Overview
What began as an in-person and party-oriented direct selling opportunity, Mary Kay founded its business on building relationships and connections with customers. Independent Beauty Consultants (IBCs), over 3.5 million worldwide, are the lifeblood of Mary Kay’s operations, and streamlining their work process would have profound effects on Mary’s Kay’s business outcome.
Problem
While there was urgent need for Mary Kay to provide a digital channel so their customers can order products quickly and on-the-go, our challenge was to ensure the digital experience would empower Independent Beauty Consultants (IBC) to create deeper, more personalized connections with their customers, streamline operations, increase dollar-per-hour, and find new leads.
Approach
Mary Kay came in with a well-defined brand guide, a clear feature vision, and established operational systems.
A 2-day discovery aligned business and user needs, surfaced gaps and opportunities, and scoped a roadmap for the MVP.
From there we worked closely with Mary Kay stakeholders and brought developers into design reviews early, keeping the work feasible as it evolved, and user-tested to validate assumptions and guide refinement.
Keep Consultant Top-of-Mind in the Experience
The digital storefront had to work as an extension of Mary Kay Consultants — open 24/7, so customers can shop anytime while knowing their Consultant is a tap away, from landing page through checkout and delivery.
Solution
A calling card sits at key moments in the shopping flow, guiding customers through unfamiliar steps and inviting a call or text for beauty advice. Each Consultant gets a profile page, and their photo makes the experience feel like shopping with a friend.
The User State Drives App Behavior
A new user may not have designated a Consultant yet, so the app shows contextual information based on user state. The shopping bag alone has three:
- Cold — no Consultant chosen yet
- Warm — a Consultant chosen, but not registered or signed in
- Hot — shopping with a Consultant, signed in
Each state prompts the customer to connect with and buy from a Consultant in their area.
Feature: Beauty Profile
Consultants hosting local beauty parties pass around a handwritten survey to learn what attendees like. That manual step needed a digital home.
Solution
Customers find a local Consultant in the app and tap through a short beauty profile, giving her what she needs to advise well. Hosts can also invite guests to fill it in before a party, so the session is tailored before it starts.
Feature: Beauty Routine
After getting to know a customer, Consultants send a personalized beauty routine. Printed and taped to a mirror, it was easily lost, tarnished, or out of date.
Solution
Using product data, purchase history, wishlist, and favorites, we made the routine a personalized, editable guide with a clear order of application — plus a PDF export for customers who still want one by the mirror.
A Touch of Surprise & Delight
Mary Kay’s brand personality is confident, authentic, playful, perfectly imperfect. To extend that voice, I animated hand-drawn illustrations for celebratory moments like a placed order, and unexpected ones like the app going offline.
Gentle movement reads as sophistication, pops of color carry warmth, and the modern illustration style stays true to the brand guide — finishing touches that make the app engaging to use.
Outcome
The shipped app brings the storefront, the beauty tools, and the Consultant relationship into one place. Stakeholders were very excited to provide another tool that can empower Consultants to be an independent business owner.
