Review: YSL's custom lipstick maker is impressive, but pricey

When a product blows up on TikTok, you know the out-of-stock alerts are soon to follow. 

YSL's lipstick creator, the Rouge Sur Mesure, has quickly become thebeauty tech product on everyone's lips, as TikTok users wax poetic about the seemingly simplistic contraption's ability to instantly elevate your makeup look. 

The hype's not for nothing, considering the Rouge Sur Mesure's unfussy exterior belies its innovative tech. The device relies on L'Oreal's Perso Smart Skincare system, which debuted at CES in 2020. 

Back then, Perso, still a prototype at the time, was touted as an AI-powered skincare printer that relied on a paired app to create a custom dollop of goods for the skin solution you needed most.

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In its current iteration, the same underlying tech is now working toward a much more colorful goal: custom lipstick shades. After pairing the device with your smartphone, you can design curated shades to match your outfit and try on new looks in real time on the front-facing camera — all while saving your creations in the app. 

Will this pricey product take your beauty look to the next level? Credit: YSL Beauty

It's every beauty maven's dream come true (hence the TikTok hoopla), but at $299, plus $89 for each different color cartridge, it doesn't come cheap. Thus, the age-old question emerges: spend the big bucks on the ridiculously fancy, AI-powered makeup gadget du jour, or keep a couple hundred dollars in your bank account? 

That's where we come in. In the debut episode of Mashable's Beauty, Hacked, a series where we dig into the science and tech that makes beauty innovation exciting, tech reporter Jennimai Nguyen puts YSL's contraption to the test.  

Her verdict? Well, you'll want to see it in action first. Tune into Beauty, Hacked's debut here, and make sure to follow along for future episodes.