Beautylish is an online social network totally focused on beauty, including resources, product reviews, video tutorials, makeup tips, trends, celeb looks and more.
The iPhone app feels very much like a magazine chock-full of user-generated content. Browse what other beauty-obsessed individuals are discovering and experimenting with, plus learn how to get the cool looks they’re coming up with and share your own.
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First Impressions
You’ll need a Beautylish account to use the app on your iPhone; simply provide your first and last name, email address and password.
Beautylish’s will automatically guide you through the creation of an account. The home screen lands you in the Editorial content.
The app will then request some information about you, including your eye color, hair color, skin type and more. You also have the option of uploading a photo of yourself to create a community profile. This will allow you to add comments, discuss in forums, review products and upload photos to the app.
Your home screen lands you on content that falls under the Editorial tab. Your menu can be found at the bottom of the screen, and the tabs are, from left to right, Editorial, Products, Talk, Videos and Photos. You’ll notice that Beautylish’s display adapts whether you’re viewing it in portrait or landscape.
The menu displayed at the bottom of your screen can be hidden or revealed with a simple tap on your screen.
Content is initially displayed with thumbnail images the width of the iPhone’s screen, plus a few lines of text. You can also see as you scroll through each category of content, how many “likes” and comments an individual feature has, as well as when it was posted. Click on any one for more information.
When you’re viewing individual uploads under Editorial, Products, Video and Photos, you’ll notice a menu bar at the bottom of the screen. Tap anywhere on the content to hide or display this menu, which displays and enables you to add to “likes” and comments, plus share the feature, view the products used and view related content.
You can view products in their own category, or you can browse products that are featured in user-created videos and photos.
While Editorial lists articles related to trends, how-to’s, collection releases and more, Products provides a seemingly endless list of new products along with user reviews. Click on any product to learn more about it, plus use the menu bar at the bottom of the screen to view user photos and videos that feature this product. Because there’s no substitute for seeing the product in action, right?
The app’s third tab from the left is Talk, which is like an open forum for users. Here you can get makeup advice, ask questions, source opinions and discuss anything else you can think of. Simply click the plus sign which appears just above the menu bar on the righthand side and fire away.
If you find something you like, click on Related in the bottom menu to view similar content or more posts from that user.
Videos and Photos, as mentioned above, are linked to content under Editorial and Products, but both categories are fun to browse on their own. Stuck in a rut and looking for a new manicure? Want to browse videos for a creative up-do? Or maybe you have always wanted to learn how to do a smoky eye. I guarantee you there’s a user who has posted a photo and/or video related to whatever it is you’re interested in.
You may have also noticed the little “B” icon that’s always in the top right corner. Tapping it will reveal items related to your individual account, such as all your “likes,” plus you can customize your experience by following those topics and people you find interesting.
Content can be shared via social networks and email. Editorial can be sorted according to the topics that interest you.
It’s also worth nothing that virtually everything you discover on the app can be shared with your friends and followers via Facebook, Twitter or email. Through the Share button you can also opt to view content on the web, rather than through the app. I’m not really sure why you’d want to do that, though, since the content is displayed on the mobile version of Beautylish’s websie very similarly. But to each her own.
One last thing worth mentioning … the home screen provides a dropdown menu located front and center at the top. You can use it to filter the Editorial displayed: Popular, Stories, News, Products, Style, Wellness, Tips & Tricks and Community.
Lasting Impressions
If you decide to download Beautylish for your iPad as well, you’ll discover that the two incarnations. In my opinion, the iPad version of the app is geared more toward users who want to read and browse the content versus create it. The “upload photo” function that’s available through the iPhone version of Beautylish is not currently available on the iPad version.
Of course, Beautylish the website is all that and more. You’ll find even more photos, videos and tutorials, plus a wealth of editorial content from the team behind Beautylish, covering topics such as wellness, style, celebrity and more. Not to mention, the website is also an online retailer, so you can get your hands on some of the cutting-edge beauty products that other users are obsessing over.
While I recommend the iPad app more for reading and the iPhone app more for contributing, here’s the bottom line: If you’re truly a beauty junkie, you’re going to want to be on all three — iPad, iPhone and online — to get the full Beautylish experience.