Brands combining beauty and technology have been an increasing occurrence in recent years, with anything from augmented reality apps to try on makeup, to smart devices offering personalized experiences at scale. A company that is jumping on this trend is Mink, which introduced the world’s first-ever 3D portable makeup printer. The concept was first debuted by CEO Grace Choi at the TechCrunch Disrupt Conference back in 2014, and they have since then worked on refining the product for its official release. 

So how does the makeup printer actually work? After downloading the Mink app, the user can import any image to print- anything from a screenshot from Instagram, to a Google image, or a selfie from your camera roll. The user then gets to choose between printing the whole image or a specific color featured in the picture. Then you simply have to click ‘send to print’ and within 15 seconds the makeup is printed on a thin sheet of paper and ready to be used. To get a better idea of what this looks like, you can watch the video below: 

While the idea of being able to easily print the exact shade of lipstick your favorite celebrity recently wore in a picture is exciting, it still raises some concerns. Firstly, it raises questions about copyright issues and the right to simply duplicate any makeup product at home. Dupes and knockoff products is already a well-known issue in the beauty industry, and enabling people to simply print any makeup they want at home would certainly not help this. However, the quality and ingredients of the product could of course vary significantly as only the color itself is copied. Adding to this, cosmetic chemists have expressed worries about the difficulties in making quality ingredients printable. This does not only concern how well the makeup applies or lasts, but also how you can control the safety of a product and ingredients in an ink cartridge. 

I think the idea of 3D printing makeup is really fun and offers great opportunities for creativity as well as offering a more sustainable alternative to the plastic packaging makeup typically comes in. However, the concept will still have to be developed to become widely adopted and I am curious to see how Mink performs when their product finally launches.

References:

Driver, G. (2019, June 19). The Pros And Cons Of 3D Printed Make-Up As It Becomes An At-Home Reality. ELLE. https://www.elle.com/uk/beauty/make-up/a28096868/mink-3d-printed-makeup/

Fasanella, K. (2019, June 18). The Mink, World’s First 3D Makeup Printer, Available for Pre-Order. Allure. https://www.allure.com/story/mink-3d-makeup-printer

Folk, E. (2019, September 23). How 3D Printing is Changing the Cosmetics Industry. 3DPrint.Com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing. https://3dprint.com/254128/dhow-3d-printing-is-changing-the-cosmetics-industry/

Restauri, D. (2014, September 11). A Harvard Woman Is Blowing Up The $55 Billion Beauty Industry With 3D Printed Makeup. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/deniserestauri/2014/06/30/a-harvard-woman-is-blowing-up-the-55-billion-beauty-industry-with-3d-printed-makeup/?sh=21b825617542

Sharkey, L. (2019, June 21). 3D Printing Your Own Makeup Could Be The Future Of Beauty, Thanks To One Woman. Bustle. https://www.bustle.com/p/3d-printing-your-own-makeup-could-be-the-future-of-beauty-thanks-to-one-woman-18135407

I think most of us have experienced a situation where you talk about something with a friend, then you open your browser and see an advertisement for exactly the thing you were just talking about. For me, that thing was cat food, which was incredibly random as I do not own a cat, generally like cats, or have ever fed a cat. So was my phone listening to me? Probably not, instead, this is a perfect example of a concept known as the Internet of Behavior (IoB) in action.

In simple words, the Internet of Behavior can be defined as a process where user data is analyzed from a behavioral psychology perspective, often with the aim of using this information to influence behavior. Generally, the data is collected from usage data and data created by IoT or mobile devices, which provide insights into the behavior, interests, and preferences of the users. While the concept of examining the behavior and habits of consumers is not a new one, the vast amounts of data and analytical processes definitely are.

The value of IoB is often mentioned in relation to marketing and sales, as it enables companies to gain a deeper understanding of their consumers and their habits. For example, they can access information and interact with the customer at any point of the customer journey, and through this create more touchpoints to influence consumer behaviors. The insights from IoB can also create new and better approaches to the development of user experiences, products, and services to better serve their customers. A key thing to mention is that IoB is both descriptive and proactive, meaning it can be used to detect which psychological variables to influence to bring a desirable outcome for the company.

So why should you care about IoB? The concept and IoB technologies are definitely something that is here to stay and will become more prevalent in the coming years. Gartner actually named IoB one of the top strategic technology trends for 2021, and it is predicted that by 2023, 40% of the global population’s individual behaviors will be tracked digitally to influence human behavior.

Further, IoB does come with potentially serious ethical and societal implications depending on the intentions of the user. Insurance companies could for example track the behavior of their customers through their smart wearables, and based on the data increase and decrease premiums based on what behaviors they consider healthy or not. The methods used to collect, store, and analyze the data can also cause serious privacy and security problems. Particularly, behavioral data provides cybercriminals with a gold mine of user data that can be used to generate advanced scams tailored to the behaviors of the user.

To bring it back to the example with the cat food advertisements, this was likely an example of a company collecting data on my behaviors and habits that somehow led to me being targeted with that advertisement. While it definitely did not lead to a successful conversion for the company, in this case, the technology is just getting better and I’m curious to see how it develops in the next few years.

References

IoTDesignPro. (2021, April 12). What is the Internet of Behavior (IoB) and why is it the top trend of 2021? https://iotdesignpro.com/articles/what-is-internet-of-behavior-iob

Ksenija, K., & Phell, A. (2021, April 20). What is the Internet of Behavior and Why is it Important for Business? GBKSOFT. https://gbksoft.com/blog/internet-of-behaviors/

Panetta, K. (2020, October 10). Gartner Top Strategic Technology Trends for 2021. Gartner. https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/gartner-top-strategic-technology-trends-for-2021

Vector ITC. (2021, February 17). What is the Internet of Behaviour (IoB) and why is it the future? https://www.vectoritcgroup.com/en/tech-magazine-en/user-experience-en/what-is-the-internet-of-behaviour-iob-and-why-is-it-the-future/