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(L’Oreal Paris)

Trying on makeup just received a beautiful 21st-century update.

On Wednesday, L’Oreal Paris released an innovative app called Makeup Genius, a free “magic mirror” for iPhone and iPad that lets you see how you would appear in different eye shadows, blushes, and other beautifiers without actually applying the products. The app takes a sophisticated scan of your face with the device’s front-facing camera, digitally paints on your selected product, and then reflects all your movements, accurately portraying what you would look like in different cosmetics, from different angles, in real time.

(If you’re having trouble imagining it: You know how Google’s video chat app Hangouts lets you wear a hat or a mask that stays on your head as you bob around? Think of that, but with the precision necessary to mimic realistic eyeliner.)

I tested an early version of the app at a special event in New York thrown by L’Oreal Paris last month. To answer your first question: No, there will not be photos forthcoming (even though I looked stunning with smoky eyes and hot-pink lipstick).

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Columbia student Meghan Cross “tries on” some lipstick and eye shadow at a launch event for Makeup Genius in New York. (Yahoo Tech)

Even in its prerelease form, Makeup Genius is indeed quite smart. While competing apps let you upload a photo of yourself and then apply different products to that still image, Makeup Genius shows the makeup on your face as you move, so you can tilt your head around and see how you look with different facial expressions.

The app also includes different “looks,” or beauty combinations, worn by celebrities like Eva Longoria and Lupita Nyong’o, created by the makeup artist Billy B.

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