Cosmetics brand L'Oreal is leading the way with the future of 'try before you buy', using augmented reality (AR) technology to offer swatches of its beauty products.

The brand is now collaborating with Facebook to provide this AR service, which allows consumers to virtually test out its make-up products on images of their own faces, enabling them to see exactly how they'd look in a selfie or similar.

L'Oreal works with ModiFace to provide these AR product swatches, and its partnership with Facebook is purely tech-based for now. Technology has advanced to such a stage that innovations of this kind are the future of product swatches - gone are the days when simply rubbing a little of a product on the back of the hand would have to do.

Lubomira Rochet, chief digital officer at L'Oreal, commented: "We are at that magical moment when technologies have matured enough and consumer appetite for using them is growing everywhere."