Background
shu uemura, the Japanese makeup artist brand owned by L'Oréal, opened a redesigned global flagship, shu:ARTstage, in the Omotesando Hills West Building in Shibuya-ku, Tokyo on 19 June 2026. The store is staged less like a conventional beauty counter and more like a working studio, with makeup artists and visitors sharing the floor. A complimentary 3D face scanning service was offered from opening, alongside paid personal makeup lessons booked by reservation.
The deployment
The brand installed an AI mirror developed by Loook.ai in a dedicated area of the store. Multiple units are fitted as a permanent fixture rather than a temporary activation.
A customer starts the experience through a touch interface styled as a digital makeup brush. The mirror then guides them through a short sequence:
- a full face scan
- a reveal of their face shape
- a breakdown of their face ratio
- an assessment of feature balance
- a personalised face ID summary
The whole analysis takes roughly a minute. The closing summary combines face shape, ratio and feature balance into specific recommendations — brow shaping or contouring techniques suited to that particular face — plus a suggested next step, typically booking a sit-down session with a shu uemura makeup artist.
How the mirror works
The installation differs from the camera-and-screen smart mirrors common in retail. It is built around an actual reflective mirror, with the digital AI layer sitting underneath the glass rather than in front of it. Customers see their own genuine reflection instead of a live camera image, while AI-driven content and analysis appear as part of that reflection.
Driving it is real-time 3D facial scanning and computer vision, which visualise facial data against principles of balance and symmetry to produce an objective read of an individual's features. Loook.ai's platform installs on a compute unit connected to a display and a discreet camera, and integrates several AR and AI engines to composite the analysis onto the reflected face.
Technology partners
Loook.ai is the AR mirror platform launched in October 2025 by innovation studio FFFACE.ME, which builds augmented reality mirrors, filters and in-store activations for brands and retailers. The team behind the platform has delivered AR mirror experiences for names including Prada, Ralph Lauren, Puma, Bershka and L'Oréal.
Artists stay in the loop
The system is positioned as an aid to the brand's makeup artists rather than a replacement for them. The scan is treated as a starting point, not a conclusion: artists interpret the facial data and translate it into a consultation and product advice. Loook.ai's stated design intent was to attach the technology to something customers already do — look in a mirror — instead of asking them to adopt a new behaviour, so the brand gains structured customer data while the human consultation remains the centre of the experience.
What comes next
A planned update will add a digital hand-off: customers will be able to scan a QR code to download a personalised card summarising their facial analysis, save it to their phone, or share it on social media.
