Inventor and Harvard business school graduate Grace Choi took to the stage at the Tech Crunch Disrupt NY show on 5 May to introduce the Mink 3D Printer for make-up, a new desktop printer which enables users to take a colour from any image and instantly transform it into a colour cosmetic. Choi remarked: “The Mink enables the web to become the biggest beauty store in the world. It not only unlocks images, it unlocks pixels. So we’re going to live in a world where you can just take a picture of your friend's lipstick and just print it out.”
Choi argued that as selection in many cheaper mass and convenience outlets is limited to popular shades, customers are forced to look to the higher end of the market in order to obtain niche colours. This is the main obstacle which the Mink printer aims to eradicate. The straight-talking Choi commented: “I'm beating the prestige [market], because I'm giving you the selection of the internet, and I'm beating the convenience of the mass [market], because I'm giving you the convenience of your own frickin’ house.”
Working like an inkjet printer, so no new software is needed, the Mink will be priced at US$300 initially and is targeted at girls aged 13-21. Products which the Mink is able to create include eyeshadow, lipsticks, powders and cremes; according to Choi, all ink used by Mink is FDA-approved.