Estée Lauder Cos & University of Leeds Partner for Complexion Shade Matching

The Estée Lauder Companies announced a research collaboration with the School of Design at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom, and Dr. Kaida Xiao, a world-renowned leader in color science and visual perception. 

Despite significant advances in beauty innovation, finding the right foundation or concealer shade remains one of the most common consumer frustrations.

This partnership aims to strengthen the development of luxury and prestige complexion-enhancing products with more precise shade matching and improved formulas. 

Claude Saliou, Senior Vice President, Advanced Technologies and Global Clinical and Consumer Sciences, The Estée Lauder Companies, said:

“Delivering transformative innovation in complexion and color cosmetics begins with a deeper understanding of how consumers perceive their own skin tone. While skin tone can be measured with increasing precision, understanding how consumers perceive their tone in the real world remains a complex scientific challenge. By partnering with the University of Leeds, a global leader in color science, we have an opportunity to better understand how consumers experience shade matching in the real world. These insights help us improve shade accuracy, develop higher-performing formulas that look more natural and consistent, and support continued innovation across our luxury and prestige portfolio.”

The findings could help establish new scientific benchmarks for evaluating foundation, concealer, and other complexion products to deliver more natural-looking results in everyday life.

By examining the relationship between how color is measured by scientific instruments and human visual perception of the same colors, particularly in real-world viewing conditions, the research seeks to identify when subtle differences in tone become noticeable to consumers and when they do not. 

Led by Dr. Kaida Xiao, Professor of Color and Imaging Science at the Leeds Institute of Textiles and Color (LITAC), School of Design, University of Leeds, the project uses advanced visual perception science and studies how people see and notice differences to explore how individuals perceive color undertones and detect subtle color differences.