Why It’s Really Freaking Cool That L’Oreal Is 3D Printing *Skin*
Makeup — well, makeup testing — is going the tech route. After recent innovations in the beauty try-on world via apps like ModiFace and L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius, L’Oreal is getting deeper into the digital world by 3D printing skin. You read that right: 3D printed skin is coming to L’Oreal’s labs.
The makeup giant, which has been avoiding animal testing by producing human skin for a long time, is getting creative when it comes to its testing through a partnership with bioprinting startup Organovo to make the process of farming skin more efficient. By 3D printing skin, L’Oreal is teaming up with the startup — already printing liver and kidney tissues — to figure out how to 3D print living, breathing derma in order to test its makeup for toxicity and efficacy. Color us intrigued.
According to Bloomberg Business, L’Oreal has a lab in Lyon, France where it grows and analyzes more than 100,000 skin samples annually that are donated by plastic surgery patients throughout the country. While that is definitely an impressive amount of samples the makeup leader is aiming to automate and accelerate skin production via 3D printing to make testing a more efficient process, while also selling the skin samples to other makeup companies. Not only does this sound awesome for us, but we’re pretty pumped to see how something like this could replace animal testing in the beauty world for good.
With recent strides in 3D printing in healthcare (human + animal), the future of this avenue of innovation continues to excite us. Psh, and we thought 3D printed makeup was cool…
What are your thoughts on L’Oreal 3D printing skin — ew or cool? Let us know in the comments.
(h/t The Cut, photos via L’Oreal Paris Facebook)
