Google has announced a new partnership with Sephora, where users of smart displays like the Google Home Hub will be able to bring up makeup tutorials while they are doing their makeup in the morning. Makeup tutorials are pretty popular on YouTube, in fact there are some YouTubers who make a living on making makeup tutorials and there are over 81 million how-to related beauty searches that happened on YouTube in the past year. Sephora is one of those that makes some really incredible, and highly detailed how-to videos on YouTube. That ranges from makeup tips, hair tips and even skincare tips. So Google decided to work with Sephora so that it could help make these tutorials easier to use while you are doing your makeup in the morning. Instead of getting makeup all over your phone or tablet, you can now ask Google to start playing a how-to video on the Google Home Hub, and since the Home Hub does have a display, you can actually see the video while you are doing your makeup. This makes it a great reason to put the Home Hub in your bathroom.
To get started with Sephora and Google Home Hub, all you need to say is “Hey Google, play contouring videos by Sephora”. Of course, you can ask Google to play different videos from Sephora as well. You can also use your voice to pause the video, or skip ahead to a specific part of the video. Or even go back, in case you missed a step and need to go back. This is all done hands-free, which should make it much easier to use these how-to videos while you are doing your makeup in the morning. There are some other Sephora-related commands that you can give Google, like “Hey Google, play get ready with me eyebrow tutorial by Sephora.” or “show me foundation tips videos from Sephora”, or “show me bold lip color videos by Sephora.” And there are a ton more out there that you can use as well.
Background: Now that Google has its own smart display in the Google Home Hub, it has been working on partnering with other companies to make the smart display even more useful than it already was. Sephora is just the latest partner for Google to use with the Home Hub. While you can ask your Google Home speaker to play these Sephora videos, it will only play on a TV or another display, and it’s pretty likely that you don’t have a TV in your bathroom. But something like the Home Hub can fit into your bathroom quite nicely, and since it doesn’t have a camera, you don’t need to worry about Google recording you while you are in the bathroom, which is also a good thing here. The Google Home Hub is a great smart display to pick up since it is only $149, and it has a 7-inch display, so it’s large enough to watch videos, but not so large that it is in the way sitting on your sink or whatever, in the bathroom. It can also play music for you while you are in the shower, which is something that everyone is going to love.
The main objective for Google here is for you to use the Assistant more and more. Using the Google Assistant for everything throughout the day is the ultimate goal for Google. As that is where Google (and other tech companies) believe that the world is headed these days. And being able to use the Google Assistant for everyday things like bringing up makeup tutorials from Sephora is a great step towards that goal. The Google Assistant and Home Hub can already do so much, like bring up tutorials from other YouTubers as well, seeing as Google is only using YouTube to bring up these videos, and the commands are the same as bringing up videos from another creator on YouTube. So if you aren’t a Sephora fan, and would rather get makeup tutorials from another YouTuber, you can still do that.
Impact: To celebrate this new partnership between Google and Sephora, there will be a special “Dream Vanity” experience at ten Sephora stores across the country. This experience has the Google Home Hub there for you to use to find the makeup tutorial you want, and there is also some makeup there, with a mirror to check yourself out. There is also a pamphlet there to let you know more about this partnership between the two companies. The Sephora stores that will have this Dream Vanity experience on display include: Prudential Center in Boston, Michigan Avenue in Chicago, North Park in Dallas, Century City and Hollywood & Highland in Los Angeles, 34th Street and Union Square in New York City, South Coast Plaza in Orange County, Powell Street in San Francisco, or Valley Fair in San Jose.
On top of having that Dream Vanity experience available, Sephora is also going to be selling Google Home Hub in those stores listed above, as well as on their website. The Google Home Hub comes in four colors: chalk, charcoal, aqua and sand, so you can pick up the color that fits your setup the best. Though, remember that the color only affects the backside of the Home Hub. The front is all white with the display. The only colored part is the back of the display and the speaker that is back there. The Google Home Hub is a 7-inch smart display, that can be used for virtually everything that a Google Home can be used for, but it has more visuals, which people may like a bit more than a regular smart speaker. Especially when asking for things like how the weather is and so forth. The Google Home Hub is one of a handful of smart displays available now. Google and Sephora did not mention whether this feature will work on all of the smart displays with Google Assistant included, but it should. As mentioned already, Google is simply pulling these videos from YouTube, so there’s really nothing special here, other than using Sephora’s name.