Imagine getting a manicure without a manicurist.
New Jersey’s first full-service robotic manicure has arrived, at an ULTA Beauty in Clark. For about $25, customers stick their hand in a machine and get their polish removed, cuticles trimmed, nails filed and painted with color and then a top coat. Robots operate on one hand at a time, with it taking about 30-45 minutes for both.
The machine, created by a Boston-based company called 10Beauty, was rolled out this year. It’s already in use in seven U.S. locations, and is expected to be in 20 by the end of the year. The services is powered by an app where customers book appointments and customize their manicure.
The technology is a work in progress. For now, each machine has a technician on standby, ready to step in while quirks are worked out. Alex Shashou, co-founder and co-CEO of 10Beautfy, compared the process to the way autonomous vehicle company Waymo began with human test drivers behind the wheel.
“It’s not a perfect process right now,” he said. “But you will leave with a perfect manicure.”
Shashou’s background is in startups. He moved to the U.S. from London 19 years ago and met his co-founder, Justin Effron. They founded ALICE, a software platform for hotel management, in 2013. Expedia became a majority shareholder in ALICE, which was sold to Alpine Investors’ Application Software Group in 2021.
The duo next started looking at the future of automated consumer service. Manicures are a very frequent and repetitive service, Shashou said, ideal for automation. A few companies had robotic nail painting machines, but none could do all the steps of manicures.
Enter 10Beauty, which has raised more than $70 million since it was founded in 2019. The company has pre-sold agreements for about 1,000 machines. It hopes to be in every state by next year.
