Shiseido launches personalised skincare brand Optune

By

Barbara Santamaria

Published
Jul 1, 2019

After a beta preview earlier this year, Shiseido is rolling out a personalised skincare service that includes an at-home skin analyser and product dispenser in Japan this month.

‘Optune’ is the name of the Japanese cosmetics giant’s latest innovation, which aims to provide women with a skincare collection that is tailored to their needs and other factors such as weather conditions.

For the first time ever, Shiseido is dipping its toes into service-based model. But this is not a small project: in fact, the beauty brand has developed 80,000 different combinations of five serums and lotions to deliver personalised formulas.

For 10,000 yen ($92) a month, subscribers will be able to use a dedicated app to get a skin analysis by taking a photo. This information, coupled with input provided by the user such as menstrual cycle and mood and external factors including air quality and humidity, will be used to determine the appropriate skincare for the day.

The service also includes a dispenser, which receives the data from the app and delivers the required formula.

Shiseido said the app was also able to detect sleep rhythms.

The Japanese group has been ploughing significant resources into its research operations in a bid to come up with innovative new products for skincare fans. It explained that the new service responds to the growing number of women who just don’t have time to spend on guessing which products will work for their skin.

L’Oreal recently launched an AI-powered digital skin diagnostic to deliver tailor-made skincare suggestions, but Shiseido’s Optune goes a step further by hyper-personalising the system and taking into account external conditions.

Optune will be available in Japan from 1 July, with a wider rollout being considered depending on its success.