L’Oreal’s crazy CES 2023 printer puts ink on your face, not on paper

You don’t expect a beauty company like L’Oreal to announce a printer, but at CES 2023, that’s exactly what happened.

Except, the L’Oreal Brow Magic won’t be used to print boring documents, instead it prints eyebrows. What’s more, it uses augmented reality to help ensure the eyebrows it prints are exactly right for your face.

Now, we know this is a lot to take in, and no, before you ask, the Brow Magic doesn’t spit out little lines of stick-on hairy eyebrows. L’Oreal describes the Brow Magic as a “handheld electronic brow makeup applicator,” and it’s designed to quickly, easily, and precisely shape eyebrows without using a brush or mascara wand.

L’Oreal has worked with technology company Prinker on the Brow Magic device. Prinker is another star of CES, as in 2020, it showed the Prinker S tattoo printer — a handheld device that quickly prints a temporary tattoo on your skin. It uses Bluetooth to pull the required tattoo image from your phone, and when we tried it out, it was surprisingly simple to use, and the results were fun and effective.

The L’Oreal Brow Magic prints its eyebrow makeup through 2,400 tiny nozzles on the device, producing a 1,200 drops-per-inch (dpi) resolution, and you choose the shape, thickness, and eyebrow effects through the Brow Magic app on your phone. It’s here where the augmented reality part comes in. Using the camera on your phone, L’Oreal leans on its ModiFace A.I.-powered virtual makeup technology to make personalized recommendations on effects like micro-blading and micro-shading.

You apply a primer to your eyebrows, a step that was also part of the Prinker S’s tattoo application, before moving the printer across them. All it takes is a single, sweeping motion, and your new eyebrow look is applied. L’Oreal recommends adding a top coat to ensure the ink stays in place. Don’t worry if you get it wrong, or about having difficulty removing it at the end of the day, because the Brow Magic eyebrow makeup disappears with standard makeup remover.

While the Prinker S tattoo printer was a big, unattractive block, L’Oreal has made the Brow Magic printer far more visually attractive, while also thinking about ergonomics too. Remember, this has to be held steadily on your face as it prints, so comfort and ease of use are vital. However, it has not mentioned the overall weight of the device.

The company hasn’t discussed the price or an exact release date for Brow Magic either, saying it’s expected to launch in 2023.

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