So the personal 3D make-up printer Mink will be launching this year.

It allows you to select any colour that you want, found online or offline (just take a picture), and 3D-print it to make your own eyeshadow or lipstick.

Judging from the prototype demo in promotional clips, 3D-printed make-up still seems like a pipe dream.

The eyeshadow that was “3D-printed”- or essentially a pot of white eyeshadow dyed with the preferred shade – was far from pigmented. It pretty much looked like what you would get with children’s make-up, all chalky and with little colour pay-off.

The perfect make-up formula, with just the right amount of pigment, texture, spread-ability, staying power and a reasonable shelf-life, takes hours in the lab, and millions of dollars to make.

It is going to take a while (or maybe never) before a cheap, home 3D-printer can churn out your dream colour cosmetics in all its glorious perfection.

That said, Mink is still indeed a disruptive invention.Who is not enticed by the idea of on-demand, customised make-up?

But for now, the possibility of DIY 3D-printed make-up points toward the fact that consumers now demand more (than ever) from the make-up they buy off-the-shelf.

They would want more shades – more pigmented, more glittery. And the stranger or rare the shade, the more coveted it will be.

Or better still, the shades could be customised to suit their skin tone, and we’re not just talking about foundation shades…but eyeshadows, lipstick, blush, highlight and contouring products too.

Consumers would also demand that the make-up products are easy to use, new, exciting, and if possible, affordable too.

It’s a brave new world for colour cosmetics