GlamUP · B2C · face-scan makeup app
Swap text makeup tips for a face scan showing your before and after
Started going viral on TikTok; founder gives no numbers
Workedproduct-viralityfeature-developmentorganic-short-video
What they did
First version: scan your face, get text-based makeup tutorials. It did not work on social media. Changed the core feature so users scan their face and see a before/after of how they would look with specific makeup looks, a visual result that suits TikTok content. Had tested several candidate features before landing on it.
What happened
The visual before/after feature worked really well on TikTok and the app started going really viral
- Stage
- Growth (early, after 3-4 months without traction)
This shipped together with other changes, so the result can't be credited to this alone.
“I remember the the first feature was probably, you scan your face and we give you certain like tutorials or it's very text-based. And we realized that doesn't really work on social media”
“And then we realized making it more visual so you can scan your face and you can see the before and after of how you will look like with certain make up looks, that works really well for TikTok. So, we just started going really viral with it.”
Related topics
Get tactics like this every Monday
New tactics from the week's founder interviews, each linked to where it was said.
More from GlamUp
All 28 GlamUp tactics- Post the same before/after makeup slideshow with one fixed hook, caption and audioFirst post hit 10M views; millions of views a day at peak
- Let users skip paying by inviting 3 friends with a code1.6M share/code requests; codes flooded TikTok comments; conversion barely dropped
- When people close the paywall, show the same plans at 50% off
- After each answer, show a stat like '80% of our users have acne too'
- Strip makeup off Pinterest photos, then add it back in-app for big contrastContrast made the slideshows go viral; founder claimBlack hat
- Put the app name in the copy-paste referral message so TikTok search ranks itSearching 'GlamUp' on TikTok shows only their content; founder claim