How to 3D-print your own makeup

While Grace Choi was studying at Harvard Business School, she had a revelation to unite the industries of beauty and technology. Realizing that makeup has always been a hot commodity, and that all chemicals used in various brands’ products were virtually the same, she wanted to try her own version: a method of producing makeup via 3D printing. This system of 3D printing makeup will instantly gratify people who want a specific color of a product without delay.

Choi debuted her innovation at this week’s TechCrunch Disrupt. After performing an intense amount of research, she created her own 3D printer called Mink that uses normal printer ink to yield makeup products. Like any other printer, Mink hooks up to any computer and is extra special due to its 3D-printing capabilities. Mink’s ink contains pigments and raw material substrates that enable the makeup’s consistency to vary from a powdered form to a cream-like texture. Anyone can take a color’s pigmentation from the web and print a lipstick, blush, or eye shadow from that color.

Choi’s 3D makeup printing technique involves ripping the color code from any color photo seen online, taking it through a series of steps, and then sending it to the Mink printer.

The first step is to find the desired color from the Internet, take a photo of a color from the outside world. Next, take the color picker tool; copy the hex code of your desired color. 

Use Photoshop or Paint, and paste that hex code into a new page. The hex code will be virtually translated into your selected color.

When you’re ready to produce the makeup, just hit print and watch Mink work its techy magic.

The Mink printer even produces a customized container for the eyeshadow to sit in, just like the store-bought kinds.

At the TechCrunch event, Choi stated that “Mink enables the web to become the biggest beauty store in the world.” Soon enough, “we’re going to live in a world where you can take a picture of your friend’s lipstick and print it out.”

The Mink printer will retail in the future at an estimated price of around $300.

Story via TechCrunch, Business Insider