Epson Robotics joins forces with Clean Magnificence on customized beauty kiosks

Epson America, Inc. has introduced a strategic funding in Clean Magnificence, a Knoxville-based tech platform specializing in on-demand, customizable CPGs. The collaboration brings collectively Epson’s robotics and shade know-how with Clean Magnificence’s agile manufacturing programs to develop automated kiosks for customized magnificence merchandise in retail and e-commerce settings.

In line with Rick Brookshire, Director of Robotics at Epson America, the partnership “brings a form of consumer-based manufacturing to the retail house,” with preliminary purposes targeted on personalised nail polish. Clean Magnificence’s co-founder and CEO, Charles Brandon, mentioned the combination of Epson’s robotics and Coloration Imaginative and prescient device permits the corporate “to mechanically confirm the colour match for every product,” enhancing high quality management and scalability.

On this CosmeticsDesign Q&A, Brookshire and Brandon mentioned how automation, precision shade know-how, and retail-tainment are shaping a brand new mannequin for magnificence manufacturing and buyer expertise.

CDU: What makes the wonder and private care house a lovely new frontier for Epson Robots, and the way does this funding in Clean Magnificence align along with your broader technique?

Rick Brookshire (RB): We (Epson Robots) have been serving to corporations all through the world with their manufacturing for over 4 a long time. To call a couple of, most of this work has been achieved within the Automotive, Electronics, Medical, and shopper merchandise.

However the world of Robotics is increasing, and so is the usage of Epson Robots. We now have discovered quite a few potential alternatives for our robots that carry a form of consumer-based manufacturing to the retail house.

The sweetness and private care house is a huge market with great room for progress for automating each in factories and within the retail house. Clean Magnificence’s Coloration Matching Expertise, mixed with Epson’s robotic automation, is the right match for custom-made single amount private care merchandise that customers want.

We plan to develop to many further merchandise within the private care house with Clean Magnificence and are enthusiastic about all the brand new potentialities this can carry. When it comes to our broader technique for Epson, Clean Magnificence and Epson share a typical core know-how, which is shade.

Epson makes excellent printers that print photo-quality prints with vibrant colours that final for a few years. Working along with Clean Magnificence may also assist enhance shade output and shade matching applied sciences shifting ahead, which can finally be utilized in purposes that we haven’t even thought of but.

CDU: Are you able to share how Epson’s robotics and Coloration Management Expertise are enabling scalable, exact customization in magnificence merchandise in actual time?

RB: The true magic is within the Coloration Management Expertise from Clean Magnificence. With the ability to match colours utilizing a restricted shade supply palette permits a small workspace for use to dispense the colours in a kiosk-sized workcell, versus having to construct some large customized machine.

Having the pliability of the robots permits all the fabric dealing with duties to be dealt with shortly and exactly in that very same small house. Now that the core applied sciences and workcell ideas have been constructed and confirmed, the following step is to remodel these applied sciences to deal with future merchandise (apart from fingernail polish) in a really well timed style.

CDU: With the success of the in-store kiosk pilots, how do you see Epson’s function evolving as extra magnificence manufacturers look to combine retail-tainment and on-demand manufacturing into their buyer experiences?

RB: Retail-tainment is actually the important thing phrase right here. Right now’s customers are on the lookout for extra than simply merchandise nowadays – they need an immersive, partaking expertise. Giving prospects the chance to see customized merchandise being made proper in entrance of their eyes helps to satisfy that full expertise, together with the output of an ideal product that prospects will use over and over.

We absolutely anticipate this development to proceed as we construct extra interactive kiosks with Epson Robots for the retail group.

CDU: How does this partnership with Epson speed up Clean Magnificence’s mission to make custom-made, on-demand magnificence merchandise extra accessible in each retail and e-commerce channels?

Charles Brandon (CB): By working straight with Epson, Clean Magnificence can quickly speed up our mission to ship custom-made magnificence merchandise each on-line and in-store. Clean Magnificence makes use of Epson’s Robotics Expertise to create the orders for our prospects in-store and mechanically on-line, and we’re about to combine their Coloration Imaginative and prescient device into our system.

This enables us to mechanically confirm the Coloration Match for every product we create and assure an improved buyer expertise.

By automating what was as soon as guide, we’re capable of considerably scale back manufacturing prices and move these financial savings on to our prospects. This partnership helps us to make customized magnificence, making high-quality, personalised merchandise obtainable to everybody, whether or not they’re buying on-line or visiting a retailer.

CDU: What challenges did you encounter in creating the in-store kiosk for customized nail polish, and the way did Epson’s automation know-how assist overcome these hurdles?

CB: Most startups maintain their know-how underneath wraps for years earlier than launching. We did the alternative.

Clean Magnificence selected to pilot our customized nail polish kiosks on the most important stage doable – Walmart. This strategy compelled us to gather real-time suggestions and quickly iterate on the client expertise.

One of many greatest challenges was making certain we might adapt and enhance our kiosks with out expensive {hardware} replacements or disruptive retailer visits.

Epson’s Robotic Arm gave us the pliability we wanted, and their platform allowed us to push software program and system updates remotely, saving us each money and time.

CDU: Trying forward, how do you envision this robotic manufacturing platform increasing into different classes like foundations, lip glosses, and even skincare merchandise?

CB: At Clean Magnificence, we frequently joke that we’re “not your common magnificence firm.” Our workplaces are full of engineers, knowledge scientists, and chemists.

With our partnership with Epson, we are able to leverage their Robotics + Coloration Applied sciences to launch new product classes sooner than most corporations might even dream of.

The problem, throughout all classes, stays the identical: how can we ship a custom-made product for our prospects with the very best substances doable?

Fortunately, the pliability of Epson’s Expertise permits us to pilot new ideas and gather person suggestions shortly. It might take different manufacturers years to pilot a brand new product, however with the Clean Magnificence Meting out System + Coloration Science AI, we are able to combine and dispense nearly each liquid beauty possible.

Nail polish is just the start.