Ulta Beauty Is Rolling Out 10Beauty’s Robotic Manicures

Robotic manicures might finally be having their moment.

Boston-based robotics company 10Beauty is set to debut the five-step manicure machine Ulta Beauty this fall. The device has been in development since 2019.

With a team of engineers hailing from Keurig, Shark Ninja and Roomba — and investors ranging from celebrities like Victoria Beckham and Karlie Kloss, to early Skims investor Imaginary Ventures — the company anticipates the robotic manicure to be the first of many automated beauty services it delivers in the future.

“We looked at where the world has changed, but the product hasn’t much, and beauty services stuck out like a sore thumb,” said 10Beauty cofounder and co-chief executive officer Alexander Shashou, who launched the company with Justin Effron. The pair previously cofounded Alice, a hotel management software acquired by Expedia in 2017, and now owned by Alpine Investors’ ASG.

Since then, Shashou and Effron have been iterating alongside what has become a team of 50 robotics engineers on the manicure system, which can remove nail polish; deliver cuticle care; file nails — without blades — and impart colored polish and a top coat to finish. Currently, the service takes between 25 and 45 minutes depending on how many steps a user opts for, and will cost $30 when it launches at Ulta.

“This pilot represents an opportunity to test and learn how emerging services — like manicures — might complement and perform alongside our existing salon, makeup, skin care and brow offerings,” said Amiee Bayer-Thomas, chief retail officer at Ulta.

10Beauty has presold roughly 1,000 of the machines to retailers like Ulta and Nordstrom, as well as hotels, gyms and other businesses, said Shashou. The manicure will pilot at Ulta’s Braintree, Mass., location beginning Wednesday, with a second location in Everett, Mass., to follow shortly after.

“For years, there have been different versions of nail-painting devices, but none of them have ever successfully made it to the broader manicure market,” said Shashou, who in February acquired robotic manicure competitor Clockwork via 10Beauty. Clockwork was known for its $20, 10-minute “minicures,” which it previously launched at Target in select doors, and in the XspresSpa at JFK’s Terminal 4.

The Clockwork manicure was not as comprehensive as what 10Beauty looks to deliver, though absorbing the company’s data has accelerated 10Beauty’s own device and helped the company better understand what will and won’t work in autonomous services.

“We want to service both the DIY, at-home nails customer, as well as those who pay to get their nails done by a professional — in order to do what we need to offer the full manicure, not a nail-painting device that requires people to remove their own polish and file their own nails,” Shashou said.

Nail technicians will be stationed next to the machines, at least during the pilot period, to guide customers on how to engage with them. “For most customers, this will be their first time interacting with an autonomous robot — the purpose of the nail techs will be to educate people on what’s happening, make sure they’re comfortable and help them customize the manicure,” Shashou said.

Next to each machine will be a tablet customers can use to customize their service and select their polish color. (Currently, 10Beauty makes its own polish, but is looking to eventually integrate external polish brands and potentially co-create polishes with celebrities and influencers in the future).

As for the matter of hygiene, the single-use pods contain all materials needed for the manicure, including sponges, cuticle serum, polish brushes and so on.

“It’s similar to a Keurig or a Nespresso machine, where the machine picks up these tools, uses them on your nails, and puts them back in the pod, which you can then recycle,” said Shashou.

If the Boston launch goes well, 10Beauty will expand to Ulta locations around the Northeast through January, with a wider rollout to follow. The manicures perform basic polishes meant to last between seven and 10 days, though Shashou said 10Beauty may later develop longer-wear options, as well.

Even more long-term, 10Beauty will look to develop technologies that would allow other beauty services — from topical skin care application to Botox delivery and beyond — via autonomous robots.

“The next wave of beauty innovation is through automation,” Shashou said. “We’ll ask our customers what they’d like us to build next, and while it’s hard to predict what that might be six years from now given the pace of change in the world, I imagine it will be in the daily-use skin care space.”