S. Korean Beauty Industry Using AI to Develop New Products

South Korean beauty products company AmorePacific has a new artificial intelligence (AI) laboratory that has become popular with customers.

At the lab, robots mix face products, and the latest technology recommends the best lipstick color for an individual.

Kwon You-jin is a 32-year-old customer at the company's skin cosmetics service.

"Everyone has their own specific skin tone, but usually they buy the most common color available over the counter," she said.

"Knowing more data about my own skin, and seeing the before-and-after firsthand, it's a very good experience," she said, after receiving an AI-created report on the condition of her skin.

A robot mixed a special makeup base, or foundation, that matched her skin color.

More cosmetics companies are using AI to increase sales. Internationally known brands such as L'Oréal and Sephora use the technology to make special products for customers.

Global beauty industry sales including cosmetics reached $625.6 billion in 2023, climbing each year since dropping in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

That information comes from Statista Market Insights, a data and market research company.

AmorePacific said it uses AI to recommend the best choices for a customer from 205 different skin foundations or 366 different lip product colors.

Engineer Lee Young-jin, an adviser for AmorePacific's custom beauty business, said that developers used deep learning and machine learning methods to take the process that experts use to study data from many peoples' skins.

Experts said using AI instead of humans could speed up product development.

Yang Yong Suk, of South Korea's Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), was co-developer of a deep learning model for a cosmetic product's texture.

"No matter how professional an expert is, individual deviations can be large, and evaluating cosmetics by consulting 30 to 40 experts all the time is difficult," Yang said.

"These days, product development time has shortened, and an ever-larger amount of new products are launched faster," Yang added.

The market for using AI in the beauty and cosmetics industries is predicted to more than double from $3.27 billion in 2023 to $8.1 billion in 2028.

The market research provider Business Research Company said in January that services such as personalized beauty recommendations, skin examinations, and virtual makeup artists will likely grow.

I'm John Russell.

Hyun Young Yi and Daewoung Kim reported on this story for Reuters. John Russell adapted it for VOA Learning English.

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Words in This Story

customer –n. a person or group that pays for a product or service

lipstick – n. a usually colored cosmetic in stick form for the lips

cosmetics –n. (pl.) products that are put on the body, especially the face, with the aim of increasing beauty or improving appearance

specific –adj. relating to a particular instance, condition or thing

over the counter – adj. sold without prescription

match –v. to put two things together that have similar qualities

brand –n. the name under which a product is sold which can only be used by the company owning the brand name

texture – n. the visual or tactile surface characteristics of something

deviation – n. a departure or difference in something

evaluate – v. to determine the significance or condition of usually by careful study