Metaverse Trends

Recently my friend Adriana told me something very interesting that inspired me to write this column. Her daughter Luciana, who is 10 years old, is a lover of Roblox and she talks about her virtual pets as if they were real! Sometimes she even meets her friends in this space … Roblox is an online video game platform where users can create their own virtual worlds with the game creation system called Roblox Studio, developed by Roblox Corporation and available only on personal computers. This led me to ask myself, what trends are originating in the interaction between the virtual world and beauty?

The metaverse is a parallel universe and an opportunity for us to start to understand it better is through beauty. We can create our own avatar with the type of skin we want and then we can immerse ourselves in a whole world of virtual sensoriality where we can learn about the latest developments in cosmetics, we can experience extravagant makeup finishes or new hairstyles that can help us find a “new me”. Avatars are our new cosmetic friends and with them we can visit stores, discover new brands, attend events, talks and product training live and with experts, chat with consultants and advisors about cosmetic products, makeup, fragrances…

Brands are taking advantage of this trend to invite consumers to interact more with the metaverse and that is why we have recently seen how brands are giving away NTF among their customers.
Brands are also doing product activations and running avatar shows with new makeup looks and new fashion collections.

Now we know that the metaverse is a place where you can be whatever you want to be and look whatever you want to look like, without the restrictions you might find in real life. Next, we are going to see some of the most interesting trends that are inspiring the cosmetics industry to innovate in this field.

Avatars: Just as beauty is a universal right, we all have the right to have an avatar that represents us in the universe. This concept is very interesting because you can generate your own look in a different environment where nobody knows you! You can experiment with a whole world of colors, face shapes, fashion, acces sories and of course cosmetics. Today we can say that everything you ever dreamed of, you find it in the metaverse. There is a whole world of parallel universes to discover and cosmetics has a golden opportunity to innovate.

Beautyverse: In recent months we have seen on the web a great interest from traditional companies to enter the metaverse, such as Beiersdorf, L’Oréal, Estee Lauder, Louis Vuitton, NARS Cosmetics, Jo Malone, Shiseido, Holition and Dior Beuty among others.
These companies are innovating in the creation of 3D avatars and NTF for their platforms.

Virtual sensoriality: In a July publication, the portal www.cosmeticsdesign-europe.com indicates that one of the great challenges facing beauty companies that are entering the metaverse is to develop tools so that consumers can virtually test products. There is also a huge opportunity to sell virtual goods in the metaverse. There is a very interesting sentence quoted in the article: “Brands are discovering that it is possible to sell something that does not exist. For example, consumers may want to buy virtual lipsticks for their avatar.” The analyticsinsight.net portal also recently published some of the biggest trends we’re seeing in 2022 in the metaverse.

Marketing of experiences: The June edition of Spanish Vogue indicates that cosmetic brands are focusing on this type of marketing as an evolution of traditional e-commerce. It is expected that by 2026, 30% of companies will be in the metaverse. We are seeing an exponential boom in the development of cosmetic virtual experiences. For example, a brand created an open source afro-hair library that can be used by our avatars, so we are democratizing this type of hair in the virtual world. The article also indicates that “the shared nature of experiences is crucial in these virtual worlds”.

Gaming: Beauty brands are tapping into the metaverse to educate, experiment, and drive interaction. We have recently seen how a Japanese beauty brand has mixed the concepts of virtual kingdoms and Animal Crossing to launch a new cleanser. Consumers were able to connect, interact with other fans of the brand and participate in scavenger hunts to win free products. The aesthetics of the game will further inspire cosmetic products, including concepts, colors and finishes.

From Homosapiens to Digisapiens: Thefuturelaboratory.com portal indicated in a recent publication that avatars are extensions of the existing and aspirational self. Digicosmetics is one of the great advances of the last year and it is expected that marketing aimed at avatars can reach a population of close to 3.5 billion digisapiens in the future. The market potential of digital make-up products for these virtual beings is enormous. This whole world of new finishes and more daring looks that we see in the metaverse will also start to generate trends never seen before when we will see their applications and replicas in the real world. Then the beauty will be inspired by the experiences we see in the metaverse. For this reason, within the claims that we will see soon in skincare and makeup are metaverse inspired and metaverse-like.

Digital fragrances: In April 2021 we witnessed how the era of cyber perfume has come into our lives. Look Labs launched the Cyber Eau de Parfum. This company has the mission of combining art with technology and sustainability in new interactive experiences with users, in which the invention of a cybernetic perfume is presented as a very interesting disruption. According to Fragantica, this is a genderless perfume that belongs to the woody-aromatic olfactory family and also has spicy and citrus top accords, followed by a heart of incense and base notes of amber and smokiness. The innovation is that the company used nearinfrared spectroscopy to invent a digital reflection of the perfume, which has then been encoded as NFT (non-fungible token). A limited edition of 10 digital artworks was made in conjunction with Sean Caruso, a Canadian artist, using blockchain technology and certificate of authenticity. In this regard, the founder of the company says that “the digital smell is the so-called digital reflection extracted from a physical smell”. The goal of the perfume is to translate a futuristic urban life into a perfume. The product was also designed with elements related to recycling.

Virtual beauty: Companies are taking advantage of the flow of the metaverse to create spaces for interactive education. In the future, brands will be able to opt for virtual brand hubs instead of traditional e-commerce platforms, spaces where they can attract digital-native consumers who haven’t had much experience with traditional marketing practices.

Phygital: Artificial intelligence and virtual reality are the tools that will help us complement the sensory experience of cosmetic products. Vogue magazine comments that we are used to the sensory profile of products, to touching them, trying them, smelling them and feeling them on our skin … In a virtual world these senses are not immediately available, so it is important that brands start thinking about a multisensory approach, taking advantage of the fact that sight and hearing also help define the value of the product. These will be the new tools that will help us not to be separated from reality.

As the portal harpersbazaar.com says “Reality as we know will change and for those born now the metaverse is their future”.