AR, aura photos and alien art: Inside ComplexCon’s interactive beauty activations

“ComplexCon, for us, is a place that is not by now inundated with attractiveness. We want to be just one of the initial makes that’s equipped to really set down roots listed here and clearly show that we can prosper in this sneakerhead lifestyle,” said Kyla Wright, avp of model partnerships and culture at Urban Decay. “We have a stiletto on 1 foot and a higher top rated on the other.”

As a sponsor of ComplexCon, Urban Decay hosted its 2nd-at any time booth at the party to celebrate its Naked palette collab with pop artist Robin Eisenberg. Featuring paintings and a large tailor made mural by Eisenberg, the booth also included an AR ingredient: Users could entry a “Space Invaders”-themed activity featuring Eisenberg artwork by scanning a QR code on the wall. People who posted their score on Instagram with the campaign hashtag received a cost-free gift bag with an Eisenberg print and a sample of City Decay’s All Nighter placing spray, whilst lucky winners with a “golden ticket” on the back of their print gained the palette by itself.  

Dieux co-founder and CEO Charlotte Palermino had a comparable sentiment about the pores and skin-care brand’s booth at the celebration, which had a very long line of visitors ready to receive a totally free aura photograph and reading through. “We chose ComplexCon simply because we do not see a ton of attractiveness brand names right here,” and ‘it is a conference that is all around searching and discoveries,” she claimed. 

For splendor manufacturers collaborating, it was essential to have a cultural healthy with the hypebeast crowd and aesthetic. Skin-treatment brand Topicals, which returned to the convention for the second year in a row, opted for a brilliant bodega-themed pop-up that includes its total product or service assortment as nicely as make-up brand names Luna Magic and Thread. Superstars and influencers stopping by the booth for images incorporated streetwear style influencer Aleali Might, musician Trinidad James, and “Life of Kylie” star Jordyn Woods and her twin Jodie.

“Topicals is additional about the local community of females than just [being] a brand,” reported founder and CEO Olamide Olowe.

In accordance to Wright, Urban Decay’s collaboration with pop artist Eisenberg was “totally Gen Z,” in that it was “something exciting, colourful and partaking.” 

“I love drawing impressive girl aliens,” explained Eisenberg, who was on hand at the booth to greet admirers. She reported that attractiveness influencers have been employing the Urban Decay palette to make looks resembling the people in her paintings. “I never ever imagined I’d see my artwork like that, in the type of make-up.” 

The collab and ComplexCon booth were section of City Decay’s ongoing strategy of “exploring distinctive avenues” and “stepping out of the beauty space” with new varieties of influencers this sort of as artists, mentioned Emma Hernandez, PR and model partnerships manager at Urban Decay. 

Like streetwear brands, taking part beauty labels made use of the party to fall by no means-just before-observed items. Dieux allowed users to take a look at the brand’s new eye product that will start at the stop of this thirty day period, while Topicals used the event to preview its Light eye masks that launched on Tuesday. 

Magnificence has been generating growing one-way links with the streetwear globe over the previous couple of a long time, with manufacturers which include Supreme and Off-White launching attractiveness products and solutions. At ComplexCon, KNC Magnificence and Revlon have also sponsored activations in prior many years. 

Collaborating beauty brand name founders reported there is a expanding fascination in pores and skin treatment in the streetwear entire world, including among men. 

“We can thank Pharrell for starting off this conversation a couple of years ago,” said Palermino, referring to Pharrell Williams‘ streetwear-adjacent pores and skin-treatment model Humanrace. The cultural director and host committee chair of the initially at any time ComplexCon in 2016, Williams himself was not there this 12 months, but his vogue model Billionaire Boys’ Club retained a outstanding booth location in close proximity to the show’s entrance. A PR rep for the two Billionaire Boys’ Club and Humanrace reported the pores and skin-care model may be existing at foreseeable future ComplexCons. 

At the Dieux booth, the brand’s co-founder Marta Freedman stated the brand was viewing a lot of enthusiastic male visitors stopping by to attempt the new eye product. At the booth, Dieux’s co-founders and other reps were on hand to hand out no cost sets of the brand’s $25 cult eye masks and reply queries about the new eye cream. In accordance to Freedman, the event was a fantastic opportunity to train a male viewers about the brand. 

“Men are type of afraid to have a program. And when they see three or four products and solutions, it may possibly sense a tiny extra workable,” she claimed, referring to the brand’s existing item assortment. 

For elegance manufacturer founders, the event also provided an option to link with makes in other categories.

“This is our foray into the streetwear world,” explained Freedman. “There are a number of manner brands we have our eyes on for collabs, so I’m trying to manifest that into existence.”