- Home
- Skin Care
- The Skin Care Robot That Knows More About Your Face Than You Do
Beauty
Written by: Eloise King-Clements
|
Published on: June 5, 2025
As I watch a robot arm gingerly mix my custom-made moisturizer into a bottle that looks like it’s meant for feeding kittens, I coo as if admiring a newborn baby.
I’m at the International Esthetics, Cosmetics and Spa trade show inside NYC’s Javits Center—a place as unsexy as it sounds—where some 30,000 people have gathered to behold the latest and greatest beauty gadgets. An endless slew of screens beg to “begin analysis.” The words “clinically proven” are repeated enough to evoke healthy skepticism (the lady doth protest too much and all that). One company’s AI will even scan your face and let you know where you could use some filler or Botox. This year, one thing’s unequivocally clear: Science is in bed with skin care—and sparks are flying.
Big beauty players—companies like La Roche-Posay, L’Oréal, Cetaphil, Sephora, and Caudalie—have all launched their own versions of AI technology that can scan your face and recommend products. And, as anyone who has ever clicked “add to cart” can attest, AI now also operates as a savvy personal shopper. Traffic to retail sites from generative AI chat bots surged by 1,300 percent last holiday season, according to Adobe Analytics. Research suggests that these electronic sales assistants aren’t nearly as annoying as the perfume-spritzing human counterparts that used to define the brick and mortar buying experience. In an Adobe survey, 70 percent of consumers who have used generative AI when shopping believe it improved the process.
At the conference, AI is omnipresent. As I wander among the stalls of buyers and investors touting lasers and other high-tech gadgets, one corner seems to have more gravitational pull than any other: A booth occupied by SmartSKN. Naturally, I make a beeline.
The booth is manned by four employees (each of whom have very glassy skin, which seems important) and includes a vitrine the size of a refrigerator with a small robot tucked inside. The company claims to be the first to launch skin care robots stateside. Built by a South Korean company called LillyCover, these aesthetically minded C-3PO’s can formulate personalized three-step skin care routines on the spot. No, they are not just recommending the routines, they are actually formulating the products for each corresponding step. Right in front of you.
Val Neicu, SmartSKN’s founder, is a self-described product junkie. The first time she saw the robots was at a tradeshow in 2023. “When I saw it, I understood the potential,” says Neicu. “I thought, if this works, this is the way we can change.” In less than two years, she had sold her house and paid $7 million—along with two business partners—to bring LillyCover’s robots to the US (where SmartSKN officially launched at the end of 2024).
Back at the booth, I sit down, and Neicu uses the company’s AI Dermascope to take dermascopic (or 60 times magnified) photos of my face to evaluate all sorts of things—oil and hydration levels, sensitivity, and more. Next, I take a questionnaire. The results are fed to a dermatologist-trained algorithm, and a chart is unveiled—steps that are typical of many AI skin scans. Things depart from the norm, however, when the company’s bubbly social media manager brings me over to the robot (“his name is Bok, he’s the most loyal,” she laughs). I scan my barcode, which pulls up the aforementioned data and suggests formulations for three plant-based potions: a serum, ampoule, and moisturizer. Without missing a beat, Bok gets to work.
“In my version of the future, you walk into Sephora, and you don’t really see shelves anymore. I see individual companies having their own robots with their own product,” Neicu says of her dream to license the robots to other skin care companies. “We are already working on versions of these machines that would be smaller and more compact. I see this going in every retail store, every spa—probably every airport and cruise ship.”
If that sounds like a grim fantasy, picture this: a world wherein no dead stock skin care is wasted. Instead, there exists only made-to-order products, each boasting total customer satisfaction. Clean beauty, too, has advanced thanks to these friendly robots, which hold the potential to remedy an issue that’s long-plagued the industry: preserving plant-derived ingredients. Per Neicu, the company has found a way to maintain their stability and preserve the bioavailability (the body’s ability to absorb its nutrients) of such derivatives.
“Stabilizing products that are naturally unstable is a huge challenge for the industry,” Rachel Nazarian, MD, a NYC-based dermatologist. “To preserve them means that you protect your investment.”
SmartSKN believes their technology can help eliminate overproduction and waste—no small task. The beauty industry produces some 120 billion pieces of packaging each year, only a fraction of which are recycled (overstock often ends up in landfills). A key factor contributing to that waste: Sloppy and overzealous consumption. How many of us have at least one jar (or six) of something we thought we’d love, but didn’t? “The consumer has to be more intentional,” says Neicu. “If they build a connection with the process and see how personalized it is, they will be more conscious.”
On my way home, I pass a brightly lit cosmetics store. I think about going in—maybe to try something new, maybe just out of habit. But I don’t. I keep walking, thinking about the robot in the lab and what it means for how we shop, how we choose, how much we waste. Maybe the future of beauty isn’t about having more options. Maybe it’s about knowing what actually works—and stopping there.
I Got a Robot Massage and Things Got Metaphysical
Step Inside a Luxury Wellness Retreat's New Hair Unit
