DePasquale The Spa Boosts Sales of Services and Products Using Perfect Corp.-Powered Skincare Pro

Situation: Using AI/AR to Educate the Company’s Guests

DePasquale The Spa, located in Morris Plains, New Jersey, is a renowned beauty and wellness Salon and spa dedicated to creating experiences for their guests. The spa has pioneered a wellness approach that addresses conditions while collaborating closely with physicians and highly trained estheticians. 

Founded by Carmen DePasquale, who was born and raised in Paterson, New Jersey, this visionary entered the beauty industry after serving in the U.S. Air Force in the mid-1960s. Over the years, he developed DePasquale Companies, which comprises six vertically integrated subsidiaries that cover various aspects of the beauty business, including spas/salons, cosmetology education, distribution, and manufacturing. He refers to this collection as the “DePasquale Circle of Beauty,” which includes DePasquale The Spa, DePasquale Salon Systems, Artistic Academy of Hair Design, ECRU New York/ Little Green and Lakme USA.

Justin DePasquale, co-owner of DePasquale The Spa, wanted to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) technology to educate and engage salon/spa guests with the latest technology. 

Solution: Perfect Corp.’s AI/AR-Powered Technology. 

DePasquale The Spa uses Perfect Corp.’s Skincare Pro, an AI and AR skin analysis technology, to help clients understand their precise skin condition(s). Perfect Corp., a leader in AI/AR for beauty, provides ring-lit kiosks where customers can analyze their skin, getting scores on oiliness, pores, moisture, wrinkles, acne, texture, redness, and dark spots, plus a skin age estimate. The Spa customizes their HD Skin Analysis with recommended products and services based on the analysis to address their personal skincare needs. 

Benefits

DePasquale The Spa determined multiple benefits in working with Perfect Corp.’s AI/AR skin analysis technology, including:

• HD Skin Analysis is a great educational tool that engages the customers.
• HD Skin Analysis Skin Age Score “is a great motivator.”
• Provides “A natural conversation starter for artists and technicians."
• Helps increase sales for services and products.
• Using HD Skin Analysis “creates a more custom experience for each guest.”
• HD Skin Analysis serves as a social media tool.
• Provides a competitive edge.
• Augmented reality (AR) technology helps educate and empower the spa’s beauty customers

Perfect Corp. Skincare Pro provides scores for 15 skin conditions.

HD AI Skin Analysis is a Great Educational Tool “Engaging the Customer’s Curiosity”

Justin DePasquale is passionate about educating guests about their personal skin needs so that they can feel confident about the spa's products and recommended services.  He finds that HD Skin Analysis is a valuable educational tool for his guests.

In addition to providing scores for 15 skin concerns, the HD Skin Analyzer yields an overall Skin Age value. Initially, DePasquale says he considered omitting this from his Perfect Corp. deployment, but was surprised by how much guests embraced it, whether it showed their skin to be older or younger than their actual age.

The skin age feature has proven popular. “Regardless of what the skin age says, it has proven to be a great motivator,” DePasquale says. “If a guest sees their skin age is older than their actual age, their attitude is ‘I definitely have some work to do.’ And if a guest gets a younger skin age, they are like: ‘I have to keep doing the regimen I'm doing, because this is working.’ One guest walked up to me and gave me a hug when they saw their young skin age. So regardless of what it shows, it is a great motivator, and again, it is an interactive approach to engaging  them.”

HD Skin Analysis is a “Natural Conversation Starter for Our Artists and Technicians”

DePasquale The Spa prides itself on the skill of its artists and technicians as well as the company’s dedication to training. It has found that Perfect Corp.’s AI-powered HD Skin Analysis provides a seamless opportunity for its artists and technicians to share their knowledge with guests.

“After a guest engages with our HD Skin Analysis, they gain deep insight into their current skin condition and ask our artists and technicians questions,” DePasquale says. “This provides a natural conversation starter for our artists and technicians. It gives them the chance to demonstrate what they know. Before deploying our HD Skin Analysis, they might not have thought to explain more fully to guests about their skin conditions and describe how our products or services can help.”

DePasquale says customers who come in with questions based on HD Skin Analysis findings help keep artists and technicians on their toes.

“Sometimes, if you have a really solid brand and you have guests walking through the door all the time, it can all be taken for granted,” DePasquale says. “It can seem like they didn't have to really fight for the guests. However, what they do have to fight for is keeping those guests coming back and back again. We feel that our HD Skin Analysis helps in this effort."

Beautiful interior of DePasquale The Spa.

HD Skin Analysis Helps Increase Sales for Services and Products “We’re Not Salespeople”

DePasquale The Spa values the ways in which their HD Skin Analysis helps increase sales of retail products as well as their services.

Speaking of the company’s highly trained artists and technicians, DePasquale says, “We’re not salespeople. But when we inform and educate our guests, they will want to take home the products and engage in the services that will help them enhance and protect their skin. Our HD Skin Analysis plays a big role in both educating our guests and initiating the conversations about how our products and services can help.”

The HD Skin Analysis data helps make the guest a more included part of the skin care process, which can increase sales of products and services.

“When somebody comes into a room, even if they're scheduled for something else, they might say: ‘Hey, I just tried that HD Skin Analysis and it suggested a service that I’m not booked for today,’” DePasquale says. “This opens a conversation organically about additional services or products that would benefit their skin, and it is being driven by the guest.”

This is especially important as it provides an opportunity for increasing the number of services a guest purchases per visit.

“We want the technician, to hopefully upgrade the client somehow, whether it be something, simple as an essential oil, or adding a dermaplaning option, or whatever else our HD Skin Analysis might suggest,” DePasquale says. “When the system suggests adding services that the guest sees value in, that’s a big win. If this system helps upgrade a single service to two services today, or maybe two or three services for their next visit, that’s a huge win for the business.”

Using HD Skin Analysis to “Create a More Custom Experience for Each Guest”

The information generated by the HD Skin Analysis helps the artists and technicians of DePasquale The Spa give each guest a more personalized experience.

“The more educated we are about what a guest’s skin concerns are, the better we can serve them and get results specifically for them,” DePasquale says. “There’s nothing better than showing a guest that we aren’t just another service provider, that we’re really caring for them as an individual.” This is especially important for a large salon/spa like DePasquale The Spa.

“You want people to feel like they're the only one in the building,” DePasquale says. “Using our HD Skin Analysis helps us create a more customized experience for each guest. We want them to know that we recognize their needs are different from those of the person who came before them and the one who will follow. Therefore, we're going to customize their services and product suggestions, and provide guidance on home skincare routines. This kind of personalization is priceless, and that's what we strive to do each and every day.”

Justin DePasquale, Co-Owner, DePasquale The Spa.

HD Skin Analysis Serves as a Social Media Tool

DePasquale The Spa finds that its HD Skin Analysis generates positive social media postings, as well as traditional person-to-person excitement and recommendations.

“An actress with more than a million followers discovered our HD Skin Analysis on her own,” DePasquale says. “She had some fun with it, posted about it, and created a lot of excitement. Our HD Skin Analysis is a great talking point. Guests go home and tell their friends : ‘Hey, I was at DePasquale, and they had this HD Skin Analysis. You’ve got to go check it out. It's complimentary, and you don't even have to have an appointment. Go in and try it out.’ This keeps things fresh, new, and exciting.”

Providing a Competitive Edge

DePasquale The Spa has always been an innovator, and they see their deployment of HD Skin Analysis as providing a competitive advantage.

DePasquale emphasizes that being average is not enough. He advocates for always aiming to be well above average, constantly elevating the experience of every guest. This approach keeps people alert, offers a competitive advantage, and is essential for staying relevant today. Currently, we are advancing by introducing our guests to AI and AR through our HD Skin Analysis, embodying this philosophy of continuous learning and growth. 

Perfect Corp. Is a Great Company to Work With 

DePasquale found Perfect Corp. to be a great company to work with. He admires the AI/AR technology, as well as the personal touch that made it easy to deploy his custom HD Skin Analysis.

He also sees Perfect Corp. as a great partner to work with into the future.

“With Perfect Corp. technology, I feel like I’m part of the future,” DePasquale says. “I want my guests to know that, yes, they're always going to have a human touch and a high-level experience. They're always going to love what DePasquale has become as a brand, and at the same time, they're going to be welcomed with new things, including exciting technology.”

His guests appreciate this forward-looking approach.

“Our use of AI skin analysis technology creates excitement for our guests,” DePasquale says. “This excitement, along with the real-world value of its application, increases sales of products and services while making our guests want to come back. With all these benefits, why wouldn’t I want to be part of this?”

About Perfect Corp. 

Perfect Corp.(NYSE: PERF) is a global leader in AI and AR technology, redefining creativity across beauty, fashion, skincare, and digital content creation. Its YouCam suite of apps has been downloaded over 1.1 billion times globally, empowering users to create, edit, and express themselves through photo, video, and generative AI tools. The YouCam platform also includes a powerful web-based editor and a suite of developer APIs, providing creators, brands, and technology partners with seamless access to content creation capabilities across platforms.

For brands and professionals, Perfect Corp. offers an award-winning portfolio of enterprise technologies, including virtual try-on experiences for makeup, hair, jewelry, watches, and fashion accessories, as well as AI-powered skin and hair analysis.

With a brand portfolio that includes YouCam and Skincare Pro, and a network of over 800 global brand partners, Perfect Corp. is transforming the beauty experience through personalized, immersive, and intelligent innovation. 

For more information, visit perfectcorp.com and follow @Perfect-Corp.