May 7, 2014
Beauty Disrupter – Mink Printer Prints out Color Cosmetics
May 7, 2014
Beauty Disrupter – Mink Printer Prints out Color Cosmetics
3D printers have been around since the 80’s but it’s mainly found its success with industrial clients. Lately there’s been a rising trend in consumer-facing 3D printers and it’s now just starting to hit mainstream.
The latest buzz in 3D printing arrived this week with the announcement of Mink, a makeup printer founded by Grace Choi. Choi launched her new 3D printer concept on the stage of Techcrunch Disrupt in NYC this week.
Mink founder, Grace Choi
Choi explained that,”The makeup industry makes a whole lot of money on a whole lot of bulls–,” as she addressed the Techcrunch attendees. “They charge a huge premium on something that tech provides for free. That one thing is color.”
According to Choi, color printers and makeup companies use the same kind of ink in their products. Mink “is a desktop printer that prints makeup. It can take any image and instantly transform it into a wearable color cosmetic, turning any camera, phone, or laptop into an endless beauty aisle.”
So how does it work?
STEP 1: Go online and find a color you want to print from sites like YouTube Makeup Tutorials. In her demo, Choi picked a color from Michelle Phan’s “Barbie Transformation” tutorial video.Choi says her machine will print creamy lipsticks or powdery eye shadows.
STEP 2: Use the color picker to copy the hex code of the color you’ve chosen. In her demo, Choi chose pink for an eyeshadow.
STEP 4: Print the color just as you’d print any other document on your computer.
STEP 5: This is what the finished product looks like. In Choi’s demo, the final product came in a little Mink-provided container that looked just like an eyeshadow compact you would buy at a store.
To further demonstrate her final Mink eyeshadow “print-out”, Choi dipped a makeup brush into the freshly printed powder and applied it to her hand.
Choi has high hopes for her Mink-printed beauty products. “Mink enables the web to become the biggest beauty store in the world,” she said. “We’re going to live in a world where you can take a picture of your friend’s lipstick and print it out.”
Now, watch Choi answer some tough questions from a male-dominated audience at her Techcrunch presentation:
Mink is still being developed and currently not for sale. According to Choi, Mint’s printer ink is FDA-approved.
Click here to request an invite for updates on when it will be for sale.