Companies count on crafting customized cosmetics for consumers

Providing customized products is becoming a new trend in the beauty industry.

L’Oreal’s customizable beauty device Perso. [L’OREAL WEBSITE]

Providing customized products is becoming a new trend in the beauty industry.

As cosmetics companies ambitiously innovate to beat out heated competition in a tech-driven society, global beauty giants are looking to artificial intelligence (AI) beauty devices as a solution.

The trend was evident at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES), held from Jan. 11 through Jan. 14.

Beauty giants, including, L’Oreal and Amorepacific Group, demonstrated beauty devices that offer customizable skincare or beauty products based on skin tone or personal preferences.

L’Oreal unveiled a lipstick version of Perso, an AI-powered, on-demand makeup system, at CES this year.

The tumbler-esque device, measuring 15 centimeters (35.4 inches) in height, contains three cartridges which each hold different colors. The user can select the lipstick shade they desire from a smartphone app connected to the beauty device and it will create that color by mixing certain amounts of the three colors in the cartridges.

The device is scheduled to be released in the United States this spring and is priced at $299.

L’Oreal introduced Perso for skincare products at last year’s CES.

The device releases skincare products after users upload photos of their face on the Perso mobile app. The app analyzes the user's skin while taking into account wrinkles, pores and discoloration. Users can also input the desired moisture level for products. The app can also take environmental factors into account, like the weather, temperature and ultraviolet levels, before customizing the products.

Amoremacific’s Lip Factory by Color Tailor Smart Factory System, which can produce lip products in 2,000 different shades. [AMOREPACIFIC]

Amorepacific unveiled Lip Factory by Color Tailor Smart Factory System at CES.

Using AI, the system’s smartphone app analyzes a user’s facial features and recommends a lip color. Similar to Perso, the makeup pigment dispenser produces the lip color for immediate use. Around 2,000 shades can be made through the system, according to Amorepacific.

Shiseido commercialized Optune, a similar beauty system for skincare, in July 2019.

The system is able to provide 80,000 different types of skincare products based on an individual user's skin type and living environment, according to the Japanese beauty company.

It holds five cartridges.

Shiseido offers the beauty system for a 10,000-yen ($96) monthly subscription.

Research from Mintel, a London-based market research firm, highlighted in 2018 that beauty is being redefined on a daily basis by consumers under the trend “My beauty, my rules.”

Beauty companies have jumped on board with this trend as seen though customizable systems.

Their profit model from these systems will be refillable cartridges — meaning more consumers will purchase cartridges instead of finished beauty products in the near future.

This could be a profitable business since beauty companies can lock in loyal customers, and also accumulate data that could be used for their research.

BY YOO JI-YOEN, JIN MIN-JI [jin.minji@joongang.co.kr]