This smart makeup applicator does the hard part for you

Each week, we spotlight a cool innovation recommended by some of the industry's top tech writers. This week's pick is a smart makeup applicator.

"Though many beauty products promise seemingly impossible results, there may actually be a magic wand you could wave to restore some of the natural-looking beauty of your skin," said Sean Hollister at The Verge. Procter & Gamble has unveiled a smart makeup applicator that automatically adjusts to the user's skin. The Opté Precision Skincare System "can detect the color and pigmentation of your skin, spot blemishes, and precisely apply tiny jets of the exact right color makeup to those blemishes."

Essentially, it's a handheld inkjet printer that uses makeup instead of ink, with algorithms that determine how and where to apply it. The product should be available by 2020. No price has been announced. Although judging by the name of the specialized makeup it uses — "Opté Precision ­Serum" — it could be "a lot."