Ki Labs
The first smart skin reader to craft personalized cosmetics
Team involved
Ana Menacho
Team Lead & Front-end Developer
César Álvarez
Design Director
Daniela Witteveen
Front-end Developer
Irene Utrilla
Lead Product Designer
Jose Antonio Castro
Front-end Developer
Juanjo García
Back-end Developer
Laura de la Calle
Producer
Luisa Jara
Product & Motion Designer
Marta García
Front-end Developer
RECOGNITIONS
+70K analyzed faces
4.7/5 reviews on Trustpilot
Links
Summary
Ki Labs is the first 100% personalized cosmetic brand in the market.
Thanks to an innovative web app that scans and detects the needs of
each skin type, it formulates a unique cream for everyone.
This AI-powered digital experience results from the collaboration among
its pharmaceutical founders, the venture builder Fusión, and the product
design and development know-how of Z1.
Rising from a failed yet validated venture
Javier Baquero, a pharmaceutical chemist and one of the founders of Ki Labs, imagined a democratized use of personalized cosmetics thanks to technology. Some years ago, he started a business where you could get personalized cosmetics after visiting one of the 800 pharmacies where they installed a machine to analyze people’s skin.


This software returned results that allowed pharmacists to formulate a tailor-made cream for each person on the go. On a commercial level, it was a resounding success, but the business model wasn’t scalable nor completely clear, and the company ended up closing.


In 2024, after all the knowledge gathered, Javier felt ready to start a new business in this field again and got back on track. He joined forces with Fusión Startups, the Andalusian incubator in which Z1 participates. Later on, two new matches happened: Patricia López, founder of the startup MyHyxel, and Lara Manteca, pharmacist and entrepreneur, joined the company as its co-founder and CEO, respectively.




Building trust at first glance
Javi Baquero knew that capturing your product’s value in a
message that is as simple and engaging as possible is critical
to any project's success. “Nowadays, there are many ways to
reach people, but only a few to convince them you are the best
option” is one of his mantras.
Our team agrees that
the same applies to UI design. With Ki Labs, we knew we were
facing a very complex project that had to be comprehensible and
easy to navigate.
The bustle capitalism generates is
such that you cannot afford to fail when transmitting how you
will meet your users’ expectations and what benefits you will
bring them. To succeed in a wildly competitive sector such as
cosmetics, you must generate trust at first glance.
A pleasant user journey
We aimed to create an alluring and engaging digital experience
for Ki Labs so that its users could effortlessly get their skin
diagnoses and order their unique cream.
During the
onboarding, we collect users’ basic data, such as gender and
date of birth. Then, we dive into specific info that helps
diagnose and generate the formula, like where they live or their
primary concerns regarding their skin.
Right after,
the web app asks you to take a picture of your face to scan it
and rate various aspects of your skin according to different
levels, like spots, pores, wrinkles, and sensitivity. This
analysis, along with the other information provided, enables the
formulation of the best combination of ingredients for that
specific user’s skin.





A brand connecting with the origins
In parallel with UI design, we worked on creating the brand.
Finding the perfect name for a new cosmetic company is a hard job.
There are way too many players around. Literally, 90% of the names
you can think of that have cosmetics in all languages are already
being used. We decided to go back to the origins of what this
startup does: they formulate totally individualized cosmetics;
each one is unique.
The precursors of this ancient
discipline were the alchemists, “alquimistas” in Spanish,
al-ki-mistas as in the international phonetic alphabet. A thousand
years ago, alchemy was one of history's purest and most
technological sciences. We decided to return to that time, and we
opted for KI from alKImia.
Ki has it all: alchemy and femininity; it is short and memorable.
The word Labs in the name is not a coincidence: the project has an
innovation component in the manufacturing and active ingredients
it uses that are only available in the highest-level medicines.
Regarding the color palette, we combined the elegant,
sophisticated, and timeless black with pink and blue tones to
produce an exceptional iridescent result. This glowing combination
really represents the movement of the ingredients of Ki Labs’
creams, the concept of personalized formulation, and the
adaptation of the products to the infinite number of existing skin
types.


AI powering personalization
Technology is vital in Ki Labs and its core is the use of Artificial Intelligence to “read” the needs of every person’s skin. Users take a picture with the app so it can scan their faces to formulate the perfect formula. To achieve the expected result, we included indications for a perfect shot and integrated geolocation, which detects UV index, pollution, and humidity, directly influencing the creams’ formulas. We also included key questions for users to understand their expectations and goals regarding their skincare.
The picture is sent to the backend, which analyzes the skin
parameters and transforms the results into pictures with all the
skin imperfections and details that users can see on their
devices, and most importantly, understand what’s going on with
their skin.
We developed Ki Labs using React, Django,
Vite, and third-party integrations.
Sales from day one
The reception of Ki Labs has been remarkable. Lara Manteca
remembers excited the moment the web app did the first face
recognition and diagnosis: “it felt like magic, but it’s not; it’s
science!”
In two weeks since the product launched in
June 2024, almost a thousand people jumped on the platform,
getting sales from day one. But this journey has only just
started.
Now, with +70K analyzed faces, they continue
learning from their users as they plan to launch more products to
complete the whole facial care routine. Their goal is to
revolutionize the cosmetics market and according to the feedback
they’re collecting and the innovations they are incorporating,
they are on the right track to achieve it.