News: Camera IQ Gives Cosmetics Brands the Power to Push Virtual Try-on Effects to Snapchat, Facebook, & Instagram

Cosmetics brands have a long love affair with augmented reality, embracing virtual try-on effects as a means to help sell eyeliner, hair color, lipstick, and the like.

Now, Camera IQ wants to make it even easier for makeup makers as well as other consumer brands to promote their products in augmented reality.

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On Tuesday, Camera IQ launched Virtual Try-On Composer, a design platform that enables creators and brands to build virtual try-on AR experiences with no coding necessary.

With Virtual Try-On Composer, developers, creators, and brands can create virtual try-on effects by starting with a variety of templates and publish them to Snapchat via Lens Studio and Facebook and Instagram through Spark AR, as well as other camera platforms like TikTok and Twitch.

The Virtual Try-On Composer includes lipstick, blush, eyeshadow, eyeliner, eyelashes, and accessories among its AR makeup effects and allows for the customization of colors, shapes, texture, and finishes.

"There's no doubt in the efficacy of AR for virtual try-ons, but that's just the beginning of what AR can do to bring brands and their audiences closer together," said Allison Ferenci, CEO and co-founder of Camera IQ (and NR30 member), in a statement. "Not only can AR drive social commerce by helping consumers visualize products, but it enables them to interact with brands in whole new ways through the act of co-creation."

To demonstrate the platform's capabilities, Camera IQ has enlisted makeup artists David Lopez, Keita Moore, Doniella Davy, and Erin Parsons to create AR makeup looks.

While cosmetics brands are the primary beneficiary of the Virtual Try-On Composer, with Smashbox Cosmetics among the early adopters, other retail brands, such as Nestle and Republic Records, will also be able to leverage the tool to push their products.

"The latest Camera IQ release is a game-changer for my team," said Doug Wick, content design director at Nestlé Purina North America. "The new UI is super intuitive and extremely flexible. The ability to add 3D assets and manipulate them in a true 3D environment makes it possible to take our creative executions to the next level quickly and easily."

Essentially, Camera IQ's Virtual Try-On Composer acts like Unity's AR Foundation, which enables developers to build AR apps that support both ARKit and ARCore, the respective AR toolkits from Apple and Google.

By designing a tool that works with Snapchat, Instagram, and Facebook, the dominant platforms in AR advertising, Camera IQ is positioned to benefit from the demand for AR content creation in much the same way that Unity has.