Virtual try-on makeup meets conversational AI
L’Oréal’s integration of Maybelline virtual try-on makeup into ChatGPT is a conversational shopping experience where users can test realistic looks through ModiFace technology while chatting, turning AI answers into a direct path from beauty advice to product trial and purchase in a single interface.
This move matters more than another fun filter. L’Oréal has struck a collaboration with OpenAI that brings Maybelline New York’s Makeup Virtual Try-On directly into ChatGPT, announced at VivaTech 2026. Instead of sending users to a separate app, the experience lives where they are already asking questions about foundation shades, red lipsticks, or office-ready looks. With ChatGPT now serving more than 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million subscribers, this is less a side experiment and more a land grab for the next beauty counter: the chat interface. The opinionated view? Whoever owns the conversation will own AI makeup discovery—and L’Oréal is moving early to secure that position.
How Maybelline’s ModiFace-powered try-on works inside ChatGPT
Maybelline’s Makeup Virtual Try-On in ChatGPT uses ModiFace technology, L’Oréal’s augmented reality and AI beauty arm, to overlay products on a user’s face through a guided, conversational flow. Instead of tapping through menus, you describe the look you want, and the AI responds with suggested products plus a visual try-on experience. In practical terms, virtual try-on makeup stops being a standalone gimmick and becomes part of an ongoing dialogue about your routine, skin tone, or budget.
ModiFace, acquired in 2018 to expand digital beauty services like virtual makeup try-on, hair colour try-on, and augmented reality shopping, now powers this try-before-you-buy moment right inside the chat window. L’Oréal’s Beauty Tech services have already been used more than 120 million times across 66 countries and 31 brands by the end of 2025, so this is a scaled system moving into a bigger arena rather than a beta toy. The clear bet: remove friction, remove app-hopping, and the path from curiosity to purchase becomes much shorter.
Why ChatGPT beauty shopping is the new front door
Placing Maybelline virtual try-on inside ChatGPT is less about novelty and more about following where discovery has gone. L’Oréal itself says this work includes product discovery, and it plans to supply current product information directly into OpenAI’s models so that responses draw from company-provided notes rather than only reviews and forums. In plain terms, brand content is moving from websites into AI answers.
Gartner’s Greg Carlucci links this shift to changing behavior: generative AI is reshaping how consumers find and engage with brands, while personal care players see web traffic fall as users move to AI-led search experiences. Nearly one in five consumers already use generative AI tools to find information. When you combine that with ChatGPT beauty shopping tools that can surface tailored L’Oréal products in responses and even embed a virtual try-on makeup experience, the browser search bar starts to look like yesterday’s beauty counter. This is discovery happening inside answers, not links.
CreAItech: from AI production lab to AI discovery engine
The Maybelline try-on is not an isolated stunt; it is a visible tip of L’Oréal’s CreAItech strategy. The company is expanding its generative AI marketing system through a new partnership with OpenAI that supports product discovery and creative production at scale. OpenAI’s latest model now sits inside CreAItech, alongside tools from Seedance, Google, Adobe, and Stable Diffusion, so teams can pick the right model for each creative task.
According to L’Oréal’s leadership, CreAItech has helped cut production costs by 40% and enabled the creation of 50,000 marketing assets, supported by around €1.5 billion (approx. USD 1.98 billion, approx. RM9.2 billion) in tech investment and 10,000 marketing staff trained to work with AI tools. This same infrastructure now feeds AI makeup discovery: assets built in CreAItech can flow into AI responses and try-on experiences. Beyond marketing, the partnership includes access to GPT-Rosalind, used to map the skin microbiome and identify beneficial bacteria for new skincare products, tying product science and personalization into the same AI backbone.
From try-on to transaction: what changes for shoppers and brands
For everyday users, the change is straightforward: you can talk to ChatGPT about your skin, routine, or style, see Maybelline virtual try-on results through ModiFace in the same interface, and then move directly toward purchase. No separate apps, no awkward camera switches. Virtual try-on makeup becomes part of seeking advice, not an extra step. L’Oréal will also work with OpenAI to improve how its products are surfaced in ChatGPT in the United States, so relevant items appear in context when you ask about them.
For brands, the stakes are higher. Several L’Oréal labels, including SkinCeuticals, CeraVe, and Garnier, are already in OpenAI’s global ChatGPT advertising pilot focused on ads inside AI-assisted interactions. Dubey notes they have run ads in the app since April, testing with those brands in the U.S. The larger signal is explicit: discovery is moving into AI interfaces, and brands can now reach consumers in the exact moment of intent. The conclusion is clear: AI makeup discovery is becoming conversational, visual, and transactional in one place, and companies that ignore this new shelf risk disappearing from the shopper’s field of view altogether.
