Tired of applying makeup every day? Well, L’Oréal Paris is working on a new kind of makeup that can last for days, or perhaps even weeks or months!
A new patent application filed by L’Oréal Paris gives us more details on what this could be.
Titled “DEVICE COMPRISING MICRONEEDLES FOR SKIN-COLORING”, the patent application goes into the details of what such a device could do.
Table of Contents
How Does This Work?
The device is made up of an “array of microneedles” that carry liquid skin-coloring pigments.
These needles are then used to inject the pigments deeper into the skin to give you long-lasting makeup.
As the snippet above shows, these pigments could be long-lasting or even permanent – like a tattoo.
So, Is This Like A Tattoo?
No, tattoos are permanent; or at least semi-permanent. During the tattoo process, the ink is injected way deeper into the skin.
To explain this further, your skin is made up of three main layers:
- The Epidermis (the top-most layer of your skin)
- The Dermis
- The Hypodermis
The tattoo ink is placed towards the Epidermal-dermal junction, and also on the top layer of the dermis.
So, as you can see, that’s way under the surface of your skin that doesn’t come off very easily.
The L’Oréal makeup kit will inject these pigments just under the top-most part of the Epidermis called the “Stratum corneum”.
So while this is a lot more long-lasting than your everyday makeup, it is not exactly like you are tattooing yourself with makeup.
Where can you apply this long-lasting makeup?
According to the patent application, this makeup kit can be used on the skin, the scalp, or even on the lips.
If this product does come out to the market, coloring your lips red could become something like dyeing your hair blue – a visit to the salon once a month or so.
Beyond simply cosmetics
According to the patent application, such a microneedle kit has applications beyond just cosmetics.
The inventors say that this could be used by people with skin-color disorders like achromia, alopecia, vitiligo, as well as those suffering scars from acne. You could also attenuate your dark circles with such a makeup kit.
Biodegradable and swellable microneedles
The patent application further goes on to state that microneedles may be made with biodegradable polymer materials.
This way, the microneedles with the pigments are injected into the skin, and the needles then dissolve or disintegrate due to enzymatic action, and are then reabsorbed within 8 hours.
In another variant of the model, the microneedles are not biodegradable, but instead swell up over the surface of the skin – this can be used in cosmetic procedures; to say plump your lips.
When is this launching?
We don’t know. Right now, all we have is a patent application. While L’Oréal may or may not actually come out with a product like this, it is going to a long time before the US Patent Office grants them a patent for this invention.
So for now, it’s time to wait and watch.
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