Dive Brief:

• Shiseido announced the launch of Optune, an IoT personalized skin care system that provides guidance to individual users depending on 80,000 skin care patterns and individuals' living environments, according to a company press release. The app uses an algorithm to analyze multiple data points, including sleep data, menstrual history, environmental data and skin condition data to determine a user's current condition and provide recommendations.

• Users must pay a monthly subscription fee of 10,000 yen ($92 at the time of publishing) for the service. With the users' personal data analyzed, the company will send users five skin care product cartridges, or Optune Shots, as well as a device to dispense them.

• Users can take photos of their skin to send in for analysis via the Optune app. Once each user's personal data has been analyzed, the algorithm will determine what kind and how much of the skin care products to dispense, the company said.

Dive Insight:

Shiseido isn't the first company to tap into artificial intelligence, smartphone technology and IoT to personalize skin care. It's also not the first to attempt to offer customers skin care products optimized just for them.

Companies like Clinique, YouCam, Revieve and L'Oreal have tapped into technology to better serve each individual customer. Amazon tapped L'Oreal to implement AI and AR technology to match users with cosmetics. Perfect Corp. launched its own Beauty 3.0, a YouCam app which also allows users to test cosmetics. 

While some companies are using smartphone and AR technology to match customers with ideal skin care products, other companies are tapping into artificial intelligence technology to tailor the products themselves to each customer.

Revieve teamed up with Samsung to use its AI capabilities for a custom skin care analysis. Meanwhile, Clinique has tested out Clinique ID, a pop-up concept in which customers can create customized moisturizers for their skin type.

Direct-to-consumer brands focused on offering personalized solutions to common beauty problems are also cropping up more and more, from hair care companies like Madison Reed and Function of Beauty to personal care brand Native. Customer feedback has played a big role in that process, with many brands in the space changing products based on consumer reports, gaining their loyalty along the way.

What's clear is that the future of skin care is increasingly up-close and personal.