Nail color and care brand Sally Hansen is aiming to polish up its mobile presence with the launch of an app called ManiMatch.
The iOS app allows consumers to “try on” a nail polish color before purchasing it with augmented reality in the app . The app scans a consumer’s hand and she can then select colors to put on her virtual nails.
To scan her hand a consumer holds her hand out in front of her smartphone’s camera and lines it up with an outline of a hand in the app. The app uses an algorithm to map the hand in order to accurately put the color onto the nails, says Kristen D’Arcy, global digital vice president. The app also analyzes the consumer’s skin tone and suggests five polish colors that would look good with that skin tone.
“The fact that you see exactly how a color will look on your own hands is just pure fun and incredibly useful,” says Jeremy Lowenstein, Sally Hansen’s global marketing vice president. “People end up experimenting with shades they’d never normally try.”
Consumers can scroll through colors, tap them and see the color on their nails. Each color has a name and number so consumers can then find them in a physical or online store. Sally Hansen has more than 200 nail polish colors.
A consumer can also use the app if she is in a store and sees a Sally Hansen nail color she likes, but isn’t sure how it would look on her hand. She can use the app to scan the barcode on the polish bottle and the color will appear on her virtual hand so she can look at it.
The app is not commerce-enabled, though next to each nail polish bottle in the app there is a “buy now” button. If a consumer taps on it she is taken out of the app to Sally Hansen’s mobile site to then see a list of e-commerce sites, such as Ulta Salon, Cosmetics & Fragrance Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., where she can purchase the bottle. Consumers cannot purchase directly from SallyHansen.com. The app also is not available on Android devices, but will be later this fall.
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