How Beauty Brands Launch Virtual Try-On Apps with an AR Makeup SDK

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TL;DR

• Beauty shoppers convert at roughly 3% online; an AR makeup try-on lets them see a shade on their own face before buying.
• Océane, a Brazilian beauty brand, raised its add-to-cart rate from 3% to 20.15% in the first month and later peaked at 32% after adding virtual try-on.
• Banuba TINT covers 16+ product categories, so a brand can launch makeup, then expand to skincare, jewelry, and eyewear on the same integration.
• A brand can digitize an entire collection in under 24 hours, and businesses have seen up to a 10x increase in add-to-cart rate.
• The try-on works with any skin tone and ships in weeks, using existing iOS, Android, and web sample apps rather than a from-scratch build.

Banuba's virtual try-on for makeup in action

Why does virtual try-on matter for beauty brands?

Color cosmetics are the hardest category to sell online because the buyer can't test the product. A foundation or lip shade that looks right in a swatch can look wrong on a specific skin tone, so shoppers hesitate, add nothing to the cart, and leave. An AR makeup try-on closes that confidence gap: the customer points their camera, sees the product rendered on their own face in real time, and moves from "maybe" to "add to cart." The result is measured in conversion, not novelty. Brands that add try-on consistently report add-to-cart rates several times the industry baseline.

How does an AR Makeup SDK solve it?

An AR makeup SDK gives a brand the rendering engine, face tracking, and product catalog tooling without building computer vision in-house. With Banuba TINT, three things matter for a beauty launch:

• Breadth of catalog. TINT supports 16+ product categories: foundation, concealer, lipstick, blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, brows, skincare, nail polish, jewelry, eyewear, and more. Thus, the same integration that launches makeup later carries the rest of the catalog.
• Speed to market. A brand can digitize an entire collection in under 24 hours, turning real SKUs into try-on-ready products instead of waiting on a long content pipeline.
• Realism across skin tones. The virtual cosmetics interact with any skin tone and adapt to lighting, so the on-face preview is close enough to drive a purchase decision.

Together, these are why brands see up to a 10x increase in add-to-cart rate after launching try-on.

What does the integration take to ship?

Most beauty brands don't want to staff a computer-vision team to launch one feature, which is the main reason they choose a premade SDK over building from scratch. Banuba provides sample apps for the common stacks, so a developer integrates against working code rather than a blank page: the Android, iOS, and web beauty samples each ship a minimal working try-on, and the full setup and configuration steps live in the Banuba documentation. In practice, this turns a months-long build into a weeks-long integration.

What results have beauty brands seen?

Océane, a Brazilian cosmetics manufacturer and retailer, ran a pilot on just two categories, concealer and foundation. Within the first month, its add-to-cart rate climbed from the 3% industry average to 20.15%, a 600%+ increase, and demand outran stock. By July, the rate peaked at 32%, more than ten times the industry baseline. The full story is in the Océane virtual try-on case study. It's a clear template for a beauty launch: start with one or two categories, prove the conversion lift, then expand the catalog on the same integration.

Ready to launch?

If you're a beauty brand planning a virtual try-on app, start with the AR makeup try-on engine, launch one or two categories, and measure the add-to-cart lift before expanding your catalog. Request a demo to see your own products rendered in real time.