I Want My Beauty Treatment And I Want It NOW!

Consumers increasingly want their beauty treatments as and when they want them and new businesses are emerging to serve this demand. Two broad business models are competing – retail ‘bars’ and apps offering at-home service. Retail bars offer a very defined service, often on a walk-in basis. Examples include Skin Laundry for a ‘15-minute laser & light facial’ ($65 base price), drybar for a wash and blow dry ($45) or Madison Reed Color Bar that will touch up your roots for $45 in 45 minutes. Other services available from similar beauty bars include makeup applications, chemical peels and eyelash extension application.

Against these retail offerings are apps that seek to be the Uber of beauty services, bringing together a range of professionals who will provide services at-home. Leaders include Zeel Massage (‘same-day, in-home massages with the best licensed and vetted massage therapists’),  The Ritualist (‘in-home skin care treatment’), Glamsquad (‘Your pro team for hair, makeup and nails—anytime, anywhere’), Vênsette (‘Luxury blowouts, hairstyles, and makeup on demand’),and most recently, Colour (‘the first app for in-home hairstyling, on demand, created by women of color, for women of color’). Both business models work best in dense urban populations but this is truer of apps that need to balance demand and work flow for a team of contractors.  In both cases, venture funding is bankrolling service rollouts in the hope of securing a position in ‘convenient beauty.’ [Image credit © Image Source]