Rare Beauty UX Case Study

Hey Designer,

It’s Shan again! Lately, I have been thinking about how Beauty and UX intersect.

You’ve probably heard of Rare Beauty, right? And if you’re a girlie 💅🏻 you must have. It’s not just a makeup brand but more a personal mission.

Selena Gomez, the founder, was diagnosed with Lupus and experienced firsthand how difficult it can be to use beauty products when you have hand mobility challenges. This inspired her to create a line of products that prioritise accessibility in design, ensuring that makeup is easy to use for everyone, including people with dexterity issues.

So, what did she do?
This needed research on health issues and accessibility which a beauty brand can't do alone. So, they partnered with the Casa Colina Research Institute (CCRI) to research on how they could make beauty products accessible.

CCRI conducted a study to identify features that make their products easy to open, close, hold, or apply for individuals with dexterity issues and gathered information on what product attributes help usability and satisfaction for users with disabilities.

"This study gave our patients the chance to reintroduce makeup into their lives in a way that was more accessible. It showed that even with limited hand and arm mobility, you can still partake in the beauty community 🩷”

- says Hannah Cone (PT, DPT, NCS), Casa Colina Hospital.

From how you hold it to how it blends, many factors go into making a beauty product accessible. Rare Beauty has set a new standard identifying three key features after this :

• Packaging that's easy to use
• Packaging finishes that allow for a secure grip
• Applicators that are comfortable to hold and manoeuvre with precision

I love how Rare Beauty made inclusivity a priority. It’s proof that accessibility should be in everything we create, not just websites and apps, but physical products too.

There is a backstory of how this came in my mind but that’s for another time 🩷

But how cool is that? What do you think about accessibility showing up in design, whether it’s beauty or tech?

Until next time,
Shanica