How powerful is the robot BA in the number one beauty chain in the United States?

When you think of cosmetics chains, what comes to your mind? A dazzling array of product displays, refreshing fragrances, and of course, smiling “cabinet brothers” and “cabinet sisters” in professional attire, as well as beauty BAs who put out professional tools such as makeup brushes and prepare to try makeup for customers. But in several stores of Ulta Beauty, the number one beauty retail chain in the United States, there are also several more machines with different shapes, waiting to serve customers all the time – from haircuts, manicures to eyelashes, what do you want? All imaginary services that a human BA can provide you will be performed by a robot.

“Whether you think it sounds cool or creepy, fasten your seat belts – a new age of beauty journeys led by robots is coming.” Maria Halkias, columnist for Cosmetic Executive Women (CEW) declared in its report.

01：Robotic manicure: done in 10 minutes

“It usually takes 30 minutes to 2 hours to do a manicure in a nail salon, and the enthusiastic manicurist will actively interact with you during this process, which is undoubtedly very embarrassing for people who hate small talk and are introverted. In addition, nail art The most basic monochrome manicure in the store also costs at least $20, which is not a tip.” Maria said in the report, “Now the savior of the ‘social fear’ has appeared, and in just 10 minutes, Clockwork can do it for you. He gets his nails done on his fingers, and you don’t need to have any ‘embarrassing chat’ or tip it – because Clockwork is a robot.”

This desktop robot is about the size and shape of a microwave oven. After the customer chooses the desired color, inserts the plastic box corresponding to the nail polish into the machine, then puts one of his hands on the hand rest in the machine, and uses a small strap to fix a nail. The robot’s 3D camera takes a picture of the nail and sends it to the artificial intelligence master. After the master recognizes the photo of the nail, the master controls the nozzle to apply the nail polish evenly on the nail, and finally a few drops help the nail polish to dry quickly. , and instruct the user to place their next fingernail into the hand rest. After 10 minutes, this manicure sprayed by a robot is complete.

At present, Clockwork has appeared in 6 Ulta Beauty stores in California, Texas and other places, and consumers will pay $8 for the first appointment for a Clockwork manicure, and $9.99 for each subsequent appointment. In addition to ulta, major U.S. beauty retailers, office buildings, luxury apartment buildings, high-end gyms and airports have made leases to their parent companies.

02: Grafting eyelashes: three to four times faster than manual

Clockwork isn’t the only company offering robotic grooming services. In Oakland, U.S., another tech startup called Luum Precision Lash (Luum) is gearing up to offer consumers lash extensions in 50 minutes or less. , this speed is twice as fast as that of artificial eyelash grafting technicians.

“We’ve summarized consumer dissatisfaction with eyelash extensions into three main points in our survey: long, expensive, and uncomfortable,” Rachel Gold, Luum’s chief marketing officer and head of user experience, said in an interview with Yahoo Finance. , “The purpose of the robot is to overcome these three pain points in one fell swoop.”

It is reported that Luum’s robot can complete a complete set of eyelash grafting services in about 50 minutes, while the industry standard service time is about two hours. “Currently, our robot can only do eyelash extensions on one eye at a time, and we are upgrading the technology so that it can take care of both eyes at the same time, which will speed up the service.” Gold said, she also said that by 2023, the Service completion is expected to be three to four times faster than the industry standard.

03: Hairdressing, makeup and other beauty services may all be replaced by robots?

Except for manicures and eyelashes, robots from other companies are not idle. Dyson’s robots do haircuts all day, and human engineers there watch video clips of salon workers doing hair for customers, then program the robots to mimic them, swinging the dryer from side to side. “Of course, our robotic hair salon guys don’t have faces, but they do have hands—one of them moves between the hair, messing it up while drying. The other hand changes the angle and wind speed to The ‘user’ provides a comfortable service,” said Veronica Alanis, Dyson’s head of research and development.

In a laboratory in Tokyo, Shiseido’s robot fiddles with lipstick on white paper, studying “four ways to apply lipstick.”

“The lipstick robot adjusts pressure and speed for different lipsticks, mimicking how customers and beauty consultants change the way they apply lipstick based on the shape, feel and weight of the container,” said Yusuke Nakano, manager of Shiseido’s Global Brand R&D Center.

Storch said that cosmetics retail stores are increasingly looking to add uniqueness and interest to consumers’ shopping experience, in order to drive store traffic and increase sales. Ulta Beauty has undoubtedly made a cosmetic retail store in the United States. Good role model.

“In addition, the use of robots can greatly reduce the risk of close contact between beauty consultants and consumers during the epidemic.” Storch said. “I applaud Ulta for doing it.