Perfect skin, sinus relief and a 10-second toothbrush: 6 wellness products you’ll want in 2020
source: CNET
The new frontier? Your face
Welcome to 2020, where your toothbrush coaches you as you brush and a handheld inkjet printer covers nearly any flaw on your skin. The biggest brands in personal care — Oral-B, L’Oreal, Colgate, Neutrogena — are bringing you products that use artificial intelligence and sophisticated sensors to help you look and feel your best.
These devices and formulations promise precise treatment, taking your money further and realizing results a lot faster. Here are six of the best wellness devices I can’t wait to get my hands — er, face — on in 2020.
L’Oreal Perso
Skincare and makeup custom-mixed at home
Instead of buying just any facial moisturizer on the shelf, consider this device, which L’Oreal says will mix up the perfect formula for your skin every single day.
The company says it uses AI to determine your skin’s needs — dry, acne-prone, dark circles, fine lines — and then factors in the weather and climate where you live to create skincare products tailored to meet those needs. Oh, and it can also mix up a custom liquid lipstick that matches pretty much any color you want.
You load the Perso with cartridges that contain either lipstick colors or various skincare ingredients (think moisturizer, vitamin C serums or SPF). The device controls how much each cartridge dispenses to create your custom formulas.
Unfortunately, you’re likely going to have to wait until 2021 to get your hands on one.
Opte Precision Skincare System
Effort-free flawless skin
If you apply foundation or concealer and skincare products almost daily, the Opte could make your morning routine a lot simpler.
Opte, a Procter & Gamble brand, promises flawless (literally, no flaws) skin with minimal product and minimal effort. You gently move the Opte across your skin while it searches for brown spots or discoloration. When it finds them, it dispenses tiny (1,000 picoliter or 1 billionth of a liter) drops of a vitamin-enriched skin serum that camouflages those spots and helps lighten them over time. It’s basically Photoshop IRL and the serum comes in three shade options: light, medium and deep.
The best part? The technology actually works. We saw the Opte device in action at CES and the before-and-afters were astonishing. The finished look is skin that looks natural, makeup-free and spotless — we can’t wait to try it for ourselves later this year.
Pricing starts at $599 when it goes on sale in the summer of 2020.
Colgate Plaqless Pro
The toothbrush that tells you when your mouth is clean
Colgate has built an electric toothbrush that can actually tell you if your mouth is clean. The Plaqless Pro brush uses a built-in sensor and LED light that sit right below the bristles to look for plaque. When the brush removes enough plaque, it’ll let you know it’s time to move to the next section of your mouth.
It’s a great idea for people who think they are brushing enough, but still end up finding out about cavities and other problems during their dental checkups.
The toothbrush is expected to go on sale this year. Read more about smart toothbrushes at CES 2020.
Neutrogena Skin 360
Analyze your skin with your phone’s camera
A dermatologist can glance at your face and tell you what your skin needs, and now we can have some of that knowledge at home too.
Neutrogena Skin360 is a free app that uses your smartphone’s camera to evaluate your skin’s dark spots, under-eye circles, wrinkles, skin texture and fine lines and help you figure out what to do about them. The idea is similar to a Visia scan, but from the comfort of your own home.
After you scan your face, which takes a few seconds, the app gives you a Skin Score and offers suggested products to improve your skin. Of course, those products are all from Neutrogena, but what I appreciate about the app is that you can create a skin care routine and add any product you want to it. Then you can keep track of how that routine is helping you over days, weeks and months.
The app is free and available now for iOS and Android.
Y-Brush
The 10-second toothbrush
We’ve all been told that brushing our teeth for 2 minutes twice a day is crucial to preventing cavities and other dental problems. But what if you only needed 10 seconds? The Y-Brush wants to make it happen.
This toothbrush looks like a mouth guard loaded with bristles to brush your teeth from every angle at once. You pop in the tray, turn it on and brush for 5 seconds, then remove the tray, flip it and brush again.
The brush is undergoing clinical testing now and will be available to purchase by the spring.
Tivic Health ClearUp Sinus Pain Relief Device
For declogging your face
Let’s get gross for a second. Your sinuses are supposed to produce mucus, but allergies, a cold or other environmental factors can cause them to get clogged, leading to pain. In most cases, people take medication to relieve their sinus pain, but the ClearUp is designed to offer a way to help you take less medication.
The small, handheld health and well-being device uses microcurrent technology to identify and declog sinuses, relieving pain almost instantly. You press the device to your face and it guides you to move it around, stopping for a few seconds on specific points on your face to stimulate nerves in your sinuses to reduce pain.
