Try before you buy: the L'Oreal Makeup Genius app

How many times have you bought a piece of makeup only to get it home and realise the shade isn't quite right for you? I know I've wasted a lot of money over the years on that!

L'Oreal are set to launch a seriously exciting new app that should not only stop that from happening again  but should also make it easier to get more adventurous with makeup.

Makeup Genius is a super clever app that allows you to apply every L'Oreal own brand beauty product onto your face and see how it looks. You're able to test out single items of makeup or complete looks and the app is capable of following your facial movements so you can see exactly how it will look in real life .

With the app there's no more need for playing with chewed up manky testers in store - instead you can see exactly what that shade of lippie is going to look like on your own lips and then decide if you want to buy it or not.

I spent a long time playing with the app at the recent launch - it's totally addictive! In the photos here I'm not wearing lipstick - that cheeky pout is actually the app following my lip shape and displaying my chosen hot pink colour.

I really think this will be a massive hit - not only do you get to try before you buy but you can also test out looks you might never have done before and it's surprising how nice some of them look. I'm half tempted to buy some blue liners after trying one out here.

The app will be completely free and available  to download from iTunes in early September.  I'm hoping they also bring out an Android version soon so will keep you posted on that!

Do you like the sound of this app? Is it something you'd use?