During his eight years with the brand, Tartrat has seen the rise of beauty-tech in general, and Lancôme’s ambitions to lead the development in particular, first-hand.
— We launched our first service in 2009 and it’s been quite a journey to see all these projects come to life and now see them in store, in real life, he shares. Now, it’s at the center of our strategy; we want to pioneer beauty-tech to offer our consumers an impactful experience. Both when it comes to experiencing our products and using our tools to ’decode’ their skin and seeing it like they’ve never seen it before.
Being a leader in the beauty-tech field, have you experienced that it can be challenging for the end consumer to adapt to these high-tech technologies?
— No, they are really keen on experiencing new tech. Many of our consumers, when they come in-store and see our machines, want to test it to experience it. Our beauty advisors are also there for guidance and provide advice and expert recommendations to choose the right products after using our services.
So many brands have skin screen technologies now. What makes yours stand out?
— The features that we are encapsulating into the machine. It’s like a smartphone. A smartphone has remained pretty much the same in its design and as a machine but is constantly filled up and enriched with new applications, features, and upgrades. This is what we are doing in the Skin Screen technology as well.
— We have plenty of other features that no one else has today. Last year, we launched Projective Ageing (in the Skin Screen machines, Ed’s note). We are unique on the market to be capable of showing how the skin of the consumer will look in 10 to 15 years, on 10 chronical signs.
How does it work?
— The consumer is doing a skin analysis and the beauty advisor offers the choice to see how the skin will age in 10 to 15 years, powered by AI. If the consumer wants to experience it, he or she can see it directly on the iPad. It’s then a discussion where the beauty advisor shows where the skin needs action with the help of clinical science.
When showing what the customer needs, the Projective Ageing feature also has to be a great sales opportunity for your beauty advisors.
— Yes, definitely. We want our consumers to get to know their skin and have as many insights as possible. With Projective Ageing, it’s another layer of technology that aims to provide the keys to anticipating their skin ageing.
Is that also the main reason why you have the machines, as an opportunity to increase sales? Or is it more for the branding experience in-store?
— When you have a Skin Screen, consumers are hooked by the machine in the store. They are curious about it, asking our beauty advisors, ’What is it, and can I try it?’ The sense of purpose of why we’re on beauty-tech is to provide this memorable experience.
— We really believed in the Skin Screen tool when we launched it in 2020. Now, after a scaling strategy, we’re seeing a great expansion all over the world: we have more than 1,000 machines available in more than 40 countries, as part of our in-store experience.
During CES in Las Vegas last year, Lancôme previewed Hapta, the world’s first AI-powered motion-stabilising makeup device for users with limited hand, wrist, and arm mobility. It’s an assisted lipstick application tool designed to create an accessible makeup experience for all, developed from an intensive co-development process involving accessibility and disability inclusion experts. In 2023 and 2024, Lancôme has conducted extensive user testing by owner company L’Oréal’s R&I teams in the United States and France to optimise and improve device performance. Hapta has received a number of accolades in the tech and beauty industries, including the 2023 CES Innovation Award Honoree and Time Best Inventions of 2023.
— It assists those who have difficulty raising their arms due to limited mobility issues and people with limited grip strength who struggle with precise application, Tartrat explains.
Can you take us through the product development?
— It was born out of an incredibly exciting project with Verily (a precision health company housed under Google parent Alphabet), to help people with mobility challenges. We have been working on the development with our L’Oréal Global R&I teams on the engineering part, and to make it perfectly fitted for makeup usage. And of course, Hapta has been tested with hundreds of people in France and in the US. We’ve taken all their insights, feedback, and comments to adapt, correct, and finetune the device, to make sure it’s convenient for them to use and bring them the most seamless and intuitive experience.
What has been the most challenging when developing it?
— It’s the world’s first handheld computerised makeup applicator, designed for those with hand-motion disorders, arthritis, Huntington’s Disease, and following stroke-related motion challenges. As a world’s first, our main challenge and key objective is to bring a device that is not only intuitive to use for those people but most importantly, that is answering their specific needs to give them confidence and independence back in their experience of beauty. I will always remember what Natasha, one of the first women to experience Hapta, said to us, ’We wear makeup too, so we want to be part of the beauty world, just as much as everyone else.’ When you hear this, you have a duty; to make beauty accessible for all and build a device that will make them enjoy applying makeup. This is the most exciting challenge yet.
This summer, 300 beta devices have been donated in partnership with local NGOs in the US, France, and China to collect further user feedback. Recipients are invited to participate in the cocreation, sharing their experience and feedback, to optimise the tool ahead of its worldwide commercial release in 2025.
Hapta includes a new universal adapter, designed for compatibility with most lipstick brands and shapes. The device shall work with every move the user makes, combining motors and gears to provide 360 degrees of rotation and up to 70 degrees of flexion. Its adaptive strap and innovative ”self-levelling” technology embedded with advanced, real-time sensors shall allow for more precise application and better sensoriality. Two internal motors and nine-axis accelerometers enable self-stabilising motion control based on the user’s hand orientation while keeping the device stable. The easy-grip device has been specifically designed for those with hand-motion-related conditions to maximise comfort during use and its ergonomic, lightweight (115g) design makes it easier to hold it.
— I think this is a game changer for people who have dropped their beauty experience, to gain confidence again and be autonomous when it comes to applying makeup. I can’t wait to launch it, Tartrat says.
According to him, Lancôme is also a true believer in the power of Augmented Beauty, which includes the launch of innovations like Shade Finder, offered to customers both at Lancôme’s point of sales and its websites.
— You all know how hard it is to find the right foundation shade. Shade Finder can identify your skin tone from our database of 22,000 different skin tones and recommend the ideal shade match from within any of our foundation ranges. This is our most accurate means of skin tone analysis to date, analysing the very undertones of the skin to find the ultimate match in colour and recommend the best finish and texture. The data acquired with Shade Finder also enabled us to see that we had gaps in our offer. Some women did not find their perfect match. So we developed new shades to broaden our shade range and make our foundation offer more inclusive, Tartrat shares. He continues:
— Do you know that we all have different types of lashes? Just like the hairs on our heads, lashes vary in size, shape, and length. They also differ in texture — from fine to medium and coarse — to curvature, straight to curly. To help women finally see through the overwhelming choice of mascara that exists, we designed a service called Lash Anatomy. It’s based on our so-called Lash Atlas — the most comprehensive lash anatomy study that has observed length, density, and thickness of the lashes of 816 women, from all ethnicities. With just one picture, it can detect lash fibres as tiny as 0,1 mm thick. It takes just a few minutes to obtain what we call a lash typology report and made-to-match mascara recommendations.
— In September 2025, we will launch a new innovation that we unveiled at VivaTech this year. It’s a handheld device to use at home, inspired by micro-treatment procedures that has been created to amplify the benefits of our Rénergie H.C.F Triple Serum, Tartrat concludes.
