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During the TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2014 event, young Grace Choi, a Harvard Business School alumna, amazed the audience with her invention. Mink 3D is a make-up printer: a device that looks and works just like your regular printer back home. Yet this one can work wonders on any woman’s look. Here’s what the sources reporting from the event had to say about it:
The Mink 3D printer uses the same FDA-approved substrates and ingredients used by popular makeup brands. To print color-specific makeup, a user just needs to pick a color, be it from an image found online, a photo they’ve clicked, or a color they’ve selected in image editing software like Paint or Photoshop. All the software needs is the hex code of the chosen color (easily obtained with a color picker) and Mink is ready to print.
In the words of Grace Choi, this printer enables women to select virtually any color and shade in the world and turn in into lipstick, eye shadow, blush, and so on. At TechCrunch Disrupt, Choi made a demonstration of eye-shadow printing, but she intends to develop Mink to also print lip gloss and cream in the nearest future. While no official data has been released yet, it seems that Choi has already managed to find investors interested in her project. She hopes the Mink 3D make-up printer will deal a powerful blow to the global cosmetic industry, as it will reportedly be made available for under $200. This will, of course, make it affordable for females aged 13 to 21.
Some analysts are even speculating that, if Choi’s plans go according to schedule, the printer will be released by the end of this year. Obviously, this will enlarge the targeted demographics and help turn this new device into a fierce competitor for the cosmetic industry. Printing make-up in any color and shade you want, from the comfort of your own home, with the help of a computer, smartphone or tablet, is further proof that technology can trump historically established industries in the bat of a mascara-enhanced eyelash.
