Muse Mirror creator reflects on road to success
Starting as an idea for a present for his girlfriend, URI alum, Akintoye Onikoyi worked with other URI grads to create an interactive mirror. PHOTO CREDIT: Musemirror.co
Four University of Rhode Island graduates are hoping to revolutionize at-home beauty with a new smart mirror called the Muse Mirror.
Akintoye Onikoyi ‘16, the founder of Muse Interactive, was an electrical engineering major and business minor during his time studying at URI. He said that he came up with the idea for Muse Mirror as an anniversary present for his girlfriend.
“I just tried to encompass like, everything that she already does [into one present],” Onikoyi said. “I know she looks in the mirror every day, so that was kind of like, you know, the base. And then I tried to incorporate other things that she did on top of that so it was all in one device.”
After receiving the present, she posted about the mirror on social media and Onikoyi said he immediately had people reaching out to him expressing interest in buying one.
“I didn’t really think nothing of it until two years after that, where I was still getting messages about it,” Onikoyi said. “So then I decided to make it my company, make a product out of it and, you know, kind of have a real product.”
The mirror has makeup and beauty tutorials that allow the user to watch the tutorials and follow along in real-time on the reflective mirror.
“The tutorials are ones that you can only find on the mirror,” Onikoyi said. “But if you wanted to you could go on YouTube, go on Netflix on the mirror. You get access to third-party apps but for our specific routines these are all exclusive to the mirror that you can’t get anywhere else.”
Onikoyi said users can purchase products directly from the mirror. The device recommends products based on the information you give the mirror which can be purchased as one-time products or recurring over time.
Muyideen “Larry” Adigun ‘17, the product manager for Muse Mirror, said that he had done writing for commercials and music videos on the side in college. Because of this, Onikoyi reached out and asked him to do a marketing commercial for the product.
At the company, Adigun works to find what the market is looking for and how to get the word out to their audience through social media like TikTok, on which he already has a small following.
“People are really into hair right now, people are really into makeup right now, people are really into wellness,” he said. “So we’re trying to tackle all those areas.”
According to Adigun, the mirror is primarily focused on cosmetics right now through the tutorials and product recommendations, but also features components relating to fashion, wellness and entertainment.
“Some people just might want to use it for affirmation,” Adigun said. “Some want to just use it to start the day, check the weather without just touching their phone, and like, everybody looks into a mirror at least twice a day.”
Onikoyi said that he hopes to add more features to the mirror in the future.
“We’re looking to go into augmented fashion and people being able to virtually try on different fashion pieces that they own or maybe wanna purchase in the future,” Adigun said. “So that’s really where we’re headed right now.”The Muse Mirror is currently available for preorder until April 15 on the Muse Interactive website.