unique customizations to match a brand’s requirements, can contact ModiFace at [email protected] or 1-647-350-6525.