When I got the invite from Beautyque NYC to get “a sneak peek into the future of beauty shopping,” I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I’m always down to try new things, so I signed up for my first-ever VR shopping experience.
It took place at a pop-up event at the clothing shop DOORS NYC, whose model of curated, exciting brands from around the world meshes with that of Beautyque (pronounced like boutique) NYC.
They put an Oculus VR headset on me and suddenly I was in the Beautyque Verse as an avatar (a pre-made one, though it's possible to customize your own). The big, luxurious, Sephora-type space featured display cases with different beauty and wellness products. One section is hair care, next to that is makeup, then skincare, then sexual wellness, and so on.
The first thing I did was walk over to the makeup display case.
A robot came up saying “Hi, I’m Amara, your personal assistant, and I’m here to help.” You tell Amara what you’re shopping for, and she brings you over to the display and recommends products you can look at, pick up, and learn about. If you want to buy something, just let her know and she’ll pop it into your cart.
If you don’t want to shop with Amara, you can browse the space on your own. If someone else is in the Beautyque Verse with you, you can interact with their avatar and have actual conversations. This is a way for you to go shopping with someone else even if the two of you are physically distant.
The team said the more you use the technology the more it learns about you through AI, so the experience gets more and more personalized over time.
There are some virtual try-on components available now for makeup, while more expanded and advanced features like skin analysis and skin-tone matching are being planned for its next phase.
Afterward, when I spoke to Beautyque NYC’s co-founder Sonia Khemiri, she told me she came up with this concept during the pandemic. She was at home, shopping online, and it all felt impersonal.
For instance, she was getting makeup that didn’t match her skin tone because she didn't have a store associate to talk to or a way to color-match herself at home.
She wanted to replicate everything we love about the brick-and-mortar shopping experience, but bring it into the home.
Sonia said she felt the art of retail is being lost to online shopping — that fun moments of "retail therapy" with friends, building relationships with sales associates, and checking out new store displays isn’t as popular as it used to be. So, it was important for her to make this a social experience as well.
Even though the Beautyque Verse is still in the beta stage, I think they’ve succeeded at creating a unique space for beauty lovers to enjoy. They’re also building out this beauty metaverse by developing a separate lounge where beauty enthusiasts can hang out with other people and chat.
While shopping in the Beautyque Verse, I noticed a lot of emerging niche brands and products. Sonia said this is by design, because she wants to focus on super clean, high-quality beauty and wellness brands that are gaining a following in different markets overseas.
It made sense to me because if you want the big brands, you can go to Sephora, Ulta, etc. She didn’t want to duplicate that. This is more of an international beauty depot where you can discover what’s hot in places like Poland or Milan.
Shopping in the Beautyque Verse is something that anyone with an Oculus VR can do at home. They also have apps for iOS and Android, so you can come close to the full VR experience directly on your phone. A desktop application is currently being developed as well.
This was my first time using an Oculus and if I had one, I’d do this all the time and spend all my money there! This futuristic platform would make me more confident to try emerging beauty brands or products I’d never heard of.
All in all it was a unique and very cool way of exploring what’s new in beauty and wellness.