【Russia】

The Russiacasinos and convention centers of Las Vegas with their recirculated air are some of the least friendly places for your skin: think cracked lips, sallow cheeks, dry patches everywhere.

They're also where scores of beauty companies are eager to analyze and quantify your face, and suggest products to freshen you up. This year, I decided to take them up on the offer and see if I could hack my beauty routine.

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From free smartphone apps to expensive futuristic helmets, the beauty industry sure is positing that makeup and skincare is about so much more than just moisturizer and lipstick. That's because the "smart" beauty devices biz represents a $74 billion opportunity, according to a 2020 market analysis by CB Insights.

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The thirst for a slice of that cosmetic pie was on full display at CES 2020. Household name and less familiar brands alike were happy to reveal your skin's problem areas using face-scanning apps or other hardware, and serve up customized products that would moisturize, protect, and mask all those pesky "imperfections."

"AI is king in 2020," Adam Gam, beauty brand YouCam's CMO, told Mashable. "This is about leveraging beauty tech to give you a solution where AI knows you better than you know yourself."

That's a frightening prospect in many areas of life, but a potentially useful one in the beauty realm, if you're into that sort of thing.

My beauty routine is pretty low maintenance. I'm blessed with relatively hydrated, mostly acne-free skin, so I wear face sunscreen everyday, and moisturize in the morning and at night — and that's about it. If I wear makeup, I turn to brands like Glossier for the ever-so-trendy "no-makeup" makeup look.

Which is why subjecting my face to analysis by beauty pros was more than a little humbling. What's with these bags under my eyes? Are my "spots" really a problem? Should I make a Bold Lip a regular part of my routine?!

The analysis and tools "smart beauty" provides are interesting and cool if you're a skincare and makeup devotee. What's more, some companies position their innovations as a way to sell you fewer products that will actually work better for you.

That may be true, but after hacking my face in Vegas, there was only one possible conclusion: smart beauty is just another way to sell you products under the assumption that you can, and should want to, look "better," whatever that means.

Here are some highlights from the world of high-tech beauty.

YouCam (+ Neutrogena)

The YouCam app is well known for its face-tuning abilities; you can upload a photo and smack on super realistic-looking lipstick or highlighter before you upload it to the gram. But the brand also has a bunch of partnerships and new tools that show off its skincare analysis and diagnostic abilities — plus seriously impressive AI to help you "try on" makeup and hair products before buying anything.

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A new tool for 2020 is its "A.I. Beauty Advisor." Previously, YouCam's tech helped you audition various shades of lipstick or eyeshadow looks with its AI mapping digital makeup onto your face. But this takes it a step further.

Via Giphy

While visiting the YouCam booth, I started the process by letting the app scan my face from straight on, left, right, up, and down; YouCam says this enables it to create a "3D Face Mesh" with 106 real facial landmarks. This allows for digital makeup that actually looked like I was wearing it and looking into a mirror. It did not have the AR-feel of a sticker superimposed on top of my face. Instead, it looked like the makeup was actually applied in three dimensions, and moved where I moved.

Now, instead of just choosing from a bunch of random shades and looks, the beauty advisor surfaces celebrity and celebrity-inspired beauty looks that it determined would look good with your face shape and coloring. I tried several, and not all of them were a hit. I learned, definitively, that nude and peach lipstick is not for me! But I found a bold lip color that really worked; YouCam of course then serves up several products to achieve the color. Trying on this many shades and styles at a store would actually be impossible. Hack: achieved!

YouCam also has a face-scanning technology that’s more than skin-deep. It’s previously been able to analyze aspects of your skin health, like under eye circles, spots, texture, and wrinkles. It licenses that tech to brands: recently, Neutrogena launched an iteration of its Skin360 app, which now uses YouCam’s tech to track your skin health over time (and of course, suggest Neutrogena products).

YouCam's score of my face could have been worse? Credit: rachel kraus / mashable

In 2020, this feature’s abilities increase. It can now sense hydration, oil, and redness. Looking at all this info is enlightening, if a bit harsh: it assigns your skin scores and a “skin age” — mine was a year older than I currently am. I blame Vegas!

LuluLab

I can't lie. I gravitated to the new Lumini Home because it was a pretty pink mirror.

Pink... gold... prettyyyy... Credit: zlata ivleva / mashable

LuluLab is a Korean beauty tech company that makes tools that analyze your skin, and then suggests seriously hard core products to make you #flawless. The LumiHome is a consumer version of its previously released Lumini tech, which it sold to businesses, not consumers.

During a short demo after a busy day in Vegas, my scores were pretty humiliating: temperature detection showed that my face was super hot, and also depressingly dry. It suggested a four-step "Basic Program" that involved an LED mask (the one they suggested looked like headwear fit for a fashionable storm trooper), moisturizing serum (duh), and two sessions with a "hot and cool iron."

Umm, any routine that suggests that helmet is gonna be a no from me, dawg. Credit: rachel kraus / mashable

What I learned from this attempt to hack my face? LuluLab's cute hack was too rich for my blood — it doesn't even have a price yet, but I know I can't afford a $600 helmet.

L'Oréal Perso

This skincare giant has been putting out high-tech beauty since 2012. It even collaborated with the Apple Store a few years ago to release a charm that tracks UV and weather conditions, so wearers can get recommendations on the appropriate product combinations.

I got a peek at its new product, called the Perso, in a chic hotel room where I felt ashamed to show my beleaguered skin. Perso is an all-in-one device that creates either customized lip shades or face serums. Basically, these attractive, six-inch-high tubes contain all the ingredients to make the custom color of your choice, or the foundation that's appropriate to your environment and the needs of your skin.

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To try out the Perso, I first, once again, scanned my face with an app. This also allowed me to check out what different lip colors would look like, and even pull from pictures on Instagram. Once I selected my perfect tint, the machine squirted out three dollops of color at the top. I mixed it with a little applicator, et voilà, a custom lip color! This truly did seem like a hack to never have to chance buying a terrible, useless color at the drugstore again.

Then again, you can't take your smart makeup tube on the go (though I'm sure you could plan ahead and put some in a little container, if you're organized like that).

The skincare option also dispenses three liquids, which produces moisturizing color and coverage appropriate to the climate you're in. The app took sensors and location data, as well as knowledge about my face, and dispensed a light, rejuvenating mixture that also gave me some highlights and much-needed moisture. Since the serum is supposedly linked to your specific needs and the environment, this also felt definitively like a hack. However, I'll never know exactly what it dispensed and in what amounts, since it's all contained in that sleek gold tube.

Opte

Precision skincare doesn't sound sexy, but it sure feels good. Opte is a company and device incubated out of Proctor & Gamble. The Opte is a small handheld device that supposedly does rapid imaging of your skin as you rub its pleasantly ticklish tip along your dermis.

Those little needle-looking things actually felt really nice. Credit: Opte / p&G

The imaging detects all those freckles and sun spots, and then dispenses a super light and moisturizing coverage cream that actually did noticeably smooth my skin when compared in photos side-by-side.

Before. Credit: rachel kraus / mashable After. Any difference? Sorta! Credit: rachel kraus / mashable

The spokesperson said that it leaves your "good skin" exposed, only camouflaging the spots that mar your visage. I think all my skin is "good," but this impressive device did make my sun spots vanish with an almost undetectable amount of product. Measured by sheer volume, that's a hack if I've ever seen one.