Janet Ingber
If you are blind or visually impaired and looking for assistance with your makeup, there is a free app called EL VMA designed to help. The name stands for Estée Lauder Voice-enabled Makeup Assistant. It claims to check if your foundation, eye shadow, and lipstick are applied correctly.
EL VMA was developed by The Estée Lauder Companies Inc., a company that owns numerous cosmetic and skincare brands, including Clinique, Bobbi Brown, MAC Cosmetics, and Smashbox.
Compatibility
EL VMA is available for both iOS and Android devices.
iOS: Requires iOS 15.0 or later. Download on the App Store
Android: Requires Oreo 8.0 or later. Download on Google Play
Getting Help
If you need assistance with EL VMA, you can visit the App Store entry and click the "App Support" button, which will direct you to the Estée Lauder website. At the bottom of the page, you’ll find a link to Customer Care. My experience with their support team was mixed: the first representative I spoke to wasn’t familiar with the app and transferred me to another person. The second representative suggested I contact Global Customer Care, providing me with their phone number.
When I reached out to Global Customer Care, I encountered similar issues. The initial representative was also unaware of the app and transferred me to someone else, who in turn directed me back to U.S. Customer Care. This cycle of confusion continued, highlighting a lack of awareness about the app among the support staff.
If you wish to try getting help with the app, here are the relevant phone numbers: - Customer Care: (877) 311-3883 - Global Customer Care: (888) 378-3359
How It Works
After applying makeup, the app uses your phone’s camera to scan your face. It then employs artificial intelligence to assess whether your makeup is correctly applied. If a touch-up is needed, the app will notify you and specify where adjustments are necessary. For example, it might say, “lower right corner of your lip.” The app will continue scanning and guiding you until your makeup is applied correctly.
App Layout
When you open EL VMA, you’ll find three controls: Start, Help, and Settings. The settings section includes a picker to control speech rate, which is set to Normal by default but can be adjusted slower or faster.
There’s also a button for leaving feedback, though the app notes that you will not receive a response from Estée Lauder. The privacy policy is also available in this section.
Activating the Help button causes EL VMA to begin speaking immediately. The app explains its functions and provides instructions on how to hold your phone and position your head. Unfortunately, I found that the two-finger double-tap gesture did not reliably stop the app from speaking; it paused momentarily but then resumed.
The Start button initiates the makeup application process. You can choose to focus on foundation, eye shadow, or lipstick. After applying makeup, the app will indicate whether your makeup is applied correctly or if touch-ups are needed.
Using the App
For this article, I tested the app on an iPhone 13 Mini running iOS 17.6.1. The app suggests using a ring light, which I did, but I also tested it under compact fluorescent lighting. If the app cannot detect your face, it will inform you and make a sound when it can. However, despite the app indicating that it could see me, it struggled to scan my makeup correctly most of the time. This issue persisted across tests with foundation, eye shadow, and lipstick.
Foundation
The app only supports full coverage foundation. When I tested it with a powder foundation, the app incorrectly reported that my foundation looked great, even though I hadn’t applied any to my nose and chin and had dark circles under my eyes.
Using a full coverage foundation, the app still failed to detect missing product on my chin and nose and didn’t mention the dark circles. It often took multiple attempts, with both light sources, for the app to recognize my face, despite correctly positioning my phone.
Eye Shadow
I tested two different brands of eye shadow: Tarte Beauty and Smashbox, both owned by Estée Lauder. I encountered the same scanning issues and, on several occasions, the app incorrectly claimed that something was blocking my eyes. Despite purposely applying the shadow incorrectly, the app only identified the mistakes after numerous attempts. Once the app finally scanned correctly, it guided me through the necessary corrections.
Lipstick
The app indicates that it works best with high-contrast pink or red lipstick. I tested a lipstick from Clinique and a lip gloss from Bobbi Brown, both Estée Lauder brands. The app performed better with lipstick than with foundation and eye shadow, requiring fewer attempts to scan.
It successfully identified areas where corrections were needed, and after I made the necessary adjustments, the app confirmed that my lipstick was applied correctly.
Conclusion
While the concept of this app is promising, there are significant issues with its scanning capabilities and overall performance that require substantial improvement. Scans were more successful with a ring light than with compact fluorescent lighting, but both scenarios required numerous attempts. Additionally, the app didn’t consistently recognize deliberate makeup flaws, prompting me to rely on sighted assistance to verify its accuracy. Currently, the app performs best when assisting users with lipstick application.
Aside from a few minor issues, such as the inconsistent pausing with the "Magic Tap" gesture, the app's user interface worked well. Most problems stemmed from the quality of the AI recognition, which could potentially be improved through a change in AI models, behind-the-scenes prompt alterations, or more precise fine-tuning.
