L’Oréal debuts new personalized skin care tech

The new Custom DOSE serum will sold across the US in physician offices, according to a L’Oréal press release. And, it stands as a prime example of how the company is putting technology to work for beauty consumers.

“At L'Oréal, we are poised to leverage technology to respond to the rising wave of consumer demand for personalized products and services,” ​Guive Balooch, global vice president of L'Oréal's Technology Incubator, tells the press.

“DOSE acts like a mini skincare laboratory,” explains Balooch, “combining lab grade formulation and factory grade manufacturing into a machine that sits on the counter. As we pursue our mission of beauty for all, we are inspired by the challenge of using technology and design to create innovative beauty experiences custom made for each consumer.”​

Sharing beauty​

SkinCeuticals is an ‘advanced’ skin care and cosmeceutical treatment brand. And consumers will go through a consultation with a skin care professional to assess their expectations and help determine which actives belong in the resulting custom serum.

“The skincare professional completes an assessment on a tablet, which transfers the data to the DOSE machine that mixes and dispenses the customized serum. A custom label is then printed for each consumer, including an expiration date and a bar code for easy reordering,” ​explains the press release.

And Christina Fair, general manager of SkinCeuticals, describes how the serum customization service addresses a real consumer demand: “Our customers are consistently concerned with skin aging and discoloration, among various skin conditions that require a personalized approach to address them,”​ says Fair.

“The D.O.S.E technology empowers skincare professionals to co-create personalized formulas that address patients' unique skincare needs on the spot, in minutes,” ​she says, adding that, “We've created a better ecosystem for them to offer enhanced experiences for their patients using technology to address specific skin concerns.”​

Automating beauty​

The new technology promises to be a tiny, self-contained production facility, formulating and filling on the spot. “The machine uniquely combines active ingredients that historically were unmixable outside of a factory setting,” ​according to the L’Oréal press release.

To develop the new system, the SkinCeuticals and Tech Incubator teams selected an array of actives that would, in various combinations, be suitable for 250 skin types. And they spent a full year perfecting the system that now can “provide dozens of combinations through over 2,000 algorithms,” ​ as the press release describes it.

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Deanna Utroske, CosmeticsDesign.com Editor, covers beauty business news in the Americas region and publishes the weekly Indie Beauty Profile column, showcasing the inspiring work of entrepreneurs and innovative brands.