E.l.f. Cosmetics aims to remove the guesswork out of the viral beauty craze of consumers using color analysis to find colors of makeup and clothes.
The beauty brand created a microsite, “color e.l.f.nalysis,” in collaboration with Pinterest. To use it, users can either take a selfie through a webcam or upload a selfie to the site. The tool first assigns users’ selfies a hue (warm or cool), value (light or deep contrast), and chroma (bright or muted). The tool then sorts users into their “color season,” a categorization of colors that matches with complimentary makeup colors. Users are then matched with a custom Pinterest board of corresponding E.l.f. products. For example, someone whose undertones are identified as “soft autumn” will be recommended E.l.f.’s Camo Liquid Blush in Peach Perfect and Smoky Kohl Eyeliner in Vintage Denim. Consumers can shop E.l.f. products on its website by clicking through Pinterest pins.
The tool takes advantage of the growing interest in seasonal color analysis, a method of determining what color makeup and clothing to wear. Seasonal color analysis originally went viral on TikTok in 2023.
The trend first gained widespread popularity in 1980 with the publication of Carole Jackson’s Color Me Beautiful, which categorizes readers into winter, spring, summer, and fall seasons based on hair color, eye color, and undertones of their skin. As part of the color analysis process, people are recommended colors to wear based on those categorizations. Additionally, some people work with beauty consultants to find their colors.
Unlike its predecessor, the modern version of color analysis revolves around social media recommendations, filters, and digital tools. Pinterest had 1.6 billion makeup-related searches, and a 22-times increase in “color season analysis” searches in the last year, said Katie Dombrowksi, VP of CPG at Pinterest in a press release.
“It’s clear consumers are craving personalized beauty experiences,” said Dombrowksi.
This partnership comes as Pinterest attempts to scale its ad business and become a bigger commerce player. This year, Pinterest has hired former Meta and Amazon leaders to build out its ad business into a performance marketing channel for brands.
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The combination of the color analysis trend and Pinterest’s influence on sales made the platform the right platform for E.l.f. to launch the campaign, said Patrick O’Keefe, E.l.f.’s chief integrated marketing officer.
“We know Pinners aren’t just pinning—they’re shopping; 85% of weekly Pinners say they’ve made a purchase from a Pin,” O’Keefe said.
By releasing its own tool, E.l.f. is able to recommend all its own products rather than relying on third party-recommendations that are aggregated into other color analysis tools. The beauty company also partnered with three Pinterest creators, Autumn Rain, Kirra Dickinson, and Karla Cervantes to create and promote Pinterest-first content around the tool.
E.l.f. Beauty isn’t the first beauty company to try to capitalize on color analysis. For example, NYX Professional Makeup partnered with Snapchat in 2023 to release “Beauty Bestie,” an augmented reality filter on Snapchat that recommended NYX products based on users’ coloring.
This also isn’t the first time that E.l.f. has tapped into trends with its marketing. Last year, the brand riffed on Get Ready With Me (GRWM) videos by releasing Get Ready With Music, The Album, a 16-song album of tracks to put makeup on to. E.l.f. has also collaborated with buzzy stars like Joey King, Megan Stalter, and Meghan Trainor.
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