Luxury skincare brand IOMA is launching a new product it says allows users to test their own skin moisture levels.
IOMA's new Youth Booster is being marketed by the Parisian brand as a powerful anti-aging skin cream packed with active ingredients including blackcurrant seed extract and NovHyel, a new generation hyaluronic acid.
The twist comes in the cap, which contains a sensor packed with MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical systems). These complex electronic components, which recently touched down on Mars on the back of NASA's Curiosity rover, are used in a variety of industries and can "set off airbags or make an image pivot on a smartphone," according to brand founder Jean Michel Karam.
But this is beauty, not heavy industry. The process is simple: Youth Booster users place the sensor on the same spot of clean skin each time they use the product and are provided with advice as to how much of the rejuvenating cream they require. The process of testing the skin's hydration levels means "it is the only product that can actually prove its own efficacy on the skin," said Karam.
IOMA has already been using MEMS in its large diagnostic machines in stores, including the IOMA Sphere, which provides customers with an instant "photograph" of their skin. Five different types of imaging reveal the "imperfections most often invisible to the naked eye." The Youth Booster launch is the first time that a brand has included this kind of sensor bundled with the product for use at home as part of a regular daily beauty ritual.
IOMA is not the only company that's spotted a gap in the market. Clinical beauty brand Own recently launched its My Own smartphone app, which allows customers to submit photos of their skin for detailed analysis by skincare specialists. Own then send users their personalized 'beauty numbers,' allowing them to track skin health, ageing, and effects of product use.
IOMA's Youth Booster product will launch exclusively in Harrods on January 21 before rolling out to IOMA's 530 points of sale worldwide at the end of the month, and will be priced at €128 when it hits Marionnaud and Beauty Success stores in France. The MEMS are designed to perform 400 tests and the brand is promising to recycle the packaging and reuse useful components when customers have finished with their cream.
IOMA launched as a commercial brand in 2010, as a unique collaboration between Karam and his team of sensor specialists and dermatology and skincare experts. The brand is distributed at Saks Fifth Avenue in the US and is available at Harrods in the UK. Currently present in Spain, Austria and Ukraine, it is set to expand across Asia and Europe and plans to open a Paris flagship in 2013.
