Producing Hundreds of UGC Variants That Power Il Makiage's Shade Matching Funnel
Il Makiage is a tech-driven prestige beauty brand under Oddity, selling DTC across 50 foundation shades via an AI shade-matching quiz. Scaling creative to cover the full shade range and multiple product categories without fatiguing audiences was the central challenge. We produce the full UGC pipeline, from casting authentic actors to shipping hundreds of unique social assets across Meta and TikTok.
From a 1972 Makeup Studio to an AI Beauty Platform Filing for Nasdaq
Il Makiage originated in 1972 when makeup artist Ilana Harav pioneered highly pigmented talc-free formulas from a Long Island City warehouse, producing private label lines including early MAC Cosmetics products. The brand faded before brother-sister duo Oran Holtzman and Shiran Holtzman-Erel relaunched it in 2018 under Oddity, a DTC data science company backed by L Catterton. Oddity acquired NeoWize for customer analytics, Voyage81 for AI computational imaging, and biotech firm Revela for molecule discovery before filing for Nasdaq under ticker ODD with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley as lead book-runners.
The range spans Flawless Base Foundation in 50 shades, Multi-Use Concealer in 30 shades, ICON Mascara, Power Lift Plumping Cream, and Power Redo Wrinkle Fix, positioned against Glossier, Rare Beauty, and Fenty Beauty for the 18 to 35 female demographic. Il Makiage's conversion engine is its AI shade-matching quiz, which generates 4x higher lifetime value than standard product pages. The quiz only converts when upstream content builds enough confidence to begin. Oddity engaged us to produce the full UGC pipeline, casting authentic actors and shipping hundreds of variants to drive quiz entries across Meta and TikTok.
Three Hook Formats That Sell 50 Shades Without Skewing to One Skin Tone
We produce hundreds of UGC assets monthly for Il Makiage, casting authentic actors across the full Flawless Base Foundation shade spectrum from shade 1 through 50. Three hook formats dominate testing: application reveals where a creator films bare-skin to full-coverage transitions, shade-match reactions capturing genuine first impressions of the AI quiz result, and routine integrations showing products like ICON Mascara and Power Lift Plumping Cream in daily context. Every asset ships tagged with shade cluster, hook type, and product SKU, entering a 72-hour kill-or-scale window. Fatigue cycles run three weeks before we rotate the full concept library.
Shade Cluster Targeting That Replaced Standard Interest Audiences on Meta and TikTok
Il Makiage's UGC feeds Meta Advantage+ Shopping campaigns and TikTok Spark Ads, structured by shade cluster rather than standard interest targeting. On Meta, value-based lookalikes seed from quiz completers who purchased within 14 days, segmented into 7,000 audiences by shade, product category, and average order value. TikTok campaigns amplify top-performing UGC natively via Spark Ads, targeting beauty and skincare interest clusters where Il Makiage competes against Glossier, Rare Beauty, and Fenty for the 18 to 35 demographic. Budget allocation shifts weekly based on quiz entry CPA by platform, with Meta typically commanding the majority of spend.
Connecting Every Variant to Quiz Completion and Return Rate Downstream
Every UGC variant connects to downstream quiz completion, shade match accuracy, and return rate through a tagging layer that tracks creative elements across the full funnel. We map which hook types, shade clusters, and actor profiles drive the highest quiz-to-purchase conversion, feeding data back into casting and production briefs weekly. The 7,000 lookalike segments derive from quiz completers grouped by matched shade, product basket, and repurchase frequency, each receiving creative tailored to their specific result. This closed loop between production and measurement drives the 18% reduction in foundation returns. Content quality determines match confidence, which determines return probability.
Building a UGC Engine for Every Shade in a 50 Foundation Range
The technical challenge of producing UGC for a 50-shade foundation range is combinatorial. Every skin tone, lighting condition, and texture must appear authentically or the content fails to build the confidence Il Makiage's quiz depends on. We cast actors across the full Flawless Base spectrum, filming in standardised rigs that reproduce how foundation looks on phone screens under natural, office, and evening light.
Each variant is tagged with a naming convention recording shade cluster, product category, hook type, and platform format. When actors filming for shades 30 through 40 outperform on TikTok, we extract the hook and reproduce it across shades 1 through 15 and 41 through 50. This cross-pollination prevents the common DTC beauty failure where winning creative skews toward one skin tone and alienates the rest of the range. Delivery runs weekly with 40 to 60 new assets entering a 72-hour window measured on quiz entry CPA. Variants beating threshold feed lookalike segments built from quiz completers, segmented by shade, product interest, and purchase behaviour, creating the 7,000 audience segments that sharpen targeting across Meta and TikTok.
Foundation Returns Fell 18% Because the Right Content Found the Right Shade
The engagement has delivered a 31% lift in quiz completion rates, an 18% reduction in foundation returns, and 7,000 new lookalike segments from quiz completer data. These metrics connect causally. Better UGC builds confidence before the quiz, higher completion means more accurate shade matches, and accurate matches mean fewer returns. The compounding effect matters in a category where a single wrong shade delivery loses a customer permanently.
Our innovation is structuring creative production around Il Makiage's shade taxonomy rather than standard demographic segments. Most DTC beauty brands produce UGC by persona. We produce by shade cluster, ensuring every segment of the 50-foundation range receives equal creative investment and testing velocity.
Beauty ecommerce has reached 25% global penetration, with TikTok Shop capturing 40% of Gen Z purchases. EU Green Deal regulations mandating 50% recyclable packaging by 2030 will reshape product presentation. AR try-on tools already lift conversion 30% for integrating brands. For Il Makiage, the forward opportunity is linking shade-specific UGC directly into AR experiences, letting a viewer see a creator with a similar complexion and virtually try the exact product in a single interaction.
