When asked about the motivation behind her wildly successful Lip Kits, Kylie Jenner told us, “I wanted to take matters into my own hands and create my own...because I feel like everyone has been looking for the Kylie Jenner lip color."
Well, now we can all be like Kylie — in at least one regard — and mix our own makeup colors, thanks to a new invention called the Mink Pen. The device, which looks like the wand of a tattoo gun, works with the help of an accompanying app — and it's actually really simple.
Use the app to identify the CMY color value (that is, ratios of cyan, magenta, and yellow) of any shade you like within a picture. That means you could color match anything, from an enviable lilac lipstick you saw your favorite celebrity wear on Instagram to the hue of a cocktail dress. The app gives you a code and you start mixing that exact color of makeup.
By using the pen to measure and siphon the exact value of the three inks — and mixing it with makeup base powder (all sold by Mink) — you can create custom eye shadow, lip gloss, blush, and more. The bespoke blends are ready in minutes. Thanks to prepackaged inks and mixing mediums, transforming your creation from loose powder into gloss or pressed powder is designed to be fuss-free.
The Mink Pen is the latest development by Harvard Alum Grace Choi, the beauty industry disruptor who introduced a 3-D printer that spits out makeup in 2014. Maybe because the pen requires hand mixing, this development feels a little more tangible than printing the contents of our dream makeup drawer.
However, at $295, the Mink Pen is pretty pricey, particularly in a market in which you can cop the next best lipstick for a mere five bucks. But then again, being able to respond, “Oh, this? I made it,” after someone asks the name of your lipstick shade? That, my friends, is priceless.
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