skincare
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The TheraFace Pro gently punches your face to help you relax
The TheraFace Pro is a handheld gadget offering multiple facial therapies, including percussive and microcurrent treatments.
Lululab's Lumini PM is a smart mirror that offers skincare suggestions
The Lumini wasn’t something you could buy yourself, and that’s something Lululab wants to change with its latest iteration on the idea, the Lumini PM.
L'Oreal's handheld skincare dispenser doles out custom formula at each press
Beauty tech is tricky business. Every other month it seems like a new company pops up, promising to make a custom blended product that targets your specific skin type and concerns. But there are also environmental factors that affect what you'd want to apply, and these change when you travel or move. You're not going to want to reorder a whole new bottle just for the winter and another for when you go on a beach holiday.
Opte is a printer that covers up only the blemishes on your skin
Applying concealer or foundation all over your entire face just to cover up some discolored portions is a waste of time and product. Not all of your skin needs to be masked -- if you could spot-erase blemishes, you could look picture perfect while still letting your pores (mostly) breathe. The problem is, it takes a ton of time, patience and skill to do that. Enter the Opte "precision skincare" thermal "printer." It's a handheld scanner-and-cartridge system that you drag across your face, and it will "print" concealing pigment on specifically the discolored bits.
Sunday Riley settles with FTC over fraudulent skincare reviews
The FTC's fight against fake product reviews has extended to the world of hype-driven cosmetics. Skincare maker Sunday Riley has settled with the FTC over reports that it ordered employees to post fake reviews on Sephora's website in a bid to boost sales. Managers and Sunday Riley herself reportedly created fake accounts to post reviews between 2015 and 2017, and urged employees to do the same. They also asked staff to dislike negative reviews to get them pulled, according to the FTC, and even resorted to using VPNs to mask their identities after Sephora spotted earlier fake reviews.
Amazon creates its own skincare line called Belei
Amazon loves to capitalize on popular products, and that apparently extends to the recent fascination with skincare products. The internet giant has introduced its first "dedicated" skincare line, Belei, to snap up customers who'd otherwise hunt down coveted Korean products. The initial catalog includes everything from basics like facial wipes ($9) to a slew of moisturizers (typically $35) and multi-purpose serums (up to $40), helping you deal with everything from acne to wrinkles. Notably, Amazon's own name is conspicuously absent -- it clearly doesn't want to you to associate your eye cream too closely with the company that made your Echo speaker.
Neutrogena app 3D scans your face to create perfect-fit sheet masks
At CES last year, Neutrogena unveiled an iPhone attachment that lets you examine the condition of your skin in excruciating detail -- pores, moisture levels, wrinkles you didn't even know were there, the lot. Now, branching off the Skin 360 tool, the company has unveiled an app that accurately measures your face to ensure a good fit for the sheet masks designed to counteract these skin woes.
L'Oreal's wearable sensor tracks UV, pollen and pollution
L'Oreal isn't a brand you'd usually associate with medical technology, but over the past few years it's been making major inroads in skin protection innovation. There was My UV Patch, designed to inform wearers how their skin was being affected by the sun, and then UV Sense, a thumbnail-sized smart device that helped monitor sun exposure. Now, it's launching a battery-free wearable electronic that tracks your exposure to UV, pollution, pollen and humidity.
No one needs this $279 vibrating face puck
I'll admit it: Any combination of tech and skincare gets me super excited, and I was stoked to try out the Foreo UFO. It's a puck that heats up, vibrates and glows to enhance the traditional facial-sheet-mask experience, and it can be controlled via an app. But I didn't just relish the excuse to pamper myself in the name of work. I was also intrigued by the potential for the device to not only cut down application time from 15-20 minutes to about 90 seconds but also help my skin better absorb the mask's essences.
The ethically murky marriage of technology and beauty
The last time I bought foundation, I couldn't decide if I was a "Fair" or a "Light." Confusing names aside, shades of cosmetics are particularly tricky for me -- a relatively pale Asian woman with yellow undertones in my skin. Colors designed for Asian complexions tend to be a bit dark or dull for my liking, while those for white skin look unnatural on me.
Lululab’s skincare assistant peers deep into your pores
Getting clearer, healthier skin could soon be as easy as taking a selfie. At CES 2018 in Las Vegas on Tuesday, Lulu Lab — a member of the Samsung-C accelerator program — showed off its novel skincare camera designed to capture and analyze facial features with a single picture.
Foreo's UFO is a vibrating puck that makes facial sheet masks better
Skincare company Foreo is adding a bit of tech into a beloved pampering ritual with its new UFO and UFO Mini devices. The company is calling these smart masks, and UFO stands for Ur Future Obsession -- both of which are sort of misnomers. The UFOs are more like palm-sized pucks that vibrate, similar to the Neutrogena Wave cleansers. You attach a mini sheet mask, which Foreo is selling at $9.99 for seven, and rub the device all over your face. During this, the UFO is going through a preset cycle -- heating up for 30 seconds, followed by a period of vibrating, and finishing with 30 seconds of cooling down.
Dr. Samsung tried to fix my face
No, I'm not holding a phone. The thing I'm holding in my hand above is analyzing my skin for its hydration levels, redness and melanin. Even better, it's going to try and fix any issues with a combination of light therapy and "micro-needle" patches filled with skin goodness. Make me beautiful, Samsung.
Fujitsu app analyzes zits and skin tone, delivers professional advice to your phone
That's right, you can finally get rid of that Tamagotchi you've been using to pick those perfect skincare products. Fujitsu is teasing a new app that's capable of measuring specific characteristics of the skin, even with less-than-ideal lighting conditions. We normally have to put up with the hassle of having to visit our friendly neighborhood skincare professional every time we need accurate info about our zits, blemishes or what color makeup to wear to the Star Trek convention. Fujitsu wants to put that power in your pocket, identifying appropriate products before you get to the beauty bar. Maybe this one isn't destined for record downloads, but it could make life a little bit easier -- take a look at the descriptive graphic above if you don't believe us.
Philips' Crystalize service promises to cure your skin care dilemma
We've already seen a few Japanese department stores employing virtual makeover machines, and it looks like Philips is now hoping to bring a similar service to an even wider audience. Dubbed "Crystalize," the company's latest off the beaten path device makes use of some cameras normally used for medical purposes to take extreme close-up shots of various parts of your face, which are then analyzed for four different conditions (skin type, redness, sun damage, and smoothness). That will apparently cost you $90, which will also get you recommendations for various products to improve your skin (for which Philips apparently doesn't receive any remuneration), and access to a social networking site for continuing service. For starters, however, the service will only be available at one store in Santa Monica, but Philips says it plans to make it available "across the world" in 2010. Video after the break.
Bandai unleashes beauty tool to detect the condition, mood of your skin
This is the kind of gadget we'd assume was a joke -- if we didn't know that it wasn't. Bandai -- makers of such useful time wasters as the Tamagotchi and the little doohickey that helps women "understand" men -- has just unveiled a new device which should make you feel even less comfortable inside your own skin. Partnering up with Japanese cosmetics company FANCL, Bandai's Skin Expert is a tiny device which you apparently hold up to your face to receive detailed information on its 'quality' and health. Now, all of the information we can find about this little guy is in Japanese, so excuse us for our mystification on how the doodad works, but we'll tell you this: we're definitely buying it if it shows up on Sephora. The Bandai Skin Expert will be unleashed in Japan on November 30th for ¥3,750 (about $40). There's one more super informative shot after the break. [Via Hobby Blog]
Panasonic Nanocare administers ionic moisture, placebo effect
The very fact there is a Nanocare range of skin moisturizing gadgets is pretty impressive -- the suits at Panasonic must feel pretty clever trying to sell people on the idea that they need a device capable of generating an "ultra fine nano-particle ion steam," which apparently boils down to mist with a high water content. There's "empirical data" to back this up, but those numbers don't seem to mean much since the EH-SA42 model doesn't even need water to do its magic. You figure that one out. Japan gets these in November, and distribution will probably be limited to the far (out) East.[Via Slashgear]
Dream Skincare coming to Japanese DS
Konami recently unveiled Dream Skincare in Japan for the Nintendo DS. The "game" is more like Brain Age, except instead of being a brain trainer, it's a skin trainer. The game features a virtual version of beauty adviser Chizu Saeki (pictured) and allows players to enter their body temp. and monitor hormonal balance to keep their skin fresh and supple. It would be the perfect present for the greasy teenager or beauty queen in your life. Sadly, it's only in Japan at the moment with no announcement of it going anywhere else.Good skincare isn't the worst idea for a game on the DS. If it ends up selling really well we may see it leave Japan. We're still waiting for Common Sense Training, another one of these "games," but it teaches people common sense lessons. For example, at a train station, you let people get off the train first before moving in. It sounds like such a simple concept, yet Nintendo would be kind to teach us all this lesson. Nintendo should do every country a favor by just air dropping that game across the planet. Maybe we'll have a more polite society and Nintendo can just keep smiling while they continue selling DSs by the boatload.[Via Eurogamer]
Cellphone-blocking Clarins Expertise 3P skin care wafts into the market
We're always wanting that skin to glow around the virtual office here, but never would we suspect that "Artificial Electromagnetic Waves" could be hurting us. While the merits of studies that show radiation from wireless handsets harm or don't harm humans are far from final, it's pleasing to know that anti-cellphone skin care is close at hand. In addition to those cheaply made "anti-radiation" stickers that go for about 10 cents these days, the new Expertise 3P skin care product from Clarins will -- get this -- protect you from "Artificial Electromagnetic Waves." We're not sure how one determines if certain RF emissions are "artificial" or not, but nonetheless this new skin care product features a "Magnetic Defence Complex" that protects skin from the effects of "Artificial Electromagnetic Waves" and also has an "Anti-Pollution Complex" that contains White Tea and Succory Dock-Cress. Just spritz this spray right on yourself and watch those invisible cellphone rays bounce off your skin like stones across a pond. [Via textually.org]
