Lush - An app to save our oceans

Lush asked 3 SIDED CUBE to aid them in the ambitious move to open the world’s first package-free cosmetics store. Lush needed a way of utilising technology to create a completely new and unique experience for customers visiting the concept store in Milan.

We knew image-recognition technology built into an app on mobile devices could identify the distinctive Lush Naked range. The key to this was the use the machine learning ability of the technology to identify a product through a mobile device’s camera and then delivering all the relevant information from product names to descriptions, ingredients and even health benefits.

Developed with the Lush’s in-house digital team, we created ‘Lush Lens’, an app that enabled users to scan the package-free products directly in store. It then uses machine learning image recognition to match the image with a database and provide the necessary product information, that would usually be included in the (now redundant) packaging.

The app had to recognise products including soap bars, bath bombs and solid shower gels as well as the variations of these; such as different colours, shapes and pattern differences.