At a time when consumers are craving personalization in beauty, Laneige is betting big on its new digital play experience.
First launched at its flagship in Seoul, the immersive, mix-and-match technology centers around the K-beauty brand’s viral Lip Sleeping Mask — the number-one most wished lip care product on Amazon last year — allowing customers to create their own blend from five unique flavors: Champagne, Blue Cream Soda, Sweet Candy, Lemon and Orange.
Available exclusively on Amazon now, the experience is accessible through the product landing page. Once there, customers can choose two scents to swirl and watch them digitally blend before the product is added to their shopping cart and shipped out.
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“Customers are looking for efficacious products, they’re looking for high quality, but they’re also looking for customization, and I think that’s telling in terms of where personalization is falling as it relates to a trend within the beauty industry,” said Allison Pollack, vice president of marketing at Laneige.
The demand for bespoke products is, in large part, being driven by a wider “toyification” trend, in which beauty brands are increasingly taking marketing, branding and behavioral cues from toys in the form of blind box openings, plush minis, key chains and more. “Beauty is becoming toyified, designed to be collected, displayed, customized and loved, not just used. In this space, products aren’t just functional any longer, they’re characters and companions,” Nick Mowbray, founder of Zuru, the toy company that also incubates beauty brands Monday Haircare and Daise Beauty, previously told WWD.
While many consumers already consider Laneige’s Lip Sleeping Mask to be an “everyday companion” and a “bedside staple,” the mix-and-match experience will hopefully add that character element, Pollack said. “We’ve constantly looked at new ways to evolve the product to the next frontier, whether or not that was new flavors or new patterns,” Pollack continued. “The ability to launch it in a customizable way, in a personalized way, to me, is the next frontier that not only answers the consumer preference of customization, but it also is so unique as it relates to an experience that a customer can now have digitally as they’re shopping.”
The brand is expecting this launch to be equally as successful as its debut in Seoul, even with it living online only for the time being. That said, Laneige teased its future plans to open the experience inside a high traffic U.S. retail location. “We have a store in the Grove in Los Angeles, and we will be bringing the amazing experience to that location in a few months,” Pollack said. “We also have multiple phases planned over the next few months to increase the shade range and the number of combinations that you could choose, including new and exciting flavors.”
The personalized Lip Sleeping Masks come just under a year after Laneige released a limited-edition collaboration with Baskin-Robbins, inspired by Sydney Sweeney, who’s been a global ambassador for the brand since 2022. The debut also comes roughly six months after the Korean makeup and skin care leader tapped Katseye to become its new global partner and the stars of its JuicePop Box Lip Tints.
