The fastest growing beauty brand in america, IL MAKIAGE, launches in Australia today, following success in other foreign markets, such as the UK and Germany.
The prestige professional makeup brand was originally launched 1972 by NYC-based makeup artist Ilana Harkavi, but has been little-known outside of the professional circuit in recent decades. That changed in 2022 when a consumer-focused private equity firm invested $29 million USD within the company to accelerate brand expansion in the United States before you take it global. The company re-launched in the new, maximalist, digital-first incarnation in 2022 by brother-sister duo Oran Holtzman and Shiran Holtzman-Erel. “After i acquired IL MAKIAGE a few years ago, I'd a clear vision for the future – to build a global, professional, high-end makeup brand,” said brand CEO, Oran. “We have invested significant resources to further develop IL MAKIAGE, building a advanced R&D division, enhancing our product offering, and developing a unique shopping experience in our mono-brand makeup boutiques.
The brand ethos is maximalist, with saturated, bold looks the brand’s hallmark in a world that’s arrived at embrace minimalism and normcore. “Who would like to be low maintenance anyway?” says the brand’s site, “And since just when was having a single, lightly tinted chapstick the best thing? To whomever started this no fuss trend, with all of due respect, we'd cry for you but our mascara is too damn expensive. And that's why we are bold and unapologetic once we champion the spirit of all confident, successful ladies who are equal parts swagger and substance.”
Although studies suggest most customers still would rather buy colour cosmetics offline, the brand is clearly assisting to change that, using its advanced AI-driven product matching and streamlined, thoughtful online shopping experience.
Its 90-second PowerMatch quiz is the cornerstone of their tech-driven, inclusive offering, using only machine understanding how to match millions of individuals with the best foundations and concealers with more than 90% accuracy, even without a visual of the individual. It combines thousands and thousands of information points and information on 700 different skin tone combos, and also the brand’s dedication to finding the right shade for everyone seems to be paying off with 340,460 reviews and a 4.6 star rating for the Woke Up Like This Foundation at the time of writing. It’s the single most-reviewed beauty product on the planet.
The Evening Standard reported in 2022 that “The company includes a large in-house team of developers, data scientists and engineers. Last year, it acquired the Y Combinator-backed start-up NeoWize to create its machine learning prowess in-house to enhance its algorithms. The founders, Omer Nevo and Yoav Cafri, came from elite intelligence units within the Israel Defense Forces, before founding the start-up using the purpose of using machine learning and deep learning algorithms to change e-commerce.”
The Jerusalem Post also reports on the brand’s micro-influencer platform, Kenzza, “which ties influencer content into the retail experience. The goal is to link inspiration, education, trial and purchase experiences within a singular site.” The brand works directly with micro-influencers (among the savviest methods to partner with influencers) on its Kenzza platform, which user-generated content allows people to shop by both product and “talent” on the site, shopping products used in influencer-created looks. The Evening Standard said from the UK launch that “Tech can also be infused in the company's e-commerce platform, Kenzza, which draws around the skills of micro and macro-influencers to produce content around the products and display these questions method in which attracts savvy millennial and Gen-Z digital shoppers. For the UK launch, IL MAKIAGE worked with over 100 influencers, such as the likes of Ellis Atlantis, Sasha Ellese, and Belinda. Although the company does operate pop-ups in the US, all closed at the moment, obviously, the overwhelming majority of sales occur online.”
It is a heritage brand re-imagined perfectly for as well as as soon as.
Stay tuned to have an in-depth interview with Co-Founder Oran Holtzman on IL MAKIAGE’s Australian launch.
IL MAKIAGE
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