We Tried Dcypher’s AI Skin Scan Foundation – And It Felt Like Beauty’s iPhone Moment

Founded by beauty industry veteran Ruth De Leo and technology specialist Adam Triantis, Dcypher exists to solve a problem the beauty industry quietly avoids: traditional shade ranges are commercially restrictive, wasteful and fundamentally exclusionary.

“I’ve worked in the beauty industry for about 15 years now… I guess that’s when the kind of love or desire to do something a little bit differently in that industry evolved, really,” De Leo tells The Modems. 

Her breaking point came from seeing how “inclusive” ranges are still shaped by minimum order quantities and retail realities, “If you’re doing a 50 shade range in your beauty brand, you’d have to buy $250,000 units. That would cost millions, so your money gets locked into stock that you can’t move.”

Dcypher’s answer? Eliminate shades entirely. Using patented Skin Tone Analyser and Match technology, the system scans a face, translates undertone, overtone and chromosity into a unique code, then generates a bespoke formula using four base pigments – endlessly adjustable.

“We literally can make everybody’s shade, no matter what undertone or overtone.” There are currently over 73,500 unique codes in the system. The ambition? “Millions,” says De Leo.

Why This Is Bigger Than Foundation

This isn’t just beauty tech theatre. It’s a business model quietly dismantling the industry’s biggest inefficiencies.

Products are made one at a time, in the UK. There’s no dead stock, no dusty shelves, no landfill-bound write-offs.

As De Leo notes, “A big part of my business… was seeing how much beauty waste actually goes into landfill… Whereas we literally make just one shade  at a time.” Sustainability here isn’t a marketing afterthought – it’s built into the infrastructure.

The technology itself has also become scalable. What once cost $25,000 per machine is now closer to £2,000, making retail expansion viable, “We could now have a machine in every store across the country, if we wanted.”

The Covent Garden Pop-Up: Beauty IRL, Rebooted:

Running from 29 January to 5 March at 29 Henrietta Street, Dcypher’s six-week pop-up – dubbed The Beauty Concierge – is both showcase and statement. Alongside Dcypher’s signature custom complexion products, the space champions UK and Ireland-based indie beauty brands, hosting founder-led events, panels and masterclasses.

It’s a return to IRL beauty, but without the pressure-selling and fluorescent lighting of the traditional counter. If you can’t make it to the pop up you can try the service online however – where the service boasts a 94% accuracy rate (the service in store is 99.9% accurate according to Dcypher.)

Accessibility Without Compromise

At £39 for a 30ml bottle, Dcypher sits firmly in the premium-prestige bracket – but with logic. “Once they find the perfect match, they’re not having to buy three products to mix together… they save money.”

Beyond foundation, the brand also offers custom skin tints and glow boosters, all under £40. Every product is vegan, cruelty-free, fragrance-free and paraben-free.

The Tech Team Behind the Curtain

Adam Triantis brings decades of formulation and ingredients expertise, building Dcypher’s tech over years – not months. According to Triantis building the technology took “Years and years of work, and a team of like, three or four people.” 

“We have about an even split between women and men in the tech team,” he continues. (A rarity in beauty-adjacent engineering spaces.)

Dcypher Review: The Scan Heard Round My Makeup Bag

For most of my adult life, buying foundation has involved compromise. A shade too warm, another too pink. One mixed with another. A drawer of nearly-right bottles, all promising “perfect match” while quietly missing the mark.

So when I walked into Dcypher Beauty’s Covent Garden pop-up – a space humming with scanners, printers and quietly whirring machines – I wasn’t just curious. I was sceptical.

Could artificial intelligence really do what decades of beauty counters haven’t? The process begins not with a mirror, but with an iPhone. I answer a few questions – coverage preference, finish, skin concerns – before a facial scan captures my complexion. Seconds later, a tiny printer spits out a unique Skin Tone ID. The machine begins mixing.

The entire process takes under two minutes. Watching my foundation being made in front of me – freshly blended, bottled, labelled – feels oddly intimate. There are no shade names. Just data translating skin into formula.

At first glance, my foundation looks lighter than what I usually wear. I hesitate. Then I realise something uncomfortable: I’ve been wearing a darker foundation than my actual skin tone because “looking tanned” has become muscle memory.

Dcypher anticipated this. As the team explains, customers are sent a warmer and cooler variation free of charge – online or in-store.

The Modems Verdict:

Dcypher doesn’t feel like a gimmick or a trend-cycle innovation. It feels like infrastructure. Like something the industry should have done years ago but didn’t – because it couldn’t.

This is AI not as spectacle, but as service. Invisible. Useful. Human-centred. 

And for the first time in a long time, foundation finally feels personal.