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Although the holidays are like, the BEST, life tends to get hectic in December—which is why I love any app that makes my life easier during the season. Enter Robin Black and YouCam Makeup, the author and artist behind Beauty Is Boring and the beauty-minded AR app, respectively, who've teamed up to create some seriously cool makeup looks that you can actually try on before you even smooth a coating of primer on your face. Or, in other words, a selfie makeover app (that also works IN REAL TIME) with a cool AF makeup artist behind all the festive looks. So. Good.
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Allow us to explain for a second. YouCam Makeup is an augmented reality (AR) app that lets users play with different looks and makeup swatches in real time using your camera, or with a selfie. (Just download the app, take a photo, and start playing.) And Robin Black is the brains behind Beauty Is Boring, a constant inspiration for us here at Allure. So to us, Robin Black and YouCam Makeup teaming up means some serious business—and what we now know is seriously good shit.
The beauty of the YouCam Makeup app (which you can download here if you have an iPhone and here if you have an Android) is that you can see if you like a product or a look before going all in with a big purchase, a major hair transformation or bold AF smoky eye. But with a photo of your own choice. We think it's kind of the best thing ever, especially when we're in need of a look and have negative time. And after you find a look you love, you can buy the products the YouCam app used to create the look through the app. Like being in a beauty aisle without leaving your sofa or putting on pants.
According to Alice Chang, CEO of Perfect Corp. (YouCam Makeup's parent company, like the Estée Lauder Companies now is for Too Faced), Black was tapped to create special holiday looks for her “one-of-a-kind aesthetic and influential vision,” And just in case you didn't think our sign-off on Black's amazing work was enough, Chang agrees, telling Allure that they're “excited to be partnering with an artist of Robin Black’s caliber.”
What's so damn cool, though, is that one of the four looks Black created for YouCam Makeup is from a photo shoot our deputy digital beauty director, Sophie, collaborated with Black on last September. (It's the cool cobalt look that turned out to be one of the biggest looks of 2016: blue-rimmed eyes.) “I always get messages on beautyisboring.com and Instagram saying how people wish they could have me do their face. Well this way, they can actually try on some of my favorite looks,” Black tells Allure. “The blue look from Allure had such a huge response," she says, that it was a a no-brainer to include in her collection. Check out the aptly named Electric Blue look below.
The other three Beauty Is Boring-designed looks—Disco Diva, American Glam, and Sexy Chic—are pictured here in order from top to bottom, and they're all pretty electric, IMO.
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True to Black’s aesthetic, they’re not for the faint of heart—but perfect for someone looking to have a little fun for a night out. After playing with it, I'm actually going to try Sexy Chic on New Year’s Eve, because I've never met a burgundy lip I didn’t like. And, to us, the partnership between Robin Black and YouCam Makeup is Sexy Chic, too.
Learn how to do holiday makeup from Allure editors for your next event:
