Brief:

• Neutrogena will soon debut a mobile feature that scans a user's face, allowing the company to 3D print a face mask personalized to the individual's skincare needs, the beauty brand announced in a press release. The new MaskiD app uses a smartphone's 3D camera to take photos of a user's face in order to map their face and capture a more accurate reading of their skin needs.
• The app divides the face into six color-coded zones — forehead, eyes, cheeks, nose, chin and cheek-to-cheek lines — and lets users choose mask ingredients based on their skincare concerns. The masks initially will consist of five main ingredients to address conditions like dryness, discoloration, inflammation and wrinkles. Neutrogena hasn't announced pricing, but Allure reports the masks will be in line with drugstore prices.
• The beauty brand, which is owned by Johnson & Johnson, will demonstrate the technology next week at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, and will begin shipping the personalized face masks to customers in fall 2019.

Insight:

Neutrogena's MaskiD app marks the next stage in using a smartphone camera to create personalized product recommendations for customers. Even more interesting is the beauty brand's integration with 3D printers that create the individualized face masks from Neutrogena skincare products before shipping to customers. The move, set to debut at the buzzy CES show this month, combines several retail marketing trends of late, including personalizing products, injecting mobile technology into the beauty industry and shipping items to a customer's doorstep à la the direct-to-consumer model.

Neutrogena, which has long positioned itself around bringing medical science into its beauty products, wants to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to detect changes in skin and fine-tune the app's recommendations, The Verge reported. MaskiD comes a year after the beauty brand debuted its Skin360 accessory for the iPhone at CES 2018. The small scanner gadget fits over a smartphone camera and uses high-powered lights, a magnification lens and sensors to capture the size and appearance of pores, fine lines and wrinkles to assess a customer's skin. Neutrogena designed the $50 device to help customers sort through hundreds of products and unlock personalized product recommendations at home without needing to visit a consultant at a store counter.

Product customization was a big feature of beauty and health-related products at last year's CES, where many companies debut new technology before rolling it out to consumers. Last year, beauty giant L'Oreal unveiled a battery-free wearable gadget to help people monitor skin exposure to harmful UV light. Philips showed off its SmartSleep Deep sleep headband that's integrated with an app to help users monitor their sleeping habits. Henkel introduced the Schwarzkopf Professional SalonLab to create customized haircare products at salons. This year's CES likely will bring more technologies to help people further personalize their self-care.