Product Design

Vivi Custom Foundation System

Vivi scans a face and mixes custom foundation on the spot. Blank Beauty hired us to design and build it, from concept to a Miami trade show in seven months.

Customer
Blank Beauty
Industry
Beauty & Retail Tech
Service
Product Design
Vivi's robot arm lifting a bottle of freshly mixed foundation while visitors watch at the Cosmoprof booth

Working together

Blank Beauty's color scientists knew how to turn a face's tone and undertone into the right foundation. What they needed was a machine that could do it in front of customers, and a team to build it with them.

We worked side by side with their team for seven months, turning that science into hardware and software that scans, matches, and mixes on the spot. Then we took it to Miami and watched it match customers on the show floor.

7 months
2 machines
5 shades

The challenge

  • Turn Blank Beauty's color science into a machine customers use themselves
  • Scan, match, and mix on the spot, with the customer watching
  • Seven months to a live debut at Cosmoprof North America

What APTUS did

  • Designed the hardware and the overall system for the scanner and the mixer
  • Co-developed the scanning, cloud, and mixing software with Blank Beauty's team
  • Designed the customer-facing screens and experience
  • Built, wired, programmed, and tested both machines in our workshop
  • Transported the system to Miami and supported it on the show floor

Results

  • Debuted on time, matching customers live at Cosmoprof
  • Every customer left with five custom shades: an exact match, plus warmer, cooler, deeper, and lighter
  • Blank Beauty came back to us for this after an earlier nail-polish machine

See it in action

WBIR: Blank Beauty aims to transform beauty industry, unveils custom foundation shades
  • Close-up of Vivi's white head and mixing station, with a smiley face on the shroud
  • The Vivi mixing bowl and dispensing head seen close up at the booth
  • A customer choosing her custom shade with the Blank Beauty team at the show
  • The Blank Beauty booth on the Cosmoprof show floor, with Vivi lit in its glass case
  • The APTUS and Blank Beauty teams together at the Vivi booth at Cosmoprof North America
  • A Blank Beauty Custom Complexion Kit: five custom-mixed foundation shades in a gift box
  • The lit Vivi scanning station, where customers have their face scanned
  • Visitors gathered around Vivi's case watching a shade being mixed at the booth
  • An APTUS technician wiring the mixing machine's control panel

In the press

More about APTUS in the news →

What went into it

  • Industrial DesignHow it looks, feels, and fits in your hand.
  • Mechanical DesignThe parts and mechanisms that make it work.
  • Control Panel DesignThe cabinet behind the machine, laid out neat and clear.
  • UX/UIScreens and buttons people understand right away.
  • Systems EngineeringMaking every part and program work as one.
  • Controls & ProgrammingThe logic that tells a machine what to do, and when.
  • Build & IntegrationWe build, wire, and bring it to life in our workshop.
More work

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