If you’re a person of color and have gone looking for the perfect shade of lipstick for yourself, you know difficult it can be. Lipstick is nothing new to the world, but before Asmau Ahmed came along, finding that perfect shade certainly was.
Asmau Ahmed is an entrepreneur, an engineer, and the mind behind Plum Perfect. Plum Perfect is an app that analyzes the minutest color details on your skin to present you with beauty products that complement you perfectly.
Plum Perfect: The journey towards innovating the beauty industry
Ahmed was an innovator from a very young age. She grew up between Nigeria and London, and experimenting was a crucial part of her developmental years.
She would convert her parents’ laundry rooms into science labs where she could test out new ideas and concepts.
Later, she completed a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia with honors. She worked as a chemical engineer for a while, but eventually, she would leave that life behind to pursue an MBA from Columbia Business School.
Asmau Ahmed has admitted that she hates shopping. She doesn’t want to spend time hunting for perfect makeup, and it was this frustration that led her to establish Plum Perfect.
Plum Perfect was originally conceptualized as a visual search engine. Users could take pictures of products they wanted to purchase and upload them to the search engine. Then, they would immediately be directed to shopping portals where those portals were available for sale. When Ahmed started, she envisioned more than a beauty-based visual search engine; home decor items and so on were also slated to be available through the search engine.
As time passed and she and her team continued to do research for Plum Perfect, the idea for a beauty app was developed and then eventually realized. Together with her team, Ahmed spent over eight years analyzing more than sixteen million colors. This enabled her to create a platform that could provide consumers with complementary color recommendations that matched the user’s skin tone with pinpointed accuracy.
Asmau Ahmed revealed that Plum Perfect was designed to locate and analyze minute changes in shades and color of the eyes, lips, and skin. These details aren’t detectable by the human eye, making Plum Perfect the ideal companion for anyone interested in beauty.
Asmau Ahmed has always loved beauty and makeup. She would try on her sister’s makeup when she was younger. She noted that when she used her sister’s lipstick, even though they had the same skin tone, the lipstick shade didn’t suit her at all. Contrast this with the technology in Plum Perfect that analyzes minute details, and you’ll see where the idea came from.
Ahmed’s Plum Perfect is more than just a beauty app. It’s an innovative technology that incorporates AI and machine learning. The patented Plum Perfect is meant to help consumers find personalized solutions, taking into account every person’s skin shade, color, and even undertones.
Ahmed and changing consumer behavior with Plum Perfect
Asmau Ahmed has noted that she believes consumer behavior is changing. People are more visually oriented now, and visual content has replaced the written word like texts, as the primary mode of communication worldwide.
This change in consumer behavior is combined with people’s simultaneous need for instant gratification. If consumers can find what they’re looking for immediately and effectively, both the consumer and the seller are helped by Plum Perfect. Even the advertising industry stands to gain from the technology.
To use the Plum Perfect app, all a consumer has to do is take a selfie and upload it to the app. Then the app analyzes their skin, lips, and eyes and detects the various color shades on the person. The app then relays back data on complementary colors that would perfectly suit the consumer.
This enables the consumer to find the perfect shade of lipstick, the right foundation, or the right blush every single time. The app not only leads consumers to the right color shade but also to products that match the recommended shades.
This brings consumers together with retailers and advertisers in a cohesive way and makes room for personalized advertising as well.
Asmau Ahmed and being an entrepreneur
Ahmed hasn’t limited herself to just Plum Perfect. She is the head of her organization and oversees all aspects of management such as profitability, product development, collaboration, and more. She also looks after fundraising and is one of only twelve black women who have secured upwards of $1 million through VC funding. Ahmed has revealed that she focuses on approaching female-led or female investors for her innovative and emerging technologies.
Plum Perfect was founded in 2014, but Ahmed hasn’t rested since then. She has collaborated with other brands, such as IMAN cosmetics, to whom she licensed her patented technology. She also collaborated with Macy’s Inc.
BeauTV is a project initiated by Asmau Ahmed as well. For the YouTube-based project, Ahmed approached influencers in the makeup sphere, as well as makeup artists. Viewers who view content from partnering content creators can receive personalized color shades that will enable them to achieve the same look as the creator they are watching.
Asmau Ahmed has also won multiple awards and travels and gives talks to inspire people, especially women, who want to begin their own entrepreneurial journey. Propagating powerful ideas like adaptability, perseverance, and hard work, Asmau Ahmed is a motivational force for the younger generation.
Plum Perfect revolutionized the makeup industry at a time when color shades for women of color were a part of the emerging landscape. Plum Perfect has now made it possible for women, as well as men, to find makeup that suits them. And they can immediately locate and find their perfect shade from the comfort of their own home.
Asmau, recognizing the changing global marketplace, has enabled consumers and sellers to find each other more easily.
Asmau Ahmed is still on a journey towards innovation and growth. According to her, Plum Perfect is only the beginning. There is more the world can expect from her.