Las Vegas is extremely dry. The dry winter air meant I arrived on day three of CES 2025 with a bleeding nose, chapped lips and ashy feet. This is despite the fact that I doused myself with two pumps of fermented bean essence, eye cream, moisturizer, and a lip mask. Staring at my face in the hotel mirror, I wondered if any of those products were doing what they were supposed to do — and if maybe, I should try something different.
That's why I was so eager to try L'Oréal's Cell Bioprint,
For anyone struggling with their complexion, Cell Bioprint seems like a holy gadget. This device is a mini-lab setup that analyzes the skin sample to generate a report about the current condition of your skin. It will also “grade” your skin with respect to oiliness, wrinkles, skin barrier function, pore size, and uneven skin tone. Depending on the proteins in your skin, you'll also see whether you're more likely to be susceptible to those problems down the road – even if they're not a problem now. The test also determines whether you are reactive to retinol, a popular and well-studied skin care ingredient that nonetheless causes a lot of confusion online.
In my demo, Cell BioPrint was simple to use. Mainly because I had nothing to do. While L'Oréal hopes to one day make Cell BioPrint a home device, it will first be aimed at retail, dermatology offices and skin care clinics. As such, the actual testing will be done by a professional to ensure accuracy. A L'Oréal employee collected a sample from both my cheeks using a special type of sticker. I watched as he then dissolved it in a buffered liquid, placed the resulting solution in a cartridge, and put that cartridge into a machine. I had my cheeks and forehead scanned with an imaging wand before I answered two questions about my age and demographic data.
After a few minutes, I got to see my result. Apparently, I'm doing something right because the report said my chronological and biological ages were aligned. But it also says that although my skin barrier function is currently good, I am biologically at risk for developing associated problems as I age. My report also said I don't have to be concerned about pore size – either now or in the future, and I'm highly responsive to retinol, meaning my skin tolerates it well. Can do.
There were a lot of other details that I won't bore you with, but after looking at my results, I have a better understanding of what I need to focus on. For example, I should continue using moisturizers with ceramides, increase sun care habits beyond sunscreen, add vitamin C to improve my skin tone, and add retinol. i also know what i am No Needed or can be removed from your routine. For example, I don't have to buy products targeted at minimizing pores.
Much of this was not surprising. My results are in line with the concerns I've seen and where I focus my skin care routine. For example, in the few times I've tried retinol, I've never had a hint of the sensitivity that other people have experienced.
Of course, this type of personalized recommendation is only as good as the science behind it. After all, plenty of health and beauty tech companies promise the moon, but when it comes to explaining why you should trust them, they're deliberately hesitant. Barring regulatory certification (which is generally not required for wellness and beauty technology), it is up to the individual to try to discern whether an explanation passes the smell test.
With this in mind, I asked L'Oréal for a deeper dive into the science – which Guive Baluch, global vice president of the L'Oréal Technology Incubator, happily obliged.
Baloch says the company had 800 biologists working (and publishing clinical studies) to figure out whether specific proteins exist in skin cells that change your risk factors for certain skin conditions. Can determine. The challenge, he says, is that the body produces a lot of protein. Finding the few among thousands that can give actionable skin care insights is like finding a handful of needles in a giant haystack. This required L'Oréal researchers to sequence them all Then Find relevant biomarkers.
This particular branch of research is called proteomics—or the study of how proteins are expressed in the body, says Baloch. “It's important to understand that our cells are making proteins every day. Depending on our lifestyle, our geography and our genes, they will make more or less of these proteins. It changes with time and habits can also change.”
Baloch says L'Oreal tested 4,000 people over 10 years in the US, Europe, South America and Asia and found five proteins related to skin health, two of which are related to how sensitive a person's skin is to retinol. Will react well. And while Cell BioPrint can currently only analyze response to retinol, other ingredients like niacinamide and hyaluronic acid are also in the works.
“In some ways, it means letting people know what No To buy.”
Ironically, such a tool could also be seen as a pseudoscientific way to sell more products to a group of people who are already willing to reach for their wallets. But Baloch argues that the purpose of cell bioprinting is not to encourage people to buy more.
“In some ways, it means letting people know what No To buy,” he says. “Of course, we would love to sell more products, but not by consuming more. It's really not good for your skin. It's about helping people find the right products based on science.”
In this regard, Baloch has a point. The skin care market is full of misinformation right now and influencers are promoting expensive 10-step routines that sometimes do more harm than good. I know better, and yet I'm just as guilty as the next skin care expert. (I'm still stuck with that entire bottle of snail mucin that influencers claimed would cure all my problems. Instead it broke me.) Even now, I know I'll probably be affected again. Will be done. The difference is that at least I can choose to be swayed toward a retinol cream or vitamin C serum — things that are more likely to help me — instead of wasting my money.