The next wave of beauty products will be AI-powered and hyper-intelligent, offering personalized suggestions and treatments previously exclusive to costly consultations. For me, it’s a much-welcomed shake-up; I’ve suffered from acne since I was 10 years old, so it suffices to say I’ve tried a lot of different solutions in the 18 years I’ve been combatting my oft-cystic spots.
Nothing seems to have worked from hormonal treatments to over-the-counter solutions and cosmetic products, but I can’t pretend I’ve tried it all; there aren’t enough hours in the day nor pennies in my pocket to allow for that.
Instead, during an exclusive early access demonstration ahead of CES 2025, I tried Samsung’s AI-powered micro-LED mirror to learn more about what skincare products best suit my complexion, and I was pretty surprised by the results.
More than smoke and mirrors
The most important thing to understand about Samsung’s AI-powered micro-LED mirror is that it’s not really a mirror; instead, its surface is an aluminum and niobium micro-patterned mirror structure.
It’s not quite as reflective as a standard mirror, but it comes pretty darn close, with Samsung citing >80% mirror-level reflectance, and was developed in partnership with Korean cosmetic brand, Amorepacific, and its algorithm based on more than 20,000 skin diagnoses and leveraging data from more than 19,000 users.
The real attraction here, however, is the picture quality. Its micro-LED screen offers >90% transmittance, according to Samsung, displaying live feedback of your face during skin analysis as well as recommendations for your skincare.
It’s not the first of its kind, but bolstered by Samsung’s prolific display technology and ever-improving AI software, the micro-LED mirror stands to be among the best next-gen beauty devices, and certainly one of the most exciting I saw at CES.
After a quick face scan, the micro-LED mirror analyses your skin to assess four different values; pores, wrinkles, melanin (tone), and erythema (redness), before producing a series of product recommendations based on your results from some of Samsung’s cosmetic partners like Laneige and Innisfree.
Puzzlingly in my case, I received a big green tick for all four categories, which I didn’t fully expect; however, I was wearing some pretty heavy-duty Mac Studio Fix foundation, which might go some ways to explaining the results – and justifies the lofty price tag for me a little.
The micro-LED mirror did, however, correctly identify a known quality of my skin; it’s firm, but needs oil-water balance. To help, it recommended the Laneige Water Bank Blue Hyaluronic Gel Moisturizer and Innisfree's Daily UV Defense sunscreen.
A Samsung representative also shared that, in the future, there are plans for connected devices that can offer further cosmetic insights, too, which may even ultimately be SmartThings enabled.
There’s some ways to go before these kinds of products become genuinely useful to have around the home; as of right now there’s no release date or price point, and there’s fairly limited functionality based on what was demonstrated at CES. Still, it’s an exciting glimpse into the future of beauty tech.
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