Getting tried and true advice regarding what beauty products to purchase is a nearly impossible task to accomplish. Today, we’re bombarded by ads, paid sponsorships, and much more that can influence our power to buy. What if there was a way to get real, unfiltered, and unbiased reviews from individuals who look and think as you do? Mira is here to change the way you buy beauty. Mira is the new, first-to-market search engine for beauty products, designed to empower users to find beauty products that are right for them. Using the power of artificial intelligence, Mira translates millions of product reviews into simple product synopses.
Users can find out what consumers really think. Side-by-side comparisons, and click-through to purchase their favorite products for the best price. In the spirit of unity, users can also ask for advice. They can even get product recommendations from users with similar skin types, skin tones, and aesthetic preferences. Founded by Stanford graduates Jay Hack and Brandon Garcia, Mira‘s mission is to build transparency and inclusivity in the beauty space by giving a voice to all beauty consumers.
We spoke to Jay and Brandon about the innovative Mira. Keep reading below to find out more about the application, available now on the App store. Image: Mira
What was the inspiration behind Mira? How did the idea come to fruition?
Both Brandon and I have backgrounds in artificial intelligence. We’ve been excited about building consumer products since living together at Stanford. A friend mentioned that she had trouble finding influencers who had her same eye shape (a “monolid”). We immediately identified it as a pain point that we could address. With computer vision, we jumped at the opportunity to build her a solution. After hacking together an initial concept for AR-based influencer discovery, we realized that building tools to facilitate the beauty consumer’s online journey was a much deeper problem: the world of beauty was incredibly fragmented, the products are complex and the incentives at play don’t always work to the consumer’s advantage. Here we were, helping enthusiastic users engage in an artistic hobby so closely intertwined with their identities. And furthermore, our skill sets allowed us to quickly bring value to an underserved demographic. It was an rich technical problem with the emotional fulfillment of helping people who were in need.
What is Mira?
Mira is the search engine for beauty products, its design empowers users to find beauty products that are right for them. Users can discover new products curated for their individual needs, share their beauty advice, and shop thousands of products, all from the palm of their hand. We’ve leveraged artificial intelligence to collect the online beauty community’s wisdom and surface valuable insights.
How does Mira’s technology work?
At its core, Mira works like Google. We gather videos, reviews, images, articles and more from across the web and use AI to help consumers cut through to the insights that matter. We’ve invested heavily in developing machine learning algorithms. They allow us to e.g. extract facial attributes from video reviews, understand the sentiments contained in reviews and beyond, then leverage this data to make informed recommendations and provide intelligent product summaries. Furthermore, Mira is always learning from its users: the more you use our platform, the better our recommendation technology becomes.
How would you say the AI platform is disrupting the saturated beauty marketplace?
Brands are pumping out new products at an incredible pace in order to better speak to their ever-diverse audience. However, these user-driven demands for more specialized and personalized products create an increasingly fragmented and convoluted cosmetics world. Mira is here to help consumers make sense of this sea of options and enjoy their time doing so. Even though the world of beauty is ever-expanding. We can empower consumers to find the products that work best for their specific wants and needs. Our tech enables us to give each consumer a birds-eye view of the ongoing beauty conversation. Simultaneously, personalizing their experience to remove the noise and friction from their online journey.
Image: Mira
What are Mira’s plans for the future?
While we’re incredibly proud of what we’ve built thus far, this is the early days! Our goal is to be the digital town square for the beauty industry: connecting consumers, brands, influencers to have authentic interactions and empowering them in conducting commerce. We see so many sources of inefficiency in the industry, from consumer confusion to brands lacking insight into what their consumers truly want – we’re positioned to transform the industry in areas where the old guard has become complacent. In the near term, we’re excited continue building a 10x better consumer discovery and research experience while partnering with brands to power end-to-end shopping; long-term, we’re building out the next generation of social commerce and will do whatever it takes to be the premier destination for all things beauty.
While you’re here, check out what the founder of natural haircare label O&M thinks about living a toxic-free life.
Zeen is a next generation WordPress theme. It’s powerful, beautifully designed and comes with everything you need to engage your visitors and increase conversions.
