CES 2026 reveals significant leaps in beauty technology, with AI skin analysis, advanced LED therapy, and infrared hair styling poised to enter the professional and consumer markets. Amorepacific's Skinsight platform, co-developed with MIT, analyses real-time skin ageing factors and offers personalised recommendations via a sensor patch and AI. This granular data collection could empower salons to offer truly bespoke treatment plans, moving beyond generalised advice.
L’Oréal’s Light Straight + Multi-styler uses infrared light to straighten hair at lower temperatures, claiming three times faster styling and twice the smoothness of premium devices. By reshaping internal hydrogen bonds, it aims to preserve hair integrity. This innovation directly addresses the common salon concern of heat damage, potentially shifting hairstyling from corrective to preventative care for clients.
Further developments include Cosmax's Maxspace for custom product creation and LG Household & Health Care's Hyper Rejuvenating Eye Patch for personalised ingredient delivery and light therapy. Amorepacific is also integrating its AI skin analysis with Samsung's AI Beauty Mirror, assessing pores, redness, pigmentation, and wrinkles on a dataset of over 450,000 cases. The resulting data feeds into devices like the ONFACE LED Mask and Skin Light Therapy 3S.
Perfect Corp is introducing AI beauty agents and APIs, allowing for conversational, personalised beauty experiences and product discovery. L’Oréal’s prototype LED Face Mask, developed with iSmart, targets ageing signs using precise red (630 nm) and near-infrared (830 nm) light emissions. While these technologies promise advanced client treatments, the integration challenges and cost for smaller UK businesses remain an unanswered question.
