For the AR experience, NYX Professional Makeup decided to go with a concept that fit within their wider ‘NYX Professional Makeup Haunted Dollhouse’ marketing campaign. The campaign centred around five doll characters, each with a different makeup look created by the famous illusion makeup artist Mimi Choi.

The resulting AR experience allowed users to immerse themselves into the narrative of these characters on Instagram and Snapchat, trying on their makeup looks with AR and sharing the result on social media. Users could then purchase makeup products from NYX Professional Makeup that would allow them to recreate these makeup looks at home.

The AR experience was designed to captivate users for as long as possible, making it a highly innovative approach to social AR. In contrast to other makeup AR effects, which involve a simple face filter with a makeup look, this experience presented the user with a 3D model of a haunted house. The user could then tap on different rooms within the house in order to access the makeup looks corresponding to each of the dolls. Each of these looks was provided as a face filter that users could access to test it on their face.

Each of the looks also had its own interactions. For example, in the ‘Caterina’ look, opening their mouth made the flowers on the user’s head begin to blossom. In the ‘Voodoo Doll’ look, when blinking, the user’s button eye fell out.

After trying out the look, the user could click on ‘tap to start again’ in order to return to the haunted house.

Throughout the AR experience, subtle NYX Professional Makeup branding and product imagery also appeared.