Mary Kay is building its mobile repertoire with a new iPhone and Android application to let consumers virtually try on makeup and hair products.

Mary Kay is rolling out the app after seeing consumers increasingly accessing the company?s Web site through mobile devices. The app is available for free download in either Apple?s App Store or Google Play.

?With the rapid growth rate of smartphones and tablets around the world, we need to provide our beauty consultants and their consumers with mobile ways to engage with our brand and purchase our products,? said Patricia Wanderley, vice president of corporate digital marketing at Mary Kay, Dallas.

?Users accessing our http://marykay.com through mobile devices is growing rapidly around the world,? she said. ?These types of apps simplify and fit into our Independent beauty consultants and their customers' lives.?

Mobile makeover
The virtual makeup app is a mobile version of a similar feature that Mary Kay offers on its Web site.

One of the main features of the app lets users upload a picture to virtually test out how beauty products look on themselves. Users can also pick to preview makeup and hair products look on a model.

Consumers can then change the look of the photo with categories such as face, eye, lips and hair Mary Kay products.

Users can also choose to see how pre-selected palettes of makeup look on.

Each product in the app can be clicked on to view more information, recommended other items and price.

Mary Kay sells its products exclusively through company beauty consultants.

Although the app does let consumers shop, they are directed out of the app to the company?s Web site to check out, where they must pinch and zoom to find information on nearby beauty consultants.

Additionally, users are taken through a lengthy and text-heavy process to create an account, which might be OK on a desktop but misses the mark with mobile users? shorter attention spans.

Instead, Mary Kay could have mimicked the same features that are available on the company?s Web site to its mobile app. Mobile commerce is gaining steam ? especially with smaller purchases such as beauty products ? and the company could drive an ROI directly from the app.

Consumers can create wish lists of products to be shared via Facebook, Twitter, email or Pinterest.

Mary Kay's Web site

Direct sales
Although the app is meant for both consumers and the company?s beauty consultants, the emphasis is clearly on helping Mary Kay beauty consultants with this initiative.

A mobile app such as Mary Kay?s is a particularly powerful tool for beauty consultants to highlight the company?s full catalog. Additionally, beauty consultants can use the app to show users first-hand how products look on.

Mary Kay is not the only direct sales beauty brand banking on mobile to help its employees sell products.

For instance, Avon?s Mark rolled out an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and Android app to help sales representatives process orders last year (see story).

?In addition to face-to-face, our independent beauty consultants today also use online, social media and mobile tools to better connect with and serve their customers ? mobile and social are becoming an increasingly important part of this mix,? Ms. Wanderley said.

?To respond, Mary Kay is creating a mobile ecosystem for its independent beauty consultants in more than 30 countries to better engage with customers,? she said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Marketer, New York