Beauty News: NYX Cosmetics, launches an app called Makeup Crew

The Cosmetics Line known for its 'digital-first' marketing strategy..

NYX Cosmetics describes itself as a “digital-first” brand, eschewing traditional ad buys in favor of customer selfies it shares on social media, including an Instagram account with 11.7 million followers. That strategy has paid off: though NYX is often described as a “cult beauty brand,” the Los Angeles-based company joined the big leagues in 2014 when it was acquired by L’Oreal for a reported $500 million. Now NYX is releasing its own app called Makeup Crew.


Makeup Crew will sell NYX products, feature “shoppable content,” including video tutorials by customers and beauty bloggers and let users leave reviews, earn rewards and download stickers.

NYX’s inclusive brand philosophy — its marketing features a much more diverse array of people than most other beauty brands, with different races and genders represented — and social media initiatives were considered innovative, but now many competitors have adopted the same strategies to reach younger consumers.

 “That means we need to continue to innovate and this app is unlike anything else we’ve seen in the market,” says Mehdi Mehdi, NYX’s vice president of digital and e-commerce.

“We also feel like the technology is finally available to create an app that integrates all of our key strategies without compromising on quality, such as shoppable videos and user-generated content.”

In order to scale its digital content, NYX uses algorithms created by Olapic, a visual marketing platform, to decide which crowdsourced selfies are featured on its e-commerce site. Mehdi says NYX was the first beauty brand to launch Olapic’s tool and it will continue to use the tech in its app. Most of Makeup Crew’s technology, however, was custom-built by Texas-based software development agency Oven Bits, including the app’s shoppable video platform and its integration with NYX’s brick-and-mortar stores.

When the app launches, it will give NYX a third channel (the other two are its site and standalone brick-and-mortar stores) to gather data about customers' shopping habits. Like other e-commerce companies, NYX uses predictive intelligence tools to recommend products based on each shopper’s browsing and purchasing history.

“In terms of the shopping experience, being disconnected from a web browser gives us the flexibility to re-think the e-commerce flow. Every piece of content is fully shoppable without being funneled through a product page,” Mehdi says.