Custom lipsticks and nail stickers may be the first step towards a more enjoyable and inclusive beauty experience.

When I was 20 years old, I was involved in a Vespa crash. My left arm was impacted and paralyzed from elbow to fingertips. Now, I rely on my right arm, a lot of patience and some creative adaptation to accomplish almost everything. I have always liked makeup and I still wear makeup after the accident, but I fell in love with it in different ways. Playing with makeup is not always fun, because it involves a lot of disputes between one of my hands and the product, so what I enjoy is not the application process, but the product discovery. I found that customizable beauty products not only introduce a more accessible component, but also provide a different and hopeful energy.

First of all, participating in product creation made me lose some fun. SheSpoke Makeup was created with inclusiveness in mind and provides more choices than just "choose your color". The brand's SheSpeaker is an online tool that allows you to design your ideal lipstick or lip gloss, including makeup effect, color, texture, shimmer, fragrance, and tone name. (For me, it’s a cherry scent with a pink shimmer.) Stephanie March, co-founder of SheSpoke Cosmetics, said: “Our mission is to bring the elements of play and be seen The feeling brought back to beauty.” Disability advocate and Forbes writer Xian Horn agreed with me about the joy of lipstick: “I like lip color because it is very tactile. The feeling of it on my skin is something I enjoy An important part of this.” But this is not the only value of a specially designed product. "In terms of beauty, customization is the closest to advanced customization. This is the dream," Horn said. "As a person with dexterity problems, I have never really admitted. "My own makeup scared me a bit. Now, I realize that beauty is something I want to conquer in my life. I want to say that I can do my own makeup," she asserted. In addition to the satisfaction that comes from customizing beauty products according to your needs, knowing that sometimes products made specifically for you can increase your independence, which is also very satisfying.

Asking for help is sometimes inevitable, but my favorite is the beauty procedure. It does not require me to ask my neighbor to sharpen my eyeliner. Of course, beauty brands develop fixed-shape or "single-form" products, rather than adaptable products, which are usually cheaper, faster, and simpler. Products for people with disabilities are generally considered niche products, designed for use by people with disabilities. Although available in some ways, these products may also be more difficult to obtain. For example, Olay’s new "easy-open lid" design is an incredible step towards inclusiveness, but it is still only available online and cannot be taken off the shelf during a quick stop in the store. More commonly, people with different needs will look for "accidentally acquired" products. But as celebrity makeup artist and Guide Beauty founder Terri Bryant pointed out, the two need not be mutually exclusive. Bryant said that making beauty products more accessible is a choice that brands can make. (Kobe was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease five years ago, and her cosmetics are specifically designed to provide a higher level of control.) Or for certain niche markets with specific disabilities," Bryant said. However, when we consider the needs and challenges of the most diverse user base, we can build in features and customization options to solve exclusive design barriers," she explained.

Finding a product that can be used with one hand has always been a matter of trial and error. For example, I have a hard time finding eye shadow palettes because simple cardboard palettes are easy to open with one hand, but they close if you don’t open them. Before I found the Haus Laboratories Glam Room Palette, I had to test several different types. In a hard plastic case, it is easy to open and stay open, and perhaps most importantly, it has a color I like. The accidental discovery of Drunk Elephant products is also a revelation, as their unique twisted top packaging eliminates the need to fuss over the hat. Olive and June’s new press nail pack has 21 different nail sizes, which is more than any other brand I have tried. Finding these products feels like a victory—because it does—but the process can also be tedious. As March emphasized, “makeup should not be a test that must be done every time you buy.” For many people, this means finding the right shade of red, and for others, it means finding the one that is just available. product.

I am not the only person with a disability or any "uniqueness". This is why problems arise when companies design products based on so-called "global body averages." This is the same as the one-size-fits-all concept, and of course it cannot fulfill the promise of serving everyone. "The general average standard excludes too many people," said Soumyadip Rakshit, CEO of MysteryVibe, a company that specializes in designing sexual health products with accessibility in mind. "Unlike products, people are not suitable for presetting or making molds." He pointed out that most of the sexual health products on the market are designed for healthy and healthy young people of a specific body type and body type, and are determined to break the status quo and develop adaptations. Sexual products, although the design process is more complicated. Rakshit explained: “Through personalization, we can not only provide more inclusive products, but also provide better long-term customer loyalty.” So why the beauty and health industry should sell in the form of self-love and self-expression, according to Average design product? Tip: It shouldn't.

People pointed out to me that designing products for one-handed use is a special and unusual need. However, Horn explained that even when designing for a small number of people with disabilities, if it makes the product more accessible, the design may ultimately benefit everyone. If you have tried adhesive gel polishes, you may feel uncomfortable from using pre-sized nails. For a long time, I have been hoping to find a suitable suit with nails narrow enough to fit the atrophied nails of my left hand. When ManiMe appeared about two years ago, they broke the size problem with a customizable concept. The brand uses an app to generate nails of the right size for each customer, regardless of the size of the nails or the differences in limbs, which can meet the needs of a smaller group of people, while providing products that are more inclusive of everyone, regardless of whether they have a disability. "We can adapt to almost all sizes, including fewer fingers." Share Jooyeon Song, CEO and co-founder of ManiMe. “For those with only one hand, we will customize to fit the existing hand and then mirror it. Customers will still receive a total of 15 gels for their Mani suits,” she explained. Talk about customer service.

As inclusive brands continue to emerge with customizable beauty concepts, they have paved the way for innovations that go beyond design and color. It opened up people's dialogue and made people expect more than the industry standard told us before, "This is what you get. If it doesn't work for you, then do it." Enabling this kind of continuous dialogue is essential to pay attention to and address the full range of inclusive needs, and as a disabled person, this makes me feel considered. It’s always great to find an "accidental visit" product that works for me, but it feels better when I know that I have been specially considered in the product design process.