It’s no surprise that shopping for beauty products in Korea is like something out of Blade Runner. “You go to a store to buy shampoo, and they get out a device that reads the condition of your scalp and the density of your hair,” says Kong, “and there are tons of apps to download that correspond to the whole in-store tech experience.” We are taking a step in that high-tech direction here with L’Oréal’s Makeup Genius augmented-reality app. It utilizes advanced animation technology that lets you test makeup on your iPhone. “You look into it like a mirror, and then scan any L’Oréal Paris product to see exactly how it will look on your face,” explains Guive Balooch, global vice president of L’Oréal’s Technology Incubator. The company just launched a nail-polish version, too. And Smashbox is working on packaging with conductive ink that can link to a video makeup tutorial when you tap it to your cell phone. “We’re coming up with in-store tech devices that go farther than just downloading an app, but I can’t share those yet,” says Jill Tomandl, vice president of development and innovation at Smashbox.Fitness-tracker bands seem almost quaint compared to all of the new wearable tech hitting the market. There’s La Roche-Posay’s My UV Patch , a stretchy little heart-shaped sticker that accurately monitors your sun exposure. The blue-and-white sticker — which is free to all consumers — changes colors like a mood ring to warn you of potential sun damage. The sensor also collects data, so when you sync it to an app on your phone, it charts your daily UV exposure — just like a Fitbit measures all the steps you’ve taken in a day. “Our team is now working on wearables to gauge things like hydration and microcirculation of the skin, and perhaps they could eventually measure external factors like temperature or pollution,” says Balooch. Korean company WayWearable already makes a palm-sized sensor that measures skin hydration and UV and humidity levels in the air. Researchers at Northwestern have developed a patch that monitors temperature changes on the skin, and changes color with each fluctuation. (Could there be a patch in the future that tells you what kind of moisturizer or sunscreen to use — and nags you to put on more?) “This is all just part of the puzzle. Wearable tech could someday be used as actuators to target things on the skin, maybe working like a light-based therapy patch to treat skin conditions,” Balooch adds.