weird beauty

This Makeup Company Is Quietly Growing Skin

Photo: George Steinmetz/Corbis

L’Oréal has a new cash crop beyond moisturizer: skin. Bloomberg reports that the company, which owns brands such as L’Oréal Paris, Urban Decay, and YSL Beauty, is partnering with start-up Organovo to 3-D print “living, breathing derma.” According to Bloomberg, it’s a move by L’Oréal to beef up its already-existing skin-growing operations. Currently, over 60 L’Oréal scientists in Lyon, France, produce roughly 100,000 skin samples every year, growing tissue from the donated skin of French plastic-surgery patients. L’Oréal uses half of its skin samples to test out things like anti-aging moisturizers, while the other half is sold to outside beauty and pharmaceutical companies. L’Oréal’s new partnership with Organovo ensures that new skin is only a simple 3-D-printing job away and will “speed up and automate skin production,” according to the brand, enabling more testing. Just watch out for those nasty printer jams. 

This Makeup Company Is Quietly Growing Skin