enerated more than US$260 million in revenue in 2021.  While Oddity is still a fraction of the size of corporate makeup giants, such as L’Oréal and Estée Lauder, the rapid growth of its flagship brand has caught the eye of industry experts.  “Since launching just over two years ago, Il Makiage has been very savvy in its approach to social shopping, and works hard to close the loop between inspiration and purchase,” Michelle Bateman, a freelance beauty editor and brand consultant, told Inside Retail.  “As a digital-only brand aimed at millennials and Gen Z, Il Makiage understands that many of its customers see make-up as a creative outlet. Its e-commerce offering really makes the most of the available technology to inspire and excite customers, as well as to remove some of the traditional barriers to purchase, such as finding the right makeup shade.” Investing in tech  Il Makiage was created by New York-based makeup artist Ilana Harkavi in 1972. It was relaunched by siblings Oran Holtzman and Shiran Holtzman-Erel in 2018 after they acquired the brand and sold a minority stake to L Catterton for US$29 million in 2017.  Since then, Il Makiage has taken a tech-centric approach to selling makeup. It developed the PowerMatch algorithm to help customers find the right shade of foundation and concealer for their skin tone with over 90 per cent accuracy. The quiz has been taken by over 25 million users and continues to improve thanks to machine learning.  The brand also operates a unique e-commerce platform, where micro influencers can directly upload videos of makeup tutorials and product reviews using a special portal. They can tag Il Makiage products in the videos, making it easy for customers to purchase recommended items, and earn a cut of any resulting transactions. Over the years, Il Makiage has strategically acquired innovative startups to enhance its in-house tech capabilities. In 2021, the brand bought Israeli computer vision company Voyage81 for US$40 million. Prior to that, in 2019, it bought Neowize, an AI and data science company.  Today, over 40 per cent of the more than 200 employees who work at the brand’s parent company are on the tech team.  “Technology is becoming increasingly important in beauty and cosmetics, especially in the aftermath of the pandemic,” Bateman noted.  “As with many industries, customers have rapidly leveled-up their comfort around using technology to shop for makeup and other beauty products, as an alternative or complement to the in-store experience. Brands and retailers are responding to this with a raft of new options.” Can legacy brands keep up? However, Il Makiage is just the beginning of Oddity’s plan to revolutionise the beauty and wellness industries through technology. It will launch a second brand, SpoiledChild, in February of this year, and a third standalone brand at a later date.  While Oddity hasn’t said what kinds of products SpoiledChild will sell, it claims the online brand will disrupt another massive beauty and wellness category that has remained offline-dominated. Given its track record with Il Makiage, should legacy brands be worried?  “DTC and start-ups are already a threat to the major legacy brands and it’s unlikely this will change. Smaller digital-friendly brands have the distinct advantage of being able to move quickly, and to adjust their approach to meet the changing needs of their customers,” Bateman said.  “Having said that, legacy brands still have a lot to offer, particularly trust and reliability for their loyal customers.” In order to capitalise on this, they need to be more agile, according to Angela Ivana, CEO and founder of CosmoSafe, an education business for beauty professionals.  “In my experience dealing with companies like L’Oréal, there’s a lot of red tape and hoops to jump through for a single decision to be made. Therefore, legacy brands can be out of touch, which creates space for cult brands like Il Makiage,” she told Inside Retail. “I think legacy brands need more ‘intra-preneurship’ initiatives that allow departments to hire the best and freshest talent, minus the red tape, and then move like a startup to really keep up.”