L'Oreal firm to provide virtual make-up tech for Amazon

L'Oreal's virtual reality business ModiFace will provide make-up testing technology to Amazon, the French beauty group said on Tuesday, allowing customers of the shopping site to try on lipsticks using mobile phone videos or photos.

The contract goes beyond make-up tests solely for L'Oreal's own brands, which include Maybelline and Lancome, but is limited to lipsticks for now.

The companies did not provide any financial details. The service will launch in the United States and Japan in mid-2019.

L'Oreal bought ModiFace in March 2018 as it invests in technology, develops "smart" sensory brushes that tell people how to care for their hair or virtual tests for a generation of "selfie"-obsessed consumers.

The Canadian company specialises in augmented reality and artificial intelligence applied to the beauty world.

L'Oreal has already used ModiFace to help further its own online sales, pairing up with Facebook so that people on the social media network can do virtual make-up tests and shop for its labels such as Urban Decay and NYX.

Amazon, meanwhile, has just launched its own beauty and skincare line called 'Belei', capitalizing on soaring demand for creams and skin treatments.

The shopping site sells lipsticks from a range of brands and L'Oreal rivals including Estee Lauder's Clinique, or Revlon.