beauty

Everything that's wrong with the beauty industry all contained in this one evil product.

The beauty industry has a nasty habit of pointing out all our flaws and making us feel incredibly insecure about ourselves and our appearance.

Between not-so-subtle advertising  — the Victoria’s Secret “THE PERFECT BODY” billboard springs to mind — and the media’s obsession with Photoshopping women within an inch of their lives, it’s easy to develop a few uneasy feeling about your various sags, wrinkles and bags.

It’s also easy to get sucked into the idea that you need to spend money — a whole heap of it — to compat these supposed imperfections. (Hands up if you’ve ever spent upwards of $50 on a tiny little bottle of foundation or shelled out hundreds for hair foils or even thousands for fillers? Yeah, us too.)

But imagine a product that actually analysed your appearance and listed each and every one of your imperfections and the products you can buy to combat them.

Well, that’s exactly what a new mirror does — and we reckon it’s kind of terrifying.

Panasonic Magic Mirror
The Panasonic Magic Mirror. (Photo: YouTube/DIGDIA.com)
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Yep, Panasonic has just unveiled a virtual Magic Mirror or ‘Mmirror’, which analyses faces using built-in high-definition cameras. It then points out “flaws”, the Daily Mail reports.

Panasonic magic mirror
The mirror points out “imperfections” like fine lines and wrinkles (Photo: YouTube/CNet)

 

“After analysing your skin condition and pointing out fine lines, age spots and other issues it recommends cosmetics and treatments,” Julie Bauer, president of Panasonic’s consumer electronics for North America said.

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The mirror, which was revealed at the CES show in Las Vegas, is being placed in department stores to sell products to consumers, according to the Daily Mail.

Panasonic magic mirror
The mirror points out “imperfections” like fine lines and wrinkles (Photo: YouTube/clipset)

Granted, the mirror also includes a few (more fun) features like letting you try out facial hair and different make-up — but we can’t get past the “here are your wrinkles, highlighted in neon blue, so you know precisely where you don’t measure up to the world’s beauty standards” function.

There are some situations where it’s cruel to be kind but this probably isn’t one of them.

What do you think of the mirror? Would you try it?