Lip vermilion was already known in the cultures of Mesopotamia. The prototype of a lipstick as we know it today, was introduced at the world exhibition in 1883. Who would have thought by then that this will become the best-selling beauty product in the world.
When thinking of a lipstick, most people will probably thinking of red colors in various shades, but who says that its color could not be green or blue as well. The so called color management is one of the most sensible production steps for a lipstick.
To prevent the mistake of confusing the colors of a complete series of lipstick, EVT has integrated color inspection commands in its machine vision software EyeVision. The software can detect, save and again recognize colors in various shades. Lipstick colors are mostly opaque, but the color variations depends also on the viewing angle. For a steady angle of vision, an unmoving buildup of the plant is necessary. The appearance of a lipstick is important, as the customer mostly decide on the looks of products.
Whereas the very first lipstick was only wrapped in tissue paper, today the packing has to be meticulously inspected for damages. Lipsticks are packed into so called free-forming parts. And those can have damages on their surface. For securing a constant quality level it is necessary to detect the surface defects as early as possible in the production line. Here the EyeVision software can detect defects in every production step of the raw material such as at the deep-draw process. At the production of reflecting casings of lipsticks EyeVision inspects the surface. The small defects such as scratches and dents or damages in the polish and unpolished areas can be recognized up until a depth of 0,02 mm. Even when the scratches are very small, they can be seen quite clearly, due to the high reflectance of the surface. And those damages can also result in a customer complaint.
So after the color of the lipstick is checked and the lipstick case is flawless, the logo or label has to be checked via pattern matching tool. In EyeVision this command is called KeyMatch and it identifies a pattern in every position and rotation. And in case the Logo is not complete or otherwise damaged the EyeVision software detects it as bad part and rejects it via a trigger to the production plant.
And at last, bar code on the product can also be read by the EyeVision software. So it can read the origin of the product as well as the expiration date.
This small piece of makeup is therefore inspected several times before applied to the lips.