New look, hue this?

Make-up used to be about hiding flaws and looking perfect. Now, palettes echo feelings, tech mixes custom shades, new brands break the binary and soften the mood for us all

- Saumya Rastogi

Blend, blend, blend. The beauty industry's favourite mantra is all about mixing things up and blurring the edges. But for years, some ideas have stayed steadfastly separate. Red lips signified the femme fatale; pink was for the demure. Beige was some kind of universal neutral. Men and women needed different beauty products. Non-binary folks? Who knew what they wanted?

Turn the vanity lights on and take a close look—a lot is changing. New tech is filling in the gaps for foundation shades. Make-up is now less about what you look like than how you feel. And colour cosmetics are opening up to the LGBTQ+ rainbow. Here are just four updates.

Tech is matching up

At the CES 2020 tech show in Vegas, L'Oréal Las showcased Perso, a handheld device that uses AI to custom-mix lipstick based on an individual's skin, outfit and the weather. The sleek, cylindrical gadget (about the size of a phone power bank) had built-in cameras, sensors and a colour reader. "It scans the user's face via a companion app, processes the data in seconds, and dispenses a small, onetime dose of lipstick onto a detachable tray," says Ananya Kapur, founder of Type Beauty.

The idea was to set up Perso in markets where access to in-store testers or beauty advisors was limited. But new tech isn't cheap. So, L'Oréal launched the device for at-home use under its luxury brand YSL Beauty. The Rouge Sur Mesure, at $299, uses colour cartridges to mix shades on demand, giving users 5,000 different lip colours. "The colours are richly pigmented and offer more longevity, compared to standard high-end lipsticks," says Kapur. Each starter kit includes four colour cartridges grouped into a shade family (reds, nudes, pinks or oranges). Additional cartridges cost around $100 for a set of three.