Dive Brief:
- AI-based customizable skin care brand, Proven, received a patent allowing the company to manufacture personalized products using geographic, environmental and seasonal data, according to a Tuesday announcement.
- Different criteria such as water hardness, temperature, humidity and UV levels are now able to be incorporated into creating a customers personalized ingredient lists. This is also taken into consideration for those customers with different skin concerns.
- Proven’s first patent, issued July of last year, allowed the company to focus on how personalized products are adjusted over time for a customer.
Dive Insight:
Proven’s method for collecting skin information involves answering questions about 47 different factors about the buyer. The answers are run through its database, Skin Genome Project. The database contains over 4,000 scientific studies and over 28 million customer reviews encompassing over 100,000 products and 20,000 ingredients.
“The future of the skincare industry is being shaped by personalization and AI, and this patent further places Proven at the forefront of this technological revolution,” Proven co-founder and co-CEO Ming Zhao said in a statement. “The expansion of Proven’s patent portfolio marks an important moment for our company and the industry, as our leadership, years of innovation, technological breakthroughs, and novel products are being protected and recognized.”
Ming co-founded Proven with Dr. Amy Yuan in 2017 and launched the brand in 2019. They represented the company on “Shark Tank” but were rejected by the team of investors. A year later, they were featured as the first business on the premiere season of "Going Public,” another investor-related program.
Personalized beauty as a business model is also seen in popular brands like Function of Beauty and Curology. These hair care and skin care companies also take on the role of customizing product ingredients specific to the customer after completing a questionnaire.
Personalization as a whole is a common framework found in DTC brands. Just this April, personalized protein brand Gainful launched an exclusive partnership with Target. The subscription-based company for performance nutrition works to create the best health or workout supplement for a customer’s specific needs and well-being. For its Target shelves, shoppers are offered to complete a three-step system to create a customized protein blend in store. Different flavors and goal boosts can be added to each formulated recipe. Both Function of Beauty and Curology feature their own in-store personalized shopping experience at Target as well.
