Roblox is announcing makeup across all types of its avatars will now be available in the Roblox Avatar Marketplace.
The fast-growing company sees makeup as a new way for players to express their individuality and identity with their own unique twists. In the works for years, Roblox has created a complex yet hopefully simple way to implement makeup.
One of the key benefits of the design is that neither developers nor players have to know how to code in order to put makeup on their own avatars, said Shiu Pei Luu, senior product designer and design manager at Roblox on makeup, in an exclusive interview with GamesBeat. The makeup works with either classic Roblox blocky avatars or more sophisticated 3D avatars that were introduced more recently.
Roblox is launching Makeup, a new category in the Avatar Marketplace, as well as on the Customize tab. With as many as six layers on top of each other in a 3D “cage,” or polygon mesh, Makeup can be mixed and matched across eyes, lips, and face makeup items, as well as eyebrows and eyelashes. Creators can also offer combinations as full-face looks.
“We’re really excited to introduce avatar Makeup. As you might know, like avatars are an extension of people’s identities, especially here on Roblox. Users spend tons of time and effort perfecting them,” Luu said. “Sometimes it’s to make them look like exactly like themselves. Sometimes it’s to be a completely different representation of themselves. But finding the right items on Marketplace is super important, which is why we are always challenging ourselves to offer more agency, changing your avatars look to match your mood.”
A new form of identity
It’s a pretty massive effort for Roblox, which has 144 million daily active users and has more players than the next six gaming platforms combined, according to Matthew Ball of Epyllion.
“This launch is a massive milestone. The team has worked for very long time on this, just to make sure it works across this huge breadth of avatars that we have on our system,” Luu said. “We just want to give users and players more control in how they show up. We know how important identity is, not just to Gen Z, but to all the folks that play games. So whether you’re classic avatar and anime inspired hero or futuristic robot, we want you to have the tools to look and be exactly who you are or whoever you want to be on Roblox.”
“We take lots of inspiration from the physical world. Makeup is a ritual of layers, right? Foundation, bronzer, liner, shadow, so on and so forth. The list can go on. We’ve all walked into a Sephora. We aimed for it to be just as modular and extendable,” Luu said.
Creators have total control over the looks they create. They can offer them as individual items, or a bespoke set of looks.
You can sell your looks in the Avatar Marketplace and allow for limited time discounts or exclusive drops.
“Ultimately, this tech is about creative agency. I know we call it Makeup, but it’s all about creative expression. So from traditional beauty applications to say battle scars, or gems on your face, or face paint and intricate face decor. If a creator can dream it, we want our tech to be able to support it,” Luu said.
The work was well under way when Luu joined Roblox about a year ago.
“We’ve been very much focused on building the future of avatars at Roblox. That is what my team and I focus on. This is like one of the first projects I got to help drive and huge teams working together to make this happen,” Luu said.
Today’s launch includes about more than 150 makeup items with more to come. And Roblox worked closely with e.l.f. Cosmetics, title brand sponsor, to ensure that the Makeup looks awesome.
Luu said any brand can work with a creator to create specific looks. e.l.f. Cosmetics worked with a number of creators ahead of time to bring its items to live.
Everyone is an artist
With the Makeup system, Roblox hopes everyone can be an artist. You can paint digitally using procreate templates. Procreate is a really friendly tool for folks that are new to art and new to 3D. So there’s a template for where you’re just drawing on a face, and then you’re able to upload it through the studio tool. If you’re a more technical creator, you can use the Substance Painter tools and templates. You can also use Avatar Auto Setup, which is an AI tool that can help with animation for any facial features.
“Beginning today, Makeup is a new category that is being offered in the Avatar Marketplace, as well as a customized tab,” Luu said. “It works across a huge variety of avatars. We’re launching with about 150 makeup items to start, and all of those are made by members of our community — creators that have already gotten some early engagement access. And there’s constantly more coming to the marketplace. So every day you’re going to see more show up, and it’s going to be coming from our creators, as well as some brands that have been working and getting to use this tech.”
In addition to traditional makeup, the category can be used for full-face paint, team flags and decals, battle markings, camouflage, and other decorations. Makeup is designed to work seamlessly across the platform.
Avatars are an extension of people’s identities on Roblox, and users spend a lot of time and effort perfecting them. They look for the right items on Marketplace, change their avatar’s look to match their mood or the tone of a game, and try out new styles. In 2025, users updated their avatars an average of 274 million times per day across Roblox.
The company said Makeup is a whole new way for users to customize their avatars, and for creators and brands to build and reach their audiences.
“We’re beginning our rollout today and launching with about 100+ makeup items made by members of our community, with more coming to the Marketplace every day from both creators and brands,” the company said.
Face cages
The “facial cage” layers is like a 3D mesh for your face. It’s like a “universal map for faces that anchors the Makeup assets in areas like the eyes and the mouth,” Luu said. “Those are required items on a majority of our avatars. It makes it easier for us to find the eyeballs on each avatar and find the mouth and then fasten makeup appropriately.”
The reason why Roblox pushed on this in the system is it ensures that Makeup remains consistently applied, no matter which kind of Avatar you might use, whether you are a rat-like Avatar, or a beautiful humanoid robot, Luu said.
The way that the cage works is that Makeup that you’ve purchased can transfer across all of those things nicely.
One of the things that Makeup shouldn’t do is slow down performance for things like movement or facial expressions. So before releasing anything, Roblox made sure Makeup aligns with performance requirements, Luu said.
And while “cages” of 3D mesh existed on bodies before, this is the first time Roblox is using the “face cage,” Luu said.
“To ensure that high fidelity across different avatars, it meant we had to evolve the system. And because we care so much about our users and the original heads that you were talking about, we are making sure that they’re evolving with us. We don’t really believe in leaving anyone behind doing things like that,” Luu said.
So backward compatibility is a big focus. I was curious whether was an issue of tech debt, but that’s not something we could get into for this interview.
Where to find it
Inside of the Marketplace area, there is a Makeup tab. So within Marketplace, you’ll find this new category. You can see there’s “looks,” which you can put onto your Avatar. There’s also eyes, face, lips, and other details that you can change or individualize. Each Look can be comprised of up to six different layers.
“We have tons of looks available, and you can mix and match. So let’s say you found a look that you really liked from creator a that had six layers, and you found a look from creator B, having both of those, you can mix and match and stack them. And because each of these layers have variability in terms of alpha and transparency, it’s going to yield something different each time,” Luu said. “You can layer eyeshadows and mix and match, and you’ll see the colors blend together. You can drag and reorder your layers. So really, this mix and match relayering, it allows your characters to be whoever they want to be, wherever they are in whichever game.”
You can always test and play with the Makeup, and then edit it as you wish.
Your Look, Your Way
As any Get Ready With Me (GRWM) fan knows, real-world makeup routines combine any number of products, including foundation, eyeliner, eyeshadow, mascara, lipstick, lip liner, blush, contour, brow pencil, stencils, and more.
Makeup on Roblox is equally modular, allowing users to mix and match items to define their own unique style. It includes subcategories for Eyes, Face, Lips, Eyelashes, and Eyebrows, as well as full-face looks that combine these subcategories.
With the six layers, you can take a lot of time to create a “look.” That includes hyper-detailed paint, hand paint, eye makeup and more. You can do 2D painting or 3D painting. You can do it quickly or you can spend months on it.
Roblox will train folks to work with 3D mesh “cages” if they want to, but if they don’t, they can turn to templates that are created by others.
“All the cages are already prepped on avatars. You just have to basically supply that facial painting, and we will handle it from there,” Luu said.
You can edit any of the six layers and customize the eyes and lips. You can also customized the eyelashes and eyebrows.
Like in real life, many looks are made possible by creative layering and stacking.
“You’re as the creator, able to change the opacity so as the user, you get access to those you can play around with them,” Luu said.
While Roblox is calling the category “makeup,” it also includes face paint, battle scars, camouflage, intricate art, and other items that might not immediately come to mind, but are useful for creating a mysterious wizard or a bubbly pop star look.
And make no mistake. This is about identity, and that matters a lot to Roblox users.
“Sometimes maybe it’s like how you feel, or maybe you’re going into a specific experience and you really want to show up in a certain way, similar to your friends, or even just trying out new styles,” Luu said. “We have a lot of clothing. We have a lot of accessories. We have different ways to change your face and different parameters and leverage there, but this is all in the effort to make sure that users have agency.”
Many young folks are figuring out who they are.
“They’re trying on different fashion and style in physical world. So it also makes sense that that translates into the digital world as well. So today, we’re really excited to show you a new way for users to express themselves on Roblox. Teams worked really hard on this, so we’re stoked to show you Makeup,” Luu said.
How the money works
Makeup is not considered an advertisement. In fact, on Roblox, an ad is defined as any content promoting off-platform products, services, or paid brand integrations within an experience.
Advertising content is not permitted on the Marketplace except for in cases of Sponsored Items. Branded UGC items on the Marketplace are not necessarily ads if the listings do not include any calls to action, product features, availability information, etc. about off-platform products.
It’s through the Experiences, or games, where brands have an opening to participate. And Roblox didn’t say whether it would take a cut from the brands.
The floor price for buying Makeup in the Marketplace is 30 Robux, the company’s virtual currency, Roblox said. That’s worth around 38 cents in real money. But you can charge a lot more for your own Makeup looks if you want.
About 30% of the money paid for Makeup in the store goes to the creator (Marketplace), and 40% goes to the seller, which in the case of the Marketplace is Roblox. Instead of using Marketplace, you can sell inside a Roblox Experience, or game. So that means as much as 70% goes to the creator who also sells the Makeup, or as much as 70% goers to Roblox.
You can probably bet that is is going to be a growing part of the Roblox economy this year, with everyone from Roblox to Makeup creators taking part in the growth.
“We’re definitely hoping for for growth across the ecosystem, for creators, for brands, for for everyone, also for users,” Luu said.
An Opportunity for Makeup Makers
As a brand-new method of avatar customization, Makeup marks a huge opportunity for creators. According to research from Roblox and Ipsos, 58% of Gen Z Roblox users surveyed wore real-world makeup in the last three months—and of those, 84% used it a few times a week.
Approximately 87% of those surveyed indicated they’re willing to purchase makeup on Roblox on a monthly basis, with 85% of users saying that customizing their avatar’s makeup makes them more excited about playing games.
Creators can offer time-limited makeup items at a discounted price. Doing so is an affordable way for users to experiment with different styles before committing, try out a seasonal palette, or acquire an exclusive look for a specific experience like an in-game concert.
The opportunity for brands is equally massive. As Roblox saw in 2025, real-world preferences often cross into the digital world, and vice versa. About 83% of Gen Z makeup users are interested in putting products from their favorite makeup brands on their avatar. Likewise, 76% of surveyed makeup users and 71% of all surveyed Gen Z Roblox users agree that putting a brand’s makeup on their avatar makes them more likely to consider using that brand in real life.
As part of this launch, e.l.f. Cosmetics, title brand sponsor, has been at the forefront of this from the beginning, partnering with top creators to develop looks inspired by e.l.f.’s products and giving their community a new way to express themselves through virtual try-on before they buy in their own experiences e.l.f. Up and Glow Up.
“Roblox Makeup is our love letter to a community that doesn’t follow culture, it creates it,” Patrick O’Keefe, chief integrated marketing officer, e.l.f. Beauty, in a statement. “As identity moves seamlessly between digital and physical worlds, e.l.f. shows up across both, giving our community the tools to express who they are, everywhere they exist.”
The Tech Behind the Look
Underpinning today’s launch is technology that enables creators and brands to make a look or item once, and let users wear it on any avatar. Building this kind of one-size-fits-all solution is harder than it sounds, given the number of unique avatars on Roblox, and the different forms they take.
Heads on Roblox already include information about where the eyes and mouth are located. We utilize this same information to make sure Makeup looks great on every face, so users can wear eyeshadow and lipgloss, no matter what they look like.
Like clothing, Makeup on Roblox is also layered. Across the industry, adding makeup to characters typically either recolors a part or swaps out the part entirely. This limitation means most platforms and games are restricted to a set number of options in each category. Our solution is more flexible, meaning users can mix-and-match items or change the order of layers to define their avatar’s style however they see fit.
Creators can also take their ideas to the next level by using physically based rendering (PBR) effects to build more detailed and realistic makeup creations, like glossy lipstick, highlighter, and metallic eyeshadow.
Check out the DevForum post for a deep-dive into the technical details.
The Importance of Makeup
The vast majority (82%) of surveyed Gen Z makeup users agreed that wearing makeup is an important part of their self-expression, and 77% said they feel “more like themselves” when wearing makeup. Makeup can also be a valuable part of community-building. Just as clothing helps users reflect specific subcultures, 52% of survey respondents said makeup makes it easier to find people with similar styles, and 49% said it helps them belong to a certain group or community.
It should be interesting for the players who are aging up in Roblox.
“With all of these older users over the age of 18, there’s a lot more opening up in terms of what people are looking for in self expression. And we want to be sure that people of all ages have what they need to express themselves, everywhere in the world, no matter what you look like,” a spokeswoman said.
Regardless of individual motivations—confidence, creative self-expression, belonging, fun—our goal is to give users more options and enable them to take control of how they show up on Roblox. We celebrate and embrace Roblox’s diversity, from classic style avatars to armor-clad warriors, anime-inspired looks, oversized cats, futuristic robots, and more. Our goal is always to give users more control, more choice, and more opportunities to be themselves (or explore who they are) on Roblox.
Roblox said it can already imagine some of the ways that experiences will take advantage of makeup and the near-infinite number of looks that it makes possible. Some are obvious, like games where players assemble iconic styles from various makeup components. Others are more subtle, like using face paint to distinguish between two teams, adding eye black for sports games, or using full-face camouflage to help players get the drop on enemies in an FPS.
The Makeup system can deal with skin tone changes and variability, accessory attachments, animations, facial tracking, emotes, and more.
Luu said Roblox has been working on the foundations for many years, bringing in Dynamic Heads to Avatars where faces and hair look much more realistic. The old 2D-focused classic Avatars were never really meant to have sophisticated faces. But over time, both the 2D and 3D facial features have become more realistic.
Roblox rolled out dynamic heads for avatars in 2021. A lot of the tech is similar to how layered clothing works. That was introduced in 2022.
“I think the new technology enables far more emotion. So with dynamic heads, people are able to express more over the past few years. Makeup is layered on top of that,” Luu said. “We have some more stuff in the pipeline we can’t talk about yet, but things like emissives that have been enabled for scenes and for avatars, which is basically glowing effects. You could picture that happening on a face. And what capability could that have an experience if somebody has, like, glowing eyeshadow or glowing eyes.”
Once the Dynamic Heads were in place and working good, Roblox had a real foundation for Makeup. And int he past two years, it focused on things like improved accessories, like where you can wear sunglasses over your eyes or above your eyes, Luu said.
“It’s all just to enable people to do anything they want, express themselves however they want. So it’s all been incremental growth on the existing systems,” Luu said.