On the eve of 2021, branding agency 1HQ presented the lipstick of the future. According to the developers’ idea, the lipstick, which uses digital scanning technologies, will recognize the lip contour, texture and skin tone of the person using it, and independently form the desired color. It can be stated: digital has already penetrated into the very heart of the industry and, it seems, feels great there. It is noteworthy that this concerns not only and even not so much decorative cosmetics as care products. The search for the “beauty grail”, “the elixir of eternal youth” is also finally reaching a new level. Individualization and personification are becoming the main trend in the development of cosmetic and cosmeceutical technologies. After all, what could be better from a marketing point of view than to offer the consumer something created “specially and exclusively” for him?
Beauty gadgets
Personification in the beauty industry is evolving today due to several factors. One of the key ones is precisely technology. “For example, 3D printers will enable each person to create a unique product – cream, mask, whatever – for himself personally at home,” says Anna Dycheva-Smirnova, Managing Director of Reed Exhibitions in Russia, the company that organizes the InterCharm exhibition. “Quite adequate prototypes of such printers have been functioning since 2014. It is still far from their mass distribution in the household, but the technology is developing rapidly”. “The industry is evolving at such a pace that full-cycle home spas can soon be expected. And now, while grooming gadgets are gaining popularity. There are more and more home appliances on store shelves that can compete in efficiency with salon ones: cleaning brushes, galvanic and ultrasonic massagers, agate guache scrapers, mesoscooters, ”lists Alina Kvizhinadze, a cosmetologist at Faceology. The coronavirus pandemic and lockdowns only bring this future closer, qualitatively changing the industry of home gadgets for the face, says Polina Mikhailova, CEO of Different Lab clinic: “Microcurrent massagers, devices for ultrasonic face cleansing, LED masks for skin care are no longer toys, but a technique that can compete with some salon procedures. “
According to Foreo, the demand for high-tech deep cleansing and professional skincare gadgets more than doubled in Q4 2020, with Foreo producing over 200,000 products a week by the end of last year. One of her hits is the Luna Fofo sonic skin cleansing brush with sensors that collect information about skin hydration and impurity. Based on the information received in a special application, the gadget gives recommendations for care. And with the Bear microcurrent device, you can achieve smoothing of wrinkles and correction of facial contours. By the way, all Foreo gadgets today are controlled via apps.
Big data
Collecting big data to provide a personalized approach to rejuvenation is another obvious trend. “Using computer algorithms and big data, unique formulations will be developed based on the study of tens of thousands of ingredients for skin care products, hundreds of thousands of cosmetic products, millions of user reviews and thousands of scientific articles,” says Dycheva-Smirnova.
Big data technologies are already working today – for example, in smart mirrors like Panasonic’s Snow Beauty Mirror, installed at the Kose concept store in Tokyo. The mirror uses an image processing and face recognition system, sensors, data exchange, skin analysis results and generates 0.5 million variants of images of a human face. It also “notices” facial irregularities, wrinkles, inflammation and provides personalized skin care advice, procedures and creams.
“Over time, smart mirrors will more and more accurately analyze the condition of the skin, hair, nails, and also work on the basis of predictive algorithms – to anticipate aging, the appearance of acne, wrinkles, age spots,” says Dycheva-Smirnova. A studio with such a preventive service, created by Harvard alumnus Dr. Carolyn Treasure, recently opened in New York and offers Botox microinjections. Clients take a lot of photos in which they actively grimace. The images are processed by artificial intelligence, which predicts where and when the patient will have wrinkles, and recommends injecting Botox into problem areas.
Such procedures were invented for young people. And it’s no coincidence: According to the findings of the recently published annual survey by the American Academy of Facial Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, the demand for preventive minimally invasive procedures has grown especially rapidly among millennials. The secret to eternal youth is to prevent aging in adolescence, not fight it when it’s too late, experts explain. Strange as it may seem, political correctness plays a role. “Now the attitude towards the very idea of struggle against age has changed. This is now perceived as ageism, therefore the term anti-age is gradually being replaced by the term pro-age, – comments the international expert of Filorga Svetlana Kovaleva. “In cosmetology, they began to talk about the good quality of the skin regardless of age, about maintaining the skin in a state of invulnerability and that the skin can have problems even at a relatively young age due to fatigue and some somatic diseases.”
waiting for the future
However, you should not worry that creams are not yet massively printed on printers, and that smart mirrors are not available in all stores. It is quite possible to while away the time in anticipation of the future with the already existing modern cosmetic products.
The basic principles and recipes for making cosmetics, according to experts, have remained practically unchanged for centuries. The main inventions relate to the improvement of mechanisms for the delivery of nutrients to the deep layers of the skin. “In our laboratories, for example, we create transport vectors that allow introducing complex and delicate complexes into the skin,” says Kovaleva. – Today, one of the most pressing topics in the development of new products is precisely the carriers that can deliver useful ingredients to the address without violating their healing properties. After all, it is necessary not only to “shove” vitamins and acids into the skin, but also not to spoil them on the way. “
Another innovation in the production of modern cosmetics is associated with the actual manufacturing process. “New technologies for extracting active components from plants are gradually being introduced. For example, even at the beginning of the 2000s, a method of extraction by the electro-pulse plasma-dynamic method appeared, which allows to extract up to 90% of active substances from plants. This is twice as much as with classical extraction, ”explains Anastasia Chupryna, founder of the Russian cosmeceutical brand Matromi.
Technologies based on the principle of similar treatment are also actively developing: in the development of new anti-aging agents, components are used that the body is usually rich in in youth. “Scientists have not yet found the elixir of youth, but anti-age technologies have advanced significantly over the past 20 years. The main active ingredients that have shown the best results and which are available to the consumer are peptides, ceramides and epidermal growth factors. All of them are present in young skin, but their number decreases with age, but modern creams help fill the gap, ”says Mikhailova. “So if the peptides in the cream are already able to slow down the aging process, then what will be the next step? – hypothesizes Victoria Baiborodova, head of the Kinetics Nail Academy. – Perhaps they will discover an incredible extract of a plant that did not exist before and which appeared due to the fact that the climate on the planet is changing. But we will change, we will acquire new abilities, among which there will be no signs of aging. Almost like in the movie “The Age of Adaline”, only without the discharge of lightning and cold water. “
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