South Korea's Beauty-Scoring Kiosks

 

It’s as if Koreans weren't already struggling with beauty standards, now they have vending machines in shopping malls to tell them how pretty they are. That's right, a real street vending machine that will give you a beauty score for 2,000 won (about $1.50).

The device looks just like a selfie booth, sitting right next to a cosmetics counter, and it's called a "Personal Color Consultation" machine. While its main purpose is to determine a person's color type, that’s not what interests most people in Korea. All anyone really cares about is the beauty score the machine will give them. It can be unpleasant to ask friends about your looks, as Koreans can be brutally honest about appearance, and parents might lie to spare your feelings. The machine, then, is a safe way to find out just how far you fall short of a perfect score of 100.

This photo booth-like machine scans your face with a 5-megapixel QHD camera and instantly provides a detailed analysis. So, who exactly is behind this beauty-evaluating device? The company GS25, which promotes both decorative and skincare cosmetics, is the one that installed the machines.

The device offers a personalized color analysis, suggesting the best colors for clothing, makeup, and accessories to complement a person's natural features. It also claims to analyze facial features and proportions, providing a diagnosis of face shape and color ratios, along with makeup and styling recommendations. In other words, it sells you cosmetics to fix your flaws. 

One woman who tried the machine received a score of 67 out of 100. She noted that a personal stylist had previously told her she was a "Summer Cool" and "Spring Warm" color type, but the kiosk unexpectedly declared her to be a "Winter Cool."

The machine did offer some compliments, giving her hashtags like #chic, #sharp, and #glamorous. It also showed examples of stunningly beautiful people, none of whom resembled her in the slightest. But the women aren't fooled by the compliments; they are interested in the evaluation of each facial feature. The machine analyzes everything: the distance from eyebrows to eyes, the ratio of face width to height, and even the length from the philtrum to the chin, noting when a face achieves the "golden ratio" and when it falls short.

These machines are quite harsh, definitely not something you'd find in the U.S. They can directly state, "Your face may appear long or wide," feeding into the doubts and insecurities of Korean women. At the end, the machine offers a bit of comfort, stating that the average global score for proximity to the golden ratio is 53, so a 67 isn't so bad. However, it never shows what a perfect score of 100 looks like—a clever trick that keeps people chasing an unattainable ideal. On one hand, these machines could be a fun way for high school students to compete and have a laugh with their friends.