Snapchat now wants you to pay for its selfie lenses

Snapchat has finally figured out how to monetise its service, and it's going to charge you to be rainbow sick again. Snapchat is now launching a store so you can buy the most popular customisations for your disappearing snaps.

Lenses were first introduced back in September and the new store will not replace the free lenses, but will supplement them. There are 30 lenses available for purchase every day (which you can then keep and use forever).

To activate lenses, simply switch to the front-facing camera on your phone when snapping a photo in Snapchat and do a long press on your face.

Return of the sick

The store will feature both new and "old favourites". It's all about the rainbow sick.

As we reported back in September, it and other favourites have been removed - so presumably to get it back again you'll have to pay up. Pricing isn't clear just yet and we don't know if you pay for each use either.

The company says that lenses have proved so popular that 10m are used every day (out of 100m daily users). 

The store should provide Snapchat with some much needed revenue to justify its massive $16bn valuation - and the expectation is that lenses could also conceivably be sponsored by brands too.