Thursday, May 8, 2014

Mink: Make Your Own Makeup At Home

So there is this awesome Harvard student, Grace Choi, who has basically invented a makeup printer for in-home use, from a 3D printer that would put makeup in your own hands, without a distributor, high-end makeup costs, etc! It's pretty incredible.

The basis is that she's made a printer that once you get the raw materials of what piece of makeup you want -- eye shadow powder, lipstick compound, foundation materials, etc. you then can pick any color/pigment from anything and anyone in the world, (ie- photos, videos, tv/movies, paint chips, etc) to then create your favorite color palate and putting it in this makeup base compound (the powder, lipstick, etc) to create your own lipstick, eye shadows, lip gloss, foundations, et al.

Initially she would sell this to young teens, early twenty year old women for about $300 USD for the printer itself. These women would benefit most from this because they are still experimenting with colors for themselves and learning how to put on makeup in the first place. And this way, they are not spending a fortune at the stores- discount stores or bigger box stores- in order to try colors, palates, types of materials that otherwise would end up being very costly and much more than the $300 spent on the printer and whatever ink and raw materials you need to create the makeup with. Ms. Choi wants to keep all materials to the cheapest she can so that it remains affordable to her target audience.

Watch the video in this link as she demonstrates the concept.

This is pretty revolutionary in terms of going up against a giant billion-dollar industry to make it cheap and affordable for the everyday user. I hope she is very successful with this. But I can see how this industry will try to cut her down at every step if she were to market this.

(source: Harper's Bazaar)