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Beauty brands including Laneige, Laura Mercier, Urban Decay, NYX and Coty experimented with metaverse stores, events and training as interest surged. In an available excerpt from Cosmetics Business, consultant Nick Vaus says the push lost momentum in part because technology moved faster than consumer appetite and brands did not establish a clear reason for people to take part. The excerpt does not provide a full account of the experts’ views or quantify the projects’ results.
Beauty brands’ metaverse experiments have faded from industry conversation after a burst of virtual stores, branded events and staff training, according to a report by Cosmetics Business. In the available excerpt, brand and design consultant Nick Vaus says companies often pursued the technology without a clear consumer need, raising questions about why audiences would use those experiences.
The report recalls brands building a range of virtual experiences during the metaverse’s period of high profile. Laneige and Laura Mercier opened virtual storefronts, while Urban Decay held a launch party in Roblox and NYX staged a Pride parade in a virtual environment. Coty also used virtual sessions to train staff, according to the article.
Activity extended beyond individual brand projects. Advertising agency Cult launched Metaverse Beauty Week in 2023, a virtual festival organized around beauty-focused online events. The report frames the current moment as a sharp contrast with that earlier attention, describing the metaverse as having become much less visible in beauty-industry discussion.
Vaus’s explanation, as presented in the extract, centers on a mismatch between technological possibility and consumer interest. He says brands appeared to treat a virtual presence as something they needed to have, while not always giving users a distinctive reason to participate. The available source is a small extract of a subscriber-only report, so it does not include the complete range of expert commentary or evidence about individual projects.
Why Brand Experiments Lost Traction
The report speaks to a practical challenge for beauty companies: being able to build a digital experience does not necessarily mean consumers will choose to use it. Virtual stores and events can attract attention, but a brand still needs to offer something relevant to users, such as a useful service, meaningful interaction or entertainment they cannot readily get elsewhere.
For readers, the shift matters because the metaverse was presented as a new channel for customer engagement, not merely as a technology demonstration. If the purpose and audience benefit were unclear, investment in virtual environments could be difficult to sustain. The excerpt does not provide financial figures or audience data, so it cannot establish how much brands spent or whether particular projects succeeded commercially.
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From Virtual Stores to a 2023 Festival
During the metaverse’s surge in attention, beauty brands tested several formats: virtual retail spaces, events inside gaming platforms, digital collectibles and branded online experiences. The report says the sector sought to take part in a broader conversation about immersive online spaces where users interact through avatars.
Metaverse Beauty Week in 2023 brought beauty-related online events together for a week. The article now revisits that period to ask why the momentum did not last. The supplied excerpt gives examples of the early activity and one expert’s view, but it does not supply a detailed timeline of when specific projects ended or how consumer use changed over time.
“Essentially the ‘why’ got lost.”
— Nick Vaus, creative director at brand and design consultancy Free the Birds
beauty brand virtual event platform
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How Much Impact Projects Had
The available extract does not establish whether the listed projects ended, remain accessible or moved into other digital formats. It also provides no figures for visitor numbers, repeat use, sales or investment, and does not compare results across brands or platforms. Vaus’s comments are an attributed expert assessment, not a complete industry-wide finding.
The report says it asked several experts for their views, but the supplied material contains only part of one response. Their full range of explanations—and whether other contributors agree with Vaus—is not available here. The reasons for the metaverse’s reduced visibility therefore cannot be pinned on one factor from this excerpt alone.
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Whether Brands Revisit Virtual Spaces
The immediate next step is to see whether beauty companies continue to use immersive digital formats in more targeted ways, rather than treating a virtual presence as a requirement. Any renewed projects would need to show what audience they serve and what benefit they offer; the source does not announce a new campaign or forecast a broad return.
Further reporting or fuller access to the Cosmetics Business article could clarify how the other experts explain the downturn and whether brands are applying lessons from their earlier experiments. For now, the confirmed development is the report’s retrospective assessment, not a documented industry-wide decision to abandon virtual experiences.
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Key Questions
What did beauty brands do in the metaverse?
According to Cosmetics Business, Laneige and Laura Mercier created virtual storefronts, Urban Decay held a Roblox launch party, NYX staged a Pride parade in a virtual environment, and Coty used virtual staff-training sessions.
What does Nick Vaus say went wrong?
Vaus says the technology advanced without enough attention to consumer behaviour or appetite. He argues that brands needed a clear reason for users to take part and a distinct experience to offer them.
Did the metaverse stop being used by beauty brands?
The available report excerpt says the topic has become much less prominent, but it does not confirm that every brand ended its projects or that all virtual experiences have disappeared.
Is there evidence showing whether the projects were successful?
Not in the supplied extract. It gives examples of projects and an expert’s interpretation, but no audience, sales or return-on-investment data.
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