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Anyone who’s ever tried on lipstick knows that the way it looks once it’s applied can be dramatically different from what the manufacturer’s colour guide would suggest. With that in mind, BeautySwatch aims to give consumers a true-to-life view of lipstick shades by showing how they look on real people. Much the way Stitsh highlights the outfits of real-life consumers in its street-style fashion blog, so BeautySwatch relies on uploaded photos from makeup fans to help uncover the true appearance of lipstick shades. A team of self-proclaimed “shopaholic bloggers” of varying skin colours and ethnicities are constantly adding new swatches to the site, featuring photos of themselves wearing various lipstick shades and brands. Readers of the blog are also invited to contribute their own photos, including not just product information but also a rating of their own lip pigmentation. The result is that BeautySwatch visitors can preview colours before they buy as well as participating in community discussions about lip products and related topics. Akisa, the Australian site’s founder, explains: “If you’re like me, I always google the makeup product for swatch images before I purchase online. Most times I can’t find the shade in high quality images, and other times a totally unrelated brand or shade appears in my search results on my favourite blogs!! Hence the idea sprung on me one day to start up BeautySwatch.com, and build a colour swatch library with high quality images.” With its focus on real-world consumers’ experience of products—rather than manufacturers’ descriptions—BeautySwatch is yet another testament to the power of twinsumers and web-enabled transparency in guiding consumers’ purchase decisions. Next, we’d expect BeautySwatch to add e-commerce capabilities like those on Stitsh’s site, partnering with lipstick retailers or brands to capitalize on visitors’ buying intentions. One to team up with, in Australia or elsewhere, to help make that happen…?