CES has long been a showcase for new innovation. This year saw over 3,000 new product launches including everything from self-driving cars to robots and big-screen TVs. It will also be remembered as the year that CES got a little more beautiful as dozens of companies showcased new products focused on combining technology with new ways to enhance skincare, makeup, hair, and wellness.
3D Printing Meets the Face
One of the most radical products showcased was Opte, from Proctor and Gamble. Think of Opte as a handheld 3D printer for your skin. As you pass the Opte device over your skin its built-in camera scans for age spots, dark spots, red spots, and other pigmentation issues. Next, it dispenses a fine mist of makeup that matches your skin tone, covering the discolorations. The effect is to camouflage the imperfections without coating your entire face with layers of foundation. The unit costs $599. Makeup refills cost $100. Not an inexpensive purchase, and since it only covers pigment problems, acne and dark circles are left untouched. AmorePacific also announced a hydrogel mask pack manufactured using 3D-printing technology to fit the user’s face.
AI Powered Beauty
Combining mobile phone technology with beauty know-how led to new introductions from L’Oreal, LuLu Labs, Perfect Corp, Revieve, Neutrogena and others. These products aim to provide customers with their own beauty expert by starting with a selfie of the face and adding a dose of augmented reality and artificial intelligence.
L’Oreal’s Perso, to be released later this year, starts with a mobile app that uses L’Oréal-owned ModiFace technology. AI is used to analyze overall skin condition including deep wrinkles, fine lines, the appearance of dark spots, and pore visibility. Next, the apps’ Breezometer adds information about geo-location. It looks at the environment: weather, temperature, pollen, UV index, and humidity. Finally, the app takes a personal inventory of the user, gathering information about their issues including fine lines, dark spots, pigmentation, pore size, radiance, and dullness. The combined data points are processed to form a personalized blend of skincare (SPF, serum, and moisturizer). The phone sends the information via a Bluetooth connection to Perso where its robotic inners mix the liquids from three cartridges and dispense the personalized skin solution. By next year L’Oreal hopes to be creating personalized lipstick and foundation applications using the same technology, only this time it can be driven by favorite looks from social media like Instagram.
Perfect Corp.’s YouCam has created a vast ecosystem of products and services based on it’s AR scanning and intelligent AI analysis. Partners including Ulta, Sally Beauty, Estee Lauder, and Neutrogena have incorporated YouCam’s AI as the basis of new product offerings.
A visit to the YouCam booth at CES began with a face scan selfie that identified 106 real facial landmarks displayed as a 3D mesh. Attendees on the show floor could use the Smart AI Foundation Shade Finder to find the perfect foundation. An AI Beauty Advisor provides personalized suggestions based on the data it’s collected from faces similar to yours. An AI Skincare app analyzes hydration, oiliness, and redness, spots, wrinkles, textures, and dark circles. And, an AI Hair app lets you experiment with hair color, going beyond a single process shade to incorporate a mix of gradient, shine and color effects. In all of the apps, the movements of “natural hair” and the turning of a face angle are surprisingly photorealistic.
Perfect Corp technology was found powering products like Neutrogena Skin360 app, which analyzes skin for dark circles, wrinkles, and texture and recommends specific Neutrogena solutions as well as behavioral advice. Sally Beauty uses Perfect Corp technology to power it’s ColorView hair color experience.
Companies like Revieve are using the selfie app diagnostic to partner with more than 70 beauty brands and retailers across four continents. And Anokai’s SelfE is another gorgeously rendered diagnostic app.for skin.
Mirrors, Mirrors on the Wall
Mobile apps are one way to deal with getting selfie images. Mirrors, with built in cameras are another. LUMINI Home, a smart makeup mirror from LuLub Labs also takes a selfie to analyze your skin composition and recommends a personal beauty regime. HiMirror Labs works similarly focusing on how well your beauty regime is working overtime, checking to see that there are notable improvements in your skin. One of the newest variations of the mirror sells for $119 and is designed for travel, thanks to its slide-out feature, LED ambient-light strips and built-in Amazon Alexa support. One makeup mirror from Venus even doubled as a mood light.
Let there be Light (and Spray)
IONIQ tackled a different problem — the problem of inefficient spray bottles. Whether you’re spraying on suntan lotion, mosquito spray or makeup, so much of what you spray doesn’t make it to your skin. IONIQ’s spray bottles create a magnetic connection between your skin and the liquid. That means no sticky hands or loss of product during application.
High tech facials were on display as well. La Leur’s Mira combined Aloe vera with ultrasound lubrication. It’s four modes: detox, tone, lift and infuse use ultrasound, sonic pulses, radiofrequency, electric impulses and ion infusion to stimulate “your skin’s natural ability to regenerate. Amorepacific showcased an LED Flexible Patch will be introduced next year. The patch has a light-emitting diode patch that can be attached to the skin. The LED light is designed to penetrate the skin and improve tone and tightness, as well as helping to prevent the skin from sagging.
The point is pretty clear. In a world where beauty has become commoditized and products oversaturated, being able to reach your customers directly with personalized plans and recommendations works. Sales increase and engagement soars. At CES 2020 a new type of beauty encounter ruled.
See also: TWICE Picks Awards Winners For CES 2020
