Alexa, make me beautiful.

As AI continues its (mostly) benign creep into every aspect of our lives from dating to driving, we are, of course most intrigued by how artificial intelligence may be one day harnessed by the beauty industry.

Well, it already has. Sorta.

The FOREO Institute technicians have been studying how to integrate A.I into new product launches, so we at Mysa thought we’d see how FOREO can stack up against the competition.Below we look at some of the best examples of AI in beauty and skincare that we could find and see how revolutionary they really are.

1. The Revieve Digital Beauty Advisor

Revieve is a tool for cosmetic brands to give ‘selfie-based’ skincare advice, whether through a mobile shopping experience or as an in-store face scanner. It can figure out your “skin tone, eye color, facial shape and beauty needs in real-time to provide a curated makeup routine” from whichever brand it happens to be calibrated to. Picture the slightly-intimidating MAC make up artists at your local department store brandishing Revieve on Ipads.

Our Rating: 2.5/5

We haven’t tried this yet – basically we would need to find a brand using this tech to try it – but we might like it for things like helping us shop online. In-store, we’ve had good luck with human expertise so far!

2.  Color Match for Sephora Virtual Artist

So  I had a fairly negative review of this written, based on my initial experiences with the ‘Product Try On’ Virtual Artist  tab in the Sephora app – the results were, for me at least, nothing short of terrifying when I tried first tried them, but it turns out that fluorescent office lighting was to blame. Now, using natural light, I kinda love ‘Trying the Look’ but i digress, as I’m here to only discuss one part of the app: the lipstick color match.

When you’ve selected ‘Lip,’ there is a little eyedropper you can select, after which you’re prompted to take a photo with your phone’s camera and it’ll find a range of lipsticks that match.

Our Rating: 4.5/5

Is it particularly high tech? Maybe not, but it is super useful, for everything from matching lipstick to a dress for a wedding to going full on lipstick art by recreating flowers. Okay, maybe I’m biased because while testing it with my LUNA 2 for Normal Skin it led me to the Stila Lush Lips Plumping Primer that I’m obsessed with but whatever, it’s still fun to play with!

3.  Estée Lauder & Google Home Collaboration

If you’re already addicted to your home assistant and Estée Lauder – firstly, congratulations because you’re clearly living your best life – then you can now enjoy a personalized night-time skincare routine.

Basically, you go to Google Home and ask, “Ok Google, can I talk to the Estée Lauder Nighttime Expert?” You’ll be connected with an ‘expert’ that asks you a series of questions and introduces you to the correct products and how to use them.

Our Rating: 2/5

This is basically a revamp of most of the product selector bots you find on websites – it uses a ‘mostly a’s vs mostly b’s vs mostly c’s’ quiz-esque algorithm. This particular assistant might be useful if you wanted to be talked through expensive products that you’ve already bought (it doesn’t seem to incorporate voice-shopping), which is maybe why we would pass.

4. iHome Beauty iCVBT10

So it’s a mirror. A smart one? Yea, basically this you’d-only-buy-it-at-Brookstone type magnified makeup mirror lets you do some slightly cool, if unnecessary things like:

-play music

-charge your phone (okay maybe that’s handy)

-use Bluetooth to take calls (who talks on the phone?)

– Auto turn off the light after 25 min if you forgot (we’d like this feature for curling irons, thank you)

Our Rating: 2/5

If our clueless aunt gave this to us for Christmas, we’re sure we’d use it, but otherwise, hard pass – this is basically a Bluetooth speaker with a mirror glued onto it.

5.LUNA fofo

LUNA fofo is the latest from FOREO, launched with the goal to 100% personalize skincare – in other words you have a personal skincare expert on hand 24/7. So while it looks quite similar to the LUNA play plus, it is actually that, well, plus more! It gives you completely, truly personalized skincare, based on skin analysis that uses your skin’s electro-conductivity.

Basically, LUNA fofo has 2 metal sensors on the back (24k gold plate, in fact – NBD) that measures your moisture levels and ‘true skin age’. Synced with your app, it’ll create a cleansing routine that’s completely personalized to your skin! Not only is it cool to get feedback on whether your diligent moisturizing is actually working, we just love the idea of a skincare that’s actually made just for our skin, not just based on answering questions. Your (anonymous) skin info will be processed over time via AI and and your LUNA fofo will automatically update your  skincare routine – so the more you use it, the smarter it gets.

Our Rating: 4.5/5

Okay, so maybe we’re biased, but  here at MYSA, we got to help test LUNA fofo and its ability to give us *actually* personalized info on our skin is pretty darn neat! We want to keep using it to see if there’s a real difference in our skin appearance  – so stay tuned for our review – but we had a ton of fun analyzing everyone’s face and comparing ‘scores’! 

Are you curious enough to try LUNA fofo? Sign up and stay tuned – it’ll be launching globally in September 2018!