This Skin-Care Brand Uses AI to Personalize Your Routine — Does It Work?

You may recognize Proven Skincare from "Shark Tank." While they didn't make a deal with the sharks, they did have a pretty impressive shpiel. Their pitch? Transform the skincare industry by using AI to create unique formulations for each of their customers. According to the founder of Proven, Ming Zhao, she wants to "change the skincare industry, once and for all."

Proven has a proprietary AI-powered algorithm that analyzes 47 factors that affect a person's skin — from humidity levels to water hardness, stress to sensitivity. The program then recommends three products, formulated specifically for you. It sounds like a dream: using AI to solve the skin woes of people everywhere.

We wanted to put Proven's Personalized Skin-Care System ($200) to the test: would it actually be able to tackle each of my skin's unique issues? Would the AI-generated formulation actually reflect the issues I'd like to tackle? And after weeks of using it, would I actually see a difference? Keep reading for all of my thoughts.

About the Proven Personalized Skin-Care System

Proven's custom formulation comes at a cost: two months worth of their basic skincare package — which includes day moisturizer, night cream, and cleanser — goes for $200. You can tack on the Eye Cream Duo ($190), and a personalized All-in-One Serum ($140). All in, you're spending $530 for two months of skincare — or about $265 a month for a complete skincare regimen.

But first, it all begins with a quiz. You pick your main skin concerns, from fine lines and wrinkles to hyperpigmentation. If you note that you're worried about acne, it goes on to ask if you have blackheads or whiteheads or primarily raised red bumps, as well as how often you break out. It asks questions like, "In photos, your skin tends to appear: matte, mostly matte, sometimes shiny…" You get the picture.

The quiz also asks personal questions about things like your allergies, your age, if you're pregnant or breastfeeding, your diet, how much water you drink every day, how much you sleep, and even your average screentime. After finishing the quiz, the algorithm creates a formulation specifically for you — and automatically adjusts itself according to the seasons. (For example, my skin would be much drier in the winter than the summer, so my following formulation may be tweaked to include that change.)

After I filled out the quiz, it took about five business days to receive my products. Each product came with a card listing its ingredients — so I could see exactly what their model thought my skin needed. This, alone, I thought, might be worth it: I could always look for cheaper skincare with these ingredients, if this regimen ended up working.

So I asked ChatGPT to break down each ingredient, and asked it to hypothesize why their AI model may have chosen the ingredients for my skin. The ingredients all seemed to line up to my skin concerns: dryness, fine lines, and sensitivity. There were probiotics, ceramides, antioxidants, and brightening agents galore. Below is a breakdown of some of the ingredients found in my regimen:

In short, it's a lot of ingredients doing a lot of different things. While I could see that the model chose ingredients for each of my skin's issues, it seemed like . . . a lot. After all, I noted that I had pretty sensitive skin. Could my sensitive skin handle me throwing all of these ingredients at it?

What I Liked About Proven's Personalized Skin-Care System

When I began the regimen, I had a few scattered red pimples across my face. After doing the nighttime routine, complete with a cleanser, serum, eye cream, and night face cream, my skin was redder than normal. But that's to be expected, especially when you're beginning a new regimen with active ingredients. The next morning, though, my pimples were drastically reduced in size and redness. We were off to a good start! I began to use the products in earnest, following each step and never forgetting to cleanse at night or swipe on my eye cream before bed.

All in all, I liked the products. The cleanser left my skin feeling clean but not stripped of moisture, and the eye creams were suitably indulgent. I liked that they were made for me. I liked the way they felt on my skin. And I liked the simplicity of using them.

What to Consider Before Trying Proven's Personalized Skin-Care System

Although I noticed changes to my acne and redness at first, those changes didn't stick. A few weeks later, I'm still battling acne, and have some of the worst breakouts I've dealt with in ages. Could it be added stress or hormones? Absolutely. I'm not blaming it on the products.

Overall, the process helped me learn more about my skin — and what ingredients I should be looking for when buying skincare. But I did feel like the AI model was throwing me whatever ingredients checked off factors on my list, like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing if it sticks. Logically, it makes sense. If you add together an ingredient that helps with redness, and another that helps with firmness, you should be able to fix both those issues — right? But it was a lot at once.

Maybe after using it for a few more months, my skin will get used to it, and the formulation will adjust itself further. As of right now, I'm going to continue using it, but I don't necessarily think Proven is going to be my skincare savior — just a pretty good skincare regimen that's going to take some time to show results.

Where Is Proven's Personalized Skin-Care System Available?

Proven's products are available directly on their site.

Rating:
★★★★☆

Lee Musho is a branded content editor for Vox Media who covers anything from fashion to food for PS. She began her career as a fashion stylist in New York City 10 years ago and has since worked for publications like Bon Appetit and the Cut. You can also find her work in publications such as New York Magazine, Eater, Thrillist, Food and Wine, Travel & Leisure, and InStyle.