3D Printing Revolution Comes to Makeup: Print Any Color You Want

Meet Mink, the 3D desktop cosmetics printer that might just revolutionize the makeup industry. Mink aims to offer an intersection between beauty and affordability by literally enabling users to bring colors from both the web and the real world to life – on their faces.

With its introduction Monday at TechCrunch’s Disrupt NY – one of the most anticipated technology conferences of the year – Mink’s founder Grace Choi says she created this software to satisfy a desire for instant gratification while enabling consumers to create makeup from any color in the world at an affordable price. According to TechCrunch.com, with Mink, consumers literally will be able to match their makeup to their outfits.

Mass retailers such as Walgreen’s, while convenient, offer limited color selections – most often shades of pinks and reds – based on their universal appeal, thus excluding consumers who want to be bold. Sephora, on the other hand, offers a wider variety of colors but at a much higher price point. Mink aims to bridge this gap.

The printing process sounds simple and straightforward. According to TechCrunch.com, users choose a color on a website, Pinterest board, or snap one with their phone in the real world, and use any color picker to locate the Hex code of the color. Once users have the code, they can put it into any other program like Photoshop or Paint, and simply press print.

In an interview with TechCrunch.com, Choi says the possibilities are endless, and that Mink can “create any type of makeup, [ranging] from powders to cream to lipstick.” She says that Mink is essentially “taking out the bullshit.”

By removing the middleman – big makeup companies in this case who “take the pigment and the substrates and mix them together and then jack up the price” – Mink is doing the same thing while allowing the consumer to get the makeup in the convenience of her own home.

The price of Mink makeup is going to be around the same price per unit “as mass retailers, but with the most color options of any brand in the world,” says Choi.