Google Home Hub Review: Makeup Tutorial Assistance and More
I recently fell in love with the Google Home Hub, which if you know me is strange for a multitude of reasons. I’ll be the first to admit I’m not a technologically savvy person. Everything I touch somehow seems to break. People purposefully keep their electronics away from me, and I’m convinced my old iPhones intentionally jumped out of my jacket pockets, preferring to risk a cracked life instead of being subject to my not-so midas touch any longer.
Eventually I got better, and I’ve managed to keep both my phone and laptop alive for the past few of years. But right before I got too comfortable, a whole new breed of electronics rose in popularity with names like Alexa. Not only was I worried about all the new damage I could impart on them, but I was also skeptical. Does anyone really need a robot to tell them what the weather is when you can just look at the weather app on your phone? What value do they quantifiably bringing into your life? Also, lord knows I definitely have conversations I don’t want anyone overhearing—blue-glowing robot or otherwise.
Of course, I ended up caving. My boyfriend and I got two large Google Home Maxes, which we use primarily as speakers to play music and as an alarm to wake us up in the morning. And that’s pretty much the extent of my smart home technology. (So basically they’re fancy speakers that I can talk to.) I really didn’t want anything else until Sephora (yes, Sephora) somehow convinced me I could maybe use one more smart product: The Google Home Hub.
You’re probably as confused as I was that a makeup store would sell a purely tech gadget. Understandable. The Google Home Hub is currently the only product of its kind sold at Sephora, and it’s not like a screen can wash your face for you when you’re too lazy to get out of bed. (I will, however, unfailingly buy one if someone can figure that tech out. Jeff Bezos, you on it?)
So let me explain.
Just like all of the other products of its’ kind, the Google Home Hub is voice-controlled, will tell you all about the weather, help remind you of appointments, and play music if you ask. I’m sure it also has some sassy answers to silly questions as well. But unlike other home assistants, the Home Hub has a screen, which means you can ask it to play videos—like, say, makeup tutorials on YouTube. (Seeing the Sephora connection now?)
Maybe my technology troubles all started in middle school when I tried to balance my laptop on my toilet or sink to watch demonstrations of how to draw the perfect cat eye. Alas none of them actually helped me get it because mid eyeliner I’d have to lean over, pause, and then lean over and play again, sometimes knocking my laptop to the ground in the process. I eventually gave up on trying to teach myself how to do my own makeup or more elaborate beauty looks because the whole process was too clunky.
The Google Home Hub completely transformed my makeup routine by eliminating the need to juggle everything at once. It sits on a shelf in the corner of my bathroom, where I apply my makeup. In the morning I’ll ask it to play some getting-ready music, and if I want to try something new, I’ll just ask it to play makeup tutorials on YouTube for that specific look I’m going for. It’s also surprisingly polite and will pause, rewind, fast forward and do anything I ask, which helps me execute the look at my own pace.
Typically I wear the same makeup everyday so I don’t use the Home Hub every morning for makeup tutorials, but it’s endlessly helpful on the weekends when I want to switch it up to go out or for a bigger event. And if I’m feeling crazy one Monday morning I know all I have to do is speak up.
Google Home Hub, $149, sephora.com
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