I know Hollywood is going through a reckoning, and things feel very existential right now, given the rise of AI, so forgive me for piling on.
It’s 2025, and as we think about the AI technologies that have emerged, there are plenty of movies that got parts of the future right. C-3PO looks like Elon’s Optimus. FaceTime looks like a phone call on The Jetsons. Minority Report, James Bond, and 2001: A Space Odyssey wowed us with visions of touch screens, self-driving cars, and virtual assistants.
When it comes to beauty, only three scenes come to mind:
Total Recall (1990): A single click for a perfect manicure.
The Fifth Element (1997): A full glam eye combo applied in seconds.
The Jetsons (1962): Jane Jetson literally puts on her face.
We are nowhere near this. Nor do we actually want to be, because our manicures are me-time sessions, our eye combos are exercises in expression, and putting on our face…well, that’s still slather and sleep, or nip and tuck.
None of it is instant. None of it is effortless. And maybe that’s the point.
These scripts were written mostly by men: Philip K. Dick, Luc Besson, William Hanna, and Joseph Barbera. Brilliant creative minds, but not exactly the ones who understood what women want or need in the distant future. Their versions of “beauty tech” were likely inspired by their wives taking too long to do their nails (and being expensive), putting on makeup, or getting ready fast enough in the morning.
I don’t think the future of beauty is a machine. That said, plenty of entrepreneurs have tried developing robotic foundation applicators, automated manicurists, AI color-matching mirrors, and 3D eyeshadow printers. None of them really took off.
Why? Because beauty isn’t mechanical, it’s personal, aspirational, and deeply emotional. Machines belong on assembly lines, not vanities.
You’re thinking, but Bina, what about all of those LED devices and face masks? Is that the same thing? Clarisonic blew up and crashed. The red light masks are hot right now because it’s a wellness trend that spilled over into beauty. (They creep me out, and staying power is TBD.)
What Hollywood never imagined in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s, or ’90s was a future like ours: noisy, crowded, and oversaturated. The solution is a reset on personalization. People still want to relate to brands as people, even with all the new technology in the beauty industry. That’s why the next 48 months matter so much to me. I have a renewed vision (well, more like a doubling down) on the fact that what I’m building with my incredible and growing team is all about trust.
The tech is not the star. The team is. Our mission is to simplify the oversaturated beauty industry. We stand for being:
Useful
Trusted
Polished
Why is it that so many AI scanning platforms don’t have a forward-facing founder? Why are so many scanners so scammy? Why are so many apps devoid of mission or soul? We are not those things and never will be.
Machines have a purpose, but when it comes to the future of beauty, we don’t need a magic device solving our problems. We need a smart, understanding, and supportive champion who’s rooting for us from our first pimple to our first wrinkle, through all of life’s moments that call for doing our hair and painting our faces in ways that make us feel confident.
Follow along as we unfold new features, updates, and community-building opportunities with your beauty bestie, hi-BB.com.
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