L’Oréal is giving lipstick and brow looks some new high-tech twists
At CES, the consumer tech industry’s big tech show, L’Oréal unveiled two new digital products designed to help with a traditionally analog task: applying makeup.
A tool called HAPTA is designed to let people with limited hand and arm mobility apply lipstick without assistance. The device uses AI-enabled stabilization tech that was originally developed for Liftware, a line of assistive eating utensils from Alphabet’s Verily life sciences unit that helps people with limited mobility or tremors smoothly eat with forks and spoons.
“They told us their users were asking for makeup,” says Guive Balooch, global head of L’Oréal Research & Innovation’s Technology Incubator. “It’s the number-one thing that they were asking for.”
The HAPTA device, set to be offered later this year through L’Oréal’s Lancôme line alongside other Lancôme products in retailers like department stores, is designed to be compatible with the standard sizes of Lancôme lipsticks. But Balooch emphasizes that L’Oréal will encourage consumers to use the product with their lipstick of choice and plans to “make it more and more open source” to encourage widespread adoption of the technology.
“For us, this is not about our product or brands,” he says. “This is about empowering people to have the beauty that they want to have.”
The tool is designed to look sleek, like other traditional beauty products, not like an AI-driven robot. It includes a handheld applicator to which the lipstick can be attached, along with a plug-in charging base, and Balooch estimates that it will only need to be charged about once per month of use.
L’Oréal also announced a product called Brow Magic, designed to let people personalize their eyebrow looks at home to a greater extent than many people now can without visiting a salon. “People have challenges shaping their brow,” Balooch says. “It’s one of the biggest challenges for makeup.”
Brow Magic includes an augmented reality smartphone app that takes an image of users’ faces and allows them to visualize different eyebrow configurations, thanks to the company’s existing Modiface virtual makeup try-on technology.
When they choose looks they like, they then use a specialized applicator that includes a tiny inkjet printer with 2,400 nozzles, capable of printing up to 1,200 dots per inch. Sensors in the device, developed with Korean company Prinker, track where it’s located on the face and how fast users are moving it across their skin, letting it accurately draw lines in the right place to get the brow look they’ve chosen.
The ink can be wiped off within the first two minutes of application with just water and can be otherwise removed with standard makeup remover. Balooch says it will normally last one or two days, and the company is looking into potential inks that could last longer. The product will use replaceable cartridges available for different color options, designed to last through about four to six months of daily use.
While many people will likely still prefer to visit a salon to work with a skilled eyebrow stylist, Brow Magic will make sophisticated brow looks more achievable at home, Balooch says. As with HAPTA, he anticipates the product will be available by the end of the year, though exact details are still to be worked out.
Both products are expected to be sold for between $149 and $199, and Balooch says the ink cartridge replacements for Brow Magic will be at a “very accessible” price. They won’t be L’Oréal’s last foray into digitally enhanced beauty tech: Balooch says he imagines other smart makeup applicators like Brow Magic will be available in the future, though different types of application technology may be appropriate for different types of cosmetics, and the company is likely to roll out HAPTA-style applicators for types of makeup beyond lipstick starting in 2024. Another L’Oréal high-tech beauty product, its ColorSonic hair coloring wand, won a Fast Company Next Big Things in Tech award last year.
“It’s really about personalization and beauty for every person,” he says.
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