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Comment by hagbardgroup | Hacker News Reader

Dumb question: what's the matter with the home makeup brewing methods that have been used for centuries now?

If you know women in the home-brew makeup/perfume/beauty community, it seems like they're already well served without needing a printer. The same people who would know enough to buy a printer also know enough to buy pigment from a craft shop. The market that isn't that clued in reads Seventeen or Elle and overpays for Revlon at Walgreens because they're low-information consumers. The low-information consumers are already buying Revlon because they don't know any better and don't want to know any better.

I think what'd be more interesting is a machine that serves the small manufacturers better, which can make small batch runs more profitable and reduce reliance on larger manufacturers.

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Is that the difference between say someone baking bread from scratch and someone using a bread maker? One it just easier than the other. In fact assuming, unlike a bread maker, the makeup printer is nearly instant and makes just about 1 application worth at a time that seems like a huge convenience.

Then again, I have no idea what making/mixing your own makeup is like. I also have no idea how accurate it is. I'm assuming if I ask the machine for a specific color I'll always get the exact same color and that it will take under a minute once I've selected the color.

This is the first time I've ever heard there are people making their own makeup at home. Given that people are already doing it - I think there is even a better market for this product.

People were already calling town cars before Uber came along.

There is an interesting story with the UK company "Lush". They were an early commercial player in the create your own makeup scene, with a main appeal of creating the cosmetics in-store, to order and while customers watched. Sorta like a gourmet chef. Lush was never able to get FDA or whatever approval for that type of 'unsanitary and unsafe' business model, and their US based counterpart is a sad reseller of bath products in fancy packaging. I expect the larger cosmetics industry keeps a firm hold on any home brewing of makeup with a mixture of regulation, and FUD.

Yup. Lush is an amazing shop. I know lots of women who buy soaps and such almost exclusively from there.

Continuing this thread of thinking , maybe the reason people will buy this is customizability and play , not price ?

And from a quick search it seems that there are some cheap makeup available online, So my guess this industry is mostly based on marketing(branding, controlling channels, etc), so you'll need disruptive marketing, and maybe home printers + youtube tastemakers would work well for that.

Pro's/USP

1) Repeatability

2) Ability to communicate to others your work-social/viral

Cons:

1a) Colour gammut problems

2a) None (?)

There is risk of failure but also (potentially large?) upside...seems worth trying out.

Good idea, but it seems like that idea is serving a different market. It feels like there's room for both.

TIL I'm a low-information consumer.

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