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Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of 'Advanced Night Repair' skin cream helping NASA to commercialise space

Estée Lauder’s pricey goop gets seat on next ISS resupply mission as Japanese companies pledge zero-G cosmetics

Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of "Advanced Night Repair" skin serum and the suitable-for-zero-G “CosmoSkin” cosmetics-in-space project.

No, The Register has not set its calendars to April 1st – this stuff is real.

Cosmetics house Estée Lauder last Friday announced that “the brand’s iconic Advanced Night Repair Synchronized Multi-Recovery Complex will launch into space” by hitching a ride on the next resupply mission to the international space station.

The face-saving goop, which Amazon stocks at $186 for 100 millilitres certainly sounds worthy of a trip to the ISS, given that Estée Lauder says it has recently been infused with “Chronolux™ Power Signal Technology”.

Apparently the product is a “deep- and fast-penetrating hydrating serum” that, when smeared judiciously, “reduces the look of multiple signs of aging caused by the environmental assaults of modern life.” After applying the goop “skin looks smoother and less lined, younger, more radiant and even toned.”

Estée Lauder must also think it will look great on social media when photographed in low-Earth orbit, because it says the stuff “will be photographed in the space station’s iconic cupola window to create images for use on Estée Lauder’s social media platforms.”

NASA likes the idea, saying it demonstrates its newfound openness to commercial opportunities.

“Agreements like these directly support NASA’s broad strategy to facilitate the commercialization of low-Earth orbit by U.S. entities by demonstrating new markets utilizing the unique environment of space,” said Phil McAlister, NASA’s director of commercial spaceflight development.

Estée Lauder is not alone in bringing “beauty” products to space. Japanese airline ANA and Pola Orbis Holdings last week announced plans to jointly develop “cosmetics that can be comfortably worn in zero gravity”. Pola Orbis “will leverage its knowledge of skincare to conduct research into cosmetics” and ANA “will provide aircraft to serve as sites for demonstrations and experiments.”

Neither company has said why humanity needs space cosmetics, but they reckon they’ll have them ready to fly by 2023. ®

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