L’Oreal brings Maybelline virtual try-on to ChatGPT

L’Oreal announced at VivaTech 2026 that Maybelline New York’s virtual Makeup Try-On, built on the company’s ModiFace augmented reality and AI tools, will be embedded in ChatGPT through a partnership with OpenAI. The agreement covers consumer shopping tools, product discovery, advertising pilots, research and internal content production.

The feature will run inside ChatGPT’s conversational interface, allowing users to test makeup looks digitally without leaving the chat environment. L’Oreal acquired ModiFace in 2018 and has used the unit to develop virtual makeup and hair-colour try-ons and AR shopping tools. The company reported more than 120 million Beauty Tech uses across 66 countries and 31 brands by the end of 2025. OpenAI reported that ChatGPT had over 900 million weekly active users and more than 50 million subscribers earlier in 2026.

Part of the partnership will focus on how L’Oreal products are surfaced to US users inside ChatGPT, with Lancôme and Kérastase cited for product discovery work. Several L’Oreal brands, including SkinCeuticals, CeraVe and Garnier, are taking part in OpenAI’s global ChatGPT advertising pilot, which centers on ads within AI-assisted consumer interactions. L’Oreal has not released operational details on how ad placements will appear inside the chat interface.

The deal also extends to research and formulation. L’Oreal will use GPT-Rosalind, OpenAI’s life-sciences reasoning model, to map the skin microbiome starting with La Roche-Posay. The company said it intends to identify beneficial bacteria that could inform new skincare development. L’Oreal Research & Innovation is working with IBM on a Formulation Foundation Model for beauty formulation and has collaborated with NVIDIA on projects such as 3D product rendering and predictive formulation science.

OpenAI’s model will be integrated into CreAItech, L’Oreal’s internal generative AI platform for producing images and videos that reflect its brands’ visual identity. L’Oreal reported that 73,000 employees have been trained in generative AI and that internal tools include L’OrealGPT and personal AI companions for staff.

Asmita Dubey, L’Oreal’s chief digital and marketing officer, said: ‘As we scale AI across the company, we want to use AI to support consumers and employees.’ Emmanuel Marill, OpenAI’s managing director for EMEA, added that the collaboration covers research and employee tools as well as consumer-facing services.