A.S. Watson is proud to announce the regional launch of “Skinfie Lab”

A.S. Watson, the world’s largest international health and beauty retailer, is proud to announce the regional launch of “Skinfie Lab”, an innovative skin analysis tool that creates highly personalised skincare product recommendations based on customers’ selfies. Skinfie Lab is first launched at Watsons Hong Kong and will be rolled out to Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia by early 2023.

The launch of Skinfie Lab in Asia is the latest development by A.S. Watson to deliver a truly O+O (Offline plus Online) customer experience. It builds on the successful launch of an AI-powered skincare advisor at Superdrug in the UK last year. Customers love using the tool, and conversion rates doubled.

According to Freda Ng, Chief Digital Officer (Asia) of A.S. Watson Group, “We believe that Skinfie Lab will change the way customers shop skincare - with only a selfie.” 

“We’ve been using cutting-edge technology to innovate and develop new solutions that help deliver seamless O+O shopping experiences to our customers. We’re thrilled to launch Skinfie Lab in Asia, a pioneering tool that makes it simple for customers to find just what their skin needs.”

AI Empowers Personalised Recommendation from Over 10,000 Products 

Using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyse customers’ skin and create a highly tailored skincare regimen for them, Skinfie Lab has been jointly developed by A.S. Watson and ModiFace, L’Oréal’s AI and AR company. It was created with dermatologists and based on 15 years of research. The AI-powered Skinfie Lab has been built and validated using over 16,000 selfie images and able to detect a range of facial attributes from a customer’s selfie, including acne, fine lines, pigmentation, enlarged pores, wrinkles, radiance, skin firmness and overall skin condition. 

Customers can simply take a selfie and answer a few simple questions on their mobile phone about themselves. Skinfie Lab then generates a personalised, in-depth skin analysis, as well as a bespoke list of product recommendations from all products available in Watsons eStore. The skincare routine it covers spans cleansers, face masks, toner, serum, eye cream, moisturiser and sunscreen.

Ng continued, “Many customers want to better understand their skin and choose the best products to include in their skincare routine, but often they don’t know how. Now, all it takes is a selfie. Skinfie Lab can help beauty beginners who are looking for advice in developing their own skincare regimen, as well as beauty enthusiasts who are looking for highly personalised recommendations that draw on the latest trends and products.”

AR-Powered ColourMe Reaches 40 Million Try-ons

The virtual make-up trying-on tool ColourMe, also developed by A.S. Watson and Modiface, has proved hugely popular and successful. Since its launch in 2019, there have been 40 million try-ons in Watsons Hong Kong, Malaysia, Thailand, Taiwan, Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam and Philippines. 

ColourMe uses augmented reality to instantly and virtually show customers how they would appear with different looks, as well as making product recommendations. Conversion rates have increased up to 5 times among ColourMe users.

Ng added, “Both Skinfie Lab and ColourMe are helping customers to find the skincare and makeup products that best suit their needs. Leveraging AI and AR solutions, we can create new O+O customer experiences that are engaging, personalised to beauty lovers, and make shopping with us a real pleasure.”

Watsons contributes to make our planet cleaner, healthier and safer

In 2021, A.S. Watson reiterated its commitment to reduce the  environmental impact of its business and announced new targets to accelerate its contribution to the fight against climate change.

For its first face-to-face sustainability event dubbed “Do Good for the Planet,” Watsons Philippines invited guests who talked about how reducing your carbon footprint is a way of doing good for the planet.

“Watsons recognizes its customers to choose more sustainable products and a greener lifestyle. We are continuing this sustainability journey and we are making it personal by talking about how we can reduce our own individual carbon footprint,” said Watsons Public Relations and Sustainability Director Viki Encarnacion.

Carbon footprint refers to the total amount of greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, generated by our actions. It is our total impact on the planet and how it contributes to global warming.

Among the activities that increase our carbon footprint are travel, energy consumption, eating and shopping habits. 

For “Do Good for the Planet,” Watsons invited Jack Warren of ClimatePartner, social and mindful entrepreneur Rizza Lana Sebastian  and Cat Trivino of Communities for Organized Resource Allocation  to help media guests understand what carbon footprint is and why we should always be mindful.

ClimatePartner is a global solutions partner that works with corporate and individual customers to calculate and reduce carbon emissions and offset unabated emissions. 

 Jack Warren of ClimatePartner

“To address the issue of climate change, we should not emit more carbon dioxide than what we can offset, a state that’s called carbon neutrality. You can reduce your carbon emissions by eating more greens instead of meat, smart use of electricity, walk, bike or carpool and  fly economy instead of business or first class,“  said Warren.

Sebastian and Trivino gave media guests tips on how to reduce our impact on the environment. They both talked about the different ways in which we could go green, like choosing locally produced food and products, bringing your own bag when shopping and buying energy efficient products such as appliances with inverter technology.

Cat Trivino of Communities for Organized Resource Allocation  

During the Watsons event, media guests were encouraged to calculate their carbon  footprint by logging on to ClimatePartner’s website, and they were able to see the sources of their carbon dioxide emissions. 

“This discussion is a reminder that we can all help to minimize our carbon footprint  and contribute to the efforts to make our planet cleaner, healthier and safer,” said Encarnacion.

The Watsons sustainability program encourages customers to do good for the planet by choosing products with better ingredients, going for product refills whenever possible, opting for clean beauty products and picking products that come in better packaging so they can be reused.

Watsons Public Relations and Sustainability Director Viki Encarnacion

Watsons has over 1,200 Sustainable Choices products in its 900+ stores nationwide and online channel 

For more information about Watsons’ sustainability program, go to Watsons Sustainable Choices & follow Watsons on Facebook, @WatsonsPH on Instagram and @watsonsphilippines on Tiktok.