The service will also be extended to offer tailored beauty boxes.
Visitors to Powder create their own personal beauty profile, which allows the service to deliver bespoke advice and product recommendations based on their specific beauty needs – from age to skin type, beauty problems, make-up preferences, price points and more. Users can purchase product recommendations immediately or save them in their virtual beauty drawer, say the publishers.
Marcus Rich, Time Inc UK’s CEO, says: “Powder signifies a step change in the way we deliver products and services that engage our consumer and commercial audiences. It’s an excellent example of us combining our traditional strengths in the beauty sector with technology to transform our business. I’d like to congratulate publisher Bethany Bolt and digital director Rich Sutcliffe for bringing this great new product to market.”
Powder also offers new opportunities for commercial partners, such as highly targeted product sampling in addition to native advertising and targeted advertising campaigns. L’Oréal Luxe partnered with Time Inc UK for Powder’s soft launch.
L’Oréal Luxe managing director Amandine Ohayon says: “The decision to partner with Time Inc. during the development and launch stage of Powder was a tactical one for L’Oréal Luxe. Having enjoyed a long-standing partnership with many of Time Inc.’s titles, Powder was presented as an opportunity to test a new venture online across a range of brands within our portfolio. A tailored, personalised approach to beauty on mobile was what interested us and we have gained deeper insight into customer behaviour as a result.”
Powder publisher Bethany Bolt adds: “We took a lean ‘start-up style’ approach to build Powder – beginning small, vigorously testing and continually enhancing. Gaining excellent feedback from users and also commercially, Powder is now really ready to go. I’m so excited about our pipeline of new features, product categories and extensions, as we drive to scale up this unique and powerful proposition.”
Powder is extending its offering with the launch of the Powder Beauty Drawer beauty boxes. Available initially to purchase once a quarter, the beauty boxes will contain a collection of full-size and luxury mini-size beauty products that are selected to match the consumers’ specific beauty needs, and allow for extremely targeted and bespoke product sampling.
