CATÓLICA-LISBON students win in the Iberian final of L'Oréal Brandstorm

Jessy Reichardt, Mathilda Widerberg and Kiara Kristin Petri, students from Católica Lisbon School of Business and Economics, won the Iberian final of L'Oréal Brandstorm on March 29 in Madrid.

The three young women, from Germany and Sweden, composed the winning team "Minions". "We are super happy, excited, proud, curious about what's next, but also relieved and feel that the hard work has paid off". they comment on the experience.

"We are super happy, excited, proud, curious about what comes next and also relieved and with the feeling that the hard work has paid off," they comment on the experience.

About the choice of participating in this competition they add: "It's an exciting program, we knew we would have the opportunity to learn and grow, work on a practical project and meet interesting people who have the same mindset as us, (...) and of course, to have the opportunity to receive guidance and advice from L'Oréal experts."

The students of the MSc in Management with specialisation in Strategic Marketing describe the project presented as "a digital playground for all makeup enthusiasts, stimulating creativity and allowing the company to interact with consumers through new technologies". The project was developed for make-up brand NYX. It is an artificial intelligence (AI) virtual makeup artist that develops personalized makeup; tutorials, and product recommendations based on the individual's preferences and characteristics

This makeup artist will be a "friend" who will encourage users and give them tips when they run out of inspiration. It's a game-changing tool that aims to "take the beauty industry to the next level." The project was inspired by the Midjourney concept (the art of transforming text into image through artificial intelligence).

Regarding the choice of the name "The Minions", the students confessed that this is the nickname that their colleagues adopted to describe them, since they are all "small and blonde" and, therefore, they decided to enter the competition "with this unusual name".

The work process leading up to the final product, consisted of "a lot of hard work, a lot of brainstorms, mindmaps, research, implementation, practice and coaching”- all in between exams.

The students from Universidade Católica will now represent Portugal in the grand final of the competition that seeks young talents in the area of beauty innovation in Paris. "So far, we have had a lot of fun and memories together, which is great. But we are extremely motivated to win the L'Oréal Brandstorm for Portugal," they stress.

In total, 842 participants from over 15 universities in Spain and Portugal, devised a disruptive project for this year's competition, being challenged to reinvent the future of beauty through the latest innovations in Web 3.0: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Gaming, Metaverse and NFTs.

The winners of the international competition will get the opportunity to do an entrepreneurship internship, for three months, at L'Oréal's headquarters in Paris, with all travel and accommodation expenses included, where they will also have the opportunity to develop their project at the world's largest startups campus, located in France, Station F.