e.l.f. Is Bringing Virtual Makeup Styling to ZEPETO Avatars

Your next makeup tutorial might star an avatar, not a person. e.l.f. Cosmetics has launched "Express your e.l.f.," its first virtual makeup styling experience on ZEPETO, the avatar-based social platform where millions of young players dress, pose and hang out as their digital selves. The experience lets players give their avatars a full beauty treatment using e.l.f.'s Power Grip family of products, plus hairstyles, bags, jewelry and special effects, according to the company's launch announcement on Business Wire.

For the uninitiated, virtual makeup styling is exactly what it sounds like: instead of swiping blush onto your own face, you apply it to your avatar in a 3D world. In "Express your e.l.f.," players step into a branded styling space, experiment with the grippy hero products e.l.f. is famous for, and build looks that reflect however they are feeling that day. In short, virtual makeup styling is makeup play with zero cost per look, zero makeup wipes, and a runway of other players to show it off to.

The audience math explains why e.l.f. is there. ZEPETO reports more than four hundred million registered accounts worldwide, with a regular crowd of fifteen to twenty million monthly players — and roughly seven in ten of them are Gen Z, predominantly female, as reported by Morningstar's syndication of the release. That is an audience squarely in e.l.f.'s wheelhouse: young, digitally native, and already fluent in treating self-expression as a group activity.

Roblox, Twitch, Now ZEPETO: The Pattern Behind the Play

e.l.f. is not new to this strategy — ZEPETO is the next stop on a deliberate tour of Gen Z's favorite hangouts. The brand already runs Glow Up!, the number one branded makeup game on Roblox, where players compete in styling challenges and build beauty empires. It also holds the title of the number one beauty brand on Twitch, where its community streams and creator partnerships live. Taken together, Roblox to Twitch to ZEPETO is a clear playbook: meet young players inside the worlds they already inhabit, then let the products do the talking through play.

Virtual makeup styling fits that playbook precisely because it does not ask players to do anything new. ZEPETO users already spend their time customizing avatars down to the eyeliner; e.l.f. is simply showing up with better props. According to the company, the experience frames beauty as self-expression first and shopping second — players style avatars, share looks and soak in the brand's world, with the real-world product line waiting whenever curiosity strikes.

Why Avatars Are the New Beauty Counter

There is a practical reason this kind of virtual makeup styling is having a moment: the beauty counter experience, for all its testers and lighting, still happens alone. An avatar styling space happens in public, with friends, in a loop of try-show-remix. For young players who learned makeup from TikTok tutorials, trying a bold eyeliner on a digital double before committing in real life is the logical next step — low stakes, high feedback, and instantly shareable.

The reader upside is straightforward. If you have ever stared down a new product and wondered whether it suits you, virtual makeup styling is a rehearsal room where the answer costs nothing. e.l.f.'s Power Grip family — the primer line the brand built its viral reputation on — becomes a set of toys before it ever becomes a purchase. For teens and young adults whose first beauty experiments are happening on screens as much as in mirrors, that is less a gimmick than a fitting room.

Of course, the fair counterpoint is whether any of this sells actual mascara. Virtual lipstick does not leave the app, and skeptics have every right to ask whether virtual makeup styling is branding theater dressed as a game. The brand's bet is that play comes first and purchase follows — a thesis its Roblox track record supports, since Glow Up! climbed to the top of branded makeup gaming by prioritizing fun over funnels. If the ZEPETO crowd treats "Express your e.l.f." as a hangout rather than an ad, the products may earn something ads cannot buy: a slot in the group's group chat.

e.l.f.'s move also signals where virtual makeup styling is heading in beauty marketing more broadly. As avatar platforms grow into genuine social spaces — not side quests, but where the party is — showing up with something to DO there matters more than showing up with something to buy. Whether or not you play ZEPETO, expect more brands to build styling rooms for digital selves in the months ahead. For more on how beauty is evolving for younger audiences, see our aesthetics coverage and the grunge makeup comeback.