轻松英语阅读：3D打印机

Imagine this scenario. You are browsing through a online fashion site and you see a model wearing a color of eyeshadow that you really like. You decide you want to give it a try, so you open an app and take a sample of the color in the photo. Next, you print it out, but instead of ink on paper, your 3D printer produces an actual batch of your new eyeshadow.

How far away is this scenario? Believe or not, it is already a reality. Grace Choi invented this 3D printer for makekup while at Harvard Business School. She calls it the Mink and she demonstrated a prototype at TechCrunch Disrupt, an annual technology conference, held in New York last week. According to the inventor, the printer uses FDA approved materials, the same ones that cosmetic manufactures use. It will be able to print lipstick, foundation or any other type of makeup.

If all goes well, the Mink will go on sale later this year for less than $200 dollars. Considering that a single stick of lipstick can go for $50 or more, the printer will pay for itself in a very short time. This product could present a real challenge to the 300-billion-dollar global cosmetics industry.

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