Long-known for their product innovation, beauty behemoths are actively acquiring digital-first beauty brands and startups to customize or enhance their offerings to remain competitive in the space. Whether it’s wearable tech, chatbots or partnerships with AR/voice service products, here are the top digital partnerships of the past couple of years.

Modiface + Augmented Reality
Modiface is inarguably a leader in creating augmented reality apps for beauty brands. Focused on creating the most realistic try-on capability, Modiface has worked with MAC Cosmetics, Estée Lauder and Tom Ford Beauty on AR advancements, most recently with the latter on AR mirrors in the designer’s London store.

L’Oréal + Founders Factory
In December 2016, L’Oréal invested in the Founders Factory, a leading global multi-sector digital accelerator and incubator based in London. The company thus became Founders Factory’s exclusive partner for investments in beauty tech startups worldwide, allowing L’Oréal to integrate itself with a conglomerate of startups and entrepreneurs operating in the field of beauty. As part of the agreement, L’Oréal and Founders Factory will invest and scale five early-stage startups and co-create two new companies each year.

Wunder2 + Amazon Alexa


Wunder2 is one of the most popular beauty brands on Amazon and was actually the first cosmetics brand to debut an Amazon Alexa skill. The brand introduced a makeup hack and product recommendation channel called Beauty Tips, which is updated daily. Consumers can ask Alexa for the tip of the day to receive instruction on things such as how to create a gorgeous brow look or how to do party-ready cat-eye makeup. Known for its Wunderbrow line of eyebrow products, Wunder2 gives product recommendations throughout, which can be shopped directly via voice. Wunder2 is also adding corresponding videos users can follow on their phone, computer or TV.

L’Oréal + Hearst + Amazon Alexa


In 2017, Hearst created a skill for the Amazon Alexa called My Beauty Chat, in which beauty editors from magazines such as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, Marie Claire, O, The Oprah Magazine, and more, host a mini podcast twice daily. The updates feature must-have products, tips, and trends straight from experts and the beauty editors themselves. The show is powered by L’Oréal and includes product-focused tips at the end of each episode.

Estée Lauder + Google Home


Estée Lauder launched a program for Google Home in 2017 offering personalized skin care solutions and beauty techniques through voice-activation across Google. The first initiative was the “Estée Lauder Nighttime Expert” app and supporting media included YouTube, Programmatic and Search.

L’Oréal UV Sense


Designed in partnership with Swiss designer Yves Behar, L’Oréal’s latest wearable, UV Sense, tracks skin’s exposure to sun damage. The wearable is a small circle, two millimeters thick and nine millimeters in diameter. It’s worn on the thumbnail, a placement inspired by nail art, however, it’s also an optimal location for receiving sunlight. The waterproof piece detects both UVA and UVB rays, and lasts two weeks. It also comes with additional adhesives for reapplication.

Estée Lauder Chatbots
More and more, brands are opting for the personalization chatbots can offer, so they can get direct customer feedback. Estée Lauder has several chatbots.There’s Foundation Finder (available in two versions for the U.S. and U.K.), which helps customers identify the best base shade from Lauder’s flagship brand; The Regimen Finder, for La Mer, which involves a Q&A to develop personalized skin-care regimens for consumers; and a U.K.-only app for Smashbox that provides tips and inspiration. Estée Lauder’s Lip Artist chatbot allows customers to try on a range of makeup shades by uploading a photo of themselves into messenger.

Sephora’s Chatbots
Sephora’s Virtual Artist is similar to Estée Lauder’s Lip Artist service in that it also allows customers to try on several makeup shades by uploading a photo of themselves into messenger. They can choose a shade themselves or opt to use the app’s skin-matching technology to get a customized recommendation based on their skin tone. After, consumers can navigate easily to each brand’s respective website to shop the product and download the image to post on social.