Artificial Intelligence (AI) In Beauty Industry

What makes a person beautiful? For centuries, scholars debated what comprises of

beauty and how to measure beauty in a standardized, reproducible way. Some argue that

beauty is not real, that it’s a myth, that the perception of beauty is learned, not

developed. Others argue that the perception of beauty is an “innate developmental or

biological ability” (Harrar et al., 2018). Over the past few decades, scholars tried to

quantify facial beauty with the advancements of computer technology and artificial

intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is defined by Merriam Webster (2018) as:

1: a branch of computer science dealing with the simulation of intelligent behavior in

computers

2: the capability of a machine to imitate intelligent human behavior

One particular branch of AI — machine learning — is now being used to understand

images and text. The next question becomes: Can machine learning and AI understand

beauty? And more importantly, can machines make us more beautiful?

To answer these beauty questions, consider the following three topics: 

AI Applications, AI Research, and AI Ideas.

AI Applications in the Beauty Industry

There are many companies and organizations that already incorporate machine learning,

deep learning, and AI into their beauty solutions. Here are my favorite practical AI

applications in the beauty industry:

 My Beauty Matches uses machine learning and AI to “drive higher

conversion rates, LTV (Life Time Value), and basket sizes” for retail

partners. The machine learning model also helps partners to “discover new

channels to the market and the consumer”. My Beauty Matches provides

personalized recommendations helping consumers find products for their

skin type. (Forbes, 2017)

 Beauty.ai created a deep learning model to determine the most beautiful

people on earth. The algorithm analyzed wrinkles, face symmetry, skin

color, gender, age group, and ethnicity to determine the global winners.

(Beauty.ai, 2016)

 Sephora uses worldwide tests and more than 1,000 combinations of

foundation to help customers find their foundation, concealer, and lip

shade match using the ColorIQ app. This AI-powered app captures skin

conditions of women using color-corrected images, visible light and

ultraviolet (UV) light. (Dataconomy, 2016)

 Yahoo! Research (previously Yahoo! Labs) developed a deep learning model

to categorize photographic portraits with 64 percent accuracy based on

various image attributes. The study’s findings showed that “race, gender,

and age are largely uncorrelated with photographic beauty.” (Predictive

Analytics, 2016)
 Proven is a beauty brand that creates personalized skincare products based

on the “largest beauty database in the world”. Their mission is to use

artificial intelligence to improve the daily lives of women. Proven uses

machine learning to learn connections between different product

categories, ingredients and review ratings in order to offer ingredient

recommendations for consumer products. The recommendations provided

by the machine learning model are “given to a cosmetic chemist who uses

his expertise to create the formulations.” (Huffington Post, 2018)

 Curology is using machine learning to analyze users’ skin type, skin goals,

and medical history. Afterward, users are matched with a medical

professional who designs custom formulas to target an individual’s skincare

needs. (Huffington Post, 2018)

 Function Of Beauty uses machine learning to create customized shampoo

and conditioners. The machine learning model analyzes “hair type, hair

structure, hair goals, and other preferences” to come up with ingredient

combinations. (Huffington Post, 2018)

 Boodles uses artificial intelligence to monitor interactions between in-store

staff and online consumers in order to learn how to engage with consumers.

(Crawford, 2018)

 ModiFace uses chatbot technology (Facebook Messenger), combined with

Augmented Reality (AR), to help consumers choose lipstick. ModiFace uses

more than 20,000 beauty products, to enable users to discover products

and brands. Users can upload selfies directly into the chat to try on

products virtually. Using “advanced facial tracking and simulation

 technology”, the consumer sees a simulation of the product on their face.

Users can then purchase products leaving Facebook Messenger. (Crawford,

2018)

 Olay, a drugstore brand of Procter & Gamble, launched Skin Advisor(2017)

to help women decide on beauty products. Skin Advisor is based on a deep

learning algorithm which analyzes skin using selfies and recommends

beauty products to purchase. This AI-powered advisor has been used “over

1.2 million times and consistently attracts 5,000 to 7,000 users every day.”

(Yao, 2017)

 ScentTrunk provides customized cosmetic formulations shipped directly to

consumers. They use machine learning to “predict what the customers will

love, improving the customer experience and our ability to make the

world’s best formulas.” They also plan to use machine learning to “drive

future product development.” (Cosmetic Design, 2018)

 Proven Skincare uses machine learning to create skincare regimen

recommendations based on users’ skin types

 HelloAva uses artificial intelligence to provide users “with the most

accurate and personalized recommendations” based on dryness, sensitivity,

rosacea, inflammation, eczema, and redness scores (HelloAva, 2018)

 Yours plans to incorporate artificial intelligence into its Skin Assessment

Test in order to provide more intelligent recommendations. Since 2018,

Yours has provided personalized skincare products which include: night

creams, moisturizers, and serums. Navneet Kaur, the founder of Yours,

describes the data used for skin assessments: “When we create a regimen
 for our users, we take into account age, skin type, and habits like sleeping,

smoking, water consumption, etc. because in today’s time, our lifestyle and

environment impact our skin health way more than just our skin type.”

 Prose is using machine learning to create a custom hair care formulation

based on “hair type, lifestyle (diet and exercise habits) and even where you

live (to assess geo aggressors like water quality and humidity) plus your

goals and preferences (like if you want more shine or are vegan). This

allows Prose to “assess an individual’s needs, goals, and preferences

through a careful consultation that then creates a unique formula.” (Prose,

2018)

AI Research in the Beauty Industry

Artificial Intelligence research and academia are often ahead of the industry. Large

budgets are dedicated to research and develop the latest machine learning, deep

learning, and artificial intelligence algorithms. Reading AI research is time-consuming

and the process requires an understanding of technology and computer science

terminology. Here is my favorite AI research in the beauty industry:

 Identify face shape using machine learning and image processing

techniques (Gunasinghe et al., 2016)

 Apply virtual makeup using image processing techniques (Oztel et al., 2015)

 Detect facial retouching using supervised deep learning (Bharati et al.,

2016)
  Use sentiment analysis to classify cosmetic product review comments

(Pugsee et al., 2017)

 Predict stacking of cosmetic ingredients for the development of alternative

approaches in safety evaluation of chemicals (Nocairi et al., 2016)

AI Ideas for Beauty Industry

There are many artificial intelligence ideas to explore. AI R&D projects are greenfield

projects. There are many opportunities, but coming up with ideas can be challenging.

That’s why I brainstormed a few AI ideas to help you get started in the beauty industry:

 Provide women with insights related to their skin

 Show women makeup ideas by analyzing color, style, and other people’s

similar facial attributes

 Help women virtually try on makeup using their own face

 Analyze makeup styles to predict social media popularity

 Learn what humans find attractive using facial analysis, analyzing facial

symmetry, skin color and skin evenness (Dataconomy, 2016)

 Create better cosmetics and makeup products (Dataconomy, 2016)

 Understand human faces to predict “how a new eye shadow or face cream

will actually look on the skin” (Dataconomy, 2016)

 Improve plastic surgery. “The ability to predict with near-perfect accuracy

what a person will look like post-surgery is vital not just for customer

satisfaction but growing the entire field.” (Dataconomy, 2016)

 Improve facial reconstruction. “Rather dangerous procedures like the

double-jaw surgery are increasingly common, and the opportunity to use

data to keep patients safer and predict complications could prove

invaluable for individuals who choose to undergo surgery.” (Dataconomy,

2016)

 Gain insight into in-store customers using visual recognition. “Retailers can

gain insight in real-time on what customers looked at, picked up, and didn’t

buy to enrich the traditional metrics of what was bought and returned.”

This AI idea can help with “inventory, visual merchandising, even

shrinkage.”(Crawford, 2018)

 Understand the mood, patterns, and features of a consumer using facial

recognition. Use AI and machine learning to recommend the right product

and help women to apply makeup step-by-step based on the shape of their

face. (Crawford, 2018)

 Predict customer orders based on age and gender using visual recognition

technology (Crawford, 2018)

 Predicting return customer orders based on order history (Crawford, 2018)

 Find images and videos of women with similar facial structures using

geometric transformations, triplet loss function and transfer learning in

 order to answer the question: “Are there other women who have a similar

face to mine?” (Mira AI, 2018)

 Detect, analyze and digitally remove makeup from an “image of a human

face wearing makeup” in order to predict facial beauty (Patents, 2015)

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