BoldHue Is Here To Eliminate The Inaccuracies Of Shade-Matching

Shade-matching isn’t always a walk in the park. With different undertones and varieties in complexion, it can be frustrating and time-consuming to sift through the thousands of brands and color options on the market to find your perfect coverage. But a new device promises to solve this beauty woe once and for all.

Launching on Feb. 27, BoldHue is a tool that formulates personalized foundation shades on demand. By utilizing scanning technology that analyzes the skin’s pigments, it helps everyone — no matter their skin tone — easily DIY a flawless match in the comfort of their home. The product’s goal? To be the “Keurig of makeup.”

This inventive launch was co-founded by CEO and serial entrepreneur Rachel Wilson and CTO and ex-aerospace engineer Karin Layton, who wanted to eliminate the annoyance of having to walk into a store and agonize over the overwhelming amount of shade options — all via one sleek, water bottle-sized device.

Keep reading for everything to know about this first-of-its-kind beauty tool — which happens to be approved by Sir John, Beyoncé’s go-to makeup artist.

Fast Facts:

• Price: $295
• Best For: Personalizing your own foundation shades at home
• Where To Buy: boldhue.com

Meet BoldHue

The small machine and coordinating app combine color theory and engineering to create a custom foundation. It does this by scanning your face’s complex array of pigmentations, calculating the perfect mix of colored pigments (a foundation base and black, red, yellow, blue, and white), and dispensing the right amounts into provided jars so you can mix your shade yourself. You get about a week’s worth of product each time you use the device, so there’s no need to whip it out daily.

To make things even more convenient, you can save and name your shade on the device’s app so that you don’t have to scan your face every time you run out of foundation. This also allows you to add multiple shades to the app’s collection, so you can have a host of options based on your summer tan or paler winter complexion (and even share it with family or friends).

The Ingredients

Although this isn’t your typical bottle of foundation, it still contains skin-loving ingredients. A combination of glycerin, vegan squalane, and propanediol help support a moisturized skin barrier while antioxidants like vitamin E, tremella mushroom, and rice bran extract, sunflower extract work to protect your skin from environmental damage.

How To Use BoldHue

Like a Keurig, BoldHue is actually quite simple to operate. When you open the box, you’ll see the device, the colored pigments, and jars for the foundation. It also comes with a product-mixing spatula and Beautyblender sponge for easy blending.

Once you plug in the tool, you release the back panel, take off the caps of the pigments, and insert them into the corresponding colored cartridge holders. You then follow the instructions on the connecting app (which connects via Bluetooth) to determine your shade.

You begin the foundation-blending process by removing the scanning wand from the front of the device and placing the glass end on your face to record your color. You’ll scan your forehead, chin, and neck for an accurate view of your shade while avoiding areas with facial hair, acne/redness, hyperpigmentation, and scarring. When you’ve finished, return the wand to its holding, and the app will generate your shade match in under a minute.

Once it’s done, a space for your jar will pop open. You slide it in, and let the magic happen. After a couple of minutes, the jar will release, and you’ll see a collection of pigments. Mix using your provided spatula, and voila — you’ve got your perfect color match.

The Verdict

Shade matching has long been a divisive topic in the beauty world, and BoldHue is attempting to solve the issue by offering customized foundation shades for anyone who struggles to find one that’s right for them. If that sounds like you, you might want to grab one of these for your vanity.