On March 28, the final of L'Oréal's Brandstorm competition, which seeks young talent in the field of beauty innovation, was held in Madrid. Students from four teams from Portugal and Spain presented their ideas, and one emerged as the winner: the Portuguese team The Minions from CATÓLICA- LISBON.
In total, 842 participants from over 15 universities in both countries entered this year's competition with a groundbreaking project and were challenged to reinvent the future of beauty through the latest Web 3.0 innovations: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Gaming, Metaverse and NFTs.
The proposals were defended before a jury composed of L'Oréal experts from both countries. The three young winners - Jessy Reichardt, Mathilda Widerberg and Kiara Kristin Petri - will now represent Portugal at the grand final in Paris. They are between 24 and 25 years old and are pursuing their master's degree in Management with specialization in Strategic Marketing at CATÓLICA- LISBON.
The group of students, who call themselves " The Minions", could not hide their joy about this adventure: "We are super happy, excited, proud, curious about what's next, but also relieved and feel that the hard work has paid off". They also feel honored to have had the opportunity to "meet so many inspiring people, get advice from experts, and visit the L'Oreal office in Madrid"
When asked why they chose this competition, there was no doubt: "It's an exciting program, we knew we would have the opportunity to learn and grow, work on a practical project and meet interesting people who have the same mindset as us, which is to be interested in the world of beauty and cosmetics.” “Of course, to have the opportunity to receive guidance and advice from L'Oréal experts to make our project a reality," they said.
What is the idea behind the submitted project?
The project presented by the group of students from the master's in management & Strategic Marketing was developed for the makeup brand NYX. It is an artificial intelligence (AI) virtual makeup artist that develops personalized makeup; tutorials, and product recommendations based on the individual's preferences and characteristics. The students describe the project as a "digital playground for all makeup enthusiasts, stimulating creativity and allowing the company to interact with consumers through new technologies".
This makeup artist will be a "friend" who will encourage users and give them tips when they run out of inspiration. It's a game-changing tool that aims to "take the beauty industry to the next level." The project was inspired by the Midjourney concept (the art of transforming text into image through artificial intelligence) and, as the winners of the Iberian competition admit, this was a project born because they knew they wanted to do something together. Regarding the choice of the name "The Minions", the students explained that in a fun way, this was the nickname that their classmates had chosen for them because they were all "small and blond", and therefore they had decided to enter the competition "with this unusual name".
The work process leading up to the final product, which was presented in front of a demanding panel of judges, consisted of "a lot of hard work, a lot of brainstorms, mindmaps, research, implementation, practice and coaching”- all in between exams.
"So far, we have had a lot of fun and memories together, which is great. But we are extremely motivated to win the L'Oréal Brandstorm for Portugal," they affirmed.
The next steps are international semi-final, and later, the finals in Paris. The top prize for the competition worldwide will be a three-month internship at L'Oréal headquarters in Paris, including all travel and accommodation expenses, where the winning team will also have the opportunity to develop their project at the world's largest start-up campus in France: Station F.